The Spade's Secret

1

The cards danced around Ollie Lidell quickly, their swords coming together to form an archway before coming back down to their shoulders. Four stray cards flew from  the decks falling to the ground around her. To Ollie's West the Ace of Hearts lay beating faster and faster until Ollie had to look away or become victim to another dizzy spell. Where Ollie's head turned was to the East where the Ace of Clubs lay. Ollie reached out to touch it but rejected her hand quickly as the club shot out of the card nearly bashing her hand in. Ollie spun away from the card until she faced South and the Ace of Diamonds. For some odd reason she felt frightened of the card. She cowered away directly North. The Ace of Spades shone up at her and she was suddenly drawn to the card. She approached the card carefully picking it up and inspecting it when her head began to throb and she heard screams.

"Hello? Hello is anyone here?" She called out but the words were taken from her and rattled around the checkered box in puffs of smoke.

This time she heard a distinct voice whisper around her, "Alice...Alice...Have you been chosen...Alice..."

"I'm not Alice,  who is she?" Ollie tried to ask but was greeted with the same smoke.

She heard a scream again and then felt herself being shaken awake.

"Miss Ollie-Ollie-Canoli-Oli! Won't you please wakey wakey up and pay attention I asked you a question." The Mad Hatter (Hattie to Ollie) her math teacher said a little louder into Ollie's ear.

"Oh! So sorry Hattie, would you please repeat the question?" Ollie asked snapping out of her sleep.

He sighed, "A tea party with 15 people at it are arguing how do you fix this problem? And please, how many times do I have to tell  you to call me Mr. Hatter on school premises?"

"Sorry Mr. Hatter," Ollie muttered quickly. "Well the answer to your problem is quite simple. Since there are 15 people you must rule out giving everyone tea biscuits," The Hatter nodded in agreement. "And they are most likely arguing over who gets the butterscotch jam first due to the jungleberry jam being too little, therefore you must spread an even amount of butter across each of their noses!" Ollie answered proudly.

"Correct!" The Hatter said with a little dance.

The bell rang.

"Class dismissed, no school tomorrow because... It's Saturday! Yay!" He started throwing confetti everywhere singing aloud.

Ollie grabbed her tea cup and quickly ate her biscuit not forgetting to smear a bit of butter from Hattie's desk on it. She quickly ran up to Missy her best friend who was already starting back to the dorms. Missy saw her coming and slowed down and twitched her striped tail in the direction of Ollie.

"Quick thinking with that last equation Ollie, I was just about submerged into my noonday nap and if you hadn't answered correctly he would've called on me." Missy flipped onto her back hovering just in front of Ollie.

"Of course Missy! I have to say my noonday nap was filled with quite a delirium of visions. I think it's about my acceptance into a suit tomorrow." Missy perked her head up a bit with this a look of confusion on her face that quickly morphed into realization.

"Oh my! That's right our Suit Ceremony is tomorrow!" Missy had spent too much time sleeping to remember the important situations in life. "I have to say I don't quite remember if I have had dreams about my suit yet, but I'm sure I must have. Remember, don't ignore dreams, you know what happened to Renee," Missy warned.

Ollie and Missy both shivered filled with an icy dread. No one talked about Renee anymore, not since the terrible turn of fate 10 years ago when she unleashed a fury onto Wonderland which brought all of Wonderland into a state of horror. For 2 years the everyone in the land lived in fear to go outside. 

"Let's not speak of rubbish things at a time of my birthday! Now we have decisions to make, should I go with a Toffee cake with Mapleberry glaze or a Chocobell cake with Gardenia frosting?" Ollie knew this would be the single most important part of a birthday, without the right cake there might be a situation like the one Hattie described in math class and Ollie knew she didn't have enough butter for all of her class which consisted of maybe 100 students give or take.

"Definitely the Chocobell cake! The Triplets are allergic to Maples." Arthur, Martha, and Lance were the most popular students in her class so Ollie would have to invite them or else know one would come and it was of the upmost importance that everyone would attend to such a prestigious of an event as her 18th birthday. While Ollie was so excited for her birthday she was more excited for the ceremony that would follow the celebration which would decide her fate for the rest of her time at the Suit Academy and her life in Wonderland; the Suit Choosing Ceremony. 

The Suit Choosing Ceremony had been a part of the Suit Academy since it was founded. The Ceremony, which would be led by the head teachers in each of the departments, takes place in each of the different queen's castles, starting with the Queen of diamonds. There is always one test for each queen, although the tests supposedly change every year so no one cheats on the tests. At the end of each test there is one final task instructed by the Red Queen who comes to Wonderland once a year from the Looking Mirror Dimension, that takes place in the Bluebell Courtyard where the statue of the Original Heart Warrior, who put an end to Renee's evil rule, stands. Since the death of the Original Heart Warrior the elite heart warriors have become the best fighting force in all of Wonderland. The statue erected in her honor became the place where minds are the most open. That is why the Bluebell Courtyard is where the final ceremony is. There the caterpillar puts the suitlings under a trance and the Red Queen rakes their minds for destructive thoughts and proof of the one true suit they should be in. 

Ollie smiled to herself wistfully as the two Wonderlandians trudged soundlessly through the Tulgey Wood Forest back to their dorms where their remaining day would be spent planning the party for the important birthday of Ollie Lidell.