The Fall of Arcadia (Book ONE)

Chapter 1

"Hey, Alice!" Amy, my little sister yelled up the stairs to me as I got out the shower.

"What!" I called back.

I'm off! I'll see you next month in Leadworth, yeah?"

"Yeah, you supply the skittles, I'll buy the Mountain Dew!" I laughed, wrapping a towel around me.

"Deal! Do you mind if Rory and Mels come too?" she asked, coming into the room.

"I practically raised both of them, I honestly don't care. Has Mels sorted herself out yet?"

"Nope. I bailed her out again last week. I've got a client tonight, I'll send you the costume pics!" Amy laughed, giving me a side hug and messing up my hair. My little sister, Amelia Jessica Pond, the kiss-o-gram. At least I could afford to send her money, my book shop, the Fall of Arcadia, made a killing in London, so we had no worries.

I waved her off from my bedroom window and got to work on straightening my curly ginger hair. That takes about half an hour, considering my hair is waist length and I have rather short arms. Amy is so lucky, she has straight hair and long limbs. No wonder Rory's been in love with her since we moved to England.

Next was make up, I used my lucky blue eye liner, the same colour as the Raggedy Mans box and purple mascara, with red lipstick, I decided I looked presentable. Clothes were harder. When you have my hair colour and are a Goth, it's hard to find suitable clothes, but I decided on my purple turtle necked jumper and mini skirt with my purple docs.

I opened my shop at 10 and instantly had 3 people walk in a look around. One of these days, apparently. I sat behind the counter and got out the book I was currently reading, Summer Falls by Amelia Williams. I took about £60 profit by 11, when a man in a pinstriped suit and a woman with long ginger hair walked in. The man looked about 35 and was holding a bleepy machine that beeped out of control when pointed at me.

"Excuse me, do you mind?" I asked, indicating to the machine.

"Not at all, why?" he replied, not being rude, just not understanding.

"Doctor!" the woman scolded, hitting his shoulder and giving me a look. "Sorry, he's on leave from a mental institution for the day." Wait, Doctor? As in the Raggedy Doctor? But he was smaller with green eyes, not brown ones.

"Donna, do you have to say that? Sorry, Miss-?" the Doctor asked, holding out him hand, then swapping because it was the one holding the machine.

"Pond. Call me Alice though, everyone does" I replied, shaking it warily. "And you are?"

"You heard, the Doctor. Now, 2 questions, one, what's with the name of your shop, and two, how come my little machine is telling me you're not human?" he showed me the screen that read, non-terrestrial.

"3 questions, the Doctor, what type of a name is that? 2, it's a name, why does it matter, and 3, no idea, why are you looking for non-terrestrial life forms?" I smirked, arms folded and eye brows raised.

"Oh, long story short, there's a Groske running around somewhere with the technology to hide in other peoples bodies. Bit of menace, though Graskes are worse" the Doctor shrugged, tapping the machine.

"Right, I think I believe you, Donna. Definitely on leave from Tindal. And you never answered question 2"

"Because I don't want to. Right, my machine must be playing up again, sorry about that. See you around Alice. Come on Donna"

"Sorry, nice to meet you" Donna smiled, following the madman out.

"Well, that was weird" Marcus laughed, coming out of the backroom carrying two mugs of tea.