If she was being honest, Alice didn't know why these roses had to be painted in the first place. Those white roses all seemed fine to her. They really stood out amongst the lush green maze. Several minutes had passed, and the group had gotten most of the remaining rosebushes done.

And in good time, Cater, Ace, Alice and the three other girls turned to see Deuce and Grim and saw that they were having a bit more trouble painting the roses. "Red, red..." Deuce chanted to himself, trying to get a clear image in his head and bring it to reality. "There!" He pointed his magic pen at the rose.

But instead of turning into a ruby red, it turned into a bright sapphire blue. "Gaaaaaah! It turned blue...!" he shouted, panicking. "Oh, color, change at my command... Take that!" Grim shouted, channeling the magic in his new gem and fired off his magic towards the rose bushes.

But he then quickly jumped back and let out a shriek when he saw what he did. "Gyaaa! The roses are on fire!" he panicked. "Grim!" the girls shouted in unison as they hurriedly tried to douse the flames. "Oh, dear...!" Alice exclaimed in shock.

Cater gave an awkward laugh as he shook his head. "You guys are worse at this than I thought you'd be~." he sighed. "Cater-senpai, we're finished!" Alice called as she and Ace approached him. "Oh, great!" Cater exclaimed as he noticed that all their roses had been painted red. "Hey, you guys actually did a good job!"

"Thank you!" Alice replied. "Aren't the roses fine left white? They're pretty." Ace said, not knowing what the big deal was in having red or white roses. "It's just tradition to do this. Roses must be red for the Unbirthday Party!" Cater explained, pointing out a few more details about the traditions that Heartslabyul followed.

"For croquet, we use seven different colored flamingos as the bats, and hedgehogs are used as the balls. Oh, but an important thing to remember is that the roses must be white for the spring concert of the flowers." Grim and Ace both gawked at Cater's words. What bizarre traditions this dorm has!

"Not one of those are normal!" Grim yelled. "They say these rules were decided by one of the Great Seven, the Queen of Hearts." Cater said as he then gave Ace a small smile as he twisted a lock of his orange hair between his fingers.

"Somehow, that doesn't really surprise me..." Alice thought. "Still, I wonder why someone would make such preposterous rules in the first place?"

"Even compared to previous dorm leaders, Riddle-kun is particularly passionate about following them. I don't deny he goes too far sometimes, though..."   What Cater didn't realize was that Alice seemed to notice his subtle change in mood as his eyes suddenly turned downcast and sad.

But before she could ask him about it, Ace realized something important and spoke up. "Wait, I don't have time for this. I need to speak to the Dorm Leader. Is he still here?" he asked, remembering why they were here in the first place.

"Hm? Yeah, I think there's still time before he usually leaves." Cater said before he glanced over at Ace with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "By the way, Mr. Tart Thief, did you bring a tart as an apology~?" he asked in a singsong tone.

"What? No, I came straight here, so I don't really have anything prepared..." Ace said as he scratched the back of his head. Cater raised an eyebrow and gave off a smile. "Oh no. Yeah, that makes sense, but..." he said as he shook his head at him, but still kept his smile.

However, the friendly way he was smiling and the judgmental tone in his voice didn't match at all. Alice noticed that, and something in her mind told her that this wasn't going to end well at all.

"...That means you're going against the Law of the Queen of Hearts No. 53, "One must always return what they steal." So I can't let you in, I'm afraid." Cater said. Ace gawked at him. "The heck?! What's that about?!" he asked in shock. "Cater-senpai, can't you please let Ace-kun in?" Alice asked pleadingly. "We promise we won't tell on you!"

"Sorry, little lady, but if you're part of the dorm, you gotta obey the rules. I'll be losing my own head if I overlook this and just let you in." Cater replied with a mysterious glint in his bright green eyes. "Sorry, but I've gotta ask that you leave before Riddle-kun notices."

Alice's heart stopped for a moment when she saw how the look in Cater's eyes suddenly changed as he reached up and took his magic pen out from his breast pocket. "Oh crap, he's serious! Guys, help me out here!" Ace shouted to the others in alarm.

"Why'd I have to get caught up in this?!" Deuce yelled. "I'm begging you! I can't use magic right now–! Wahh, here he comes!" Ace shouted as they saw Cater taking one step towards them and pointing his magic pen at their direction.

Because he didn't have any magic, Ace quickly pulled Alice behind him as he backed them away from the fight. Deuce immediately stepped in front of them to help keep Alice at a safe distance. Kira, Aria and Jazmin saw what was happening and immediately stepped away from the fight.

All the while, Cater kept his smile on his face as he continued to fire off his magic at Deuce and Grim. Although the duo fought back with all of their might, there was something odd about this magic battle. It wasn't that Deuce and Grim weren't acting irrational and it wasn't as if their magic was weak.

It was the fact that every time that they struck Cater, he would immediately bounce right back up as if nothing had happened. With each magical attack flung at him, Cater would jump on his feet, smirk at them and attack them back with full force.

Alice kept her eyes on Cater to see how he was doing this, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find anything that might give her a clue. Either Cater was hiding it somehow or it was a part of his magic.

It didn't matter which way at the moment, because in the end, Cater had managed to take down Deuce and Grim. Cater stood there, smiling and chuckling without so much as a scratch on him. Before any of them knew it, the four girls, Grim, Ace, and Deuce were all shoved back to the front of the Heartslabyul Dorm.

With a cheery smile, Cater gave them all one last shove towards the mirror before he waved them goodbye. "Now, go get a tart, before you try again, okay~♪ Bye-bye~!" he sang. With that, Cater soon walked away, back into the Rose Maze.

"What's his problem?!" Ace said, irritated. "And he seemed so nice, at first." Alice said, almost sadly. "No matter how many times we took him down, he just keeps coming back... Was he using illusion magic?" Deuce mused as he wondered what type of magic his upperclassmen had.

If he were an illusionist, it would explain how he was able to avoid gaining damage and still have more than enough power to keep on fighting back.

"Anyway, we should've been turned away at the gate if we came without a tart, yeah?" Ace yelled in anger. "We clearly didn't have anything on us to begin with. He just wanted us to paint the darn roses!"

"Darn right! I can't believe he attacked us like that!" Kira said, fuming. "I mean, we didn't do anything to upset him and yet, he goes ahead and mows us down!" Ace nodded in agreement. "I know, right?!" he exclaimed.

They had wasted all that time in helping him paint all those roses red, and he repaid them by giving them a serious beating and essentially kicking them out! Ace huffed in anger and Alice tried to comfort him by gently patting his back. Grim let out a 'hmph' and flopped down on her head. "He's got some nerve." he said.

"Well, to be fair, none of us knew we were supposed to bring a tart replacement. So all we have to do is make one. It's as simple as that, right?" Alice asked, hoping to ease her friends' annoyance. Deuce thought about it and agreed.

"Yeah. Alice-chan's right. Guess we'll have to go get a tart before we come back. We can go after... Oh, crap!" Deuce suddenly shouted out, surprising the others. Before they could ask what was wrong, they heard it.

Ding dong ding!

That was when all of them panicked. "Oh, no!" Alice cried out in horror. No, no, no! This can't be happening! This has never happened to her or her friends before. "This is bad, the warning bell would have rang already! We're gonna be late!" Deuce shouted.

"Ffgna! The radiant school life is going to be tarnished on day one! Let's get a move on!" Grim shrieked as he roughly pulled Alice's sleeve, not that he needed to. As soon as they all heard the bell ringing, they all dashed down towards the exit, with the cat barely hanging on to the girl's blazer.

All of them prayed that they would make it to class on time as they ran through the Heartslabyul Mirror down the Hall of Mirrors. While they were running, Ace turned to Alice. "What class are you five in? You're first years, right?" he asked. "The Headmaster said we're in Class 1-A!" Alice replied.

"Oh, hey. We're in the same class. First period is Potions." Deuce said. "Potions?" Jazmin asked curiously. The girls wondered if it was this world's version of chemistry class. Grim dragged himself up on Alice's shoulder and let out a cheer. "Wooo! Sounds like fun!" he said.

"Guess I couldn't get my magic back before class, after all. Is this gonna work out all right...?" Ace mumbled under his breath. His cherry red eyes then turned towards the four girls, as if they held the answers.

They didn't have any magic either. But even so, he thought that if he followed their lead on what to do, then maybe he just might get through this day alive.