The Story of an Unstory

My Life is a Wreck

There is absolutely nothing worse than being publicly humiliated by the whole school. Especially being humiliated by the students of Flairview High School. It's known to house over one thousand two hundred students. So that means over twelve hundred people have seen my "little accident" during lunch. I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry, I repeated to myself. It's not like the whole school wants to torment you until you start sinking into a hole of peer pressure and stress. 

Hold up. I haven't told you what actually happened in the cafeteria. So it went something like this... I was just getting in line for lunch on a painfully awkward day. A girl behind me stuck several opened packets of ketchup down my new shirt. Then someone "accidentally" spilled some soup on the ground. Unfortunately right where I was standing. Not good. My shoes and socks got sodden and began to reek of garlicky tomato. Okay, I was walking around with damp footwear and red splotches on my top. The second I got out of the uncaring line, the obtrusive young adults who were dining started gasping. I understood gasping. It meant something bad was about to occur. And chances are, it was going to take effect on me. I looked up, just in time to see a splattering of green slime on top of me head. It kept coming, faster and faster, until it stopped as quickly as it started. I coughed. I got some in my eyes, and I assume that I'd swallowed some due to my retching. It did not taste good. The good part, no one could see the tears starting to spring up in my burning eyes. The bad thing, everyone was paying their total attention to me. I heard laughing and whispers shooting around the lunchroom at lightning speed. 

This was the final straw. I was done with this school. These stupid students and their bad attitudes. The students that had no share of concern or ounce of caring in their hearts. These cruel, unworthy classmates who tormented, teased, bullied, and taunted me. I even thought of some of them as friends. I couldn't believe my idiocy. I stormed out of the lunchroom and headed to the bathrooms. I saw that my once shiny blond hair was now tinted green. It would take forever to wash it out. My new outfit had no place where the slime had touched. It left behind a foul, puke looking stain. Heh, how ironic. It was April Fool's Day and the joke was on the fool. I laughed bitterly, the hollow sound bouncing around the empty stalls. 

I tried cleaning my clothes with the ice cold water and the not-so-bubbly soap. It just didn't work. I gave up and walked away. I realized with quick thinking. I couldn't go back to lunch. And I couldn't leave the front doors. That would make me look like a coward, and it would make me receive a phone call home. Like they still do that for seniors. I went to the only place I could go. The school library. I rushed over to the stairwells and climbed them two steps at a time. When I reached the top, I finally felt calm and a little euphoric. The towering tall cases of books held a new inky smell. Those modern day authors wasn't what I was looking for. There was only one specific book I would go to for times like these. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It could always make me think harder, make me understand Alice's story. But of course, it was nutty. It was completely illogical. It was perfect for me. 

I hunted through the shelves. Every time I looked for the book it seemed to reposition itself to a new location, as if it wanted me to go on a scavenger hunt to look for it. I found the section that it belonged in. I thought I saw a little golden glow surrounding a book. I crept closer and snatched it up. I sighed in dismay. It was just a bare book. No writing was on it. I was quite puzzled. It didn't make sense. Where did my book of adventures go to? I decided to take a chance and opened it. The familiar golden inside appeared, the whole first scene appearing from the center and expanding outward, just like the dream I had last nigh. It was deja vu. I recognized the bright, cheery face of Alice Liddell. But, when I read the words, something immediately felt off. It wasn't right. The story plot wasn't right. I was just about to report this book to the school librarian when suddenly the golden glow of the book surrounded me. I saw flashing colors behind my eyelids and I was transported to another world. One I knew far too well. The world that I had read about for days and dreamed to visit one day. I was in...Wonderland.