Tori In Wonderland

"A boat, beneath a sunny sky

Lingering onward dreamily

In an evening of July-

Children three that nestle near,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Pleased a simple tale to hear-

Long has paled that sunny sky;

Echoes fade and memories die;

Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,

Alice moving under skies

Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die;

Ever drifting down the stream-

Lingering in the golden gleam-

Life, what is it but a dream?"

– Lewis Carroll, A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky (also commonly known as: Life Is But A Dream)

Tori remembered sitting in Sikowitz's class, in the second seat over in the third row, bored to tears. She remembered passing notes with Andre, and counting how many times Beck fell asleep and woke himself up – it was a total of twelve times, and the class wasn't even half over. It was unlike Sikowitz to be a boring teacher – not to say that he was – but it was still the first week back at school, and the kids were still in the midst of their summer, Hakuna Matata lifestyle. They wanted to sleep all day, and party all night, in that order. They wanted to get out of this cage that was their school – though, if you asked any of them in any month but September, they would all say how much they loved Hollywood Arts – and just go, or not go, which ever they wanted. Suddenly, all of their lovely, summer freedom had been taken away; it slipped away from them like sand in the palms of their hands, and now, sadly, was gone…

"Alice? Alice!"

Tori blinked, and saw Robbie there before her, the rest of the classroom suddenly empty.

"What…? Robbie – "

"You're late!" He yelled over her. "Alice, you're very, very late! You're late, you're late, you're late!"

"Late…late for what?"

The boy bolted out of the then-empty classroom before she got a response from him, and it wasn't long before Tori was following after him, at top speed. She didn't really know why she was following him – she was curious, she supposed.

"Robbie!" She called, chasing him down one hall, then another, and another still. "Get back here! Robbie!" But as soon as she reached the far end of the school, Tori felt as if gravity had turned on its side: she was being pulled – literally, by a force unbeknownst to her – toward the end of this dark hall, which she could see was now some sort of black hole.

"You're late!" Robbie's voice called one last time, before the boy jumped down into the hole. Tori screamed as she was sucked into it, and blacked out.

When Tori woke up, she was on cold, white-and-blue tile floor – or, maybe it was ceiling, because looking up, she could see hardwood ceiling above her. Tori wasn't sure. Suddenly, she wasn't sure about anything at all. In the corner of the small room she found herself in, was a tiny door. Grinning as she saw it, the Latina girl walked over to it, but had to bend down on her knees upon twisting the doorknob.

"Ow!" A voice suddenly yelled. "Why'd you have to do that?" Tori spun around upon hearing the voice and asked:

"Wh-who is that? Where are you?"

"Well, now, isn't it rather obvious?" The voice continued. "You nearly just pulled my nose off!" Gasping, Tori bent down on her knees again, facing the doorknob. Now that she looked closer, she saw that it had a face – a face that looked strangely familiar.

"Sikowitz?" She gasped again in surprise. "What's going on here? It's me, Tori. Why is – "

"Hmm?" The doorknob prompted, stopped her mid-question. "I don't know what you're taking about, Miss Alice, but I do suppose something's given you quite a turn. Get it? Doorknob – turn…" he chuckled at his own joke. "What can I do for you?"

"Why did you call me Alice? That's not my name, it's Tori. Tori Vega. You know, from your improv class?" Tori asked. "You see, Robbie led me down here, and I – "

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," the doorknob with the face of Sikowitz scolded. "You know better than that, Miss Alice. No one leads you down here. Even if you do follow them!"

"Alright then…" Tori didn't know where to go from here, but added: "I'm looking for Robbie…you know, Robbie Shapiro – awkward boy with curly black hair…"

"The White Rabbit!" He exclaimed. "You're looking for the White Rabbit?"

"I…um…yes," Tori sighed. "Yes, I am. Where can I find him? If he knew the way down here, he must know the way back. So, if you don't mind opening your door so I can try to find a way out of here – "

"I'm sorry, but you're much too big," said Sikowitz's voice. "Simply impassable."

"You mean…impossible?" Tori raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, no!" The doorknob laughed. "Impassable. Nothing's impossible!"

The girl sighed yet again at this, and started backing away from the doorknob, feeling completely out of luck. As she backed up, she walked right into a tiny table, which she hadn't even noticed before: as if it had only just appeared. On the table, there were two items: a tiny jar filled with some strangle, sparkling liquid, and a very old-looking, golden key.

"Is this the key to your door?" Tori asked when she picked it up. "And this jar…what is this stuff?" Realizing there was a tag attached to it once picking it up with her other hand, she read the inscription on the tag aloud: "Drink me, responsibly…" She scratched her head, thinking. "This…is crazy. It's something out of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, that book I loved when I was a kid…" then, it dawned on her: "Wait! That is what this is, isn't it? Wonderland! Straight out of Lewis Carroll's book! It's real! It's not just a story! Isn't that right?"

"Well, well!" Chirped the doorknob. "Someone thinks she has it all figured out, now doesn't she? Unfortunately, Alice, it's not nearly that simple."

"Not nearly that simple?" She echoed. "I've read that book so many times, you've got no idea!" She sipped from the jar and closed her eyes for a moment. When they were reopened, Tori was surprised to see that she was exactly the same size – however, the door was fifty-times bigger.

"See what I mean?" Sikowitz's voice told her. "Not nearly that simple!" Ignoring him, Tori slipped the key into the keyhole, turned it the appropriate number of times, and stepped through the now-opened door.

It was Wonderland, no doubt. However anyone would ever choose to image it.

"Wow…" Tori gasped. "It's…it's really…real…"

In another moment, she came across an all-too-familiar boy. He was Andre. Well, at least, he seemed to be Andre. He was dressed in a business suit, like a Wall Street broker. He wore a grey fedora, tweaked to the side on his head, and a tie that resembled a half-bitten, green leaf. In one of his hands, he held a long, old-fashioned pipe, and after taking a long drag from it, he breathed the green smoke he had inhaled out slowly. The smoke tumbled out from his lips to form letters: W, H, O, A, R, E, Y, O, U.

"Who…" he breathed out with another puff of smoke. "Are…" another drag from the pipe, and: "you?"

"Andre?" Tori piped. "It's me! Tori! I ought to know who I am."

He chucked, and let out: "Yes, girl, you ought to."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You've got no idea who you are, do you Alice?"

"No!" Tori yelled. "I've got the clearest idea of who I am! Even if no one else here in this crazy world does! I'm Tori Vega! I'm not Alice! Who is Alice? Huh? Do you even know? Because she's not me!"

"Oh, Alice…" he shook his head, and breathed in some more green smoke from the pipe. "You have no idea."

"You're no help at all!" She screamed. "I'm getting out of here!" And she stomped away, through the curiousness of Wonderland, walking farther and farther, she said to herself: 'oh, I wonder, which way I ought to go?'. It was then, when Tori came across Cat in a tree.

"Cat!" She called.

"Cat?" The redheaded giggled. "A Cheshire Cat, my dear Alice!" She laughed some more, and sang a bit, slowly disappearing and reappearing before Tori's eyes.

"I…I thought I should ask you," Tori started, feeling very desperate now for a way home. "Which way I ought to go?"

"That depends," said the Cat, "where you want to get to." Tori flinched at her answer. This was just like the book.

"Well…it really doesn't matter," she responded. "As long as I get home – "

"Then," the Cat interrupted. "It really doesn't matter which way you go!" She sprang from the tree branch and disappeared in mid-air, and then circled Tori with her song of gibberish. "Oh, by the way," she said, once visible again. "If you really want to find a way home, I'd ask The Mad Hatter."

"The Mad Hatter?" Tori questioned. "The last thing I need, after a day like today, is to go around more mad people!"

"Well," the Cat giggled yet again. "You can't help that! We're all mad here! Say – can you stand on your head?" And she was, indeed, standing on her head. "The Mad Hatter lives that way!" She pointed one finger to the west, still giggling, as Tori turned to go. "But watch out for the Tweedles! Once they get a hold of you, you'll never get away!"

Tori should have listened to Cat's last piece of advice, because as she started to walk to the west, she found herself face-to-face with Sinjin and Burf, dressed in perfectly matching outfits, standing in perfectly matching positions. The collar of Sinjin's shirt read 'Tweedledum', and Burf's read 'Tweedledee'.

"Tweedles?" The Latina asked.

Their only response was a quick, perfectly synchronized nod.

"I thought so…" she said before trying to plot a way to get around them, but it was no use. "Well…" she hoped they would move. "I guess I'll just be going, then."

"Going?" Asked the first, Sinjin-looking Tweedle. "Oh, no, no, no! You can't be going, you only just got here!"

"That's manners!" Added the other Tweedle.

"Yes, well…I really must be going!" But the Sinjin and Burf look-a-likes stepped in from of her before she could go anywhere.

"Would you like to hear a story?" Tweedledum prompted.

"Oh, yes, yes!" Tweedledee answered for her. "Of course we would!"

"But I don't have time for a story!" Tori exclaimed. "I need to find The Mad Hatter!"

"The Mad Hatter?" They both shouted together. "Oh, no, no, no!"

"No?"

"No!" They echoed. "She's mad!"

"Why, yes…" Tori said as calmly as she could. "Most everyone here's mad…"

"But she's not mad," Sinjin's look-a-like explained, crossing his eyes. "She's mad!" And he mimicked through something, and then parroted punching out the other Tweedle.

"Oh…" Tori gasped, realizing what he was saying. "You don't mean 'mad' as in, crazy…you mean 'mad' as in, angry."

"Yes, that's right," said one of the Tweedles, nodding. "She's been mad ever since you left, Alice. Never been the same…"

"That's, um…that's right!" Tori declared, finding her window of opportunity. "She's never been the same! That's why you should let me go to her, right now. Which way?"

Both Tweedledum and Tweedledee pointed in different directions, so Tori said 'goodbye' to them, and found her own way. She had been walking for what felt like hours, wondering all the while. Why did the people here seem to know her? Why did they know her as 'Alice'? If this truly was the world from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, which was written in 1865, the character of Alice would have passed through here long, long ago. So, what was everyone's fascination with Tori? The day had nearly passed when Tori heard soft singing in the distance, and saw before her a grand table, tucked away behind a long, white fence. Steam rose up from beyond it, and whistles of all types could be clearly heard. The girl's entire expression brightened, and she quickly hopped the fence.

"A very merry unbirthday, to-ooooooooo you!" A girl's beautiful voice sang.

"Jade?" Tori asked, wide-eyed.

After seeing everything she had so far, this seemed like the biggest surprise of all, for some reason. There was, without a doubt, Jade West standing before her on the large, Harry Potter-like table. Tori hadn't expected her to be The Mad Hatter. She was wearing a dark green mini skirt, and a black bodice so short and body-hugging, that it could just as well be considered a lacey bra. This left her sleek stomach completely bare; it was toned, and she had the abs of a professional ballerina. On her head sat a large, floppy hat, which was the same emerald color as her skirt, with two particular things sticking out from either side of it: one was a raven-black feather, the other a price tag of sorts, which read 10/6. She wore black knee socks, which hugged her legs just as tightly as her bustier hugged her breasts and upper half of her midriff. She wore black character-heels with one strap across the middle of each, and held a green and white teapot in her right hand, which was emitting a whistling sound, and more smoke then the Caterpillar's pipe had.

"Oh, Alice," she laughed. "You know better than that!"

"No, I, uh…really don't…" Tori coughed, deciding that it was a lost cause to argue with being called 'Alice' yet again.

"It's me! The Mad Hatter!"

"The…The Mad Hatter?" Tori's head was spinning yet again.

"There's no room for you!" A new voice called, out of the blue.

It took Tori a minute to successfully remove her eyes from The Mad Hatter, to see who spoke. The boy in question was, indisputably, Beck. However, at the same time, he was not Beck – he had two, floppy, brown bunny ears which stuck up out of his fluffy hair, and wore a patchwork coat with a big bowtie, both of which matched Jade's emerald green skirt and hat. He also dawned a black pair of tight-fitted jeans, an equally as tight shirt under his coat, and leather gloves to match.

"No room?" Tori asked, looking around to see the many empty chairs around the grand table. "There's plenty of room! And who are you to tell me that?"

"This is The March Hare!" The Mad Hatter proclaimed. "Don't you remember him, Alice?"

"Alice," Tori sighed, suddenly feeling completely fed up with these people, this world. "I'm not Alice! You've got the wrong girl! My name is Tori. Tori Vega. And, I'm not from here. I never meant to come here. I – " But The Mad Hatter and March Hare were laughing hysterically by this time.

"Oh, Alice!" Hatter repeated herself. "You're so funny! I've missed you so much…" The Hatter handed The Hare her teapot quickly, and glided off the table in one, fluent motion. She landed in Tori's lap, wrapping her legs around either side of the girl, straddling her. "So, so much…"

Tori gulped. If this is what being Alice got her, then Alice she would be.

"I…um…I've missed you, too, Hatter…" she played along. "It's, uh, it's been a…long time…"

"Yes," Hatter whispered in agreement, moving in even closer to Tori – they were nose to nose now. "Too long." They suddenly broke eye contact when The Mad Hatter glared up at the bunny-boy who was still standing on the table, awkwardly.

"You want me leave you two alone?" He asked.

"Clearly!" The Hatter snapped. "This is Alice, March Hare! You know how much I've missed her." The March Hare left without another word, leaving the teapot on the table. The clank noise that it made when he set it down caused The Mad Hatter to shoot up off of Tori's lap.

"Ooh, that reminds me!" She yelled. "Would you care for a cup of tea?"

"Tea?" Tori questioned, feeling disappointed. She could have just gotten much more than a cup of tea.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes!" Hatter said, suddenly elated. She grabbed an empty cup from the table in her left hand, and the teapot in her right, and poured the tea into it. "You must have a cup of tea!"

"I must, must I?" Tori teased the girl who she could swear was Jade.

"Yes, yes!" The Hatter chirped, placing the tea in front of her. "It's my unbirthday, you know!"

"Your…unbirthday?"

"It is!" She continued, still in an ecstatic mood. "You see, you only have one birthday each year, but you have three-hundred-and-sixty-four unbirthday's!"

"Oh…well, then, today's my unbirthday, too!" At this comment, The Mad Hatter gasped and started clapping. She said:

"Then, that means we should both celebrate!"

In another second, the girl leapt down from the over-sized table, and pulled the tablecloth up towards the open air, as if to preform the 'tablecloth' magic trick. To Tori's surprise, every object on the table disappeared into thin air, leaving only the green-and-white-stripped sheet covering it. The girl who must have been Jade was on one side of the table now, with Tori sitting at the other. She crawled across the table, on her hands and knees, singing some lullaby-like tune under her breath. Once she reached the Latina, The Mad Hatter kissed her forehead and slipped off the table once more; this bringing them back into the same position they had been in before: Tori still sitting down, and the other girl straddling her. The Hatter pulled her in closely and kissed her passionately – it was pure and full of love, and felt long overdue. It suddenly occurred to Tori that this was wrong of her: The Mad Hatter was clearly in love with Alice, and even if all of the citizens of Wonderland thought so, she simply was not Alice.

"Hatter…" Tori whispered after she pulled away from the kiss. "Why are you in love with me?" The girl who appeared to look precisely like Jade West sat there, and gawked at the girl who's lap she was on as if she had two heads.

"What do you…?" she started to say, then gulped and continued: "Alice…what are saying? Don't you love me too? You know how much I love you. You know – "

" – No, Hatter," the Latina said calmly. "I'm just asking. If…if I was not Al – I mean, me – how would you describe me to someone else?"

"Oh," said The Hatter. "I'd say…I'd say…" she stroked Tori's cheek. "I'd say that Alice is the most beautiful girl in all of Wonderland. She's perfect, and smart, and funny, and makes me happy. She always solves my riddles, and plays cards with me, and watches the sunsets with me, and the Cheshire Cat, and March Hare. She kisses me, and cuddles with me, and touches me, and makes me feel things that no one else can. And I love her, and she loves me. That's what I'd say." And then Hatter kissed her again, even more passionately than before, even more full of love.

Tori only wished that someone, someday, would love her like this.

The kiss dissolved into many quicker, heated kisses until Tori's arm wrapped around Hatter's waist, and her kisses moved down to her neck and clavicle.

"Alice…" She whispered, suddenly jerking away from the kisses. "It's…it's been so long – I know it really hasn't been, considering where you went, but to me, it's felt like years and years and years of waiting for you to return. And now you have. You're back with me. And…I…" she reached up and nestled Tori's face with her own. "I want you to know how much I love you. I want you to know you're the only one I'll ever love…the only who'll ever…have me."

"Oh…Hatter…" this only increased Tori's guilt – she was not the girl that The Hatter loved – but she could not deny her this happiness that she had been waiting for, for such a long time…

She said nothing more, but pressed her lips against the hatted girl's, pulling her in closer for frenzied, intense kisses. She lightly skimmed her tongue across her bottom lip, and The Mad Hatter opened her mouth slightly, letting her continue. Their tongues battled for a brief minute before the pale-skinned girl let Tori take over, sucking on her tongue a little. Eventually they moved from their spot on the chair to the table; Jade's look-a-like lying on her back, and Tori falling on top of her. They kissed ravenously, their tongues continuing their previous battle. The Latina broke away, eventually, and trailed her tongue down Hatter's neck.

"Alice…" she moaned lighted, closing her blue-green eyes.

Tori wished she were calling her by her own name. She wished that she could call her by her own name – Jade. The name was hot on Tori's lips, but she said nothing. This was not for her, she told herself, it was for Hatter. They made love, and neither of the girls wanted it to end.

"Oh…Alice…" Hatter said for the final time, after the fact, when they were curled up in each other's arms. "I'm so happy you're back!" She reached up and kissed Tori, and after nuzzling their noses together, coiled back up in her arms. The Mad Hatter had never been so happy in all of her life. This is what love felt like. Tori let out a happy sigh, and kissed Hatter's forehead. For her, too, this is what love felt like.

"Look," Hatter bayed, pointing towards the sky. "There's the sunset."

"Yes," Tori mewed.

"Remember when we used to watch them together, before you left?"

"Yes," she repeated, and convinced herself – if only just for a minute – that she truly did. "Hatter," she nearly chocked back tears after they re-dressed. "I…I have to go now. I have to go home."

"Home?" She questioned. "But Alice…you are home. With me."

Tori quickly wrapped her arms around The Mad Hatter, hugging her tightly. They kissed another time, and she whimpered:

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"You have to leave again, don't you?"

"Yes," she said, crying now. "I do. I'm sorry, Hatter, I'm – "

"Shhh," she soothed her. "Don't do that. Don't cry. It's okay. I understand." They broke their hug so they could look at each other in the eyes. "I miss you every second that you're gone," Hatter continued. "But I know you have to leave. You're not from this world, are you Alice?"

"No," she answered. "I'm not."

"I've always known, somehow, that you weren't from here." Hatter nodded, and added: "When you came here, to Wonderland, before, you were saying strange things about strange places that I'd never heard of. That's how I knew I'd fall for you, at first. You were different, like me. I'll miss you while you're gone," she started to cry. "But I love you enough to know that I have to let you go. Follow the path north from here, until you come to a fork in the road. Then you'll know what to do." They kissed one last time, and Tori whispered.

"Goodbye, Hatter."

"Goodbye, Alice." The Mad answered. "Will we meet again someday?"

"Yes," she responded. "Someday."

"Then I will wait for that day. I'll wait for you forever."

"I love you too much to ask you to do that," the girl cried. "Please, don't wait for me. Forget about me." The Hatter made a whimpering sound, and was silent, until she nodded and said:

"If that is what you want for me."

They kissed one last time, and Tori left.

When she came to the fork in the road, Cat appeared again in a nearby tree.

"I suppose you found The Mad Hatter, then?"

"I did."

"Now," the Cat purred. "Some go this way, some go that – but you, Alice, can trust the Cat!" The redhead jumped down, and as she did, a new path showed itself to Tori. "The Queen lives down that way."

"The Queen? As in, The Queen Of Hearts?" But Cat's look-a-like didn't answer; she was already gone. Tori followed the path gingerly, knowing how dangerous The Queen Of Hearts was, and hoping for the best.

"Attention! Attention!" She heard someone scream.

"Robbie!" She called, but then remembered: "Er, um…White Rabbit!"

"Introducing!" He continued, getting the attention of the full courtyard. "The one, the only, Queen Of Hearts!"

Tori's jaw nearly hit the ground.

"Trina?" There she was, Trina Vega, dressed head-to-toe in red, heart-shaped clothing and accessories.

"Alice?" She asked, just as surprised; her shock quickly turned to anger: "Guards! Seize her! Off with her head!" Before Tori could react, two huge guards had thrown her into a large jail cell. Late that night, she heard footsteps coming toward her, and screamed:

"No! Stop! You can't execute me without a trail! I demand a lawyer!"

"What's a lawyer?" Asked a very familiar voice.

"Hatter!" she let out, rejoicing. "Help me get out of here!"

"I took the keys from the White Rabbit," she said, unlocking the door to her cell. "It was easy to get past him."

When Tori stepped out of the Queen's jail cell and kissed Hatter again, it suddenly became a real, fitting together like pieces in a puzzle. She had been here before. In her dreams. When she was younger, and when she would get sad or upset or scared, she would read Lewis Carroll's famous novel, and dream about this place. She dreamed about all the characters she had met in this one day, and mostly she dreamt about one in particular: The Mad Hatter. It wasn't like she had simply taken Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter straight out of the book; she made her own Hatter, a strong, beautiful, female version. Slowly but surely, she became more than a dream – she grew into an imaginary friend, never leaving Tori's side, as she imagined the adventures they'd have in Wonderland together: solving riddles, and playing cards, and watching sunsets. Her own Alice, in her own right.

"Exactly," said Hatter, reading her mind. "And then, you left."

"But…I – I never left you!"

"You did, Alice, but it wasn't your fault. You never meant to leave. You…you grew up. And you didn't need me anymore."

"I'll always need you, Hatter," Tori told her. "I'll always need you."

And again, they kissed.

"Tori…" said Hatter's voice. "Tori, Tori, Tori, Tori…"

She blinked, and sat up straight in her chair, in Sikowitz's classroom.

"Tori!" Jade was calling, poking her from behind. "You fell asleep, and, you know, that's dangerous to fall asleep in class. People could put signs on you." Jade had, indeed, put a sticky note on Tori's face, which read: I'm Tori Vega, I'm uglier than Robbie's grandmother's feet, and I think Jade is pretty.

"You are pretty, Hatter," she remarked once she had read the sign.

"What'd you just call me, Vega?"

"Nothing. Just Jade."

"Better have been nothing," Jade gnarled, and focused back in on the lesson. Tori, however, knew that this was to no avail – her mind was, clearly, still in Wonderland.

A place where she knew in her heart it would always be.