Queen of Spades (House of Car...

Wednesday was a jolt for Alice. The snow day off at Malcolm's place had been restful and exhillerating at the same time. After the massage and pass out session, there really hadn't been another moment that Alice had felt the pressure to take this a step further. Not that she hadn't enjoyed kissing Malcolm, but they had slept, woken, eaten and gone to check on the animals and finally Salali. There'd been no time for romance amongst all that. Then she'd eaten, showered and passed out only to wake up and have to go to school.

Most mornings she was rather good at getting up and out the door, but today her feet dragged. She had the sneaking suspicion that she'd caught a cold during the snow day and it was starting to kick her energy levels down. Her eyes felt puffy, her head was packed full of cotton balls and her body ached. She stretched her neck out from side to side and then erupted into a fit of coughing. It grossed her out to have to spit out the phlegm from her chest and she made an ugly face afterwards.

Finally she trotted out to get to school, already wishing it was over with. Amazingly enough, the student body seemed reluctant to harass her today. Either they were being cautious because she looked like death reheated for leftovers, or because she had a nasty scowl on her face keeping them at a reasonably safe distance. She settled into her usual desk for English class, for a change keeping her jacket on to combat how freezing it was in class. There was only a moment or so to wait and then Mr. Vega was in class. Because of the snow day, most classes were a day or so behind now, and with winter exams approaching, that'd mean trouble for most. But Malcolm was resourceful and brought in a film version of their play.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, We're wrapping up Hamlet on your own time, however there will be a question and answer session Friday for any questions you may have. Yes Craig?" Mr. Vega started to feild questions. Alice just laid her heavy head onto her arms, wishing she'd just throw up and get it over with already.

The lights flicked out and the movie started, but Ace didn't mover her head. Even though she enjoyed Hamlet thoroughly, she didn't look up from her arms until someone tapped her on the shoulder. She craned her head up to see Mr. Vega frowning down at her."Can I speak to you in the hallway Ms. Spade?" he requested, sending the rest of class into a flurry of whispering. But Alice was feeling too rotten to care, she just got up and slugded after him. They only stepped out into the hallway, but there was no one around so it was semi private. "Ace, are you ok?" he asked, concerned.

Alice lifted her lips in a smile. "Just tired, think I'm fighting off a cold." she explained. "I'll have some soup and self medicate, I'll be fine." she waved away his worry.

Malcolm gave her a sceptical look. "How did you take care of yourself while you danced? I don't guess youd had many days off."  

Alice tilted her head to the side a little, recalling the work calendar she'd had organized. "One of the things about being street broke and then getting money again, is that you will always want to squirrel some away. Meant I worked pretty much every day they'd let me. Except my birthday. I took that day off and did whatever the hell I wanted." Alice shrugged, lips tugged up at the happy memory. Birthday beats meant and entirely different thing to her than anyone else and her seventeenth birthday had been perfect because no one had hurt her. But she didn't want to be thinking about sad things in her already fatigued state so she added in the happy. "But the next day is great to work because most of the girls want to take the day off if they have a honey, and the place is packed full of desperate, lonely, heart broken guys. Great tipers." Alice offered.

Malcolm gave her an incredulous look, a frown of slight anger on his face. "No offense Ace, but that's horrible. I'm sorry you ever had to look forward to that." he paused and Alice swallowed, throat strangely tight. She cleared her throat and started to cough. "What I meant though is how did you handle that if you were sick."

"Oh. You really don't want to know." Alice shook her head and regretted it. Slowly congesting sinuses do not take quick movements well.

"Alice...." Malcolm tone was deeply consernced and she clued in to how he was misinterpreting.

"No! nonononon, not drugs. Well, not illegal ones. I used to down a bottle of buckleys and a few caffiene pills and just tough it out." she explained with a sniffle of runny nose. "I'll take it easier on the cough meds now because I can. And no caffiene pills. They give me f***ed up dreams and I'm already having enough of those." she couldn't seem to stop babbling and only shut up after noticing the amused smirk on his face.

"Language Ms. Spade." he chided, turning the use of her last name into a subtle flirt. Alice smiled but didn't blush because she was already feverish.

"We should get back in there before they wonder if I've clubbed you over the head and dragged you to my cave already." Alice said outloud, not knowing she did until Malcolm laughed. "Ooops." she mumbled, still not feeling well. She slumped back down into her chair and blearily watched half of the movie in class before the next one started. She almost didn't get to class on time because she was moving so slowly.

"Hey, you alright?" one of the girls in science block leaned over to whisper.

Alice blinked in surprise, no one had talked to her yet other than to hurtle insults or lewd suggestions; peppered with a few necessary acts for class. She didn't even know this girl's name. "Yeah, just not feeling well. Thanks." she replied, keeping her voice low while Pottyfer babbled on.

"You look like you're about to keel over. Do you need to go to the nurse?" she continued.

"Won't you get in trouble for talking to me?" Alice asked randomly. It seemed to be her day to say the internal monologue externally. "I mean, thus far anyone showing the least bit of kindness and tolerance towards me have been flagrantly burned by the reigning she-b**** of the social hierarchy." she blurted.

The look on the other girl's face was priceless, a sort of horrified shock that was almost mixed with an agreeing humour. Like she could not believe Alice was saying this outloud.

"Ms. Spade language!" the teacher barked and both girls turned to the front. From the looks on her classmates faces, word of what she had said was now getting around. Freaking joy.

"My apologies. I think it's mild terrets, I should have a doctor look at that." The snarky comment slipped out and Alice smiled lightly as if she'd meant to say it. The teacher frowned at her and the class sniggered.

"Be that as it may, sit properly and keep quiet in my class." then the teacher stormed back up to the board.

Alice sat in her chair facing forward, swallowing the irrational curge to laugh. Her stomach bubbled and her laughter cut off as she wasn't sure if she was about to puke or not. A note dropped onto her desk from the friendly student and Alice actually opened it, pretty sure it wasn't a whore comment.

I'm Gabby. You're pretty awesome. Watch your back, she has it out for you big time.

Alice nodded, letting Gabby know she understood. Watching the teacher carefully so she didn't get yelled at again, Alice scrawled her response.

Alice. Gotta be ballsy if you want to get what you want and survive. You not afriad of psycho barbie?

And just like that Alice had made another friend. She and Gabby passed notes the rest of class, mostly yarning on about how boring the proff was or, hilariously enough, how hot Mr. Vega was. She wished she was feeling better to appreciate this more, but the cold dogged her down, and she knew she had to save her energy for dance class.

Like she promised Malcolm, Alice got herself a soup for lunch and added to it a sandwich for some bulk. She couldn't really taste the food by now though, so it was just hot liquids, mushy veggies, bread and slimy goop masquerading as a tuna sandwich. Her friends gave her some funny looks as she downed a bottle of orange juice afterwards and then laid her head down to nap until next class. But wisely they just left her alone for the next fifteen minutes and she dozed, head feeling fragile and super heavy. Unfortunatly she did doze off and the bell made her jerk awake which did nothing to ease her headache. Groaning Alice rushed towards the change rooms when little Kim sprinted up to her and pressed a pill into her hand.

Alice glanced down at it, then dry swallowed it, flying into her dance gear. It was an Advil Cold and Sinus and she sent a silent thank you to her friend. She joined the rest of the dancers and started to stretch out and warm up, trying to ignore how movement made her nauseous and that spinning left her dizzy for several minutes afterwards. This was one of those moments where Ace was very thankful to the hard discipline she'd spent a year developing. It's amazing what she could do if she had no other alternative. If it was either dance when you're sick or go live on the street again, Alice would find a way to dance. And smile while she did so. It made her feel older than the girls around her though. They all still had the lightness of innocence and she was weighed down with some terrible realities. She shrugged off the melancholy thoughts and focused on listening to the teachers walk the first group of fairies through their character's concepts. It gave Alice a clue into the flavour they wanted the play to take.

This Mid Summer Night's Dream was going to have a Rave Club feel to it. Blacklights, neon costumes, hard music and harder dancing. The band was excited to actually have some songs to challenge them with, the choir was silently thrilled because a lot of the setting for the characters would be told through singing, thus showcasing their skills and the drama class was as fascinated by it as the dancers were. It was going to be very hard to do, there would be a lot going on for everyone, but if it worked, it would be capital E epic.

Alice got a huge chunk of time with both teachers. It was great because the look of pure hatred Lexi shot her at the coveted meetings made Alice gloat, but it sucked because she felt half dead but had to seem perfectly fine to them. So she put on her Chalice smile face, the one she used to survive every set on stage, and they never knew she was running a fever. But she bulled through, getting a much more clear picture of the character Puck they wanted her to play. As a woman, she was Titania's fairy, but Oberon is King and he offers Puck a kiss to do a favour. She would have a much more clear struggle over obeying his wishes, but the desire for her King is supposed to be stronger. Alice wasn't terribly comfortable with that part of the play, but she'd get used to it as they worked on it. And they were making Puck's search for the flower more action filled to stun the audience, so she was expected to work with several of the male dancers and help come up with a routine to excite the audience.

So after her little tete a tete with the teachers {a/n: tete a tete is french for head to head}, Alice went to introduce herself to the male dancers. It made no sense to her that the school used these boys skills but refused to let them into the dance class, but they seemed fine with the compromise. "Alright boys, I'm supposed to either trick, charm or steamroller my way past some of you guys to find a flower. We need to make it showy, action-y and fast paced."

"-Y." one of the boys cracked, making the others smirk and laugh. Alice looked at him and didn't bother to disguise her frank gaze. She had to admit that he wasn't a bad looking guy, and there was something about his self mocking smirk that was adorable. "Can you guys do that for me?" she asked, acting like he'd never interrupted.

"Yeah we can do that for you. The question is, can you keep up?" the gutsy cutie shot back.

"What I got, you can't handle. If you think you're so good, show me what you've got. Wow me." she challenged, stepping back to give him room. Truth was that she did want to see what he could do. But mostly she just didn't want to dance right now. She was still feeling like hell.

The choir had turned up the radio and were practicing with one of the songs, a cover of Black Eyed Peas'  Just Can't Get Enough. And he threw down on that song, as much as it irked Alice to admit it. He wasn't ballet pretty, no, this tough guy was full of rhythm that was at once aggressively sexual but also heavily mocking so that you weren't taking it seriously. Alice listened to the music, happily surprised by the choir's voices, Sammy's in particular. And the song hit switch up and she couldn't resist jumping in. The guys around started to cheer, but Alice didn't care about the attention. She wasn't grinding with him, but she never got to pull out her hip hop in class so she was living it up. The tough guy did they typical show off as the song ended, pulling up his shirt to show off his abs, and Alice noticed a tattoo low on his stomach. So of course that's when Malcolm walked into the Performance Hall. She smiled at him but he had this strange look in his eyes and he just kind of nodded his head at her.

Alice frowned softly but figured that he was trying to obey their rules about strictly student teacher at school and decided she'd do the same. But class was ending anyways, the guys all grabbing their bags, the tough guy running over to Alice. "Hey, I'm West." he introduced.

"West?" Alice asked, eyebrows raised.

He chuckled, teeth startlingly white against his dark skin. "Yeah, Westley Vincent James jr." he offered as an explanation. Alice nodded and smiled at him, feeling less like hell now that the medication Kim had gotten to her had kicked in. "Anyways I just wanted to say that was pretty cool. You're kinda sick for a little squaw you know." Alice blinked, surprised he'd picked up on her Native Heritage. Most people just thought her features were Asian somehow, not Native.

"Yeah well you don't suck either. I think this might be fun." she replied and he grinned at her and waved, heading back out to his friends.

Alice grabbed her bag and hurried after the retreating back of Malcolm. She didn't know why but he looked a little angry, his stride swift and sharp looking. Ace hurried after him, knowing he was going to grab his jacket from class. So she ran the short cut, taking a dodge through the girls' change room to hop out the other hallway. But Lexi was in there.

"Listen you skank." Lexi stood in her way, other female friends gathered around behind her.

"Lexi I don't have time for this, I need to go."  Alice moved to go past her but the shorter woman actually pushed her shoulder.

"No, you need to listen to me. I do not like you. You are filth. You are less than filth, you're pitiful. You take your clothes off for money, probably sell your body for higer tips and then bring that diseased s*** here. These guys you lead on and tease, they do what they can with you and bring it back to us. And I don't want any of that crap."

Alice stared at the b**** queen in shock, then started laughing. "Is that what all of this has been about? You're little 'lets run Alice out of the school' campaign has been because you're afraid I have STD's?" she laughed. "You really are that stupid. I am not nor have I ever been a hooker. Further more, I have had an STD test since my last sexual encounter and I know I'm clear. Can you say the same?" she asked, stepping closer to the other student. She should back away and leave, but the damn medication was screwing with her internal filter. "Lexi, let's see if I can explain this to you. I'll use little words and then maybe you'll understand. I ran away from the foster family.  I lived on the streets, then found a job that would hire me and pay cash. I danced, and then I got found and brought here. In that time line, never once did I have sex with anyone. Now get the f*** out of my way." she shoved the girl into the arms of her friends and they cleared out of her way.

Not liking the strange tumbling in her gut, Alice started to jog towards Malcolm's class, sure something was wrong. She skidded into the door, almost falling in her haste. Mal was leaning against his desk, jacket on, looking at his watch. His eyes were guarded as he looked up at her and she frowned, wondering what she'd done wrong.

"Get caught up with classmates?" he asked casually, giving Alice no clue why he seemed so distant.

"Yeah, had to meet the crew I would be dancing with. Thankfully Kim gave me an cold pill or I would have thrown up and then passed out." Alice nodded. Malcolm mimiced her nod but didn't look any happier. "You ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, just wondering if you were feeling better. By the looks of things, you felt great." his tone held a weird note in it.

"Mal, are you jealous?" she asked softly, closing the classroom door so no one could over hear them.

He looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "Yes." he stated, his honesty to the point. "I hated walking in on that."

"I'm sorry. It wasn't like that. That was just dancing." Alice apologised.

"It's alright. It's not even just that it's.... don't worry about it ok?" he deflected. "Let's go see Monster." he suggested, slinging and arm over Alice's shoulders and guiding her to the door. She didn't believe him but some of the dark that danced in his eyes right now reminded her that feeding the beast within meant keeping it close to the surface.