Welcome To Wonderland

Madeleinea was bored, very bored indeed. Another day at school, and THIS was destined to be a seven hour study hall. Madeleinea wanted nothing more than an adventure, full of trial and close brushes with death. But of course, nothing of the sort would happen in Iowa. She sat in a rickety old wooden chair, the only chairs her penny-hungry school could afford. To her left, she heard the cutting of paper and the disinterested conversing of her peers. To her right, the clicking of a mouse as Netalia, a good friend of hers, surfed the web and followed the French voyage online. That does it. Madeleinea thought. I need an adventure, and I need one now. She stood up, flashed a mischievous smile at Netalia, who smiled back, then rolled her eyes when Madeleinea's back was turned. She knew that look all too well, and it meant Madeleinea was getting into trouble.
The halls were silent, and the only movement was the occasional paper, caught in the draft of an open window and floating from room to room like a tumbleweed, and the eternal flickering of one fluorescent light, destined never to be changed. Madeleinea's boots clicked eerily on the floor, their laces slapping the tile like dead snakes. Madeleinea began a sneaky tiptoe down the hall, sliding into the space in the wall occupied by the elevator doors. She clicked the button, and stood through the agonizing wait for the slow old thing on tiptoes. Finally, the clunky doors slid cynically open, groaning from the pain-staking effort of climbing a whole three floors. Madeleinea looked both ways, squeaking in terror when she spotted Mr. Vanhallen trotting briskly down the hall. Probably looking for her. To Madeleinea's dismay, she had forgotten to sign out. As the doors slid shut, Madeleinea slid through the sliver of an opening and considered the panel. To the Basement? Or the Second Floor? Decisions, decisions.
Then, she saw a fourth button added to the row of three. It looked shiny and new, as if it had just been installed. A symbol was carved on it:



Madeleinea had only the most basic knowledge about Japanese symbols, but enough to know the symbol wasn't Japanese. Either Chinese or Korean, but whichever it was, Madeleinea didn't know, and even if she did, she couldn't make out what it meant. Madeleinea's keen ears picked up on Mr.Vanhallen's shoes clicking a little more briskly than usual down the hall. Choose. And quick. Madeleinea took a deep breath and clicked the new, shiny button.
The elevator shot down, faster than she knew that elevator to go. It seemed as if levels were buzzing and buzzing by. Madeleinea clung to the wall and panicked. We must have passed the basement by now. How far does this thing go? Oh, shit, what have I done? Thoughts like this stung Madeleinea's consciousness. When was the elevator to stop? Suddenly, from behind the button, sprouted little flowers. They bloomed in many colors, pink, red, green, colors that Madeleinea couldn't identify, because they didn't exist, as far as Madeleinea knew. From each flower, came a huge butterfly, as big as a bird, with a wing span that stretched it to as wide as Madeleinea's head. She screamed, but the butterflies didn't seem to notice. Their wings were like stained glass, refracting abstract shapes of colored light all over the drab false wood-patterned wall paper of the elevator. They made sounds like different pitches of bells, from light silver ones to the deep gongs of ship's bells. Madeleinea's scream mingled with the sounds, swirling and swirling in her ears until she thought her head would explode.
Then silence. The elevator stopped. It didn't even grind to a halt, or lurch back, it just stopped moving downward. The butterflies had perched all along the handrail, some has perched on Madeleinea's shoulders and hand and head. Madeleinea breathed. The air smelled.... different. Like vanilla and flowers (probably the ones sprouted from the button panel) and berries and candy and wet grass and pine... so many smells. Madeleinea continued to inhale, each breath making her sleepier and sleepier. Finally, the doors to the elevator slid open. The butterflies took off from the rail and from Madeleinea's body, flocking together like birds in a cloud of color. Madeleinea stepped from the threshold to the soft blue grass outside. Dew made her bare feet feel cold. Since when is grass blue? And where are my shoes? And what is up with the dew...? The dew sent light spinning into different rays of light, like millions of miniature disco balls, up to the green-orange-blue mottled sky. Two suns poked from either horizon. Then Madeleinea understood: it was a sunrise. The butterflies swirled around her, making her brand new toga of soft blue silk swirl up like a flower. Wow. Madeleinea gasped. I think I found Wonderland.