Twisted Wonderland Book 1: The Rose-Red Tyrant

Chapter 16: Hard Work Undone

Time has gone by, and everyone has finished painting the roses red for the Unbirthday Party. The work it's been put into painting and using magic to paint is proven to be tiring.

Deuce pants in exhaustion, "... Well, this is going better than before."

"Looking good!" Cater says with a smile.

He looks at his phone and says, "Ooh, it's almost time! Okay, all you sexy body doubles, that's a wrap!"

"Aye-aye, Cay-Cay!" The rest of the clones answer.

A slightly disturbed Seria says to Briar, "I don't think I'm going to get used to seeing multiple Caters."

"I'm going to have to agree with you on that one.

Sometime later, the Unbirthday Party is about to begin. The garden has been decorated with a lot of crazy decor, involving white table clothed tables, red roses in the garden, cards, books, and all kinds of odd decor that looks like some crazy tea party.

Briar and the others are close by as they look at the interesting and rather confusing kinds of decor.

Just then, trumpets are played for everyone to hear.

Students wearing their dorm uniform call out, "All hail our leader, the red sovereign himself... Housewarden Riddle!"

Then salute, "We salute you, Housewarden Riddle!"

And soon, Riddle steps into the scene. He is wearing the dorm uniform that is similar to the others., but he has more features: A black and red cape, a half painted rose, a crown on his head, including red eyeshadow.

Close by is Trey and he's wearing a similar school dorm uniform, but he is also wearing a white fedora.

Riddle looks around at the decoration, Hm. The garden roses are red, the tablecloths are white... This seems a proper unbirthday indeed."

Then turns to Trey, "Is there a dormouse asleep in the teapot, as there should be?

"Of course. And should it become necessary, we've also prepared the jam to spread on his nose," Trey says.

"Very good," Riddle says.

Seeing them in their clothes, Grim is very surprised, "Myah! Those are some fancy duds!"

These are Heartslabyul dorm clothes. Aren't they fierce? At the forefront of fashion, and they look great on Magicam.

And with that, Cater then uses his magic to change his normal school uniform clothes to the dorm uniform.

Then says, "One of the Queen's rules mandates formal dress on party days. As a show of kindness from a beloved mentor, I'll help coordinate your outfits."

And the wave of his mage pen, Cater has Ace, Decue, Jasper, and Tanzanite wear the same uniform as the other Heartslabyul. Even Grim is wearing a ribbon around his neck that matches the uniform. You can imagine the reaction they have.

"Whoa!" Deuce says, surprised.

Ace looks at his outfit, "Lookin' sharp!"

"Myah! So cool!" Grim says.

"You all look fantastic!" Briar says.

"You all dressed so nice," Sereia says.

Then Cater says, "And now to give you ladies your own special outfits."

He then waves his magepen once more and casts a spell on Briar, Seriea, and Trinket. Trinket is mainly wearing a black and white checkered ribbon and a light blue dress with an apron attached.

Briar and Sereia are both wearing light blue dresses with short puffy sleeves, and under them are petticoat skirts, and the front of the outfit appears to have white lace aprons, white stockings and black mary janes. Sereia is also wearing a white bonnet with light blue laces. Briar is wearing a black hairband with a small ribbon on it.

"Wow. You look really pretty Briar," Sereia happily says.

Trinket twinkle in reply.

Briar giggles and says, "Thank you, and you look very cute yourself."

"I think you look great," Ace says.

"Yeah. Though, you are wearing a different outfit than the rest of us," Grim says.

"Well, they are girls, so I think it's perfect for the Unbirthday party," Cater says.

He then says, "Now, let's tear this party up! And don't forget to give Riddle the tart."

Ace rolls his eyes and remembers what he has to do.

A short time later, the party is beginning, Riddle announces, "Before we begin the croquet tournament, let us make a toast. Does everyone have their teacup?" and holds up his teacup.

Everyone in the dorm has their teacup in their hand.

Then Riddle says, "In this most significantly unauspicious of days, I bid all in attendance... a very merry unbirthday!"

Everyone shouts, "To a very merry unbirthday!"

Cater nudges Ace and says, "Ace, this is your chance!"

"Right..." Ace replies.

Ace then walks to Riddle with the tart at hand, "Uh, housewarden, sir..."

Riddle turns to see Riddle, "Ah, it's you. The tart thief."

"Yeah, so, I wanted to apologize for eating that tart. We made you a new tart to replace it," Ace says, and presents the chestnut tart to Riddle.

Riddle looks at the tart with interest, "Hmm? And what kind of tart is it?"

"I'm so glad you asked! It's a chestnut tart, and I swear, we weren't stingy with the chestnuts," Ace says with a grin.

"A CHESTNUT tart?!" Riddle exclaims, shocked and seems enraged.

"What?!" Ace asks, shocked by the sudden raise in Riddle's voice.

"What's up with him?" Jasper asks.

Then Tanzanite asks, "Um Housewarden Riddle, is something wrong?"

Just then, Riddle answers, "The Queen of Hearts's rule 562: 'One must never bring a chestnut tart to an unbirthday tea party.' This is an utterly flagrant rule violation! Do you understand what you've done?! You've ruined an otherwise perfect unbirthday!"

Everyone is shocked, not just by Riddle's outburst, but also the rule number.

"Rule 562...?!" Deuce says, confused.

"There's a rule for that as well?" Sereia asks.

"How many of these rules are there?!" Briar asks, surprised.

"There are 810 rules in all, and housewarden, I can of course recite each and every one of them," Riddle says.

"And you have memorized all of them?" Sereia asks, surprised

Riddle nods his head in reply.

"That's actually very impressive," Briar says, actually amazed by it.

"I doubt I can remember the first twenty of your dorm's rules," Jasper replies, crossing his arms.

Then Tanzanite says, "I suppose as a Housewarden, you must be well read of the rules and the wellbeing of the students."

Then adjust his glasses, "I'm curious to know the rules of the dorm. Some of them sound like tradition rather than just rules."

Then Cater says, "Wow, T-I-L... This could be bad."

Then turns to Trey, "Trey, were you aware of this?"

"I was only able to memorize the first 350 or so," Trey says.

He sighs and says, "Well, we really botched this one. Big-time."

Just then, Riddle announces, well more like angrily shout, "As housewarden of a dorm established to honor the Queen of Hearts's rigor, I cannot ignore this. Destroy the offending tart immediately! Then throw these rulebreakers out of the dorm!"