I appear right in front of the gates. Stuffing my Teleportation Sceptre into my bag, I head hastily towards the front doors. After climbing way too many staircases while definitely regretting my choice of heels, I reach the New Way. I was too eager to leave the palace to remember changing my shoe wear. I take my cellphone out. It's a normal Earth cellphone, but it's enchanted to work in and out of The Other World. I see Heather is online, unsurprisingly since she always remembers when I told her I'd be back from the Frozen Kingdom. I text her to know where her dorm is. She immediately replies with a picture. Each different version of the school is identical, except for the painting on the wall right before the New Way. It represents an iconic object from any story of our world. Today, looks like I'm going to the glass slipper... How ironic. I picture the painting in my head while crossing the New Way. The second I step over the middle tile I'm transported to a new hallway.

     " DIAMOND! " My best friend waves at me from the end of the corridor. I walk up to her, smiling for the first time since I left last Friday. She then asks me:

     " How was your home? "

     " I wouldn't call it home... And it was awfully close to Hell, like basically every time I have to go there. "

She changes the subject as quickly as humanly possible, she always does so when we talk about my family. We don't do it often for a reason.

     " Jackie would've come to greet you, but her mom called her... " Another thing we don't talk about: Jackie's family issues. Overall, Heather really is the only one with one big happy family out of us three. 

Heather and Jackie are my only friends, the best - and only - I have or need. I met Heather on my first day, at a time I didn't push people away quite as much. Some bully had stolen her bag and, obviously not minding my own business at all, I froze him to his bones. I didn't end up with any punishment, he got out of the massive ice cube on his own, but I had just made a best friend. We hung out together, just the two of us, for a long time and then I met Jackie. I was eating lunch alone because Heather went to visit her parents that weekend. In line to get my food, the girl in front of me was ordering bubble tea. Some idiots decided it would be the perfect time to try their new bow and arrow. The following event is predictable... After Jackie and I got the bubble tea off our clothes we started talking a little and kinda hit it off. At first, my two friends really felt awkward with one another, but we became an inseparable trio in no time. I'm all against cheesy friendships and promises to never abandon each other, but they really are the only ones in the world I feel genuinely and entirely comfortable with. I don't know how I'd survive if I lost them. I'd probably be okay in my loneliness, but still... They mean so much to me. If I ever have to explain to anyone why I want the curse to be un-casted from me, it'd be something about how I don't want to hurt them by accident.

We find our dorm and once I've unpacked, I suggest we find Jackie. We don't have to do much searching, she knocks on the door as we were about to get out.

     " Diamond! How are you? "

     " I'm fine... What about you? "

     " Well, I just had a talk with my mother, so... "

     " Heather told me... "

Heather intervenes. " Both of you, stop before you end up in tears! We got an hour before class starts and we are not spending it over-thinking your messed up families. "

We smile at our friend, but I clearly see Jackie's eyes are still darker than usual and her mind's on something else. Her mother is none other than the Cheshire Cat's daughter, but instead of playing dangerous pranks she is just one of the worst persons to have walked the Earth. Because, yes, Jackie's father is human and Chelsea chose to have a career on Earth when she isn't causing trouble in Wonderland with her mischievous well-known father.

We agree on the cafeteria and go there after taking our books for class. I'm trying to listen to Heather telling me about a cute guy she talked with yesterday when Jackie cuts her off.

     " Look who it is..! "

I turn around and see my twin and his stupid friends coming in through one of the many archways. We look alike, with Mother's dark brown hair and our parents' pale skin. Although, Ice has our dad's freakishly blue eyes whilst mine are light brown. Our personalities are kind of similar, if you look past the fact he's extremely popular and I'm, well, not popular at all. We share a love of reading, drawing and playing the piano, which is, according to Drizella Tremaine, the most elegant yet evil instrument. That's why she made us practice it for as long as I can recall. When we're in school, Ice and I don't talk, he barely acknowledges my presence... He'll do anything to make others like him, he's always trying to please everyone, with the exception of his own twin. I try to get good grades and succeed while he's one of the establishment's worst students. He's the typical bad boy, dark and mysterious but also always defying authority and making jokes. He's never hanging out with the same group of people, every time I see him he has new more interesting and funnier friends. Alright, some of his friends stick around, but he at least never goes one week without having a new girl sucking up to him in the hopes of being his monthly girlfriend. He surrounds himself with anyone he can get to like him. It disgusts me and honestly, hurts me a little. Not in a way that makes me sad, a characteristic that him and I have in common is the fact that sadness is just not in our range of emotions. Angry, guilty, humiliated, desperate, heartbroken even, but never sad. The only ones who know he's my brother are Jackie and Heather. He never talks about anyone else than Father and, rarely, Mother.

The beginning of the day flies by. We have regular high school classes such as English, Chemistry and Art and more unusual ones. Only the ones that take them know what they're really about. Per example, I take Demon Language classes. A class all about how to communicate with the darkest and evilest creatures. A really handy skill... If you ever end up face to face with a demon speaking its language. And the odds of that happening are... Not that low actually. So, I guess it's not totally a bad thing my parents make me take it every year. Luckily for me, I never end up in classes with Ice and very often with my two best friends.

At lunch hour, we walk back to our dorm, where we usually eat. Each dorm has a small living room with a piano, an easel, a TV and a kitchenette, that leads to six rooms and a private balcony. It's almost a luxury apartment. Each room has a double bed, an area to change clothes, a desk and a bookcase. It's not that special when you've lived all your life in a castle from another dimension, but I realize it's pretty great. Two guys are talking, seated at the kitchenette island, when we come in. The three of us freeze on the spot in astonishment. No one ever takes the other rooms of our dorm. It's kind of a non-written rule: you don't normally just take whatever room you want, you have to ask the current occupants of the dorm if you can move in first. I instantly react. I'm not much of a talker, but if people are being rude, I don't hold back.

     " Well... Can we come in?! "

The one that's wearing a black leather jacket, ripped black jeans and a wine-colored shirt turns around and answers, openly ignoring my obvious sarcasm.

     " I don't care. "

Heather laughs and says, before I get insulting. " Jake, hey! These are my roommates, Diamond and Jackie. Who is he? "

The second guy, who's wearing a very similar outfit but with dark blue jeans and a green t-shirt, smiles. " Lemme introduce my brother, Ace. Sorry if we bothered you ladies, but Heather told me I could take one of your free rooms. "

He must be the cute guy she told me about earlier..! She sure isn't wrong about the good-looking part. The two brothers have large black feather wings and brown hair streaked with black. They're buff, tall and every girl's dream. Straight away, I can see they don't act the same, though. Ace is introverted and unpleasant; Jake is outgoing and friendly. The well-known cliche of the opposite siblings... Maybe cliche, but still real.