Alice in Wonderland High

by Rachel Shane

CHAPTER 32

  “You like how I slipped that in?” I said when I plopped back down next to Chess, putting my all into a smile.

  “Yes.” He returned the smile. “But also no. Because it wasn’t exactly the smartest move as far as testimonies go.”

  “It was a creative way to say it though, right?”

  “And on the bright side, it gave you an alibi.” He placed his hand on my knee. That hand was the only thing keeping me from falling apart.

  Whitney dropped into the witness seat next to Quinn’s desk. “I think you’ll see here that only a portion of the creek crosses onto the school’s property.” Whitney pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper and showed it to the audience. It was a land-survey map with lines detailing property borders. “The part where the dam resides is owned by the township. If the dam was tampered with, I’m afraid it’s not under school jurisdiction to prosecute a punishment.”

  “School property was still damaged,” Principal Dodgson argued.

  “Well,” Whitney said, crossing her legs. “Recently the senior lounge was covered in paint. Since it’s still there this morning, I’m guessing you’re having difficulty getting it off the windows.”

  Principal Dodgson’s head snapped up. “We can’t figure out how to remove it, some kind of glue, and—”

  “That seems like damage to school property. Are you going to expel the kids who did that, too? Or the ones who painted the roses surrounding the school red?”

  “Objection!” Quinn yelled. “She’s leading the witness.”

  “She is the witness,” Principal Dodgson reminded her.

  “Fine, objection! This has nothing to do with Alice. I move it be stricken from the record.”

  Principal Dodgson nodded. “Sustained, the prank was done by Neverland High. It has no particular bearing on this case.”

  Whitney shook her head. “You don’t really believe that. And anyway, I know exactly who did it. Quinn Hart, Di Tenniel, Dru Tweedle, and a few others. I have proof, which I’d be happy to show you.”

  “Already in your inbox, Principal D.” Kingston finger-pointed a gun at Whitney like I got you covered.

  “Okay!” Quinn stood and circled around the desk. “Thanks, Whitney. I think it’s time for our next witness!” She glanced desperately around the room. Whitney made no move to get up. “Di and Dru!” Quinn waved at the back of the audience. “You guys are the next witnesses. Go. Go!”

  Both girls rose in unison, like they’d practiced this move for a synchronized-swimming competition. They both wore white scarves tied around their necks, and I immediately ached for them. Even I knew scarves like that had disappeared from the fashion radar, thrust back into the realm of been-there-done-that.

  “The decoupaged desks.” Whitney raised her voice, ignoring Di and Dru’s approach to the stand. “Alice couldn’t have done it because I know who did.”

  “Principal Dodgson, if she says me, she’s lying. I swear!” Quinn held up her hands in a way that made her look guilty even though she was completely innocent in that crime. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “You did. Unless you consider the paint in the senior lounge to be school-sanctioned. But anyway the decoupage wasn’t you; it was me. Only me.” Whitney leaned back in her seat, completely relaxed with the prospect of getting in trouble. Di and Dru paused in the middle of the room, probably unsure whether they still needed to claim their fifteen minutes of high-school fame.

  The crowd erupted in whispers. Too bad they hadn’t dozed off like they did in class, but I guess this trial was intriguing in a half-to-watch kind of way. Water-fountain material for tomorrow.

  Principal Dodgson tilted her head. “Whitney, are you confessing to vandalizing the school?”

  “I’m telling you the truth. I decoupaged the desks. Quinn and her friends trashed the senior lounge.”

  “Alice flooded the school,” Quinn added. “Let’s not forget that.”

  Principal Dodgson waved Di and Dru forward. They reluctantly climbed the rest of the way to the front, stumbling over seated bodies. “Girls, is this true?”

  Whitney strutted back to her seat next to me. She smirked when she sat down. “You’re welcome. I highly doubt they’re going to expel all the goody-two-shoes losers involved with the prank, especially not someone who kisses as many butts as Quinn.”

  I wanted to thank her. I wanted to tell her how impressed I was with her. But I knew words couldn’t even begin to convey the gratitude I felt. I wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug. She stayed still and rigid for a moment but then returned the hug. A second later she wiggled out of my arms.

  “Well, that’s one way to make Chess jealous,” she said with a smirk. “But I don’t swing that way.”

  “I know.”

  Chess nudged me with his shoulder. “I’m waiting for you to deny it, too.”

  “It would explain my silence for so long, wouldn’t it?” I joked.

  “Dinah?” Principal Dodgson prompted. “Is this true?”

  Di lifted her eyes from the floor. “Yes.”

  “No!” Dru’s eyes widened. “No how.”

  “Di means no,” Quinn clarified. “Alice Liddell and Kingston Hatter pulled the prank. No one else, certainly not me. Right, Di? The photos Kingston sent you are fakes.”

  “Oh,” Kingston shouted. “But the red paint splashed all inside your locker is what? Art project gone wrong? Funny thing that you don’t even take art.”

  “It was planted in there.” Quinn narrowed her eyes at him. “By you.”

  Kingston shrugged and winked at the three of us. Well, at least one of Quinn’s accusations had turned out to be true.

  “Order! Order! Let’s get back on track. Di, you said yes. I’d like to hear more.”

  “If Alice did the flood, she didn’t mean any harm by it. She was trying to save the dry field.” Di’s voice was shaky and quiet, though the whispering crowd was beginning to drown it out. I leaned forward to hear better.

  “What her motivations were is unimportant compared to the crime itself.”

  “I know that,” Di said. She turned and met Quinn’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Quinn, Dru. I don’t feel comfortable lying.”

  “She means lying for Alice,” Dru said. “Alice paid her off to confess.”

  “Contrariwise, Alice tried to warn me against doing the prank. She was looking out for me.” The volume of Di’s voice rose an eighth note.

  “No how. She wanted you out of the way.”

  Di ignored her. It was weird to see her be her own person again. “I can’t, in good conscience, be responsible for getting someone expelled who doesn’t deserve it. She may have done the flood, but I know she didn’t do any of the painting. We did.” She pointed at the other girls as well as Kingston.

  The room broke into intense whispers.

  “Off with your head! You’re done!” Quinn waved her hand at Di dismissively. “You too, Dru.”

  Dru held up her hands in protest. “But I—”

  Di tugged her friend away to the back wall near me. If I hadn’t been shocked into silence, I might have hugged Di for helping me out. But then I heard her whisper to Dru that if Kingston really did send the evidence in, they’d be in trouble no matter what. Confessing might get them a lesser sentence. Good thing I hadn’t wasted the hug.

  “It’s always the ones you don’t keep in their place that fuck you over,” Kingston mumbled.

  “Jail. Expulsion,” Whitney said. “One more and you’ve got a nice collection.”

  “At least we’re going down with you?” I attempted to joke, complete with a half-smile. Humor didn’t really work to cheer me up, though.

  Principal Dodgson clapped her hands to restore order. “I think there’s only one option here.”

  Quinn coughed expel Alice under her breath.

  “Alice, you’re ex—”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and flattened Chess’s hand in my own with my grasp.

  “—extra lucky you’re not the o
nly one who damaged this school. And though I would like to cut down on those crowded classrooms, I can’t expel this many students.”

  I loosened my grasp on Chess, then brought my other hand over to pinch the flesh on my wrist. Just to make sure I hadn’t imagined it.

  “It’s only fair that everyone receives the same punishment for the same crime,” Principal Dodgson continued. “So, Alice, Quinn, Dinah, Dru, Kingston, Whitney, and anyone else found to be involved in the damage to the school will be suspended for the rest of the week.”

  A collective groan escaped from the class. Quinn rose from her seat. “What? That’s unfair! That’s . . . that’s . . . nonsense!”

  “Would you rather take expulsion?”

  Quinn let out a sniffle, then tried to scramble away from the desk in such haste that she tripped over the leg of the chair and crashed to the ground.

  A frenzy of packing up bags began. Students herded to the door, a mass of people forming near the exit. The small entryway was unable to funnel so many people at once.

  Whitney stood up and put two fingers in her mouth, whistling loudly enough to make everyone stop and look up. “Don’t forget, the first Eco Club meeting starts in ten minutes in Mr. Hargreaves’s room. If you want details, you better show.”

  That seemed to get everyone’s attention. The talking increased, taking on an excited tone.

  “I’m afraid I haven’t condoned the organization of such a club,” Principal Dodgson said.

  “You told us the other day that we had to get a teacher to sponsor it. I did. Mr. Hargreaves.”

  Principal Dodgson pursed her lips. “Well, I’m going to have a talk with him about the appropriate conduct of such a club.”

  I tugged on Whitney’s pant leg. “What are you doing? We’re suspended, remember?”

  She grinned. “The way I see it, the suspension starts tomorrow. Might as well use our new flooding-the-school and damaging-the-desks infamy to our advantage.”

  CHAPTER 33

  “Okay . . . so how’d you get back here? And are you really enrolled in Wonderland High?” I may have been suspended for four days, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t distract myself with excitement over Chess’s presence and Kingston’s apparent freedom, now that I could fully appreciate it.

  Chess interlocked his fingers with mine, letting me pull him into a standing position. “Kingston should explain first, because my explanation won’t make sense without his.” Chess gestured with his chin to the packed courtroom, everyone still filing out. Most watched us as if we might do something rash and put on a good show. “But maybe we should take this someplace more private first.”

  The four of us got in line with the rest of the crowd and dodged questions from the reporter-wannabes. As soon as we broke free of the confines of the classroom, Whitney waggled a hand to follow her. We rounded a corner and I slowed my pace, tugging on Chess’s sweater. I pushed him into the shadow of a doorway until his back pressed against the wooden door. I aligned my body against his, slipping into the dark recess between the door and the wall, if only to gain a tiny bit of privacy from watchful eyes. I hoped Kingston would have the self-preservation to turn away. He shouldn’t have to see this.

  “Are you going for kidnapping? Need a new goal after not getting expelled?”

  “Not the worst idea in the world, kidnapping you. But no. Mostly I wanted to do this before I forgot.” I cupped my hands behind his neck and pulled him closer to me.

  He leaned away and scoffed. “You were afraid you might forget?”

  “Well, you did,” I said. He raised an eyebrow. “Hey, I said I love you in there. I deserve a kiss. But no, you just wanted to go somewhere private. And not for this reason.”

  He laughed. It was adorable, almost as attractive as his serial-killer smiles, the ones that immobilized me on attack.

  I whispered into his ear, “I don’t want to make the same mistake.”

  He sank his mouth into mine, finishing the kiss we’d started. I didn’t want it to end—after all, we had a week of lost time to make up for—but I knew when I pulled away that it wasn’t an ending.

  “Any other distractions I should know about?” Whitney asked from her perch against a locker when we returned. A giddy smile erupted on my face, making me look like I’d just swallowed a little too much laughing gas at the dentist.

  Kingston, on the other hand, studied the floor like he might be able to see a magic eye in the spotted linoleum.

  “Okay, King. Spill.” Whitney propped one foot against the locker, launching herself off the wall. “I’ve already deduced from your presence that you haven’t been arrested. I’m good at riddles like that.”

  That made him laugh. “Well, try this one then.” Kingston caught up to Whitney in one quick stride. “What’s my one superhero talent that got me off scot-free?”

  “You pleaded insanity.” Whitney stomped off down the hallway, plowing right through other people’s paths like they didn’t exist. The few students lingering jumped out of the way. I wondered how many of them had gone to the meeting . . . or gone home. A girl from my homeroom traced her eyes over us, cell pressed to her ear, but she’d stopped talking and I could hear the fuzzy mumbling of “Hello? Hello?” on the other end of the line.

  My focus shifted back to Kingston, who was scowling. “I couldn’t make it that easy on them.”

  “Snooping?” Whitney guessed.

  “Close.”

  “Blackmail?” I tried.

  He grinned, clearly proud of himself. It was kind of weird to be celebrating that.

  “You blackmailed the township?” Sweat gathered along the back of my neck. That didn’t seem like the safest move. Not when the township had a habit of quickly rezoning or raising taxes to get what they wanted . . . plus, the exceptional talent of covering it all up. They may have let Kingston go free, but only until they could calculate their next chess move.

  “I know. I’m badass. You can create a shrine in front of my locker.” Kingston snickered. “But seriously, don’t use anything with the color yellow. I promised the bees I’d avoid it, and I don’t want to piss them off.”

  “That was the seriously you meant?” Whitney said. “Not, seriously this is why I’m not in jail?”

  “The stipulation about the yellow was important, too. But if you must know, I simply explained the situation to Alice’s sister and her boss. They made me sick, essentially killed my mom and Chess’s mom, and covered it all up. Then I suggested the citizens of Wonderland might be interested in knowing some of the land here is contaminated.”

  A chill slammed into my body, freezing the sweat that had been collecting on my skin. It hadn’t occurred to me that more people might get sick. Specifically, people who used to live on the contaminated farmland and called themselves my boyfriend. “We need to let them know!” Images flashed through my brain of overcrowded hospitals, flummoxed doctors scratching their heads, newspaper obituaries expanding their one-page sections. More teenagers orphaned by the unholy acts of our town officials. “If it’s dangerous—”

  “It’s not,” Chess said as we rounded a corner. No one lingered in this hallway, but heavy chatter carried from a classroom in the distance. I studied him, analyzing the calm tone of his voice in my hazy, fear-laden brain. “Not anymore at least. That, apparently, was the main reason they rezoned the land and drove people away, not the leak. As part of the cover-up, but also to get houses off the bad land and protect the citizens. The nuclear-power plant was shut down. There’s a parking lot and a highway on the contaminated land instead. That new housing complex is on the only part of the farm that wasn’t affected.”

  Relief seeped out of my mouth in a yoga breath. “But what about you? Are you sick?”

  “I went to the doctor today. So far so good.” Chess rubbed the stubble of his jaw. “I’ll keep getting tested every few months.”

  My muscles relaxed. He was going to be all right. For now.

  Kingston held up a finger. “Hey,
we’ll get to that in a sec. It’s still my turn to show off my brilliance.”

  “That’s it?” Whitney asked, heels clicking like a tap dancer. “You spewed some loose-lipped threats and their knees buckled?”

  Kingston ran a hand over the stubble poking out of his scalp. “No, first Alice’s sister brought proof that my story was legit and stuck by me.” He turned to me. “I guess we really did take the wrong files, right, Alice?”

  “Your fault.”

  “Thanks, by the way. For giving her the right one. It let me up the ante and demand the township pay for my medical bills, too.” He flashed all his teeth at us.

  Lorina had . . . defended him? Why? My brain frantically calculated complicated algebraic equations, but something wasn’t adding up.

  “Your sister convinced her boss that it would be cheaper to pay my bills than to go through all the legal stuff. Done and done. Okay, Chess, your turn now.”

  But Kingston was just one person. If so much land had been compromised, it was possible others had gotten sick, too. Dread settled into my stomach, burrowing a deep hole. They deserved compensation as well.

  “Let me guess,” Whitney said. “Your dad had U-Haul on speed-dial, waiting for the ‘action!’ command, and as soon as he found out it was safe in Wonderland, he made the call.”

  “Not exactly. We’re not moved back yet.”

  We reached Mr. Hargreaves’s classroom, chatter spilling and drowning out Chess’s voice. We huddled around our quarterback so we could hear the play-by-play better. Kingston stepped closer to Whitney, and I squeezed into the space between him and Chess.

  “I mean, this all happened today. He’s checking into a motel right now until we find something more permanent. Showering at home, it’s a luxury.”

  I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my lips. “What about his job?”

  Chess started to speak, but his attention was diverted over my shoulder toward the classroom. The three of us spun around to see . . . Lorina poking her head out.

  All the happiness I felt dropped to the floor, weighing down my shoulders.

  “I thought I heard your voice, Alice.” She didn’t sound angry with me. She didn’t sound happy either. Her stoic face was mannequin-blank.