Cathy Cassidy - Looking Glass Girl, Can Alice find her way back from Wonderland?

Chapter 2 - Alice

"Can you hear me, Alice? My name is Martin; I'm a paramedic. Hang on Alice."
Everything is dark; a thick, soft darkness that wraps around you like a blanket of sleep. I can hear someone talking to me, but I don't understand what he's saying - it's like some kind of secret code. It makes no sense at all.
"I'm calling in to report a head trauma victim, female, age thirteen; we're blue lighting her."
Head trauma victim?
A shrill siren wail starts to screech, scratching it's fingernails against my skin, filling up my senses. It makes everything hurt, but I can't seem to find the words to tell them to shut it up.
And suddenly I find myself falling backwards, down the rabbit hole, dropping like a stone. My screams are swallowed up by the soft blanket of darkness.

Year Six

I wasn't always a victim. Not so long ago, I was just a normal girl; a happy girl. I didn't get top grades in class and I wasn't the most popular kid in the school, but I had the usual things: test results, playground tiffs, wether I'd find a hobby or not I could be good at - something where I'd shine . . . but those worries never stopped me having fun.
And then, in Year Six, I was picked to play the lead role of our class production of Alice in Wonderland. I was so anxious that first night, I didn't think I could do it, but my best friend Elaine squeezed my hand and told me I'd be brilliant, and somehow I found the courage to step out on to the stage. It was only a school play in a draughty gym hall, but the audience whooped and whistled and stamped their feet, and I swished my sticky-out blue skirt and dropped into a curtsy, smiling so hard it made my face ache. I don't think I'd ever be happy.
Elaine and Yazmina, my other best friend, only had small, non-speaking parts as two of the playing-card soldiers, but they were pleased for me all the same.
"You were brilliant," Yaz said. "I could have never remembered all those lines!"
"And you got to do all those rehearsals with Luke Miller," Elaine sighed. "Lucky you! He's so cute!"
I laughed, but I wasn't crushing on Luke Miller like Elaine was. I'd known him since Reception class and I saw him as a friend - annoying sometimes but good fun as well. It had been fun working on the play with him, but Luke was going to Ardenley Academy after the holidays, so I knew I wouldn't see him again. Elaine, Yaz and I were all going to St Elizabeth's, a strict, all - girls school that was supposed to get great results.
I actually wished the whole lot of us were going to Ardenley Academy instead; we'd been to look at St Elizabeth's, and I'd hated the gloomy, dark panelled wood, the polished floors, the framed photographs oh hockey and netball teams from years gone by that lined the corridor walls.

I couldn't imagine spending the next seven years of my life in a place like that, wearing a braid trimmed blazer and a grey pleated skirt and knee length white socks. I mean, socks? Really? Not good. But Elaine and Yaz were both going there, so I buried my misgivings and signed up for it, and my parents were as proud as if I'd just passed half a dozen A levels with A* grades.
We finished Year Six on a high. Elaine, Yaz and I had mapped out our summer, planning sleepovers, picnics in the park, days out in town, backyard sunbathing sessions, but on the last day of term Miss Harper turned out all that upside down. She handed me a flyer about a drama club that was running a summer school, and that changed everything.
"It's two days a week throughout the holidays," she told me. A mix of kids aged eleven to sixteen, all with a talent for acting. I thought that you and Luke would be perfect for it!"
I was so thrilled at being chosen, I didn't even notice the flickers of disapproval on the faces of my friends. I didn't notice anything until two weeks later, when I was at Elaine's house for a sleepover. I'd been talking about an improvisation excercise I'd done that day with Luke when Yaz interrupted me.
"Alice?" she said. No offence, but we're sick of hearing about your stupid drama club the whole time. And about Luke and what great mates you are these days. It's all you ever talk about, and it's getting boring."
Elaine frowned. "I know you don't mean it," she said. "But it's like your rubbing our noses in it."
I blinked. Had I been talking too much about drama club? About Luke? Did it sound like showing off?
Maybe.
"Sorry." I said. "I suppose I do get carried away, sometimes. It's just that it's so much fun, and I know you'd absolutely love it, and . . ."
Yaz and Elaine exchanged an exasperated glance, and my words trailed away to nothing.
"It was just a fluke that they gave you that part," Yaz said
"I bet Miss Harper just thought of you because your name was Alice, and decided to give you a chance."
"Anyone can act," Elaine agreed. "If we went to special lessons, we'd be good, too. But who wants all that stuff, anyway? Dressing up and playing games of "let's pretend"

                      *************
That's it, hope you enjoyed this very short extract of CATHY CASSIDY's - Looking Glass Girl

JUST TO MAKE IT CLEAR I DIDN'T WRITE THIS BOOK THE AUTHOR'S NAME IS CATHY CASSIDY AND I PUT HER NAME IN THE TITLE AND IN THE COVER. BUT I COULD'VE MADE IT CLEAR AT THE START OF THE BOOK. MY BAD.