Author's note: Here is my very first story inspired by "James, Dana and the Giant Peach" "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" I thought of making my character a gypsy with dancing and singing from the 1956 version of "the Hunchback of Notre Dame" even the Disney Version and the 1939 version. This movie takes place somewhere in the 1940's. I do not own "James and the Giant Peach" or "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" the character I only own is Penelope. Now I am once again inspired by, CentiSpiderFanGirl1, to rewrite my story in the beginning of the movie. Enjoy! I will be rewriting this story to add two characters, Jaelle; Penelope's goat, and Dragonfly. Now on with the story!

Chapter 1: The Beginning

This is James Henry Trotter. He lived with his mother, father and adopted older sister, Penelope Esmeralda Trotter, and pet goat, Jaelle in a cozy little house by the sea.

On September 4, 1947, a little boy around seven years old is standing on the beach near his house. He picks up some rocks and threw them into the water of the salty Atlantic Ocean. He is slender with a round face, fair skin, short brown hair and big brown eyes. He is wearing a yellow collared shirt with wrist length sleeves, a light blue vest, knee length tan shorts with a black belt, knee length white socks and brown shoes.

As James threw another rock, his father appeared behind him and grabbed him and held him close, "Hey, I got ya!" said Mr. Trotter and it caused James to laugh. Mr. Trotter has short brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin, and a round face. He wore a brown hat, an aquamarine long sleeved shirt, light grey pants, brown shoes, and he wore a watch on his right wrist.

"Happy Birthday, darling," a beautiful woman, none other than James' mother appeared. She wore a pale blue short sleeved, dress with buttons in the front, a pink headband on her head, a pink apron, and brown high heels.

Like her husband and son, she too had fair skin, brown eyes, and a round face. She carried a cake with vanilla frosting with seven lit up candles, six were blue and in the center was a boy riding on a grasshopper.

"Now quickly, blow them out before the wind does," said Mrs. Trotter, she looked around and called, "Penelope! Where are you sweetheart?"

"Here I am, Mama!" a thirteen-year-old petite and slender girl ran down a path towards her adopted family along with a white and grey goat trotting along side her named Jaelle. This girl is called Penelope. Unlike the Trotters, she has tan skin, emerald green eyes, and an oval face with long wavy black hair that trembles to her waist. She wore a navy blue dress, white sandals and a dark blue headband in her hair.

She carried a bouquet of flowers she picked from a meadow. Penelope is a gypsy, her parents were both gypsies and they are not related to the Trotters. Penelope's family, used to travel around the country in England looking for a place to stay with their caravan. No one would take them in, but Mr. and Mrs. Trotter were both kind enough to allow them stay on their land and provided them food, clothing, and healthcare and soon after, both of the families became good friends. When Penelope was eleven, her parents both died of a mysterious illness caused by a poison.

Since Penelope had no other family, the Trotters adopted Penelope and raised her as their own daughter. They also treated her and Jaelle with kindness and love just as they did with their son, James. Penelope happily became an older sister to James.

"Make a wish first," said Mr. Trotter with encouragement as Mrs. Trotter placed the cake on a red and white checkered tablecloth filled with many gifts that were for James.

James closed his eyes and thought of a wish. After a moment, James blew out the candles.

Penelope grinned, "Happy Birthday James. Here is a bouquet for you." She handed the flowers to her adopted little brother and James took it and smiled at Penelope.

"Thanks Penelope."

Jaelle bleated and James petted her head.

It was a wonderful life. They had each other, and they had their dreams.

The Trotter family laid themselves on an orange and white striped blanket. Mr. Trotter, James, Jaelle, Penelope, and Mrs. Trotter were looking at the clouds in the sky.

James spotted something in the sky and pointed at it, "Look! That cloud looks like a camel." A cloud appeared in the shape of a camel with two humps on its' back.

"And that one over there!" said Penelope as she spotted another cloud that looked like a train. "It looks exactly like a train engine."

"Can you two see the tallest building in the world?" Asked Mr. Trotter.

James and Penelope looked at the sky, and spotted a cloud and it looked like a building and it did not stand up straight.

"I can't find it," the boy said, confused.

"Hmmm, hm, hm, hm, neither can I," said Penelope.

Mrs. Trotter smiled at her children and said gently, "Try looking at it another way."

James and Penelope both sat up and tipped their heads to the right. The cloud looked tall to their eyes and it was the famous building in New York City, the Empire State Building.

"I see it!" cried James.

"So can I!" cried Penelope.

"That's where we're going," said Mr. Trotter as he pulled out a small travel book and it has the words New York in blue with the Empire State Building in the front. "On a great ship that will take us across the ocean, and we'll go right on top of that building."

"The four of us?" Asked James as his eyes widened.

"Especially Jaelle?" asked Penelope.

"The four of us, even Jaelle on top of the world," said Mr. Trotter.

"Are there any kids there like me?" Asked James filled with excitement.

"And girls like me too?" Asked Penelope filled with happiness.

Mr. Trotter opened the travel book, and showed some pictures of New York. "Hundreds of them. It's a wonderful place, James and Penelope," said Mr. Trotter. "A city where dreams come true."

Mr. Trotter gave the travel book to James and he and Penelope looked into it and they both have bigger grins on their faces as they stared into the pictures. Jaelle bleated happily.

Then one day, a terrible thing happened.

James, Penelope, and Jaelle looked up at the sky and they were both alone. Mr. and Mrs. Trotter both vanished. The sky turned black and lightning, wind and thunder appeared. It wasn't just any regular storm.

An angry rhinoceros appeared out of nowhere, and gobbled up his poor mother and father. Their troubles, if they had any at all, were over in thirty-five seconds flat.

The children looked at the sky and James felt scared about losing his mother and father. Penelope felt scared about losing her second parents to the Rhino, as her real parents died of the mysterious illness. Jaelle was about to charge at the Rhino, but Penelope held her back.

All of a sudden the rhino appeared from the storm clouds and it had yellow glowing beady eyes, and with a roar vanished.

But James's and Penelope's troubles were just beginning.

James woke up with a start on his bed, he sat up and breathed, he wore an old white nightshirt with blue stripes. Next to him in another bed was Penelope, who sat up and rubbed her green eyes, and trembled from a nightmare. Jaelle woke up and bleated in fear.

Penelope wore an old lavender nightdress with wrist length sleeves with stitches and patches on the skirt. It has been nine months since James and Penelope lost their parents, Penelope had turned fourteen in February. Ever since that fateful day, both of them had nightmares about the Rhino and the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Trotter.

James held on to his beloved travel book, he gasped and placed it underneath his limp pillow just in the nick of time when James's aunts, his and Penelope's new legal guardians barged in without knocking.

For now, the two and the goat live here, with Aunt Sponge…

"Get up! You lazy little bugs!" snapped Aunt Sponge, who came in first. She was fat and cruel, she wore a rose pink bathrobe, with bright pink fur in the center. She wore slippers on her feet. She had three warts on her face, one on the left side of her face near her ear, one underneath her right nostril, and one underneath her right eye. She even wore a pale blue cloth that completely covered her head. She had pale skin and beady brown eyes.

After finishing her insult to the children, her sister Aunt Spiker came in. Aunt Spiker had brown eyes and pale skin like Aunt Sponge. Instead of being fat like her sister, Aunt Spiker is very thin, tall, and very cruel. She wore a Brunswick green bathrobe, slippers, and a pale blue cloth with a huge bow in the center on her head.

And Aunt Spiker.

"Both of you have already wasted four minutes of daylight!" Aunt Spiker warned as she pointed to her watch.

The children were both terrified as they watched their guardians. Penelope wrapped her arms around James and Jaelle to keep them safe. After losing her adopted parents, Penelope had no choice but to protect James. After the aunts adopted James, they knew that the gypsy girl would be of good use to them as she could help James out with the chores faster. With Penelope around, they treated her and James with cruelty and disrespect. Even Jaelle would charge and hit them in the guts, only for the goat to get kicked.

One time when Sponge and Spiker visited the Trotters, the women insulted Penelope and her family, calling them filthy rats. It was such a horrible insult to them that it made Penelope's parents curse the aunts and warned them that bad things they do would haunt them. The aunts never took them seriously, for they loathe gypsies and believed they should die out.

"Look at the two and the goat," Aunt Spiker teased them. "Lollygagging in dreamland, when there's so much work to do!" Her smile turned into a frown at the mention of work.

James and Penelope keep their mouths shut and knew that if they did talk back and disagree with Sponge and Spiker, they would get severely beaten.

"You two have weeds to pull, wood to chop," warned Aunt Sponge.

The women shouted at them together, "Work, work, work, work, work!"