the uncrowned queen

Alice: “A+ for joining the council when Mary chickened out and left, but also omg can u plz have your own opinion kthnxbye.”

but tbh, Alice thinks her sisters are pretty cool, she just wants to be better than them. So that people love her instead of them.

tbh p much the most high maintenance girl you’ll ever meet

i mean, hell, her first name means queen

and doesn’t she know it

but, then again, those who stick around

those who have a sense of the girl behind the mask

they get to see that not only is Alice a queen, but she is indeed a queen of light

If only Alice could see that herself when she looks in the mirror

Since she was small Alice was determined to be the best

she’d seen her sisters fall short

Mary leaving the council in disgrace

Emma too quiet for Alice’s tastes

and Alice would not allow herself to follow in their footsteps

for as much as she loves them (which truly she does)

Alice knows she can be better

Stronger

Smarter

More ruthless than they ever could be

A queen of Walcott in more than just name

But the problem is: in wanting to be the best, striving for the ideal...

Alice has set the bar for herself higher than can even be achieved

Of course, she sees girls such as Julia Greene winning the hearts of all without any effort

and it grates her to the core

How in the hell can someone who has never worked for this love a day in her life so easily hold it in the palm of her hand?

It’s frustrating to see this girl who doesn’t even want it getting everything Alice ever desired

So of course the only course of action is to destroy Julia and everything she stands for, right?

once again showing Alice’s sinnamon roll tendencies

Hence why she’s keeping her enemy closer than ever and joining her stupid little “coven”

Obvi witches and magic aren’t real

no matter what the council and that crazy old lady think

but she’ll play along -- maybe get enough dirt and evidence for the council to condemn Julia

Then truly Alice could come into her own and rule the town as she’d always been meant to

And maybe for once feel like she wasn’t useless, wasn’t worthless, a failure for never being the best

maybe she’d get that damndable ‘why can’t you be like Julia’ out of her head

that horrible ringing refrain reminding her that she is never enough

that unless she’s the perfect marble goddess she’ll never be good enough

that she’ll never deserve him if she doesn’t rise above everyone else

While subterfuge is usually a journey best taken alone, Alice isn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth

or, in her case, a gift lackey in the form of Zach Gardiner

The two have been neighbors since they were kids

and friends since high school

and she doesn’t even realize it, but she’s had a crush on him since the first day of freshman year when he made a point to escort her every step of the way

no one had ever treated her like that before

like she was something precious and worth taking care of

Or that day when he found her crying in a corner of the school’s theater

Julia had, frustratingly, once again been voted class president with flying colors

even after Alice had spent so much time crafting the perfect campaign poster

and given the best speech of her life

but no--still she lost by more than half

he’d found her somehow and awkwardly wrapped an arm around her shoulder

saying quietly that she shouldn’t go off and hide to cry -- that she looked beautiful like this

not to mention that he’d def tried to stuff the ballot box for her

and in a moment he’d brushed the frost off her ice-cold heart, sending a small smile across her lips

Most of the time has been spent with Alice helping Zach with all the homework and studying he never seems to actually get done at school

or Zach carting Alice around wherever she wants to go

sometimes literally on his back

usually when her feet hurt from striding around in her tall-tall heels

or just if she wants an excuse to be close to him for a second

The two make a pretty successful, if unlikely, team

Alice as the brains and the beauty

Zach as the witty repartee and occasionally the brawn

But together they’ve got a plan to send Alice rising to the top, shining like the sun

So Julia Greene and the town of Walcott better watch out