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“Lizzie! Don’t open that!” Apple’s shout forced Lizzie’s attention away from the package in front of her. It had been waiting for her at the door of her and Duchess’s dorm room when she awoke, along with the nervous eyes of several overdramatic princesses.
“Off with your head!” Lizzie shouted back (as was appropriate for a Queen of Wonderland).
Apple tossed her hair out of her face with an apologetic smile. It’s very hard to stay mad at her. “Sorry, Lizzie, I just mean that that package didn’t come through fairy mail, and nobody knows who dropped it off. It could be dangerous! Or a prank! I think we should take it to Madam Yaga or the White Queen to investigate - just in case.”
Well, that explained why everyone had been staring at it, at least. How long were they out here for? Ever After princesses got up ridiculously early for Lizzie’s taste, but Duchess claims it's because of all the work they put in to be beautiful (“one thousand strokes from a brush that something something something ” the swan girl had said. Lizzie had decided to practice the art of Not Listening part way through). “Off with your heads!” Lizzie repeated as she paused to figure out what to do next. “These things are normal in Wonderland!” she announced, head held high. “Or un-normal, as it is. Leave my package alone,” she added in the most regal voice she could muster at that time in the morning before dragging herself and the oddly shaped thing into her room as the princesses looked on nervously.
At least in her room the only “princess” was Duchess Swan, who was way more interested in the… beauty routine? ballet class? something in between? that she was doing with her pet swan, Pirouette. Unless it was a crown or something related to that annoying animal Lizzie could count on Duchess staying out of her way. It was a living arrangement that worked well for both of them, since Lizzie wasn’t particularly interested in crowns or swans. Except for her own crown, which was currently in Wonderland. Wonderland! Mayhaps that’s where this mystery was from. The portal was closed, but things tended to sneak through every now and then - it was Wonderland after all.
And of course a Wonderlandiful thing would come to her first, she was practically the Queen of Wonderland here, with the care she took of the Wonderland garden and the creatures who dwelled there. Lizzie didn’t have anything against bragging, and it wasn’t even bragging to acknowledge that she was the only Wonderlandian with a direct door to the garden! Well, perhaps that one wasn’t quite brag-worthy. The garden only exists because of her loneliness. Maddie and Kitty both had parents or powers that made it though while all Lizzie had was a deck of magical cards. The garden was a gift to help with her heart-aching homesickness, and though she tends to it ferociously, it just wasn’t the same as the real thing.
The package, though lumpy, was about the size and shape of one of Lizzie’s hextbooks. Quite unassuming, but then again, several Wonderlandian objects started out that way at first. A hedgehog was never just a hedgehog, a flower was never just a flower, and this package… well, for starters, it rippled and shook like peas porridge, even when it had been left untouched. That was probably why the other girls thought it could be dangerous - in Ever After, this kind of behavior was likely the work of magic, and it was better to be safe than sorry when Dark Magic was a possibility. The opposite is true in Wonderland. If one was always safe, then one would definitely be sorry about all they missed out on! Thankfully, the package was not the unappetizing color of peas porridge. It was a vibrant rainbow of colors that shifted when you changed your perspective. Lizzie was almost tempted to stand on her head or do jumping jacks to see how it would change, but now was not the time for that. Now was the time to act as a Queen of Wonderland and unwrap her destiny! (Now was also the time to ignore the swannish honks coming from the other side of her dorm room, but Queens of Wonderland knew how to endure.)
Except… what if the package wasn’t Wonderlandian? What if it wasn’t anything at all, and silly Lizzie was getting her hopes up again just for them to be dashed?
Nonsense! Lizzie knew nonsense, and she knew that her doubts were the unenterainable sort. She was a Queen, and Queens of Wonderland, especially Red Queens, did not support weaknesses such as doubt!
The package wobbled again. Destiny would not wait for Lizzie Hearts and, with her heart in her throat, she ripped the mysterious package open.
To her unadmitted relief, the package did not contain any Dark Magic. It didn’t contain any Magic at all, save for the magic Lizzie felt when her favorite hedgehog was by her side.
“Shuffle!” Lizzie exclaimed in delight, “How in Ever After did you end up in here!”
With the contents of the package identified (and nestled in the crook of Lizzie’s arm — she hadn’t even been awake for long enough to realize Shuffle had been missing with all of the package hullabaloo), Lizzie sat on the floor with the packaging to better inspect it.
At times like this, her roommate’s self-involvement really did come in handy. Lizzie is sure most of the princesses would question or at least look at her with concern if they saw her standing upside-down to observe a box. It made perfect sense to her, and it would to any Wonderlandian, but having to explain herself could get exhausting. And for some reason, everyone always asked Lizzie to do so more than Kitty or Maddie, whose Wonderlandian-ness was Wonderlandy enough to stand on its own.
A Queen shouldn’t concern herself with such things, but Lizzie did feel a little awkward sometimes. Not that she would ever claim such awkwardness. She’s Queenly enough to deny that.
She was also Queenly enough to decree that the packaging was certainly from Wonderland, even though she could not determine what was in it before Shuffle brought it to her door. Shuffle had likely found its Wonderlandianness familiar and gotten stuck, but Lizzie was willing to believe it was brought as a gift for her. Maybe it was leftover from a Cheshire, with how much they liked boxes, or maybe it did squeak through from Wonderland directly.
Lizzie placed it carefully on her desk and deposited Shuffle into the now-open and easily-escapeable container. She could ask Kitty about it later. For now, it was nice to have another piece of home nearby, especially one that Shuffle enjoyed as well.