My blue shoes crushed the dead leaves laying on the sidewalk as I walked, creating an eerie crunch of noise in the silence of the neighborhood. It was not the prettiest day the world had ever seen, but that wasn't the reason I was sulking. The reason behind my dampened mood resulted from a love note in my locker that afternoon; a love note from a boy. It would have been fine if I wasn't a boy myself. The truly terrible factor of this disappointment was how unaffected by it. It had happened enough times I have grown used to receiving these notes.

My name's Alice Liddell. I was named Alice purely by a cruel twist of fate. When my mother was pregnant with me, the doctors thought I would be a girl, so my mother chose the name Alice after her great grandmother. However, when I was born, it turned out I was actually a boy. My mom, not wanting to change the beloved name, decided to stick with it despite it being about as girl of a name as you could get without picking the name Missy. I've hated the name since I learned it was mind, but I don't have a choice since it's on my birth certificate. I'm turning sixteen in a day, and I'm going to ask to change my name. If my mom agrees I will finally be free of the mistake the doctors made. It's bad enough I get complemented all the time for my "beauty" by girls and boys alike, I don't need a matching mistake to go with it.

As I reached the front yard, I looked up at my house and all of its strangely intricate vine-coverage. The outside of my house was just like every other house on the block. Metal railings protruded slightly from the balconies, windows half open that looked square, but could easily be a rectangle if one squinted, and a front door so big one could simply carry out a queen size bed instead of having to take it apart. The difference between my house and the other hundred in the neighborhood was found on the inside. My mother, being the artist that she was, had painted every room a different color, the richest color she could find from burgundy red to sunshine yellow. Each room's furnishings and other objects were also the color of its walls. My room was the only exception to the rest of the house; it was just a plain light blue. I had white furniture and black sheets on my bed with a comforter the same blue as my walls. My mother had begged me to let her change it, but I liked the subtle color in such a contrasting house and told her she could change it only after I moved out. 

With a deep sigh, I sat down on my bed. I hoped tomorrow went better than the last time I had brought up the issue of my name. It had been about a year ago. When I asked my mom to change my name, she burst out crying and locked herself in her room for two hours, refusing to speak to me until I agreed to keep my name. She said that it was an important name and I had to have it if I was to live up to what life would bring me. Remembering that silly excuse, I stood up and went to my desk, pulling out my homework as I sat down to study. Whatever life brought me was bound to be laced with ill-intent, I was sure.

After working for a few hours, taking a quick break to greet my mother when she returned from work, my mom called me down for dinner. I helped my mom bring dishes of food to the table and we both sat down. We talked while we ate, telling the other about our day until we ran out of things to say and the table grew quiet. Then my mother dropped her fork. "Oh, yes! I forgot!" she exclaimed, hurrying from the table. I watched after her in confusion until she return a minute later holding a letter. She handed it to me. "This was in the mail this morning. It had your name on it, so I didn't read it. Hurry and open it so I can find out what's inside," she said. Sometimes, I wondered if my mom was more teenager then adult.

She watched me closely as I opened the letter. I read it aloud:

'Dear Alice,

Please meet me in the garden maze tomorrow at 11:30pm. We can have tea with the others. See you there.

-W.R.

P.S. Happy birthday, Alice.'

As I read the last bit, I trailed off and frowned at the paper. Why did someone want to meet with me on my birthday? And since when do people have 'tea'? I was wondering if this was a prank or something when my mom clapped her hands together excitedly. "Interesting!" she said.

"Do we even have a garden maze?" I asked.

My mother nodded. "Actually, we do. It's right next to the park I used to take you to when you were little," she explained.

"Could you show me where it is?" I asked, setting the mysterious letter on the mahogany table.

"Sure, honey. I'll take you right after dinner," my mom promised.

We finished dinner and washed the dishes quickly before we went to see the maze. We couldn't go inside because it was locked, but at least I knew where it was. I went to bed wondering who the person was who wanted to meet me. They hadn't left a name, just initials: W.R. My mother hadn't seemed wary of the letter at all; however, if she had known the person who sent it, she probably would have told me who it was. I couldn't think of anyone I knew with those initials, so I decided I would just have to find out who they were when I went for tea in the garden maze.

*******

The next morning, I had been so eager to meet the sender of the letter that I hadn't wanted to wait. I let the house early for the garden maze. When I finally reached the maze, the gate was already open for visitors. With cautious steps, I entered the garden and looked around at the massive maze that surrounded me. I hope I don't get lost, I thought to myself.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of white as something ran past me. I jumped, but when I turned to see what it was I saw it was only a small white rabbit, cleaning its whiskers by a bush. I walked towards it slowly, my hand outstretched. "Hey, there. Do you live here?" I asked it.

When I got within a foot of it, the rabbit looked right at me before it bolted away as fast as it could. I stopped and watched it turn a corner and disappear. My spirits sank. Then, to my surprise, the rabbit's little face peeked around the side to look at me. I stepped forward again, wondering if it would let me get close enough to pet it this time. Like before, the rabbit waited for me to get close before running off again. For some reason, I felt like following it, so I ran after it and soon came to a big circle in the center of the maze. I watched as it dashed into the bushes to one side and didn't reemerge again. I sighed, disappointed, and turned back to leave the maze. Then I froze. I had no idea how to get out of here. I scanned the many exits out of the circle of bushes, wondering which one was the correct choice. I was just about choose a path to my right when I heard a rumble behind me and the grown shook. I turned to the center of the circle warily and saw a large hole open up from the ground. For a moment, I didn't move. Then I slowly walked towards it, getting on my hands and knees so I could peer over the edge. It was completely black inside; I couldn't see the bottom.

Deciding whatever was down there probably wasn't good, I started to stand. I only made it halfway up when a violent shove from behind sent me straight into the hole. I was barely able to grab onto a root hanging down to keep myself from falling all the way in. Shaking dirt out of my eyes, I looked up to see the white rabbit from before looking into the hole at me. I had hardly a second's warning before he jumped on my face, making me lose my grip and sending me plummeting down into the dark with a scream.

*******

The world felt like it was spinning when I opened my eyes, groaning as I sat up. Then I looked around and saw that the world really was spinning. I was in a room with a mirror ceiling and a red and black checkered floor. The walls were a gray color with windows stretching around the entire room. Outside the windows, it appeared as though the room was floating in the air and spinning in lazy circles. I stumbled to my feet to look out the closest pane of glass only for the glass to melt away like liquid until I was staring at a wall again. I had to be dreaming. Turning to see if there was any way out of the room, I saw there were three doors which hadn't been there before, each with big locks and chains on them, and a round brown wood table in the center of the room. It had a small bottle on it that was barely big enough to fit in my palm.

Just then, I felt something soft brush my ankle and looked down to see the white rabbit staring up at me. I frowned at it and pulled my foot away. That rabbit was the reason I was here in the first place. I stood up and walked to the table to examine the bottle. It had a tag that read "Drink Me" in big fancy letters. I raised an eyebrow, skeptical.

The rabbit jumped up and nudged the bottle with his nose, urging it towards me. I frowned again, but there wasn't much else to do in this silly room so I picked the bottle up and opened it. I sniffed the pastel purple contents, but it didn't have a smell. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I put the bottle to my lips and sipped. It tasted like sweets, too sweet for my taste, but not bad. I dank about half of it and then put the small bottle back on the table. The rabbit pushed it over with its nose and licked up what fell on the table.

As I was watching the rabbit, I suddenly felt weird and I watched as the room slowly got bigger and bigger and I shrank smaller and smaller to the ground. This was definitely a dream, I thought, as I tripped over a speck of dirt and fell on my butt. Thankfully, my clothes shrank with me, and so did the rabbit that was now running to a door that was just the right size for us. This door didn't have locks or chains on it. I followed rabbit, not knowing what else to do. The rabbit waited for me to open the door and then ran out. As I followed, sunlight hit my face and I looked around in amazement at the world I was now in. 

Walking further into the enchanting world, I saw everything was covered in green foliage, there were mushrooms as large as trees, and when I turned to my left, I saw a garden of flowers that looked about my current size, tall enough to look down at me. Then one of the flowers, which I had thought was moving with the wind turned towards the rabbit and I and I saw a face smiling at me. "Hello!" the flower send, extending a leaf for a hand. "I haven't seen you around here before."

I stepped back in horror, not wanting to leave the room I had been in. This wasn't a dream, this place was a nightmare. The rabbit, who had happily been hopping away, stopped when he saw I wasn't following. He sat on his back feet and stared at me, head tilted curiously. Then I nearly jumped out of my skin when he suddenly said, "Maybe it would be easier to trust me if I was in my normal form."

I gaped at him. "You... You just talked..." I said dumbly, a statement that was quite absurd when I had just witness a flower do the very same thing. Either way, I was almost shaking.

He tilted his head to the side. "Of course, I did. How else would we communicate?" he asked. This was not reassuring and I took another step back. The rabbit's ears perked up at this and he put his front paws back on the ground. "I apologize. Let me show you," he said.

As I watched, bewildered and shocked, he began to turn into a strange mist-like form before the mist morphed into a person. Well, mostly a person. He was wearing ordinary clothing like any normal person, but on the top of his head, white rabbit ears stood up with pride. I stared at him wide eyed as he shook his head to clear it. Then he looked at me and I saw his eyes were red, a striking contrast to his pale complexion.

I stood there a stammering mess. "You just were just a rabbit... just a minute ago, you were a small animal. How...?" I had no idea how to express myself.

The man smiled sympathetically at me. "Sorry, if I scared you," he said.

I blinked a bunch of times, swallowing back an onslaught of swear words. "This must be a dream. That's all. Just a really freaky dream," I said.

"It's not a dream," the previously-a-white-rabbit-now-a-man said. He walked forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. "See? You can feel me just like I can feel you."

I shook my head and backed away, worming out of his grasp. "No. This can't be real," I said. "There's no way this can really be happening."

"It's real, I promise. But if we don't leave soon, we'll be late for tea," the man said. He extended his hand to me, wanting me to take it.

I looked at it warily. "I don't even know you," I said. "How do I know I can trust you?"

The man looked at me seriously. "If you come with me I will explain everything," he promised. "And the name's White Rabbit, but people just call me Rab."

Feeling only a little less in the dark, I finally took his hand. "Alice Liddell," I introduced cautiously.

Rab smiled at me. "I already knew your name," he said and pulled me towards him so he could pick me up bridal style in his arms. I flailed about, embarrassed and eager to be set down, but he held on tight. "It'll be faster if I carry you," he said as he took off into the woods.

I still struggled. "I can run myself!" I said.

"Don't be silly," he said. "It would be very improper of me to let a girl go running about in the woods where she could trip and hurt herself."

My brain short circuited in my skull and I grabbed his rabbit's ear. "I'm not a girl!" I snapped.

Rab came to a sudden halt, still holding me. "What? How could you not be a girl? Your name's Alice right?" he asked.

I glowered at him. "Yes, it is, but I'm not a girl," I said.

His eyes widened and he seemed at a loss for words. "Oh, no... The guys are going to kill me..." he said.

I frowned. "What guys?"

He sighed deeply. "You'll see soon. I guess I have no choice but to bring you along," he grumbled. He put me down and grabbed my hand. "Come on. Let's hurry."

He pulled me with him as we ran through the woods. I tried not to look at the various monstrosities of the forest, but it was hard. There were so many weird creatures roaming about. Thankfully, we soon reached a clearing and I saw a long table set up in the center with more chairs than could fit at the table. There were a bunch of people seated in the chairs. As we got closer, I looked at Rab and he grinned. "Welcome to the tea party!"

*******

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