Everyone has heard the story of Alice in Wonderland. The one about the little girl who follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole only to end up in a backwards world somewhat parallel to our own. It’s a rather odd story, but the idea is genius if you can read it deep enough.

However, nobody would ever guess that Wonderland was a real place. No, I’m not mad. I am being perfectly serious here. Wonderland is as real a place as, oh say, Europe or South America. Do you want to know where it is?

Take a look around you. Yes, that’s right. I’m telling you that you live in Wonderland. Think about it. There are people around you who are just like the certain characters from the book. The Duchess, the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and March Hare…They’re all around you, if you pay attention.

Oh, I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Cheri (the CH is soft, by the way) Avelcroft. I’m seventeen years of age, living in my own Wonderland. What do I look like? Well, I’ve got black hair, stick straight, mind you, with bright purple streaks. My eyes are normally an olive green color, but instead, thanks to contacts, they’re cat-like. You know, yellowy-green and pupils that look like slits. Yeah, that’s me. I’m pretty short and petite, still buying clothes from the kids’ section every now and then. I can’t be taller than five foot, honestly.

Now, back to what I was saying before. We all live in a Wonderland, just perhaps different…versions, if you will. After all, we don’t all know the same people. For all I know, your Mad Hatter could be a woman, and for all you know, my Cheshire Cat could be tiny, petite, and adorable.

Why am I telling you all this? Well for one, I’m bored and you’re here. I need something to do. For another thing, I feel like it. I’m not mad, I swear. However, I’m not completely sane, either.

I closed my notebook and sighed, staring off into space while I chewed the end of my pen. This story wasn’t quite going as I planned, even though I wasn’t making anything up. My life really was like Wonderland. I myself…well, I was the Cheshire Cat in my twisted world.

It went unquestioned between my friends and I that I was. They said I was mischievous, I just agreed. They said I was misleading, I didn’t doubt them. I was the Cheshire Cat. I felt it, I loved it.

“Hey Cat.”

I looked up to see my Caterpillar, Josarian, standing in front of me. His hair, which was the kind of black that when the light hits it, it looks blue, was pulled back in a braid. His deep blue eyes were ringed with light eyeliner today. I knew his sister got a hold of him this morning. I laughed.

“What’s so funny, Cat?” He sat next to me, hands in the pockets of his blue hoodie.

“Oh, nothing, Pill.” I turned around in my chair and stretched my legs across the next one while leaning against Jo’s shoulder. Did I mention the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat are dating? Well, they are. He wrapped his arms around me, smiling slightly.

Grabbing my notebook, Jo flipped to the first page and began reading. I felt the moths-not butterflies, moths were minor-start to flutter as he read the words I had written. It was a bit embarrassing, the idea for my project. But it was easy, since, well, it was true. All I needed was a creative twist to get it all out.

I felt him nuzzle he side of my neck lightly, smiling. “It’s good, Cat. You’ve really got something this time.”

“Thanks, Jo-Jo.” Oh, he was so warm and comfortable. I almost started purring right there. Yes, I can also purr, believe it or not. I’m such a lazy kitty. I picked up my pen and started writing again, drifting off into my own little world.

The reason Josarian was my Caterpillar was because he use to smoke almost anything. He even had a hookah at one point. That was back in junior high when I met him. Since then, he’s stopped smoking quite a bit, and is working on quitting tobacco all together. I’m proud of him. He also wears a lot of blue and black. If you’ve seen the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland you’ll understand the whole blue thing. Jo was also a real deep thinker and would always be philosophical and whatnot. It was crazy insane the things he could come up with after a few minutes of thinking. But that’s why I loved him. He’s amazing.

Suddenly, the chair my feet were on was jerked out from under me and I had to grab onto the table to keep from falling on the floor. Growling, I looked up at the perpetrator. Oh of course. My Mad Hatter and March Hare.

Ayumi was my Hatter, as well as my best friend. She was slightly insane but loads of fun. Everyday she had a crushed felt top hat, what color it was depended on what she wore. She was a beautiful Asian girl with porcelain skin and long ink black hair that fell so perfectly to her waist. Her almond-shaped eyes always sparkled with some new plan to be random or God only knows what else. And the other thing that made her my Hatter was she loved tea. It may be the Asian thing, but every morning she would have a can of green tea, at lunch was raspberry, and on the bus was sweet tea. I didn’t know what she had between classes, or during the ones I didn’t have with her.

My Hare was my other close friend Jessica. She really was bonkers. She was random, loud, bouncy, and just…out there. But I loved her, she was awesome. Today she was wearing her blonde hair in pigtails, giving her the appearance of having droopy bunny ears. Her green eyes were wide, and she was grinning. That only meant one thing: Ayumi gave her sugar or caffeine. Or both. A hyper Jessica meant doom for us all. Well, not really doom, but you get the idea. She was a little taller than me, but not by much, and she was donning a pair of shredded jeans and a white tank top, despite it being in the mid-fifties outside today.

“Morning Cat, morning Pill.” Ayumi sat in the now empty chair, grinning. Jessica plopped in her lap. “Don’t you two look comfy.”

I rolled my eyes and scooted up in my own chair to keep from rolling out of it. “Morning Mad Hat, morning Hare.”

Yeah, we usually don’t call each other by our rightful names. Heck, our teachers don’t call us by our rightful names. They’re cool like that. We actually get to sign our papers as whatever we call ourselves. I sign as Cat, Jo as Pill, Ayumi as Mad Hat, and Jessica as Hare. It was great. Our school is insane, but great.

Josarian rested his chin on the top of my head. “What’s up with you two, eh?”

“Oh, nothing. We just got here.” Ayumi cuddled Jessica. Oh, right, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare were also dating. Go figure. “We went out for breakfast today.”

“Oh? Where’d you go?” I sighed, giving up again on my writing.

“Burger King!” Jessica sounded like it was the greatest thing ever. She snatched Ayumi’s hat off her head and crammed it on her own with a grin. It sat lopsided because of her pigtails.

Josarian and I laughed at them while Ayumi pulled out her can of tea. We all settled into a comfortable silence, each of us doing our own thing. Nobody bothered us, as usual, and we accepted it. It was the norm, and nothing could disrupt it.

“What are you four freaks doing at my table?”

Well, except that.

Minerva Thompson was our Queen of Hearts. She was mean, she was nasty, she was bossy, and most of all, she was a…well, I’ll leave that part out for any children who could possibly get their hands on this. Minerva was the head cheerleader; she dated the quarterback, John Masters. She was the spoiled rotten daddy’s girl who gets everything she wants.

Except from us, that is. We are the rebellious ones who dare to defy her. It’s quite fun, really.

“Well you see, when somebody gets here first, Minnie,” Jessica started, using the nickname Minerva hated with a burning passion (haha, poor Minnie). “They are entitled to the right to sit wherever they want to. And since Cheri was here first, she got to pick our table for he day. Then Josarian came and enforced it. Then we came and enforced it even more. So today we sit here. Bye-bye now.”

Wow, Hare was being smart today. It’s kind of scary, but hey, that’s Jessica for you.

Minerva stared at her, rage and shock crossing her face. Wow that looks so hilarious. I’ll have to draw it later when I get to class. She stamped her foot angrily, scrunching up her face. “But it’s my table! I always sit there!”

“Your name isn’t on it”

“Neither are yours.”

“Aha, that’s where you’re wrong!’ Josarian finally decided to speak. He pointed to a drawing of a cat, surrounded by a caterpillar, a top hat, and a bunny. Yes, we drew on the table. Nobody cared anyway. “See? Our names. They are indeed on the table, now go away.” And then he just pulled me right into his lap, ignoring Minerva.

The redhead gawked at him in anger. I buried my face in his shoulder and burst into giggles. Ayumi smirked, sipping her tea and holding Jessica with her other hand. Hare…well she just stared at Minerva with her freaky huge eyes. I knew Minnie was unnerved by it.

“Fine! You freaks just take up the whole cafeteria, why don’t you! See if I care! JOHN!” And she stormed away, her boyfriend following her like a beaten puppy. We laughed.

The first half of our day passed without any more incidents involving Minerva or her too obedient boyfriend. Well, I did trip and fall into the orchestra pit in dance, but Ayumi and I laughed it off and continued our routine. Other than that, our day was pretty peaceful.

Until lunch. Then it got really interesting.

Our entire group, consisting of Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, March Hare, the Caterpillar, the White Rabbit (our oh-so-busy Kayla, who was always involved with something or other, usually drama), Alice (or Rei, as she was properly named. She was little and cute…and that’s all the Alice-like qualities she had, honestly), and our Dormouse (Rand Crenshaw, who was pretty lazy, but a freaky genious when he was actually paying attention or awake), Today our Jabberwocky (Rozi, who was two-sided. One side, the side we always saw, was really smart (crazy genius like Rand, but in different ways) and computer savvy. The other side was super…blank blank expletive) was in charge of getting us food and was currently MIA. The rest of us were dominating the table, doing whatever we felt like for the moment.

Then the Queen showed up, her King in tow.

“You!”

I suddenly had a finger in my face. My eyes went cross as I stared at it, hoping she didn’t decide to poke me and gouge my eyes out. Her nails were long. And scary.

"Me?"

She was beyond mad, I could tell. She was shaking. It was kind of funny. I wonder what I did this time.

"You glued my locker door shut, and had a loaded paint sprayer in it so when I finally got the janitor to pry it open, I was blasted in the face with blue paint! And then you stole me bra from my locker during dance and had it strung up in the boys' locker room!"

Oh, so that's what I did. I snickered in my mind, replaying everything that had happened.

In all honesty, the only I thing I did myself was the bra stealing. Jessica loaded the paint sprayer, Ayumi was the genius behind the locker glue, and Rand was the one who strung up the bra. And really, I was against the blue paint. I wanted purple. But Rozi demanded blue so we all agreed. When Rozi wants something, she usually gets it. So you see, I was clearly at no fault. Well, sort of.

"Now Minerva, how can you prove all that was me? There's no evidence and no witnesses." I blinked up at her innocently. Or as innocently as one can while having cat eyes.

Oh did that girl shake in anger. It was pretty funny but I knew better than to laugh out loud in her face. "You're the only one who can break into any locker in the same dance class as me! You're the only one evil enough to do it!"

Okay, now she was going too far with all these accusations. One, I'm not the only locker-breaker-into...er...person in our dance class. Ayumi is quite skilled at it as well. And no, I'm not the only one evil enough to do it. Rozi could have, or Rand (he was pretty girly, so he could have easily snuck into the locker room).

I stood up, standing my full five feet and looked her in the eye. "Minerva, you have no proof that I did anything. You don't know that any of us did it. We could be completely innocent, and here you are making such vile accusations, and yet...you can't prove a word you've said. Either show proof or leave us alone."

"I don't have to! I know it was you!"

John came over at this point, scowling down at me. "Just admit it, Avelcroft. You and your misfit friends planned the whole thing."

Josarian, sweet Josarian, my knight in shining armor, my savior, my life, my love...okay I'll stop, came to my rescue now. "Back off, Masters. Get your girlfriend out of here before those two start a fight."

"Why don't you get yours to back off? She started the whole thing."

"Um, excuse me." Ayumi's soft voice cut in here as she appeared at my side, her raspberry tea in her hand. "The way I saw it, Minerva came up to Cheri and started it. She was making accusations and whatnot. All Cheri did was defend herself. So really, Minerva did start it."

John sneered at the Asian. Wow, he looks better when he does that. "Shut up, you filth." Oh, did I mention he's extremely racist towards any other race except Caucasians? Well, he is. "Stay out of this."

"Hey, don't talk to her that way!" Jessica bounded over, clinging to Ayumi tightly. "Don't talk to anybody that way!"

"And you, you dike. Stay out of this."

That made me snap. Nobody insults my friends and gets away with it. I stepped towards him, glaring, and poked him in the chest. "Don't EVER talk to my friends like that, Masters. You may think you're big stuff around here, but you're not. The only reason people give you 'respect' is because they're afraid of you. You're nothing but a bully!"

The next thing I knew, I was on the floor, my face stinging and the bitter copper taste of blood in my mouth. That a-hole punched me! I scrambled to my feet to defend myself, but I was met with another blow, this one harder. My head made contact with the floor and I laid there, dazed, before John came at me again, fists coming faster than I could register them. My body hurt and I tried to defend myself, but to no avail.

I could hear Minerva shrieking at him to stop, and Josarian cursing at him in some language (what it was I couldn't remember at the moment, since my head was still swimming from the meeting with the floor). A whistle was blown and I heard a call for security from three different people. John kept at it, hitting any part of my body he could.

And then he was gone. I stayed on the floor, panting, curled in a ball, before somebody was helping me to my feet. I stood, shakily, and looked around. Blood was dripping into my eyes, obscuring my vision, but I could see John being dragged away by two of the bigger security guards we had.

Immediately my friends were surrounding me, asking if I was alright, if I needed to see the nurse. All I did was grin, very Cheshire Cat-like.

I laughed. My head thrown back, my shoulders shaking, I laughed long and hard, not caring about my injuries. The King and Queen had been over thrown by the rebellious members of the Wonderland society. We won the battle, but who would win the war over Wonderland freedom?

My friends grinned at each other, knowing I was fine. Maybe not completely sane, but madness is perfectly normal.

As Rozi says, "Around here, to be crazy is normal, to be sane is stupid."

Boy, was she right.