A WONDERLAND WISH ON EVER AFTER STREET
JAIMIE ADMANS
For everyone who’s ever been told they were too much. Or not enough. Or too weird. Or too different. Keep being you. The world needs more spectacular nuts!
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
More from Jaimie Admans
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by Jaimie Admans
Love Notes
About Boldwood Books
1
‘Is it currently your birthday?’
‘No.’ The man in the smart suit who is interviewing me looks bemused by my question.
‘Then “Happy Unbirthday” to you.’ I take a cupcake off the platter I’m carrying and place it on the desk in front of him, poke a candle into the icing, lean across to light it with a long-reach lighter, and breathe a sigh of relief when the flame dances into life with no incendiary incidents. Hurrah. That had all the potential to go horribly wrong. Open flames and me are never a good mix.
‘It’s from Alice in Wonderland,’ I continue when the interview board look at me blankly. ‘The Mad Hatter and the March Hare celebrate every day that isn’t their birthday. Why should you only get to celebrate on your birthday itself? Isn’t life worth celebrating every day?’
Mr Hastings, the smart-suited man who’s leading the interview, flicks a fingernail at the swirl of icing atop the cupcake and then peers down at the bit he’s flicked off. The three interviewers are all wearing sharp suits and have stern looks on their faces, but his is the sharpest and sternest of them all. Their table is on a platform at the end of a big meeting room in the council offices, and I feel like they’re all looking down at me, and I wish that, like Alice, I had a piece of cake I could nibble to make me grow taller and be less intimidated by their sophisticated stares. It feels like going for an audition, except they have a big heavy desk in front of them with lots of important-looking papers laid out on it, and I just have a row of plastic chairs at the other end of the room where I had to dump my bag and wonkily balance my platter of cupcakes while I smoothed my hair down and tried to get myself prepared for this interview.
‘That’s what I’ll do if you let me take over the tearoom on Ever After Street. I’ll theme it after Wonderland – lots of red and black, chequerboard flooring, card suits and clocks everywhere, and Mad-Hatter-style tables piled high with decorative teacups and teapots. We’ll do tea parties and Alice-themed afternoon teas where we serve dainty finger sandwiches and cupcakes and tarts, and I’ll offer “Unbirthday parties” every day of the year. Children and adults alike will be able to celebrate a Wonderland-style “Unbirthday” on any day they want.’
They don’t seem very impressed.
