Project Wonderland

The Forest

I stared out the window at the dewy ground outside. It was five in the morning, and I was waiting.

The cool wind blew my hair around annoyingly, causing it to tickle my face.

“Where is he?” I murmured, sinking to the hardwood floor of my room and fingering the silky softness of the blue dress my mother, Alice, had when she was 11, my age.

THUNK.

I stood up and looked out at the yard. My best friend, Roger stood there, looking up.

“Finally!” I whisper-yelled to him, crawling out my window and climbing down the thick vines that engulfed my house.

“Sorry. Mum almost caught me ’cause I was being a bit too noisy. Then she just thought it was the cat.” Roger said, giggling.

I rolled my eyes, and kicked off my socks. I liked to feel the earth on my feet when I played in the forest with Roger. He did the same, and we both hid them in a bush.

We walked for a while, talking about little things like school and how irritating it was to always have to be proper. We live in London, and everyone expects the best of us. That’s easy for Roger. He’s too shy to really get down and dirty, but he has an attitude. It’s not so easy for me to be proper because my mum is insane and the only person who truly looks after me is Nina the housekeeper. Also, I don’t care about being proper. It annoys me to be all preppy and say “Please” and “Thank you” and eat mini sandwiches and drink tea. I’d rather be climbing a tree.

Roger and I reached a creek and sat down on the mossy rocks. I dipped my feet in the chilly water, washing off dirt and grass. The sun was just beginning to rise, and it’s small rays reflected off my Anchor.

You see, Anchors are an object that really means a lot to you, for instance, mine’s a locket from my mum. In my society, dreams can be entered mentally, like when you are asleep or day dreaming. You stay on Earth, but your mind goes to the Dream world. The Anchors are what keep you sane; they keep your memories with you, and they help you to remember the real world. If you lose it, or give it away, you get trapped in the dream, or if you are not in the dream, you go crazy.

Some people think that’s what happened to my mum, but I know it’s not. She still has he Anchor with her- a plush rabbit. People think my mums just a crazy woman, but she has the Gift. She can create worlds in her mind and PHYSICALLY enter them through little portals or Cracks in this dimension.

When I was little, my mum would tell me stories of this Crack she went into as a child. It looked like a rabbit hole, but it was disguised. Her pet rabbit led her there, and she slipped through the Crack and into the world she calls Wonderland. It sounded really weird, but it must have been amazing by the look she had in her eyes. I’ve always wanted to see what it was like, but I doubt I ever will.

The sun had fully risen now, and it was casting its warm glow through the trees. Roger stood up and I followed. We kept walking for a while, but then we turned around to go back home.

We reached a muddy area, and Roger kept giving me this odd look. Then, he faced me entirely and pushed me into the mud, laughing.

“Roger, you idiot!” I hollered, getting to my feet,smoothing my stained dress, and picking up a clump of mud.

“No,” He said, his eyes widening as a grin creeped across my face.

“Yes,” I raised the mud above my head and threw. It landed with a SPLAT in his brown hair.

“Vivian!!” He yelled. I grabbed his trousers and pulled him into the mud. He landed face first and glared at me, but I knew he wasn’t mad at me because he was smiling.

“AAH!” He leaped up and smeared my dress with even more mud. I scooped up some mud, ran up to him, and dumped it directly on his head.

Our mud was continued for a while, but we had gotten to cold to continue. We continued to walk towards my home.

When we were near the forest exit, the hair stood on the back of my neck and I turned around. Not too far back, I saw a man silhouetted against the sun.

“Who’s there?” I asked squinting. Roger looked around too.

“She asked you a question!” Roger defended me.

The person stood there, then turned left and walked away from the path.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said turning back around. Roger and I ran all the way back home, not wanting to come across any other mysterious people.