Chelsea laid in her bed, her head pounding with a major headache. Her lights were off and her stereo was playing a soft, calming song. "Fucking bitch," she said to herself, thinking of the bully that had punched her, knocking her head against the brick wall. That wasn't what had given her the headache, however.

"Chelsea," her mother called from the kitchen, "dinner's ready!" She could tell by the smell earlier her mother was cooking fettuccini alfredo, the teen's favorite food.

Chelsea slowly stood and walked down the stairs to the kitchen before looking at the table. It seemed her younger brother had already set the table, for which Chelsea was thankful she didn't have to, and was already ready to eat already.

After a calm, mostly quiet meal, Chelsea gave her mom a hug and returned to her bed with 2 Ibuprofen pills. Half and hour later, she was asleep.

In her dream, Chelsea sat on a giant mushroom. Looking around, she sighed and shook her head. "I hate headache dreams," she mumbled, laying back on the mushroom.

"This dream isn't caused by your headache."

She sat up and looked around, frowning. "Who's there?"

"Just me." In front of her sat a purple, striped cat with large, blue eyes.

"A purple, talking cat," she sighed. "So, kitty, what's your name?"

"My friends call me Cheshy," he smiled. "Speaking of my friends, they are lost. We must find them. If you help me, I can help you."

"Help me how?" Chelsea asked with a frown. "What can you do for me?"

"Wake up, Chelsea."

Chelsea awoke with a gasp before clutching her head, expecting it to throb. There was no pain. "Guess my headache's gone," she said, looking at her alarm clock. It was 5:30 in the morning, too early for her to be awake. With a sigh, she got out of bed, knowing she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

In the kitchen, the teenage girl poured herself a bowl of cereal as she began thinking about her dream. "Cheshy?"

"Yes?"

Chelsea jumped and looked around for the voice. "Who's there?"

"I'm not out there," the voice giggled. "I'm in here."

"Great, now I'm hearing voices," she frowned.

"No, just one voice. Just me."

"You're the voice from- You're the cat. You're Cheshy."

"I am." She could practically hear his smile. "Cheshire Z. Katt."

"So, where are your friends?" she asked with a frown.

"They're lost. We have to find them. I already told you that, remember?"

"Any clue where to start looking?"

"No but your school's a good a place as any."

She looked at the clock on the stove. Her alarm was about to go off upstairs and her bowl was now empty.

Half an hour later, Chelsea was walking towards her school. She had been trying to ignore the catchy tune Cheshy was singing but it was becoming hard.

"And the momeraths outgrabe," he finished with a smile.

"What is a momerath?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not sure how to explain it in words you'd understand," Cheshy said with a frown.

Chelsea sighed and continued walking.

"You know you can fly, right?"

"Yeah, right."

"Just try it."

Chelsea stopped and looked around. It was still early enough that she didn't see anyone on the road so she gave it a shot. With Cheshy's directions, Chelsea lifted from the ground and promptly fell from the sudden loss of concentration due to her surprise.

"I can fly," she said softly before beginning to laugh. "I must still be dreaming."

"Nope. If this were still a dream, you'd still be in the forest on the giant mushroom."

"Wait, so I can really fly?" she asked, looking at her feet. "This is gonna be fun." She began concentrating again and lifted from the ground a few feet before flying towards her school. "This is so much fun!" she laughed, not caring that the cars on the road had seen her, not to mention the number of people watching from their windows.

She landed softly at her school and looked around. It was an hour before school started and she didn't see anyone else yet.

Nick was a bit surprised at Iris’s silver pupils. Was that biologically possible? Well, she was blind, so perhaps that’s why her pupils are not black. Or maybe it’s the other way around. She’s blind because her pupils are silver? Who knows? Then again, a spirit from the 15th century sounded a bit absurd too. This entire day had just been weird occurance after weird occurance.

“I sure hope this isn’t a fruitless journey. It’d be such a disappointment, not to mention, I’d be wasting time when I could be studying or hanging out with friends.” Nick wondered out loud.

Alice? Dead? Preposterous! There’s no absolute way that she could die without my knowledge. We will triumph over the Red Queen, whether she likes it or not! The hatter proclaimed loudly in his head. At this point, the redhead wished this voice came with an off button.

A call later, the twins were heading off saying something about finding the white knight. Who the heck was this Dolsha person? Seemed like another strange person that Nick was going to get involved with. “Sure, I’ll go with. It’s not like I have any leads anyways. This dumb spirit came to me, not the other way around.” He said.

I’m personally offended! The mad hatter started to rant about something along the lines of being respected back in Wonderland (wherever that was), and then there were some riddles and mentions of a birthday? Nick couldn’t even follow the logic of this conversation.