Chapter 1: The Four Alices
"Mom! I'm home!" called the girl with short brown hair. Her mother came out of the kitchen with a towel, smiling.
"Welcome home, Sarah!" said the mother. "How was camp?"
"Fine," Sarah grumbled. "I don't get why I even went..."
"Your the one who wanted to go!" Her mother reprimanded. "Alice camp not quite what you thought it would be?"
"For starters, there was only five people, including me. Then there was only one counselor..." She went upstairs to her room. "Then the lady made us stay up around a campfire late last night while it was raining, just to tell us a creepy stor- Where'd my computer go?!" She had sat down at her desk when she realized the silver laptop was no where to be found.
"I took that, and you phone, and your iPod Touch," her mother told her, standing in the door way, using a clean towel to dry her hands. "You need your rest, and with any of those three you won't go to sleep until three in the morning! It's already 8:30!" Sarah looked at the clock. Sure enough, it read 8:33. She sighed, and stood up.
"Well, I'm tired anyway. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get changed and go to bed." All but slamming the door in her mother's face, she did as she said she would.
When she was done, she crept out of her room, headed to her brothers room.
"And by the way, Sarah," her mother said, without even looking up from her work, "your brother went to a friends house and took his phone with him."
She quietly tiptoed quickly back to her room, closing the door softly.
Lying her bed, she thought about why she was one of so few chosen to go to the Alice Camp. My name isn't even Alice! she thought. Sure its what I go by on the internet, but what is that to go off of?
As she laid there, sleep came over her slowly. First just the need to get under the covers. Then just closing her eyes. Next thing she knew, she fell into a deep, dark sleep. In it, one dream came to her. One and only one little dream.
<.:|~-+-~|:.>
"I'm home!" called the well loved boy. His pale mother came out to greet him. Her slender figure showed how unkept she was, and her clothes were stained with oil and covered in flour.
"Welcome back, Alex!" his mother said. "Your father..." Alex nodded.
"R-right..." He walked into the office, where his father sat, nearly hidden behind a pile of papers. "F-father." He said cautiously.
"Ah, you're back from the girls camp!" he said. The body took up a defense for the camp.
"It wasn't a girls camp! There was another boy there-"
"Really?" said his father, not even looking up. "A single boy?"
"It was a small camp! Only four others besides me and a single counselor!"
"Hmph, well, at least it didn't cost us. Other wise you'd be paying for it. Understand?"
"Yes sir." His head fell, as if in defeat, but his eyes sparkled with the joy of victory.
"Go to bed. I'm sure you're tired." The whole time, the big man never looked up once to see his son. So he hardly notice when the boy quietly left the room.
Outside, once the door was closed to the office, Alex's little sister bounded up to him and lept at him.
"Alice!" she said.
"Really? You too now?" he sighed. "It's bad enough that everyone at school calls me that..."
"Well, you act girly enough!" she huffed as he set her down. "And you just got back from a camp for Alices!" Alex gave up, realizing the argument would go on for a long time if he didn't stop it here.
"Look, I'm tired. It's late," he told her, looking at the clock. "It's past nine! Go to bed!" She pouted, but walked back to bed. He followed her, but continued on to his own room.
He sat at his desk. A paper with lines across it stared at him. He found himself writing note after note, word after word. He hardly knew what he was writing, just scribbling what came to his mind. Notes, words, everything blended together. His mind bounced around, not staying in one place long enough for him to focus on what he wrote.
When he finished the last line, he flicked back to the top of the first page. There he wrote the first words he understood.
"BLUE WONDERLAND."
He started to read over his work, but his eyes drooped, and he rested his head in his arms. Before he finished reading the second line, he was fast asleep, the song rolled up in his hand.
<.:|~-+-~|:.>
The girl with the long hair sat in the back of her parents' car. "So, how was camp, Alice?" asked her father.
"It was fun! There were only 5 campers, including me!" Alice said cheerfully. "Only one counselor was there. Last night was a bit strange though..." her pretty face wrinkled into one of disgust.
"Oh! What happened!" asked her mother worriedly.
"Well, we had to sit out in the storm, and she told us the story about a little dream, and how it followed people just like the 5 of us!" Her face then transformed from disgust into a cute pout.
"Why would she have you do that?!" Alice's father exclaimed in rage.
"I'm fine now, really!" said Alice, waving her hand innocently.
"If you're sure..." said her mother. Alice smiled, nodded, and gave a small giggle.
When they got home, her parents kissed her good-night, and went to their own bed. Alice went to the bathroom and brushed out her long hair. She made a few cute looks at herself in the mirror, washed off the little bit of make up she wore (not that she needed any), and went to bed. There, curled up into a ball, she fell asleep.
The flashed 10:00, then turned off, as if the battery died, or the lights went out.
<.:|~-+-~|:.>
The twins sat together in the back of the car. Their lone father sat in the front. With his dark hair and green eyes, nobody would ever guess they were related. But, against all odds, they were.
The car was filled with silence.
"Hey dad," said the boy. "Why did you decide to name us Al and Ice, besides for the ease of calling us together as Alice?" It was silent for a moment.
"Well,..." he started. "We, uh... I was thinking of names like Al for a boy. Alex, Alexander... And your mother wanted a pretty name for a girl, like Winter, or Ice. You know she likes the snow."
"Told you there was!" said Ice, sticking out her tongue. "I knew they'd have a reason for our names besides being called Alice together!"
Her brother, younger than her by seconds, was not convinced. "He didn't sound very sure of himself..." he whispered so only his sister would hear.
"I don't think he would lie to us!" whispered Ice furiously.
"But-" Al started to whisper back.
"No! I trust Dad!" she stubbornly cut him off.
The rest of the ride was quiet. Reaching home, their father went to the memorial room, while the twins went to their own room. They changed together, each facing an opposite wall. They then laid down together, each contorted into a shape neither was use to, but somehow felt right. Their backs arched, and their head bent in, touching each others' head. Their hand were on their thighs, slanting down into each other, just barely touching. The bottom of their legs touching the bed also touched with a pointed toe, while the other legs' bottom halves went outwards.
All in all, they looked like a heart. A clock some where in the hall hit 10:30, and suddenly stopped ticking...
