Alice on the Outside-in

Part 1

"Pay attention, I'm here to help you," my sister Grace scowled.

She meant well but I was falling asleep. She wanted to go and phone her boyfriend but Mum told her to help me with my Maths homework outside on the patio under the shade. The weather's 'just right for it' Mum said, with the sun scorching down. The parasol was no help at all because added to that, a warm breeze came over the rose bushes, making it more unbearable. Fortunately, it also sent a lovely sweet soothing fragrance under our noses. Bunny sat next to my exercise book, his fluffy white synthetic fur was way too soft and comfortable, he made a nice pillow...

"Alice, are you listening or not?"

"Not?" I hated Maths. Grace had got her laptop out and tried to show me some stupid interactive exercise she'd found on the net. The thing was, my teacher at school kept writing in my report book that I needed more Maths tutoring so Mum thought it would be a good idea to get Grace involved, seeing as she had a degree and was cheap. It wasn't that the exercises were hard, it was that I couldn't be bothered to deal with them on this warm summer's day. Sleeping...

"Oh, to hell with you, then! Damn thing is too slow, anyway."

The screech of her chair against the patio paving slabs cut my nap short. Through my droopy eyelids I watched her leave, tapping her phone as she went. Fantastic, peace at last. Now I could sleep. No more listening to numbers and equations of x to the power of...my head hit the table with a thud. What? I caught a glimpse of something hiding behind the laptop's screen, something white, fluffy...where was my Bunny, my lovely fluffy toy? I was sure I was resting on it earlier.

"Late, late, I will be ever so late!"

From around the other side of the laptop, Bunny appeared, standing on his back legs and holding a mobile phone, trying to call someone without success. How could my plush toy bunny be standing up? How could it be making a call on a mobile phone? Where did it get one from? I'd asked for one for ages...

"Bunny?"

"I'm late, I'm late! And they don't pick it up! Pick up, pick up, damn you!"

What used to be my fluffy white plush toy bunny was now standing over my sister's laptop, swearing at its mobile phone. What was going on?

"Bunny?"

"Oh bother, I'll have to go there myself!"

With this exclamation, Bunny dived into the laptop, right into the gap between the R, E and D keys...there was a gap? I cleared my head with a shake and examined the area where I last saw Bunny, rubbing my eyes and inspecting it closer. How could that be? It looked so big, so deep...and it was getting bigger. I saw through into the darkness...my head, my body was slowly being sucked in! What was this?

"Help! Grace? Help? Help me!"

I was in? My head, my body, my limbs were all inside, swirling down deeper into an opening abyss between the keys of my sister's laptop? This couldn't be happening! Lights whizzed by, boxes with writing and symbols written across them bounced off my free-falling body, parts of mathematical equations spun past. A structure appeared below, getting more and more detailed until at last I landed on the softest cushion possible. Bunny.

"Ouch! Watch where you're landing!"

BeforeI came to my senses, Bunny stood up, checked his phone and ran off,disappearing into the shadows. Where was I? In the laptop? Thatwasn't good, I knew less about computers than I did Mathematics. u8#m