Queen of Spades (House of Car...

Alice slid a note under Malcolm's door and lightly hopped back down the stairs, not wanting to wake anyone up with loud clatter. The sun was up, but barely and most of the student body had only found their way back to bed three hours ago. Alice was awake and energetic, thrilled to have nine days of this! She sat on the balcony outside her hut with Lexi, swinging in the hammock and enjoying hte morning breeze, watching hte sun crest over the horizon and stain the sky a bloody red, streaking across the clouds only to be chased away by the more cheery blue blooming.

She was sipping at a large glass of orange juice and relaxing to herself. Lexi's voice murmured from inside and Alice smirked, amused that the hostile blonde talked in her sleep about nonsensical things. The smile fell off of Alice's face when she had to admit that she'd take talking in her sleep over the continuing nightmares. The change in geography had sort of helped, but after a few hours of restful sleep, Alice jerked awake when her dreams turned dark. Which explained why she was dropping notes and sipping juice at 6 am while on vacation in Mexico. The kitchen staff had seemed silently amused to see one of the students awake and moving. They had the bars open twenty-four seven inside the resort because ferries, cruise ships and flights were constantly coming in so Alice had thought nothing of it to ask for a straight orange juice to fill her stomach until breakfast time.

Ace felt one of her flipflops fall off her foot to hit the balcony with a soft slap, but she left it there and looked down at her itinerary for the trip. The biggest restriction the school had placed on the seniors, was that their activities could not take them off the island unless they were accompanied by one of the three chaperones. The GPS units that most of the students wore ensured a level of safety, but this was just an added measure. So Alice had looked at the available activities here on Cozumel alone and found enough to keep her more than entertained.

There was a jeep tour of the island. It took travellers down to see a few small ruins, but mostly explored their lighthouse, gator lookout and especially the tequila factory on the island. Most of hte students had opted to try that one because it included taster samples of tequila while there. Ace's friends wanted to check it out, but she had convinced them to delay it until later in the week, after everyone else had gone. This first day Kim and Alice had put a lot of time and effort into setting up the ultimate beach day. They were going to get morning lessons on scuba and snorkeling, and then head out onto the ocean to go swimming and snorkeling along hte reefs of the island. They were getting a lunch included with the scuba, and then spending the afternoon on another part of the island, swimming with the dolphins.

Soon enough it was late enough in the morning that hte others would be waking up, so Alice knocked on doors and rounded up her friends, herding them to the breakfast with a cheeriness that hid her sleepless night. West and his friends were giving Butch a hard time about doing 'girl s***' all day, but he took it with good humour. And Alice had to reassess his intelligence when he slyly pointed out that he was gonig to be alone with 5 women in bikini's all day long while West and everyone else was gonig to be crammed and crowded into Jeeps to go mob the tequila factory. Score one for Butch!

The other students were animatedly discussing the planned trips of the day when Alice saw Malcolm walk into the breakfast room. She wasn't the only one who noted his enterance and she fought the urge to snap at the other girls for eye raping her boyfriend.  Malcolm had on a pair of board shorts, pale blue with a black dragon climbing one leg and a white tank top that clung to the muscles of his chest. She only resisted the urgle to drag him away from everyone's greedy eyes because he met her stare and smirked. Not a single other person in the room earned his glance but her, and she knew he'd dressed this way to get a reaction out of her. And he was loving every minute of it. So she smirked right back at him, and smoothly changed the subject her friends were discussing to the bathing suits they'd picked for the day. Since she was already wearing her suit under her summer dress, inevitably her friends asked her to model it for them.

The light summer dress Alice wore was knee length and a rich magenta. It was a wrap dress, tying shut under her bust, so while Malcolm still smirked at her, she stood up and untied the bow, letting the dress drop to the seat so she could turn around and show off today's swim suit. It was more practical than the one she wore last night, but it wasn't much more cover than the flashy suit. The bottoms were black shorts that clung to her frame without being painted on looking, and the top was a sturdy 1950's style halter that ended up acting as a push up on her. It was a fire truck engine red with black polka dots and when Malcolm saw her in it, she saw him start to glower at the males giving her the look over. Teasing him like this was gonig to be fun Alice decided as he started to stalk towards her. She pulled the dress back on calmly and retied it, sitting down before he wove his way through the bodies and tables between them.

Alice was looking up at him with the smirk tugging the corners of her mouth up. "So I hear you guys aren't joining the bulk of us today on our jeep trip." he said conversationally to the table, taking a seat after Justine pushed an empty chair over towards him. Alice's friends weren't thrilled at having a chaperone around them all the time, but were accepting the fact that because he and Ace were 'friends' outside of school that he was likely to come around them often.

"Nah, we're gonig to do that after you guys get it out of the way. What's the fun of being one of a hundred some odd people there?" Kim replied, the most comfortable treating Mr. Vega as a friend and not jsut a teacher.

"There are the students who don't drink or whose parents wouldn't sign the consent form..." Malcolm started to remind.

This time it was Justine who made a scoffing snort. "Yeah, like we really want to spend the day with Mr. Bottomswell at El Cedral." She shook her head. There were ruins on the island and htey would go explore htem, but not with the principal along for the ride. Actually Alice was surprised that theirs was the only group really splitting off and doing their own thing. These extra excurtions were out of their own pockets, so the students could choose to go or not go depending on how much money they had to throw into it. But most of hte other students seemed to be unable to come up with their own timetable of events, content to go along with whatever the major group was doing.

"So you're not coming with my group, and you're not gonig with Mr. Bottomswell's group." Mr. Vega stated, understanding their reluctance to travel with the principal. "What's Ms. Avery's group up to today?" he asked, knowing that this group would keep tabs on it, if for no other reason than West would always need to know where his girl was.

"She's keeping the remaining students who don't want to go on the trips here with her and they're joining in on the resort's daily free activities." Theresa spoke up, unable to make eyeconact with the handsome teacher.

"Well as long as you guys know that even without a chaperone on you, we're expecting you to keep a certain level of.... responsibility on your own today." Mr. Vega reminded and Alice felt like rolling her eyes. There are times she can forget that he was her teacher as well as lover, but this was definitely one of the times when she was painfully aware of it. He leaned forward on the table, palms pressing down as he pushed himself up. Everyone watched him wave and walk away, but only Ace noticed the note he'd left behind for her. She tucked it away, letting her friends get into a discussion over who would do best at today's activities and turning it into a friendly competition. Whomever did the worse today would be the drink b**** tonight, having to be the one who ran to get refills. When she felt that everyone's attention was safely elsewhere, Alice unfoled the note on her lap and started to read it.

{A/N: Their letters are supposed to be in Spanish. To not bore you all to death with huge Spanish letters, I'll do the first part in Spanish, but hten switch to English. Just assume it was all in Spanish ok?}

Me gustó la nota poco esta mañana, que era una maravillosa manera de comenzar mi día. Lo siento, le pegan compartir habitación con alguien que no te gusta, pero no hay mucho que podemos hacer, pero espero que se mantenga lejos. 

(I appreciated your little note this morning, it was a wonderful way to start my day. I'm sorry you're stuck rooming with someone you dislike, but there's not much we can do but hope she stays away. )

I have heard whispers that your fellow classmates are planning a beach party tonight after the 'adults' go to bed. Think you'd be willing to skip the festivities to spend time with someone who's in love with you? I promise to make it worth the sacrifice...

The bulk of the letter made Alice fight to not blush, Malcolm lacing enough detail into his one page note to make her heart beat start to race and tingles of butterflies dance in her stomach. It wasn't even that he was salacious... jsut knowing that she could spend the bulk of her night in his arms had this effect on her.

Besides, there's something I'd like to discuss with you if we have the chance. It's nothing bad, but it is serious and I think it might be important.

I love you mi Corazon,

Reaper

Alice frowned at his remark about needing to talk to her. It was never a good sign when your significant other said that 'we need to talk', his reassurance that it wasn't bad didn't help. Her friends noticed her sudden mood change and started to pester her until she rejoined the conversation. Maybe she could ask West about it later when the others were busy.

Even though Alice was naturally tanned and ususally never burned, she used an SPF 15 to keep her safe under Mexico's sun. There was no way she wanted to even risk having to miss anything because of a bad burn. The scuba lessons had gone remarkably well, if boring, and now they were bouncing out across the choppy waters to use their new skills and investigate the reef.

Even though Malcolm wasn't with her to enjoy the day, Alice had a blast. Her friends had turned the scuba day into a challenge where the instructor would tell them the type of fish or coral they were looking for and they would then go under and try to be the first one to snap a picutre of it. Every fifteen minutes they'd gather back at the boat and compare time stamps on their underwater cameras to see who won the round. Ace was grateful that the camera she'd gotten Malcolm was waterproof. He was using her normal digital and she was using his christmas gift for hte day so they could both take photos without worry. Lunch was a beachside affair and they ate on hte rocky outcroppings along the south shore of the island, admiring the brilliant hues in the water and feeling the spray of waves on rock mist against them. By the time they were dropped off at hteir afternoon for dolphin swimming, Alice was feeling like she'd forgotten how to walk on dry land.

It was hitting dinner time when the tired and sunburnt group made it back to the resort. Alice was happy but tired, Kim was burnt and everyone was water logged. They rejoined hteir classmates for dinner and Alice stayed quiet while Kim regaled half the dining hall with her vivid description of hteir day apart. Ace could tell from the looks in several student's eyes that they were thinknig of changing their own schedules to include some of hte fun her friends had had. And she listened as everyone went on about hteir own trips. But hte bulk of her attention was on the fact that Malcolm was no where to be seen and he wanted to talk to her tonight.

West hadn't even bothered to come get food, as soon as they'd returned, he'd vanished to go find Maddison. Alice kept sticking food into a plastic bag to hang on his doorknob so the poor love struck fool wouldn't go entirely hungry for the sake of his girl. But she made herself wait, choking down some kind of buffet style food without really caring what it was or what it tasted like. When her friends all started to discuss getting changed for the 'secret' beach party tonight, she let them know that she wasn't coming after all.

"I'll give you the liquor I've bought, you guys can go to town on it. I'm just too tired and worn out from the day. I'm gonig to rinse the sand off and go crash." she refused to be swayed, though they never guessed why her resistance was so determined. Finally Kim sighed and agreed to go with Alice to pick up her liquor while everyone else finished eating.

As they walked along the scenic pathways towards their huts, Kim surprised Alice by saying, "So he's here then huh?" the petite brunette asked, not really a question but more of a statement.

Alice stumbled, surprised by her friend's guess. "Who?" she asked, but her voice broke as she spoke, giving away her anxiety.

Kim just gave her a knowing look. "The only reason a girl is willing to miss the most epic beach party of her life is for her man. So DJ Mask is a fellow student and you're sneaking away to go meet up with him aren't you?" she guessed astutely. Alice just gaped at her, the stunned silence confirming it more than anything else could have. Kim laughed, and bounced up and down. "You have to introduce me to him!" she insisted, sounding giddy and girlish.

Oh for the love of piss, Alice thought, dread making hte food in her stomach a hard lump. "Kim, his identity is a secret! I can't introduce you two. Please don't make him regret this?" she asked, frantically trying to come up with an excuse to not blow her secret open.

Kim gave her a look, some of her happiness evaporating and Ace felt like a heel. "That's no fair. You can't play the guilt card right off, means I'm not allowed to." she pouted. Alice looked at her friend and laughed, only then realizing that Kim wasn't at all bothered, and in fact liked the secrecy around Alice's boyfriend's identity.

"You are such an a**. I believed you!" Alice huffed jokingly and ran up her steps to open the door of her hut.

"Close the door!" Lexi screeched at them and the two girls tumbled inside in a rush. The hostile blond glared at them. "Jesus f***ing christ don't you people have any common f***ing decency?" she shouted at them, holding a bikini top to cover her chest. She'd been changing when they opened the door.

"My virgin ears..."Kim joking, clamping her hands over her ears at Lexi's language. Alice smothered her laugh but the blonde was talking to herself as she tied the bikini in place with jerky movments.

"Bad enough that I have to stay in a hut with the disease ridden, drug using whore but now I have to deal with her barbarian friends to? This is intolerable!" Lexi ranted, pulling a pair of daisy dukes on and buttoning a pink blouse over her white bikini.

"Door's that way, let it kick you in the a** on your way out." Alice calmly stated, moving out of the way so her irritable hutmate could leave. Lexi didn't bother responding, she grabbed a large purse that clinked when she moved it and stormed out, already headed out to meet her friend.

"B****." Kim stated as the door shut behind the blonde.

"C***." Alice nodded in agreement. She walked over to her bag and handed Kim a 40 of spiced rum and a 40 of mexcal. "Happy imbibing." she wished her friend.

"I somehow think you'll be the one having a better time tonight." Kim smirked at Alice. "Ride him extra hard for me will you?" she asked with a playful wink and dodged out the door before Alice could smack her or laugh at her lewd suggestion.

Alice took a couple of minutes to shower off the salt and sand left over from swimming in the ocean and then she was staring at her clothes, wondering what to wear to have a 'serious talk'. He said it wasn't bad, but that it was serious. Should she wear a cute sundress so he'd think she was cute and maybe be gentle with her heart? Or should she treat this very seriously and wear her one pair of long pants and a button up shirt? Panic was building in her gut until Alice started to laugh at herself. Clothing wouldn't change the outcome of the conversation, so unless she was gonig to skip seeing him entirely, it didn't matter what she wore. With that mindframe in place, Alice grabbed out a turquoise blue, flowy skirt that came to a little above her knees and darker blue tank top that helped tone down the psychotically cheerful bright skirt.

With no other reason to delay the inevitable, Alice knocked on the door seperating their rooms and wondered just what it was Malcolm needed to talk to her about? And just how serious was it? She tried not to let the nervousness show on her face, but her heart rate was in her throat when Malcolm opened his connecting door to her, and it wasn't from excitement.

"I was wondering when you'd slip away." he greeted with a warm smile on his face.

"Yeah well, it's hard to be stealthy when you have the ninja skills of a platypus." Alice joked, trying to convince herself that there wasn't anything bad about to happen. It was just a talk, no need to worry. Somehow that did nothing to ease the knot of tension in her stomach as she walked passed Mal to look out his window.

"Hey, you ok?' Malcolm asked her, hand coming to rest on her shoulder. Alice jumped and he jerked his hand back.

"S-sorry... just didn't expect you to do that." Alice smiled, trying not to look like he'd just scared the crap out of her.

He frowned at her, recognizing how much his touch had startled her. It must have been written all over her face because he sighed and hugged her to him. "I will never hurt you." he stated, maknig Alice confused. "I'm sorry that your reaction to surprise is fear. I didn't mean to make you worry." he stroked her back, and Ace gave an unhappy bark of laughter.

"You tell me we have to talk and it's serious and expect me not to worry?" She asked rhetorically. "How many times are the words 'we need to talk' not followed by a break up?" she added.

"Alice..." Malcolm laughed and kissed her. "I am not breaking up with you Corazon." he laughed again, but Alice didn't understand why. "Come on..." he held her hand and pulled her out onto his balcony. Only he'd rearranged the outdoor furniture so that the stairs were blocked off and screened from view. The palm trees surrounding hte hut blocked the balcony from sight and turned the small deck into a private oasis. They could see the moon and stars in the brilliantly clear tropical sky and on the table were two glasses and a bottle wrapped in a fancy napkin. She didn't get much time to appreciate the set up because he was kissing her again. This time she let his lips soothe her worries away, her anxiety and fear melting away under the gentle caress of his love.  "Alice, I wanted to ask you something very important." Malcolm stated and stepped away from her to pour the drinks. She could tell from the smell that it was old mexcal, and not the kind given to tourists. When he noticed she was just standing there, he guided her over to the hammock and sat her in it, putting one of the glasses into her hand. Ace gulped the liquid reflexively and coughed as it burned down in her stomach.

"You keep me hanging on edge like this and I'l gonig to drop dead of suspence." Alice warned. "Anyurisms run in my family so spit it out." she demanded, the liquor burn having released her from her temporary paralysis. Malcolm smiled and her and crouched down a little so they were eye to eye instead of him looming over her.

"Alice... I was wondering....." he trailed off, looking down and then back up at her. "I love you. I love living with you. And..." he trailed off again, playing with the cup in his hands. His nervousess fed hers and she grabbed both cups and set them aside with a pointed click on the table top. Malcolm laughed a little, jittery laugh and smiled at her. "I was wondering what you wanted to do after you graduated highschool?" he finally asked. "I don't know what you wanted to study or where you wanted to study. If you decide you wanted to move away from this city to go to school.... I wanted you to know that I'll support your decision. And if you'd let me, I'd follow you whereever you decided to go." he added in.

Alice blinked at him, then felt a smile bloom across her face. "You had me freaking out all day over that?" she asked, relief evident in her voice. "You.....you....oh my god you're too....ah!" she made a frustrated noise. "Of course I want you to be with me! For the love of...." she put a hand to her chest. "Malcolm. I told you once you were stuck with me. I meant it." she stated finally, grabbing his face so she could kiss him.

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A/N: How many of you thought he was gonig to propose? Be honest...... :D I'm a little evil no?