The Last Alice of Wonderland

Chapter One

"The diameter is 50.974 cm thus that radius of this circle then is 25.487 cm long. To find the area you do Pi R squared. So then the area is 2039.70371 cm squared." Said Clare, the head mathlete. Her friends clapped at her answer.

"That is correct! Well done Clare." Said Mrs Linndell. Clare lifted her head proudly.

"Nerd." Someone whispered

"She probably used a calculator." Said another.

Clare turned around in a rage.

"Just because my IQ and intellectual capacity in by far superior to yours, does not mean that you can try to put me down with your meaningless words and jealousy"

"She's right. Anyone who does something like that again will have a weeks detention." The class silenced.

"Now, shall we get on with... MISS ALANDER! WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING ABOUT?"

Cynthia Alander smiled.

"Well, Clare got that last question wrong."

Clare and Mrs Linndell looked shocked.

"I went over the question again and it turns out that when 25.487 is the radius of a circle, that area should be 2038.983 squared. Clare must of times pi with the radius before she entered in the indices."

Everyone stared at Cynthia.

"She is right Miss!" said a student holding up his calculator.

"For once, Cynthia is right!" said another. Ouch. Cynthia thought. For once, I'm right? That hurts.

"Whatever. That's just one question." Clare said with a flourish.

"Actually Clare, you got them all wrong." Added one of Clare's friends.

"Shut up!" she said back to her.

The school bell rang out loud and clear and everyone stood up and packed up their belongings.

"Now remember that your booklet is due tomorrow and that your senior school acceptance letters will be coming to your family's soon. Remember that thins school only goes up to year 9. Make sure you make the right choice. Oh! And Zachary, I want that nose ring out when you come to school tomorrow." Yelled Mrs Linndell as her class was leaving.

"My name is ZAC!" shouted Zac back at Mrs Linndell. Everyone laughed.

"Move it bookworm," Zac told Cynthia as he pushed through the crowd knocking over her books. Cynthia leant down to pick them up as they got kicked around. Mrs Linndell ignored her as she struggled to collect her maths book. Damn teachers! Cynthia thought, the 1st lie of high school, "We are here to help you." Cynthia smirked. This had been true all year. Every teacher would ignore her questions, issues and performances great and terrible in all of her classes. This made Cynthia feel invisible, but she soon got used to being everyone's least favourite pupil.

She walked over to her locker. It was at the far end of the hallway. Everyone that had had a locker around her had either moved lockers or left the school. This was reasonable, as she was able to get into her locker without anyone getting in her way. It was the end of the day so she put all of her books away and took her laptop, homework booklet and bag out as she locked her locker. She then caught the bus. The bus was always crowded so Cynthia hardly got a chance to sit down. She got off on the thirty-third stop, a full half an hour away. She was always the last one off the bus, and she liked it that way. Cynthia liked to count the people who got off the bus. Stop one, Clare. Stop three, Sarah. Stop four, Josh... Stop ten, Tanami. Stop eleven, Samantha. Stop twelve, Zac. And so on. Stop thirty-two, George. Stop thirty-three, me. Catherine thanked the driver who acknowledged her. At least I'm not entirely invisible. She thought as she walked down the street.

Cynthia walked into the library. She always loved it here. It was quite and there were no distractions. The Librarian was an elderly man, with rounded glasses and a long pointed nose. He would always recommend books to her. Normally Science fiction ones, for she loved to read what other people had in their minds of what the future would be like, but every once in a while, he would recommend a non-fiction book for her to read.

"Good afternoon Miss Cynthia. How are you today." He asked softly

"Quite content thank you. Do you have the books I asked for?" Cynthia asked.

"Yes, I do." He ducked behind the counter for a while and came out with three books about a girl who lived in a war-torn world in 2058. "Here they are." He handed her the books, "Oh, and I have one more book for you. It's in the non-fiction section. Number 1123.105"

"But, that's not a number." Said Cynthia. The Librarian just pointed over to an old bookcase that had in gold numbers 1100 – 1200. Oh. I didn't know how far the DDS went up to! Catherine thought.

Cynthia walked over to the bookcase and traced with her finger the number of each book.

"Point 99, Point 100, Point 101..." she counted aloud. "Ah ha! 1123.105." Cynthia took out the book. It was old and brown with old writing that shimmered through the dust. "The History of The Alice of Wonderland." Cynthia was confused. Alice from the Alice of Wonderland stories was fantasy, fictional, absolutely not real. Maybe it's about how the story was written, or the inspiration of it. Cynthia thought. Cynthia put the book under her arm and walked out to the front desk.

"Thank you!" she said quietly to the Liberian as she signed out her new book.

"You're very welcome. Just remember to read that book. I hope you find it interesting." He replied with a smile. Cynthia left the store in wonder of her new book.

"Do you think she already knows?" asked an old man coming out from a nearby bookcase. His nose a crooked from age and he had a walking stick painted as a caterpillar in blue and green.

"Let's hope she has some idea, or it will come as a big shock." Said the Liberian. "Found anything you like Caterpillar?" he asked

"In a matter of fact, I came here just to see the Alice child. She is destined to do great things you know." Said Caterpillar, with his walking stick laying on the countertop. "Let's just hope she's ready." Caterpillar smiled, "Good day." He said as he walked out of the Library.

"Good day!"