Welcome To Wonderland

By Suhani Sunil Siyal

It was not as simple as one thinks. I've always loved reading and I've always adored having the power to travel into any fictional realm. Whether it was fighting Lord Voldemort with harry potter, or doing the great mysteries of England with sherlock holmes. Sadly I've always had to keep my powers hidden from the outside world. My parents always thought it wasn't safe, that someone would take me and use my abilities for criminal uses. Like bringing back the elder wand or poisonous serum that could destroy the world. So only my close family knows about this and nobody else.

One day I had the most amazing adventure ever. I had traveled to the famous story known as the murder on the orient express, that I just had to tell somebody. But I didn't know who to tell, and I started thinking what if they saw me differently? What if they didn't believe me? For a good 5 minutes, my mind was bombarded with what if's and went into a full spiral. However, I was able to muster up a little bit of courage to tell my best friend. Her name was Christine but everyone just called her Chris. Chris and I have known each other since we were 3, we practically grew up together. We both lived in the same apartment, went to the same school and we both had older siblings the same age so we just got each other.

So the next day during recess at school I started her in the face and sort of just blurted it all out. I just started rambling about my powers, my adventures, and at some point, even I didn't know what I was saying but she sat and listened. After 10 mins of ramblings, I finally finished. We both just sat there in silence for a minute. Until her face filled with joy and then she was rambling on, she wasn't hurt that I didn't tell her sooner or she didn't look or talk to me differently, she was still just my best friend Chris.

Everything was going perfectly until Billy heard the conversation. Billy Lockwood was the meanest, and dumbest bully in middle school. Honestly, I don't even know why but he has always despised me, and believe it or not the rumor going around is that he has a crush on me. You know that old story of how a boy pulls a girl's pigtails because he likes her and that's the only way he knows to get her attention. Well, that's just ridiculous. I always hated that.

Billy creepily hovered over us and then out of nowhere started laughing. "They've gone mental," he announced to everyone. " They've lost it this time. They think Emily has powers," he screamed. They all broke out into laughter. Pointing fingers at us and flipping their head with laughter. They laughed so hard you could hear it at the principal's office at the end of the second-floor corridor. The rest of the day went by as slow as a sloth. It was killing me.

Finally, at 2:30 the school bell rang and we were all dismissed. I packed my bag and ran straight home. I couldn't look anyone in the eye, not even Chris. I bolted out of there so quickly even Chris couldn't catch me, and she was captain of the track team. I was so embarrassed, I didn't think I could ever show my face at school anymore. Their stares and pointing were haunting me, the whole experience was just seared into my brain. I just wanted a huge hole to open up and swallow me. So that's what I did, I jumped into one of my favorite worlds, the miraculous and kooky world known as wonderland. Visiting wonderland always made me feel better. I walked around for hours visiting all my friends. The Cheshire cat's new baby daughter. I even paid my good friend Julie Heart, the daughter of the queen of hearts, a visit. For hours I roamed the upside-down land I called home. Once I had visited everyone, my last stop was the Mad Hatters tea shop.

As I pushed the door open, I could see teacups and teapots flying everywhere, the smell of freshly brewed lemon tea - the shop's classic, clocks on every wall facing every way, and the sound of folk music blasting from the speakers. Just as I headed up to the cashier Madeline - mad hatters daughter's huge hat popped up. Shocked, I squealed, then I realized it was her. She took my order and then got someone to cover her shift. She joined me for tea and caught me up with all the latest news on everything in wonderland. As I headed out I bumped into the mad hatter, he had heard I was feeling down and wanted to visit me. I told him about what happened at school. "Am I mad?" I asked him." You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are. A very wise woman once told me that when I was puzzled with the same question you were." said the mad hatter. I don't know if he knows it but that one line changed a lot.

By Suhani Sunil Siyal