Disclaimer- If you recognize it from the books or movies, I most certainly do not own it and do not in any way claim to. Levi and everything you *don't* recognize, however, most certainly belongs to me and please don't use it without asking first.
Music of the Heart
"Levi, where were you?!"
"At practice, Mother."
"A likely story! I'm not an idiot Levi, I know you run about with those punks at school!"
Levi Morrison knew better than to listen to her mother's drunken ravings. She rolled her eyes and ran up the stairs, making sure to slam her bedroom door extra hard behind her.
"I'm not finished with you, Levity!"
Levi slumped and groaned. When her mother used her full, evil, disgusting name, she knew she was in big trouble. She could count on one hand the number of time she'd been called Levity in the past three years.
"Coming, Mother," Levi yelled back. She dropped her backpack on her bed and kicked off her boots before she went back downstairs, something akin to fear spinning through her. It was more accurately named apprehension and acute nervousness, not fear. Levi didn't fear anything except herself.
Amelia Morrison was standing at the foot of the stairs, standing unsteadily, her light hair tousled, eyes red-rimmed.
"You never, ever run off like that!" Amelia screamed, eyes wide. "Never!"
"Yes, Mother," said Levi dully. "I'm sorry, Mother. I had a bad day at school."
This quelled Amelia's temper slightly. Her daughter's calm, cool response seemed to have disoriented her as well.
"Good. Now, what was I saying?"
Levi didn't reply. She turned and returned to her bedroom.
Levi closed the door gently behind her and let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Mother could get mean when she was drunk, which happened far too often now that Father had run off.
Levi missed her father terribly, but she hated him more than anyone else on the planet. He had left her mother and herself three months before, and had only contacted them twice. Levi was torn between love for her father and the deep, aching hurt he'd caused by leaving.
She pushed away this particular line of thought and sat down on her bed. She turned on the radio on her nightstand and began taking off her socks, letting the haunting melodies of the classical music wash through her.
At fourteen, Levi was still more child than adult. Not physically, but mentally. Oh, she understood how the world worked and was an intelligent girl, but she was too wrapped up in her own fantasies and dreams to pay much attention to anything else. She still had some of her childhood innocence, something that seemed odd to people.
Physically, though, Levi was a typical teenaged girl. She was of average height, with a slender, well-muscled build born through years of ballet training. She was rather pale, having spent most of her time indoors. Her dark brown, almost black hair made a startling contrast to her light skin. Her eyes were blue, jewel-bright, almost unearthly. She was currently dressed in jeans and a black leotard, but usually she wore jeans and a tank top of some sort. She had just returned from ballet practice, which explained her clothing.
"That'd be nice to dance to," she said absently as a high, haunting flute solo came through her stereo speakers. Almost without consulting her, her body agreed and rose, moving lightly to the music.
Levi danced through the entire solo, moving as if the only thing keeping her from flying away was gravity. She didn't even think about the dance, only listened to the music, losing herself in it.
On the roof, someone was sitting on the antiquated cedar shakes. The starlight silhouetted him, showing only the flutter of a tattered tunic in the breeze, a hand tapping the roof in time to the music, shaggy hair dancing about in the cool zephyr.
"She likes music." The voice was a soft tenor, inflection meant to be neutral but the owner's typical playfulness creeping through it. "Especially that weird, float-y sort."
There was the softest tinkle, as of silver bells caught in an impish breeze. Something bright flew about the solitary form for an instant, illuminating briefly a playful face that belonged undeniably to a teenage boy, but the eyes… the eyes were as old as darkness, as young as a brand new day, as sweet as honey and as disturbingly fearsome as a hurricane. It was obvious this was no ordinary boy- indeed, he was far from it.
"Nah, I just like to watch her dance. She's good. Come here, I'll show you." The boy crept down along the roof, then stepped out into the air. Somehow it supported him, and he hovered silently. The golden light appeared again, flitting about, almost nervously.
"See? I told you so." The boy pointed through the window. It was closed and locked of course, and a curtain covered one half of it, but inside Levi danced on, unconcerned and unknowing of the fact that she was watched by a most unusual Peeping Tom.
The sound of bells came again.
"I'd like to, but I don't think she believes anymore."
There was a long silence, filled with the sound of Levi's stereo playing haunting tones that filled the air.
"Let's go, Tink."
The boy and the light vanished up into the sky, and Levi was completely unaware of it. Which was probably all the better, as had she known, nothing that happened thereafter could have happened in the most satisfactory manner that it did.
* * *
Levi stepped off the school bus, smiling lightly as a cool spring breeze caught a loose strand of dark hair and blew it across her face. After all the bad weather of the past few weeks, it felt, well, like a breath of fresh air.
Like she always had, Levi walked to the mailbox. She pulled a wad of envelopes out of the typical corrugated metal construction, completely alike every other on the block save for the address. It still read 'Mr. & Mrs. Morrison,' something that Levi wished were still true of the residents. Now it would be more properly labeled 'Mrs. Morrison & Her Daughter.'
Levi jogged up the walkway, absently noting that a cloudbank sat on the horizon. Maybe it would come overhead and rain, maybe it wouldn't, Levi didn't care either way.
"School sucks, ballet rocks," she sang under her breath as she fished the house key from her pocket. "Ashton Marsh wears smelly socks…"
Singing thus, in a way that reminds the reader of her imaginative and impish spirit, Levi unlocked the door and stepped inside, carefully closing the door behind her.
"Mother, I'm home," Levi called cautiously, uncertain if her mother were home and if she were, if she'd been drinking again.
Levi didn't have to wait long for her answer. A crash of breaking glass came from her mother's bedroom upstairs, followed by a string of slurred, extremely unladylike words. Levi cringed inwardly, but marched up the stairs anyway.
Amelia was sitting on her bedroom floor, a broken bottle by her feet. She was holding another bottle in her hand, this one whole and almost full.
"Mother?"
Amelia looked up and squinted at her daughter. "Gimme the mail," she slurred.
Levi obediently handed over the envelopes, not even having bothered to look through them to see if anything were for her. Amelia snatched them away furiously and peered at the addresses.
"Wot's this… Keaton Morrison…" she read, with some difficulty. She tore the envelope open and unfolded its contents unsteadily.
"Want me to read it for you?" asked Levi neutrally. Amelia glared drunkenly at her and gave no reply.
Feeling unnecessary and seeing that she was being ignored, Levi sidled out of the room and walked down to her own bedroom, tossing her backpack on the bed as usual and sitting down to take off her tennis shoes. She was in the middle of unlacing one when an angry shriek came from her mother's room.
"What on earth-?" Levi stood and padded quietly back down the hall, somewhat unsteadily, as she wore only one shoe and consequently one leg was an inch or so higher than the other.
Amelia was clearly furious. A crumpled piece of paper was in one hand, she was beating up her pillow with the other. Actually, it was her father's pillow, but that fact escaped Levi's attention.
"Mother, what-"
Amelia whirled on her daughter, her blue eyes bright with a strange frenzy. "You disgusting creature!" Amelia screamed. "You did this to me! You pushed him away!"
Levi was paralyzed by a sudden feeling that terrifying all on its own- fear. Not the mild kind you get just before giving a report at school, or going on a roller-coaster, but the sort of gut-wrenching horror one experiences when they realize that they might survive, but it was going to be very, very painful.
Amelia lunged at Levi, completely insane. Levi took the blow in the stomach. It knocked the wind out of her.
Amelia was screaming about Levi pushing her father away the entire time. Levi didn't quite notice this, since the next blow caught her on the head and she was quite senseless afterwards.
* * *
A few hours later, the little house was still. One would never know, from looking at the quite respectable Victorian-style two-story house that a little while before, something quite nasty had taken place there.
Inside, Levi was lying sprawled at the foot of the stairs. Bruises streamed across what skin was visible, and many more were concealed beneath her black jeans and red tank top.
Levi groaned, eyes fluttering open with some effort. For a moment the ceiling spun around her, but then it came to a halt. A moment later the pain, absent from Levi's mind while she was unconscious, came back with a vengeance.
Levi let out a small hiss of pain, biting her lip. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and examined herself carefully. She had no mirror, but from the feel of it she had a good-sized shiner developing, and a scrape on her cheek from when she'd skidded down the carpeted stairs. Other marks were accounted for, and Levi stood.
"Ooh, I don't feel good," Levi moaned, supporting herself on the wall. She suddenly had to know what happened, and where her mother was. But first, she needed to lie down. She felt ill.
Levi climbed up the stairs, leaning heavily on the banister. It took over five minutes to scale what she almost saw as an impossible slope, but only earlier that afternoon she had leapt up them in under thirty seconds with nearly a second thought.
When she did reach the top, she found Amelia passed out on the floor of the hallway, smelling of beer. Levi's stomach twisted and she almost threw up over the railing.
She looked blankly at her mother for a moment. Then, quite suddenly, something inside her froze. Her innocence was pushed aside, replaced with a bitter coldness with a speed that was frightening.
"No more," she breathed. "I won't let anyone betray me again."
She turned and ran to her room, all pain and nausea quite forgotten. Hardly realizing what she was doing, Levi grabbed the biggest backpack in her closet, dumped out a collection of old school papers, and began shoving clothes and various other things in it.
Four outfits, ballet clothes, underwear, socks, two pairs of shoes, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, brush, and all the money she had. They were shoved helter-skelter into the backpack. She could have fit more in had she folded everything neatly, but she didn't, and had it been any heavier anyway it would not have bode well for her later.
Not even bothering to change her torn clothes, Levi pulled on a jacket and her missing tennis shoe, tied the laces, put on the backpack, and ran down the stairs again. She slammed through the front door, leaving it open. Still working on paranoid mode, she grabbed her bicycle from beside the porch, mounted it, and rode away as fast as she could.
As she rode, hot tears of anger and betrayal spilled down her face.
* * *
"I'm bored, Tink, let's go to the Other World. I want to see the Dancing Girl again."
Silver bells answered, sounding oddly scolding. Something gold flashed, illuminating the platform the boy stood in. He was standing at the edge, looking out over his little kingdom. Had the boy known what a roguish picture he made, he would have been quite pleased with himself, but he didn't, and no one was about to point it out.
"You stay behind, then. Help get ready for the siege. But I haven't had a decent adventure since… well, okay, since yesterday, but still!"
The gold spark zipped past the boy, out into the air and amongst the branches of the enormous tree the little house was perched in. The bells sounded again.
"I knew you wouldn't let me go off by myself. Come on, there's nothing to do here." The boy jumped off the platform and was suddenly rocketing through the branches with the gold spark flickering around him.
"Who knows, maybe we can find something more interesting than a girl who dances."
* * *
It was raining.
It had started raining, in fact, within five minutes of Levi's desperate and rather foolhardy departure of the house that was no longer a home in the loosest sense of the word.
The rain blurred Levi's vision even more than the tears already had. But the cool rain soothed her various cuts and bruises, so she didn't complain.
The pain was coming back, and Levi was suddenly quite certain that she'd pulled a muscle during her plummet down the stairs. She gritted her teeth, bore it, and carried on. She hadn't the foggiest idea of where she was going, except that she was going as far away from her mother as she could.
She started over the bridge, which was made more difficult by the rain-slicked pavement. She slowed slightly as her muscles gave protest. They would certainly mutiny soon, but Levi didn't care in the slightest.
As long as she got away first.
Levi was peddling up the bridge, going against traffic on the little sidewalk. But the large SUV was coming down the bridge, and the added momentum, combined with the rain and the fact that this particular driver was coming home from a bar, made it a very bad place to be.
The SUV swerved dangerously. Levi didn't notice, her eyes were fixed on the sidewalk and nowhere else.
Then the tires squealed. Levi's head snapped up. All she saw were headlights, coming straight at her like double arrows.
She screamed.
The SUV plowed into the rail. The fender caught on Levi's handlebars, spinning her around and flipping the teenager over the side of the bridge.
The only thing on her mind as she fell was that she'd at least get away from her mother.
* * *
Peter Pan was flying.
It was quite a normal activity for him, even though he had no wings of any sort, he seemed to be simply hovering along by sheer force of will. This was rather true, but the fairy dust he'd been doused in when he still lived among the fairies helped immensely.
He drifted along lazily, quite enjoying the moonlight above the carpet of heavy dark clouds. Apparently Tinker Bell liked it as well, she spun and danced about just out of his reach, speaking absently in her own language.
"This is better than staying at home," she said happily, her words as the sound of joyful silver bells. "The stars are so different here- they're prettier."
The clouds beneath lit up with sheet lightning. A mischievous light came across Peter's face, and Tinker Bell saw it.
"You stupid boy, don't you dare," she warned.
"Don't be such a wet blanket, Tink," said Peter absently. Grinning impishly, he dove down into the heavy, tumbling clouds.
Tinker Bell gave an exasperated sound and followed.
Peter danced easily through the lightning flying through the cloud, almost playing with it. And the lightning quite enjoyed it, if the quick flashes and cheerful rumble of thunder as of distant laughter were any indication.
Tinker Bell wasn't having near as much fun. She was drenched to the skin, her wings quickly becoming useless in the wet conditions. She darted into Peter's pocket. He didn't even notice, he was too busy frolicking amongst the bright flashes of lightning.
"This is crazy, Peter, get out of here!" Tinker Bell screamed. Peter heard her, quite surprised at her proximity, and grudgingly obeyed.
It wasn't much better beneath the clouds. Rain poured down in torrents, and lightning came down intermittently. Tinker Bell was miserable.
"Let's go scare the people in those… what're they? Cats?" Peter pointed at the bridge far below, though of course Tink couldn't see inside his pocket.
"Let's just get out of the rain," said Tinker Bell miserably. Peter pretended not to hear and swooped down on the bridge, laughing over his own ingenuity. This wild boy, dancing with raindrops, bore almost no resemblance to the quiet, reflective lad on Levi's roof a few days before. But it was the same person. Those eyes were still the same… older and younger than anything else, filled with the simple joy that only the innocence of a little child brings.
A car swerved sharply and slammed into the bridge rail. Peter heard a piercing scream and saw a girl go tumbling head-over-heels towards the swift river far below.
Great, something to spoil his fun. "Tink, look there! Help me get her!" Before Tink could even think of leaving Peter's pocket he was swooping down on the tumbling girl, wind and rain whipping past.
Levi couldn't even scream. Her heart was clenched inside her chest, and she felt as if she couldn't breathe. Not that it would do any good.
Something grabbed her backpack. She stopped suddenly, the air blasting out of Levi's lungs in a sound somewhere between a grunt and a scream.
"You're heavier than you look. What's in this thing, cannonballs?" said a cheerful male voice, just above the howl of the wind and rain. It had a vaguely British-sounding accent to it.
"What- what in the-" Levi felt herself rising through the air. Panic gripped her.
"What's going on! Who are you! Lemme go!" She twisted in the backpack straps, looking for all the world like a cornered animal.
"Calm down, girl, you're all right. Isn't she, Tink?"
Bells rung out over the sound of rain.
The person let go. Levi dropped through the air. A scream wrenched out of her throat. Before it had even gotten halfway out of her mouth, she landed on something that gave slightly and let out a grunt.
"Stop screaming!"
This was all just too much for poor Levity Lyris Morrison. She passed out, and welcomed the darkness with open arms. It was far easier to cope with than the insanity her life had become.
* * *
"Uh…"
"She's waking up!"
Levi blinked. A concrete block was all she saw. It took her a moment to realize it was the ceiling.
A face appeared above her, blocking out the ceiling. It was a teenaged boy, about her age, with sandy hair and hazel eyes crinkled in concern. He was soaking wet.
"What happened?" Levi croaked, not at all caring that she sounded awful, nor that she didn't know this boy from Adam. Help was help.
"You fell off the bridge," the boy replied. Then he grinned proudly. "I saved you."
"That so." Levi sat up, ruefully noting that this was the second time today she'd passed out. First because of a punch in the head, second because of sheer shock and terror. The second was infinitely more embarrassing.
"You mean… you fished me out of the river, right?"
The boy scoffed at that. "You wouldn't have been alive to have been fished out of the river. Nah, I caught you. Carried you over here." He gestured vaguely at their surroundings.
It took Levi a moment to realize where they were, but when she did she gave a rueful laugh. "Under the bridge, right?"
"Yup."
"Well, it's better than some other places I could think of."
"I suppose so," the boy replied neutrally. He peered closely at her. "You're the dancing girl, aren't you?"
Levi felt suddenly very self-conscious. "What do you mean, dancing girl? I dance, yeah, but what's got to do with you?" she said defensively.
"I would come watch you dance sometimes," said the boy, completely unabashed. "You're good. Tink doesn't think so, though."
"Tink?" Levi echoed blankly. "Who's that?"
"Tinker Bell," the boy replied. A bell tinkled softly from his pocket and something glowed.
"What's your name?" asked Levi quickly, not wanting to know who or what this Tinker Bell was.
"Peter Pan," he said proudly. "Ever heard of me?"
Levi stared at him, then slowly shook her head. "Afraid not, um, Peter. I'm Levi, by the way."
"Levi? I thought that was a boy name," Peter said suspiciously.
"It is. It's really just a nickname," Levi explained absently. "My full name is--if you can believe it--Levity Lyris Morrison. I don't really like it."
"Light music," Peter said thoughtfully. "It fits you, I think."
"Where's my backpack?"
"Over there," Peter said, gesturing to the aforesaid pack, which was tossed absently a few feet away. "I haven't gone through it. Tink, neither."
Levi nodded and reached for it. Then she gave a soft hiss of pain and recoiled. Her shoulder didn't like that.
"Are you all right?" asked Peter sharply, the movement not going unnoticed. "I don't think all of that happened when you fell off the bridge."
Levi shook her head, wincing and gently poking at her shoulder. "No, I… got in a fight." She looked up at Peter and smiled wryly.
Then she did a double take.
Levi was honestly surprised she hadn't noticed how strange this boy was before. She'd thought him quite normal, if a little eccentric.
He had hazel eyes and hair that would have been light if it were dry, yes, and had a deep tan, that was true, but his clothes were so strange. A tattered tunic the color of pine needles, bound at his waist with a leather belt. A sheath was strapped to it, holding what looked like a fourteen-inch hunting knife.
And were those- tights?! Thank goodness, no, just some sort of odd leggings, looking to be tan in color, maybe made of leather (something in the back of her head grinned at the thought). The leggings disappeared into large heavy boots that looked as if they belonged in a historical recreation rather than on the feet of a teenage boy.
"You're… dressed weird," said Levi lamely. "Like Robin Hood."
"Who's that?" Peter asked curiously, cocking his head to one side. Levi shook her head.
"Never mind."
"I guess I'd better take you home, huh," said Peter, standing up, not meaning Levi's home whatsoever. But poor Levi paled, not having been informed.
"No way! I'm not going back there!" she said, a bit hysterically. Peter looked at her curiously.
"What ever do you mean?"
Levi wrapped her arms around herself tightly and shook her head vehemently. "I'm not going back. Not after what happened today."
"What happened?"
Levi didn't answer.
Peter gave the pale, frightened girl a sympathetic look. "It's okay." Then suddenly his face lit up, as if someone had lit a light bulb in his head. It wasn't too far from the truth.
"Oh! I get it! I'm taking you to my home, not yours."
Instantly a harsh jangle of bells came from Peter's pocket. Out zoomed a ball of gold light, moving so fast that Levi couldn't follow it with her eyes.
Peter looked annoyed. "Oh, come on Tink, its no big deal! You didn't want Wendy and John and Michael to come, or Jane, or Maggie, but they came, and nothing went wrong! Besides, she can't stay." He gave an appealing glance to Levi. "Right?"
"Er, right," said Levi uncertainly. She tried to track the gold ball, which was emitting jangling sounds like silver bells caught in a high wind.
"Well, what else am I supposed to do with her?" said Peter furiously.
The gold ball paused for a moment. Levi caught half a glimpse of a tiny, well-curved woman with butterfly wings, dressed similarly to Peter, but an instant later she was only a glowing orb bouncing around like a pinball. She--obviously it was a she--let out a soft, almost resigned tinkle.
Peter clapped his hands happily. "All right! Let's get her flying, then."
Levi's eyes bugged out. "Excuse me?" she croaked. "Fly?!"
"Sure," said Peter, completely unconcerned by the hint of apprehension in Levi's voice. Her devil-may-care attitude was slowly returning, but that didn't mean she was going to jump off the bridge with a pair of paper wings on her back.
Then Peter caught the look on Levi's face. "All right, just listen real careful. Stand up."
Levi obeyed, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Close your eyes."
Hesitantly, Levi did as she was told. She was started to become annoyed, but her curiosity got the better of her and she didn't budge.
"Think of something real nice. Something… float-y, I guess, is the best word for it. Something nice and airy."
Levi complied, and smiled blissfully despite herself. Her happy thought was the day she'd been accepted for the ballet camp last summer, over at least twenty other girls.
"Now for it, Tink," said Peter softly, seeing the peaceful, happy expression on Levi's pale face.
Grumbling slightly, Tink flew a few times around Levi's form. Gold dust settled on her, then vanished.
She began rising slowly into the air.
Levi was still wrapped in the happy memory. She opened her eyes, intent of giving Peter an expectant look.
She was three feet off the ground, and still rising.
Levi shrieked and dropped a foot, but she grasped hold of the happy thought like a life preserver and she halted.
On the ground, Peter grinned. "See! Just keep thinking happy thoughts, and you'll stay up."
"How-" Levi gasped, staring at the floor.
"Happy thoughts and fairy dust," said Peter glibly. He rose easily off the floor and hovered next to Levi. "Easy as pie."
"How do I steer?" asked Levi curiously, quickly finding her air legs, so to speak.
Peter looked amazed. "You turn whichever way you want to go, of course," he said, trying not to give Levi a shocked look. "How else did you expect to steer? If you want to go faster, though, you kind of… think you're faster, and you are."
"Okay," said Levi nervously. She twisted her body carefully and thought herself into motion, towards her bag. She reached down and grabbed it and swung it over her shoulder, tightening the straps carefully.
"Let's try this out," she said. Then, taking a deep breath, she moved slowly out from under the bridge.
The rain had let up slightly, now merely drizzling rather than an out-and-out thunderstorm. A definite improvement. And it was dark out, so it was less probable that anyone would see a couple of teenagers and a ball of light flying around.
"Follow me!" Peter cried. He zoomed past her and shot up into the sky. The little fairy came back and yanked hard on a lock of Levi's soggy hair.
"All right, I'm coming!"
Levi followed Peter. This whole flying thing was a lot easier than she thought, and she felt delightfully… free. She didn't have to cater to the whims of mere technicalities like gravity.
She soon caught up with Peter. He was floating on his back, arms crossed behind his head.
"What took so long?"
"Trying to figure what I was doing," Levi replied. "Where're we going?"
Peter spun, and was suddenly upright and facing Levi. "Just follow me. Stay close, it might be a bit of a rough ride." He started off again, going rather slower. Levi followed easily, nervously glancing at the ground, but clinging to happy thoughts with all the mental perseverance she could muster.
They broke through the thick, tumbling clouds and into clear night sky. Levi laughed in pure wonder. The stars were so clear, they looked close enough to touch. A stiff breeze whipped past, but it was warm, and it felt wonderful after the chilly rain and frigid blasts of wind.
"Second star to the right," said Peter gently, not wanting to break Levi from her reverie too roughly, "and straight on 'til morning." He pointed it out. Levi instantly recognized the North Star, he was pointing at a star just to the right.
"Let's go then." Levi adjusted her backpack, stiffened her resolve, and shot off through the night sky.