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When Lizzie got the authorization to grow her Wonderlandian Grove, it was meant to be just that: a grove for Wonderlandians to replenish their madness and for them to have a pocket of Ever After that resembled home. It wasn’t meant for the eyes of Ever After residents, they had their home and the Wonderlandians didn’t have theirs anymore, so it was only fair for them to have a small something away from everyone and everything else.
It was a charming place, scented like bubble gum, fizzy soda, and Turkish Delight, decorated with flora than Lizzie herself had tended to. She had a portal to this safe space of hers installed in her dorm room, behind a red heart shaped door that only she held the key to. It was her escape for whenever she needed to go home, the closest thing she had to her kingdom.
Lizzie wouldn’t call herself selfish about the grove when it came to who was allowed to come and go. No, Kitty and Maddie, her fellow Wonderlandians, were more than welcome to enter through the Enchanted Forest. As far as Lizzie knew, though, they were the only ones who knew how to get there and she wanted to keep it that way.
At least, that was true until Daring Charming came along.
Upon their first meeting, Lizzie couldn’t help but notice how different she was from the prince. He stood tall with girls gushing over his every move and as charming as his family name suggested. Lizzie stood short and angry at the world, alienated from her fellow fairytales. She never would’ve expected his eyes to fall on her when there were so many other princesses for him to chase, Ever-After born and raised ones at that. Yet, Daring chose her, and Lizzie had to admit that maybe this was the one good thing about Ever After.
If one were to ask Lizzie why she took Daring to the Wonderlandian Grove, she would not tell you the truth. Perhaps she would answer in Riddlish so that you couldn’t understand her, or perhaps she would yell for your beheading. She would never admit to being in love with a member of the Charming lineage, such a thing was a stain on the Wonderland crown. Yet, Lizzie couldn’t bring herself to care about that particular qualm of her destiny. If Daring was the one thing that brought her light in this strange new world, so be it. If anyone objected, then off with their heads.
Daring was allowed to see the grove because of Lizzie’s love for him, and her belief that it was important for her lover to understand the thing she loved most in the world. She didn’t know how well this would be received, even though Daring had been receptive to Wonderlandian traits and customs thus far, but it felt important to the Princess of Hearts to bring him here regardless of the kind of reaction she may receive.
“Woah,” Daring breathed out as soon as his feet hit the crystal gravel path meandering through the grove. His robin egg eyes were wide as he took in the flora surrounding him, a bold assortment that stood out against the blooms he had grown accustomed to over the sixteen years his life spanned over. “This is extraordinary.”
Lizzie felt a slight blush creep up her cheeks at this compliment. “Thank you,” she said with a soft smile, taking a seat on a polished log under a sprawling tumtum tree, gesturing for Daring to sit next to her.
“I mean it. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’ve heard stories about Wonderland before, but this…this is…” Awe was still written on his face as he flailed for the right words to say.. “How did you do this?”
“Well,” Lizzie said, slightly hesitant. “It’s a long story.” This much was true, but it was an emotional one as well. Was she ready to talk about it? She hadn’t even told the full story in the counseling sessions her teachers had forced upon her, a frog ribbiting in her throat every time the topic came up (not literally, though that would be nice. Sometimes frogs did literally ribbit in peoples’ throats in Wonderland).
For Daring, though…she could at least try.
So, she started to speak, opening this chapter of her story with the four magic words that introduced any good fairytale.
“Once upon a time…”
****************
It had all started with Wonderland, the best place Lizzie had ever known. It was her home, the place her heart belonged to, and her future kingdom to rule.
At least, it was, until she was around thirteen and an old crone came knocking on the palace door. She had been looking for a place to rest, and for some reason, the Queen of Hearts didn’t deny her this luxury. Lizzie didn’t understand it, typically such a solicitation would send her mother into fury. There was something about this stranger, though, that seemed to appeal to the Queen of Hearts, and after a thank you gift of a crisp crimson apple, the queen and this old crone became close confidants, secrets whispered in ears and a kingdom ruled in tandem like The White Queen never existed as a co-ruler. Ousted from her throne just like that in favor of a stranger that whispered poison into the Queen of Hearts’s ear, as Lizzie would later learn to deem this advice.
The apple should’ve been the first warning sign. That damn fruit should’ve made it obvious to Lizzie who had come into her home, but she didn’t realize until she hardly had a home or family to call her own anymore.
Over time, the Queen of Hearts descended into what Lizzie could only call the bad kind of madness. There was a good kind, it made up the essence of Wonderland, but this madness was different. This was a paranoid type of madness, one that left the Queen of Hearts fearful of everyone and everything that existed outside of the palace. Lizzie’s tutors and friends were barred from entry, and Card Castle became little more than a red and black shadowed ghost town by the time Lizzie was nearing fifteen. The joy and grandeur had fled the castle, replaced by the paranoid mutterings of a madwoman and the cackle of the old crone who Lizzie had long since deducted to be the Evil Queen. Her mother was gone, she hadn’t seen her father in weeks, she had no idea if her friends were out there still, and her kingdom may have very well been burnt to the ground. This was not the place she loved, not the place she was destined to rule one day. Card Castle was a shell of itself, and Lizzie was sure the rest of Wonderland was soon to follow.
This was especially evident to the Princess of Hearts after Card Castle was out under lockdown…
****************
“Lizzie, hey,” Daring took Lizzie’s hands into his own, two pairs of blue eyes meeting. “If this is too hard to talk about, you don’t need to tell me any more.”
It wasn’t until Daring did this that Lizzie realized she had been crying. She had been so caught up in her story that she didn’t even feel the tears welling up in her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.
“A rose's thorn, a deep wound, the heart conceals,
A mirror reflects, the thorn shrivels,” Lizzie explained as Daring wiped away her tears with his thumb, a red tint staining his skin. A confused expression drawn upon his face, but not from the makeup stain on his finger. Lizzie had already confided that the heart around her eye was a makeup look in homage to her mother, who had been born with the marking around her eye. They had gotten caught in the rain on their way back from the Mad Hatter’s Tea Shoppe once and Lizzie's makeup had smeared in the water. No, this confusion came from the words that danced on Lizzie's tongue. She still had the habit of slipping into Riddlish every now and then, as did all of the Wonderlandians. No one in Eve After understood the language, try as some might.
“Wha- oh, Riddlish,” the realization dawned on Daring, and Lizzie giggled despite herself. She had been trying to teach her boyfriend the Wonderlandian riddle language, but he never really grasped it. He was handsome and could be very sweet, but he wasn’t exactly the brightest. Still, he was trying his best. If he weren't already destined to awaken Apple White from a poison apple slumber (or so the word around these parts were. Lizzie had her doubts as to how set in stone this tale was), he could make a dashing King of Hearts one day should he gain a better grasp of Wonderland's riddles.
“It means that I can talk about it. I want to tell you about it,” Lizzie translated from her native tongue. “It still hurts, but I want to tell you the whole fairytale.”
“Are you sure?” Daring asked, concern dancing in his blue eyes.
“Oh, off with your head!” Lizzie commented affectionately.
“If you say so” Daring said with a small smile, though there was still a glimmer of apprehension lingering in his eyes. That was something Lizzie appreciated about him. Not the concern for her, though she couldn't say she minded it all too much, but the way he had learned to understand the different afflictions of her saying “off with your head!” He had mastered the art of knowing when she meant it as a compliment, as a mannerism, or when she truly did want to behead someone, whether literally or figuratively. Not that she ever would behead someone literally, but sometimes the urge lingered under her skin.
“I do say so,” Lizzie said. “Now where did I leave off…”
****************
…Card Castle was under lockdown. The days had started to blur together in this awful, non-Wonderlandian madness that had taken over the castle, but one day Lizzie was ordered to her room with the door shut behind her. Time slowed to a stop in that room, ticking clocks fading to background noise as the passage of time meant nothing. Everything was the same day in and day out, red-walled isolation with no one to break Lizzie free. It was just her, her hedgehog, Shuffle, and fashion designs the outside world would not be able to see to keep her occupied.
Lizzie was starting to convince herself that she would go insane in her isolation. The lack of human interaction and the whereabouts of her phone being unknown were getting to her, and a fear of ending up like her mother was beginning to settle into her bones. She wanted to be like her mother in the sense that she wanted to rule this kingdom, but she was afraid of succumbing to the paranoia that ailed the queen.
(She had needed to relearn how to interact with people to an extent once she got to Ever After. All of the escapees had to adapt to this land’s customs, but Lizzie more so than the others. Despite her stellar memory, which she was certain had kept her from completely losing her wits, captivity had slowly eaten away at Lizzie’s social skills, something she didn’t realize until she was dragged into counseling with Mama Bear and The White Queen, against her will and with plenty of threats to behead them the whole way through. She still wasn’t perfect now, but she was admittedly better than she was when she was fresh out of Wonderland.)
Lizzie’s last day in Wonderland was not unlike the other days that had been ticking away and eating at her spirit. At least, this was until she heard the commotion of Card Guards downstairs. She had started yelling for help almost immediately at hearing their shouts, her mind immediately jumping to the worst case scenarios it could conjure up. This was the end of Wonderland, it had to be. The kingdom was set to collapse in on itself, and Card Castle was the sinkhole it would all cave into, this was the way the world ended…
*Poof!*
A familiar sound cut through the air, and in Lizzie’s room stood her best friend, Kitty Cheshire.
“Kitty!” Lizzie exclaimed, wrapping her friend in a hug, which was quickly reciprocated. It had been the longest time since Lizzie had heard from any of her friends, and she had spent what had to have been months wondering if they were alright, yet afraid to know how they were in fear of hearing the worst. “Kitty, what’s happening?”
When Kitty pulled away from the hug, there were tears in her eyes. Lizzie’s heart immediately plummeted to her stomach. Always smiling, always mischievous Kitty was on the verge of crying. “Kitty, what’s going on?” Lizzie ventured, fearing the answer.
“We’re leaving Wonderland.”
Lizzie’s heart plummeted even deeper in her chest, if such a thing was possible, and a thousand questions died on her tongue as Kitty grabbed her hand and transported her to the croquet field.
Moments later, a familiar cloud of teal and purple hair came sprinting towards the two of them. It was Madeline Hatter, daughter of the Mad Hatter, panicked and very much missing her usual madness. “I lost Bunny and Alistair!” she shouted as she caught up to her friends.
“They’ll have to catch up to us!” Kitty called back as she grabbed Maddie’s hand and teleported the three of them to the rabbit hole that connected Wonderland to Ever After.
Precious seconds slipped by as the three girls waited for their missing friends. Maddie was pacing back and forth, Kitty kept popping in and out of visibility, and Lizzie was shuffling the deck of cards she had in her pocket when she fled the castle. As time ticked by in that grove, there was no sight of Bunny Blanc or Alistair Wonderland, something Lizzie was growing increasingly concerned about. Where could they be? Did something happen to them? Hopefully nothing unspeakable occurred with them present. How much time did they have to make it to them? Bunny, despite being the next White Rabbit, had a knack for showing up to places right on time, yet there was no sight of her or Alistair anywhere.
Two figures came running to the well and Lizzie’s hopes perked up, was this her friends joining her at long last? This quickly fizzled out, though, as these figures came closer and revealed themselves to be the Mad Hatter and the White Queen.
“We must leave! Now!” The White Queen demanded, running to the rabbit hole with the Mad Hatter right on her tail, leaving the girls with no time to protest the merits of waiting for their friends. They had no choice but to follow behind, leaving Alistair and Bunny behind as the rabbit hole sucked them up and spit them out into Ever After, with Lizzie’s last thoughts as she left her kingdom behind being that she hoped her friends were safe and that she hoped her kingdom would be waiting for her one day…
****************
A rustle of leaves and the familiar *poof* of a Cheshire’s arrival pulled Lizzie away from the tale she was telling. “Kitty!” Lizzie yelled, looking up at her friend’s favorite branch. “I demand you show yourself this instant!”
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, lavender pigtails, cat ears, and a wide grin made themselves visible as Kitty faded into view. “Hello Lizzie, Daring,” she greeted, turquoise eyes peering down at the couple. That was a trait all of the Wonderlandians shared, regardless of bloodline. Deep turquoise eyes that seemed to hold universes.
“Kitty, how long have you been there?” Lizzie asked, though she was certain she knew the answer just by looking at her friend. Despite her signature smile spread across her face, the ghost of tears lingered in her eyes.
Yet, Kitty blinked them away as she spoke. “Oh, just a little while.” She shrugged. “So Lizzie, you're telling him our tragic little fairytale?”
“Kitty!” Lizzie’s voice rang out, indignant. “Wonderland is not a tragedy!”
Kitty gave a noncommittal shrug. “Maybe. Maybe not. Still tragic what happened there, though.”
Lizzie couldn’t argue with that, she knew Kitty was correct. There had been, as far as she knew, no takeover so disastrous in history, all because of…
“I’m sorry to ask this, but being around Raven here…is that difficult?” Daring asked, and two heads whipped towards him. “I’m not saying this is her fault, it’s not, but I was wondering…” He tripped over his words as he backtracked. “I’m sorry if that was a horrible question to ask.”
Kitty shrugged. “Raven’s not her mother,” she said. “She was a little unsettling to me when we first got here, sure, but I'd say she isn't too bad. I mean, Maddie thinks she's…what is it? ‘Wicked cool, she says?’”
Lizzie couldn’t argue with that. She didn’t know Raven well, but she seemed incredibly nice for a future evil queen. She had publicly denounced the destiny at the Legacy Day ceremony and upended the roots of Ever After with her actions, something Lizzie still didn’t know what to make of, but maybe she could take it as a sign that Raven was not a copy of the tyrannical ruler that had raised her.
(Still, Lizzie couldn’t help but feel chills prickling down her spine on the occasions where Raven smiled in her direction. Her eyes were filled with kindness, but her grin matched her mother’s, and there was a deep seated fear that this always seemed to trigger within Lizzie. Not that she’d ever admit that, though. The Princess of Hearts did not show any outward fear. If anything, she caused it.)
“How are you so calm about this?” Daring asked Kitty. “You’re here, all portals to Wonderland are closed off, and isn’t your mother trapped there?”
“Us Cheshires have our ways of finding each other,” Kitty said offhandedly, barely looking away from the end of the pigtail she was fidgeting with. Daring looked at Kitty like he was waiting for her to elaborate, but she ignored him in a way that nearly put Lizzie's mastery of the art of Not Listening to shame. “Now Lizzie, where did you leave off?”
“I left off at the part where I was telling you to leave!” Lizzie shouted, no real malice behind her words. “Begone, Kitty, or off with your head!”
Kitty just gave a soft laugh and vanished.
“She always shows up at the strangest times and places,” Lizzie mused once her friend was out of her sight. She couldn’t be sure if Kitty had actually left the grove, but she would have to make do with the assumption that she did. “It’s a Cheshire thing. Now let me continue…”
****************
It didn’t take long for Lizzie to feel homesick in Ever After. There was a large part of her being that believed that one day she could return home, that this was merely a temporary arrangement. This was denial and she knew it deep down. Pleas for her to conform to Ever After High’s social standards were met with aggression and hurt from the should’ve-been future monarch. She didn’t want to conform to this strange new world, she wanted to go home. She didn’t belong here, and she was certain she never would. She belonged in Wonderland, and all of its beautiful madness.
Every day, Lizzie visited the rabbit hole she left Wonderland through. Technically, it was a wishing well now, that had been built over it within days of the Wonderlandians’ arrivals. The water was still laced with Wonderlandian madness, though, dripping into the surrounding grove, a small pocket of home that simply wasn’t enough for the Princess of Hearts. She wanted the real thing in all of its glory, not just this pale imitation.
Still, this was the best she had, so she found her way to this wishing well every day.
Maddie and Kitty did what they could to bring wonder into Lizzie’s life. Maddie’s father opened up a teashop in town that created the atmosphere for the most Wonderlandiful tea parties, and Kitty found a way to bring the magic of Wonderlandian croquet to the Ever After High playing field, admirable gestures that did bring Lizzie quite the feeling of joy but also left her with twinges of longing for a world she once knew.
It also didn’t help that she couldn’t shake the stupid, nagging, selfish feeling that she had lost the most out of the trio. Kitty seemed to be finding fun in this new setting, and Maddie had her father and friends by her side. All Lizzie had were her pet hedgehog and a pack of playing cards from her pocket. No powers and no parents to stand by her. Just her and the wishing well that blocked her one path home.
Except, Lizzie realized, the wilderness surrounding the wishing well had begun to take on elements of home. As water dripped through the cracks, Wonderlandian wildlife began to bloom, bringing its magic into Ever After, even if it only existed in this pocket of forest. Even if the plants didn’t harbor the same properties as they did back home, they felt nearly as real as the real thing.
Furthermore, Lizzie realized that this grove made her feel alive. It dawned on her after some time, how the sealing of the rabbit hole cut off the Wonderlandians from the wonder that made them special. They needed it to keep their destinies out of danger. This grove where Wonderland magic ran wild was the closest thing to a solution that existed to remedy this potential dilemma, and turning it into a pocket for the sake of destiny…that was all Lizzie needed to say to appeal to Headmaster Grimm.
So, the grove was born, and Lizzie began to feel like her old self. After all, home was where the heart was, and she was the future heart of Wonderland.
****************
Daring stayed silent with the conclusion of Lizzie’s tale, but he didn’t need to say anything. Lizzie could tell that the two of them were on the same page, in the same fairytale. The prince still seemed awestruck at the grove, but in a new kind of way. Unlike the wonder of before, this was an appreciation for what Lizzie had created and an understanding of what it meant to her and her destiny.
“Lizzie, that’s…” he trailed off. It was near impossible to fluster Daring Charming, but Lizzie had a way of doing so. She didn’t understand how, she was merely herself around him, but maybe that was what did him in. Maybe he wasn’t immune to Wonderland wonder.
“Mirrors and hearts, intertwined,
Feels like madness with your hand in mine” Lizzie said with a slight grin and rose red cheeks.
Daring didn’t have to be fluent in Riddlish to understand what Lizzie meant, something she could tell by his smile. With her story embedded in his heart, this grove was theirs now. A piece of Lizzie that Daring could hold onto any time he liked, because she let him.
This was love, and this was the physical junction of their lives and destinies. A piece of Wonderland in Ever After, a memory of a place that was crafted with such care and dedication that it left the most dashing Charming speechless.
And maybe, just maybe, Lizzie thought, between the grove and Daring, there was some good in Ever After.