Reyna Academy

Marvelle: Mirror Travel

"Marvelle! Marvelle! Come down from there! What in Wonderland are you doing up there." The blonde girl continued to stand on the roof of the cottage holding out her hat. Her long skirts whipped and flapped in the wind and her hair had become a whirlwind of yellow. Still she held the small top hat out in front of her, eyes fixed on something above. Suddenly a bright flash streaked across the sky. Marvelle stretched out her hat in front of her. She jumped. For a brief second she was hanging in mid air, a cloud of light blue dress and yellow hair, silhouetted against the dark night sky. In the spilt second before she started falling the bright flash flew right into her hat. As she started to descend, she clamped her hat onto her head. Her skirts billowed out underneath her, acting as a parachute while she slowly floated back down to earth where her mother was waiting, hands on hips. Marvelle landed and her skirts gently drifted back into place covering her legs and feet. Alice was less than pleased.

"And just what were you doing up on the roof?"
"Oh, Mother! I was catching falling stars. You know they make the best brooches." She reached into her hat and pulled out the the bright, shining stone. It glittered and gleamed brighter than any diamond or precious jewel. Marvelle pinned the star to the shoulder of her dress. Alice shook her head.

"Cordelia and Bianca will be here any moment to go to Reyna and you're up on the roof catching stars to turn into pretty little baubles."

"She's a true Wonderland girl!" Max Hatter came up behind his wife. He looked at the star on Marvelle's shoulder. "That's a nice one! Do you have enough to last for a year?"

"Oh course, Papa!" Marvelle said, putting her hat back on with a flourish. Out of all her hats this on was her favorite. It was a small black top hat designed to be pinned to the side of the head with hair pins with a simple light blue band and a small white flower on the side. A classic and simple design, at least at first glance. If the light hit it at the right angle one could see that it had been dusted with Wonder-glitter: glitter made from ground up Wonderland stars. It would never lose its shine and never fall off. Her father had made it for her for her last birthday.

While the hat making business ran in the family. Max had learned how to make hats from his father, Mac Hatter (who was know as the "Mad" Hatter due to an unfortunate name mistake and his somewhat "eccentric" nature). However, it was he who had perfected the method for catching the falling stars in the showers that came monthly to Wonderland. He had been the one to discover that if you caught them before they crashed into the ground they were gleaming, white jewels and not lumps of black, metallic rock. Max had been the one who had first ground up these stars to create a permanent, bright glitter for a hat for the White Queen, herself. It was this discovery and his natural hat designing ability that was making Max as famous as his father. Marvelle adored her father. He had been the one who first taught her how to catch stars. Alice always swore that the dreamy look Marvelle had in her eyes was "Classic Max."

"Come inside now, Marvelle. Your mother made tea and you'll need your strength to mirror-travel." Marvelle nodded and followed her parents back inside. Alice sat down at the large tea table, reached for the teapot, and opened the lid to removed the sleepy dormouse from inside. She handed the small rodent to Max, who put it on the wide brim of his hat where its nap was resumed. Marvelle knew that Crumpet preferred to sleep on the china and would probably climb down onto someone's plate or in their cup when she wasn't so groggy. Alice put in the tea bag and poured the hot water from the kettle. Tea time was a sacred time in the Hatter household. Alice said that it reminded her of her childhood in the strange land that Marvelle had only heard about in her mother's stories, England. The way that she described it in her stories it sounded strict and boring with none of the wild and wacky atmosphere and culture that Wonderland was known for.

Alice was a well known for traveling between worlds twice when she was a child. Even though England had tried to convince her that what she had seen was not real, Alice had known in her heart the Wonderland was real and when she was eighteen had comeback through a mirror. She was already acquainted with Mac from her previous visits and he had graciously let her stay with him as his son had moved out and gotten his own place. Max was recruited by his father to show Alice how to live in Wonderland and it was not long until Max was spending more time with Alice than at his own home. Alice had long since decided that she did not want to return to the stuffy, tight-laced land of her birth and was more than happy to stay in Wonderland. With Max.