Y/N

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"SIT UP STRAIGHT, AND SIT LIKE A LADY."

I blinked, my eyes trying to adjust to the bright sunlight streaming down onto the courtyard. A plump woman was pacing in front of me, the glint of her spectacles blinding me for a split of a moment, but her heavy voice rang clear.

Sit up straight, she said, sit like a lady.

I never realized that ladies had to sit a certain way. Was putting thier rear-end on a chair not enough? Did ladies have to sit on thier heads instead? Wear polka dot socks if they did? Fend off a twenty-foot tall wombat while they sat?

My point is, I hate society, and I hate this Finishing School For Fine Ladies my mother sent me to.

"[y/n], are you paying attention?" The woman snapped.

I just realized she had somehow ended up right in front of me. Her, and her big, green eyes, large mole, and breath that smelled like bitter tea and the loss of human emotion.

Great.

"No," I said bluntly, adjusting the hem of my blue skirt, "what were you saying?"

She pursed her thin (and almost non-existent) lips, "we are in the middle of a lesson about poise and posture."

"Oh, well, carry on then."

"I take it you'll stop daydreaming and pay attention like your peers?"

"No," I shrugged, "but don't let that stop you from teaching."

You might have guessed it by now—I tend to run my mouth off at the worst of moments. I could pin it to my hatred of socialized femininity, but I also have an attitude problem that sent me to this school in the first place.

As soon as my response left my lips, I heard gasps come from the table of girls around me. Most of them were snobs, with their lengthy hair pinned tightly into buns, and their dresses imported from the southern regions of France, so I paid them no mind.

My blue-polyester dress and white apron could one-up them any day.

"I've had enough of your brazen behavior, [y/n]," the woman hissed, clicking her tongue in disappointment, "if you will not pay attention in your studies, you'd better finish your chores until I have time to figure out reasonable consequences."

I nodded my head, springing out of my chair, "I'll be in the garden, then."

"And see to-it that you hold your tongue from now on."

I ignored the rest of the girls, skipping out of the courtyard and towards the pillering maze of bushes a few yards away.

From the limited time I'd spent in the finishing school, I realized the only consolation was the garden. It was peaceful here, with its towering, bright green hedges, roses that poked out in the most unseemly of places, and the smell of lavender always in the air, which made it my comfort place. I could rarely get any quiet in the boarding house; I was always being chased after and punished for my resistance to ladyhood.

My given chore was to trim the flower beds. Make sure the daisies weren't taller than the sunflowers and what-not.

It was the one thing I didn't complain about.

"Sit like a lady," I mocked under my breath, stomping through the maze, "hold your tongue!"

Damn rules, I hated them all.

It wasn't long before I reached my usual spot, an empty clearing with a small metal bench in the center, and I plopped down in haste. I made a point of sitting as sloppily as one could out of spite.

Who did she think she was?

Who did those girls think they were?

More importantly, why weren't they so bothered being shaped into an expectation of a man's desire? That's what this was for. It wasn't for women to be ladies, it was for them to be considered worthy of finding a suitor.

I didn't want a suitor, I wanted my own life.

And I would have sulked about it for longer, but the snapping of a twig caught my attention immediately. A small, white rabbit had somehow appeared in front of me, watching me with round, watery eyes.

It made a soft chittering sound, before prowling closer to where I sat.

"What are you looking at?" I frowned, narrowing my eyes at the creature, "stop giving me that look."

The rabbit didn't stop. Instead, it hopped over to me, bending its ears inquisitively as it stared up into my gaze.

"What?" I questioned again, "I don't have any carrots to give you."

It shook its head.

"Do you want me to pet you?"

It shook its head again.

"Well, I don't speak bunny, so apologies for my inability to figure out what you want—"

And before I could finish my sentence, the rabbit spun on its heels, bolting off towards another set of hedges. I watched in confusion as its fluffy tail bobbed up and down as it skipped, its ears flying behind them in the wind.

How dare it just run away! I'm not that scary!

"Hey!" I yelled, hopping onto my feet and beginning to follow in pursuit, "come back here!"

The rabbit, obviously, did not listen, and kept bolting down a path at an incredible pace. Maybe it was the boredom ingrained in my mind, or my desire to do something rebellious, but something inside of me told me to chase the animal as fast as I could.

And so I did. I ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, until all of a sudden the rabbit just disappeared. Ran behind a tree and never came out the other side.

"I'm losing my mind," I sighed, skidding to a stop, "I am losing it."

Where the hell did it go? It couldn't have just evaporated, or climbed up the tree! There was no possible explanation for it. Nothing. Nada. Nil. Unless...

It went down.

Furrowing my brows, I crept up to the tree, placing my hands around the bark and leaning around the other side. I wasn't sure what I was expecting to find, but the sight of a large hole in the ground proved my suspicions were correct.

A rabbit hole!

"Hello?" I called out, plopping onto my knees, "come back!"

Yep, I'm definitely losing it.

When there was no result from my pleading, I craned my neck over the hole to get another look inside. I was met with the pure vision of darkness. It was like an enthralling pit of pitch black, a void of pure uncertainty, yet I couldn't pry my gaze away from it. I desperately wanted to see if there was something hidden.

Something interesting.

Something rebellic.

But apparently my curiosity got the better of me, and I had unconsciously leaned too far over and lost my balance. It was like letting go of the railing of a door handle, or the edge of a cliff.

And suddenly I began to fall.

"Help!" was the first word that left my mouth, before everything was turned into a long line of shouts and screams.

It was like my stomach was rising up into my chest, my heart beating quicker than that of a hummingbird, and tears began to press down my cheeks at the speed I was falling.

At first all I could see was darkness, the tiny glimpse of the outside world disappearing into nothingness.

But then I felt a clock smack me in the head.

And then a chair.

And then a box of crayons.

"What the heck?" I cried out, my body flailing wildly, "ow!"

I managed to worm my way onto my stomach so that I could see the path I was falling down into. Various bits and bobs were floating in the air, abandoned drawers, fraying ties, unshelled walnuts, and other strange things, and I maneuvered my way around them to avoid getting impaled by something.

But this was seemingly...endless.

I just kept falling, and falling, and falling, for what my brain told me was more than a quarter of an hour, and all I could see was this horrible display of objects getting thrown at me.

Until I caught a glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel. It was getting nearer now, and soon I could see what seemed to be the tiled floor of a room.

I felt relieved, but also scared.

I expected to hit the ground, break a limb, crash into a table, or die, but instead I came to a soft landing. It all happened so fast that I didn't even realize I had reached the destination so quickly. I blinked, my hands covering my eyes in fright, but then I slowly looked up.

I didn't fall onto the ground, I had fallen into someone's arms.

Turning my head, I noticed a boy staring down at me with a smile on his face, one that somehow seemed oddly familiar in a strange way. He had a porcelain complexion, pink lips, hazel eyes, and fluffy brown hair that fell over his brows in perfect waves.

"Oh, hello," the boy grinned, "fallen for me already?"

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It feels good to be writing again. hope you all enjoyed the first chapter!