The Curious case of Amelia Pond

When you are a child, everything seems very black and white. There is good and there is evil. Nice people and nasty people. And inside your head you build a fairytale little world where nothing can hurt you and nobody can let you down. This little world, however, has to fade away at some point. It's called growing up.

For a few children, the loss of this perfect world has a far bigger impact on the rest of their lives than others. Amelia Pond... was one of those few children.

Moving to Leadworth from Scotland had been the most boring change in little Amelia's life. She thought that life from then on was going to be just that. Boring. But then she met the Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor who fell from the sky in his magic blue box and crashed into her garden shed. And when she met the Doctor, something inside told her that her life was going to change forever. Well... she hadn't been wrong about that. But her life did not change in quite the way she had hoped.

Because that was the night she waited. She laid all of her hope on that one man. He promised her that he would come back. Five minutes. He PROMISED. And so she waited. But her Raggedy Doctor never came.

[People always say that.]

[Am I people? Do I even look like people?]

Turns out that he was really was just people. He was just like all the people that Amelia Pond had ever met. Making promises and then breaking them. Like they meant nothing.

However, she was still just a child. The Doctor was the most magical thing to ever happen to her. The most fairy tale thing.

[Amelia Pond... like a name in a fairytale.]

He was her fairytale world.

Growing up, she tried to cling to this world. This man. This man who had given her hope in... people.

It was on the day of her thirteenth birthday when the illusion finally shattered. Because that was the day that Amelia Pond... became Amy Pond.

The village hall. The laughter. The balloons. The cameras. The dancing.

And the TARDIS cake.

That was what set the whole thing haywire. That bloody cake.

Amelia, of course, had been utterly delighted when her Aunt brought it out. She nearly screeched with joy. So very happy. It was like her Raggedy Doctor was there with her, to celebrate her birthday.

Everything was happy. Until one typical, stupid teenage boy shouted across the hall:

'You don't STILL believe in that STUPID Doctor do you?! You're supposed to be grown up now! You can't believe in babyish stories!'

[Babyish stories.]

The hall seemed to freeze at that moment.

[Babyish]

Babyish? She was not babyish. She was grown up now.

[Stories]

Stories? A story? The Doctor was not a story. He was real. She remembered everything he had said to her the night that she waited for him. He was real. He was real. He was real.

Everyone was laughing at her now. All of her friends. Even her best friends. Rory. Mels. They were stood chuckling to themselves in the corner. Making fun of her. Why? Why were they doing that?

And that's when she started to run. Ignoring the shouts of her name. Running away from the laughter and the hall and that stupid TARDIS cake.

At first, she didn't quite know where she was running to... but then of course, she ended up running home.

Past the swing set. Past the new shed. Through the back door. Up the stairs. Into her room. Slamming the door shut.

In her mind, the boy's words were repeating over and over again. Stupid. Doctor. Believe. Babyish. Stories.

Somehow, she had ended up on her bed, clutching her toy version of the Doctor that she'd made the just other year. Squeezing it. Her Raggedy Doctor. Her fairytale. Why was it all falling apart? Why was she falling apart?

Words were flowing from her mouth without her even realising.

'Why didn't you come back for me, Doctor?'

A single tear trickled down her cheek and splashed onto the raggedy toy's hair.

'You promised that you would come back... why didn't you? I thought that... you were going to take me places. To see the pretty stars and... all the planets and aliens and we would... run together. But you didn't come back. WHY DIDN'T YOU COME BACK?!'

Angry sobs were shaking through her body now as she threw the stuffed doll across the room. Because that's all it was to her now. Just a stuffed doll. Pretend. Like her stories. Just pretend.

'You were never real... were you? Just... a dream. You were... just... a fairytale.'

[Amelia Pond... like a name in a fairytale.]

But fairytales were supposed to end happily ever after. Why didn't this one?

That was why, from that moment on, Amelia Pond no longer viewed herself as a fairytale. In fact, she no longer viewed herself as Amelia Pond at all.

She was now Amy Pond. The girl who waited for her fairytale world to become reality. The girl who waited for her Raggedy Doctor.

{Amelia Pond. The girl who waited. It's time to stop waiting.}