A/N: Thank you for the alerts, followings, favorites and the reviews, guys! I really enjoyed your words of encouragement; it makes my day. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. For reference, here are the ages.

Ages:

Peter: 16

Liam: 16

Mia: 15

Susan: 15

Edmund: 12

Lucy: 10


The Fantasy of Reality

~Chapter Two~

Boy And Girl Of Yesterday


She was five years old when she met him for the first time. At the insistence of their parents, Mia and Liam had played outside while they moved the furniture around their new house. She had been having tea with her dolls while Liam listlessly kicked his red ball around. Despite Mia's pleads for her brother to play with her, he had been adamantly against playing with her dolls, declaring them to be only for girls. Glaring at him for his refusal to have tea with her, Alice, and Mathilda, Mia smugly pointed out that he was going to get dirty and Mother was not going to be happy. Liam shrugged uncaringly, pointedly continuing to kick his ball around, much to her dislike.

As if summoned, he appeared, clothes caked with dried mud and face streaked with dirt. A scandalized Mia eyed the messy blond boy with distain, turning her nose up at his disheveled appearance. Mother would have never allowed Liam and her to prance around outside in such a frightening state. Mia shuddered, straightening her pretty, frilly dress.

"Hellu, my name is Peter," he exclaimed brightly, peering curiously at her and Liam from beyond their gate.

Gently placing her doll Mathilda down, Mia bounced over to Liam, tugging insistently at his arm. He half-turned to meet her look of disapproval. "Liam, we're not supposed to talk to strangers," Mia hissed loudly, eyeing Peter with distrust. Peter's face fell at her words.

Liam, ever the friendly one, shrugged off her hand and sauntered over to Peter, a warm grin on his face. "Hellu," he replied just as brightly. "I'm William, but you can call me Liam!"

Peter's face brightened, eyes flickering over in her direction expectantly. Mia scowled.

"Mia," she muttered darkly, glowering at her brother. Didn't Mother warn them about the dangers of talking to strange people, and most of all, a dirty boy who looked like he had been purposely rolling in mud? She wrinkled her nose when Peter smeared his dusty hands on his face. He was only making it worse, she noted with disgust. "Why are you so dirty?" She spat the last word as if it were an insult.

"I was making mud pies," he declared boldly. Peter smiled hesitantly at her horrified look.

Liam garnered his attention by proudly showing him his ball. "Want to play ball with me?" Peter nodded enthusiastically, eagerly opening the gate to dart after Liam, completely disregarding her.

Mia gasped in horror. They forgot about her. Liam wasn't supposed to play with anyone but her! Plus, that filthy boy forgot to close the gate! At the tender age of five, she was used to people telling her how adorable she was and then showering her with attention. When Peter did none of the following, Mia was miffed.

She huffed cutely, crossing her arms. "I'm going inside," Mia announced loudly, briefly acquiring their attention and expecting some type of objection. When they just went back to playing, Mia stomped her foot and stormed inside, hoping to never again lay eyes on Peter.

Unfortunately, she did see him again and quite a whole deal, much to Liam's delight and her dismay. He was their neighbor, whom lived next door to them with his parents and baby sister and brother. Whereas Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie immediately connected with her parents, Mia had a hard time getting along with Peter. The primary reason being that he had a habit of acting all high and mighty, despite only being six years old at the time, and since Mia was too stubborn to back down, she usually told him off for his insolence. That and she detested how much Liam preferred to play with him. The green-eyed monster reared its ugly head quite a lot during that time. But, of course, Susan, whom Mia instantly befriended despite being Peter's sister, always took her side in those arguments. Oh, how he loathed that!

Gradually, the resentment she harbored towards him diminished and he became her second-best friend. It was Peter she ran to when Liam played cruel, rotten tricks on her. It was Peter she comforted when he sprained his ankle falling out of a tree he decided to climb, despite her vehement protests. And it was Peter she decided to marry when Susan had insisted upon staging a make belief wedding in grammar school. Ah, those had been much simple times, before the war began and tarnished everything.


Thump!

The sound of a book being slammed harshly, against the surface of her desk, jolted Mia out of her reverie. With a startled jump, the hand propping up her chin fell, almost causing her face to connect with her desk. Gasping, Mia caught herself and met the stern eyes of her English teacher, Mr. Atkinson. The room was silent, everyone watching the exchange with interest.

"Now that you have rejoined the land of the living, Miss Bennett," Mr. Atkinson said drily, pausing to allow her classmates to snicker and laugh around her. "Please read aloud the poem that I was discussing about earlier."

Mia reddened in embarrassment, knowing that she had not been paying the slightest attention to the lesson. Mr. Atkinson seemed to know it too, as he waited smugly for her to acknowledge her lack of attention. Mia racked her brain desperately, but was unable to remember the name and page the poem was on.

She sighed in defeat. "I don't remember the page number," she muttered sheepishly, staring at him from under her eyelashes. She was hoping that he would take pity in her cluelessness and ask another of her classmates to recite it.

He narrowed his eyes with strong disapproval but did moved on to someone else. Mia breathed a sigh of relief. "Miss Horne, please read the poem we have been discussing in class aloud." She did not miss the indirect jab shot at her from the tone of his voice.

"Of course, Mr. Atkinson," Vera Horne agreed, batting her eyelashes at him. Vera shot a false sympathetic look at her before her grating voice filled the classroom.

Mia rolled her eyes, turning her attention to her textbook to find the poem. As she turned each page, eyes swiftly trying to find the words Vera was currently speaking, a soft voice spoke up beside her. "It's on page 45, Mia."

Quickly turning to the correct page, Mia smiled brightly. "Thank you, George," she said gratefully, turning to meet the bespectacled gray eyes of George Livingston. He sat stiffly, beside her, his chair positioned as far away as their shared desk would allow, half of his body spilling into the aisle that separated the desks from each other. He looked tensed, body posed to bolt at any moment. George blushed, fidgeting with his glasses and adverting his eyes from hers to look at his own textbook.

Mia's eyes flashed with annoyance at the bookworm's reaction to her. It seemed that Peter's threat from the week before was still being taken serious if George's discomfort around her was any indication. It didn't help that when Liam had returned to school and had heard of her altercation with Edward, he had gone berserk, spewing insults and threats during lunch that he had to be restrained by Peter and a friend of his. Her older brother's explosive reaction had been further proof of the bodily harm that would befall any boy that was to bother her. Mia snorted at the absurdity of it all. George wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone her, yet he assumed that Peter's threat had been meant for him as well, rather than just Edward and his loyal band of cronies.

In fact, every boy was the same, keeping their distance from her in the hallways, whispering about her to each other when they thought she wasn't listening, smiling tentatively when meeting eyes, among other annoying things. The only one that didn't seem to follow this exact type of behavior was Edward Burke himself, whom would continue to eye her with a mixture of anger, disgust and intrigue. Sure, he would keep his distance like every other boy, but his stares always made her uncomfortable. When she confessed this to the girls at lunch, they had taken to shielding her from him by forming a protective circle around her, judgmental eyes glaring at him in warning. This only elicited enjoyment from him. No doubt please to have provoked such a rise from her.

The other boys' reactions seemed to amuse Peter and Liam, the latter declaring that they better continue to say away while the former merely smirked when certain boys would scramble away under his arctic gaze. The monotone voice of Mr. Atkinson made Mia unwillingly turn her attention back to the lesson, lest she face his and the headmistress's wrath.


"If one more boy looks strangely at me, I swear I'm going to strike him," Mia threatened darkly, moodily glowering at everyone who'd dare make eye contact with her. She was sick and tired of every single boy walking on eggshells around her, always warily eyeing her.

"You can thank Peter for that," Susan remarked drily, amusement in her eyes.

"How are you not upset about this," Mia asked incredulously. "In Peter declaring me off limits, you and Lucy were also indirectly included."

"Honestly, Mia, it doesn't bother me much. Most of these boys I don't even recognize, let alone talk to. Remember they are only here until Hendon House is fixed. And Lucy is only ten; I hardly think boys her age are any threat to her."

"That's not the point, Susan," Mia exclaimed, throwing up her arms, narrowly avoiding clipping a younger girl in the head. Susan aimed a passing apologetic smile over her shoulder at the girl's disgruntled look. Susan raised an eyebrow, silently asking her best friend to elaborate. "I'm allow to speak to whomever I please."

"I do believe my dear brother was merely defending your honor," Susan informed her. "By the way, Charles Bradford is looking this way."

Mia's eyes slide to where Susan had been pointing at, and they widened in surprise to see Charles was indeed glancing at them, or rather her. He smiled when he realized he had her attention. He seemed to hesitate as if he was debating whether or not he should walk over to where they were standing. Henry Paxton appeared then, whispering urgently into his ear, while occasionally glancing her way. Whatever they had been discussing, Charles seemed to give up on the notion of talking, for he casted a remorseful grimace at her before following Henry down the hall, away from them. Mia sighed, feeling inadequate by his dismal.

"I do hope she's not coming home with us again," Susan spoke up, wrinkling her nose with distrain. Mia redirected her gaze to where Susan was glancing. "Her forwardness is rather appalling."

Coming out of a classroom were Peter and Eloise, the latter giggling rather loudly at something funny that the former had without a doubt said. Mia scowled when she saw how Eloise placed her hand, with familiarly, on Peter's arm whilst Peter did none thing to discourage her flirtatious behavior. It seemed that Peter's chivalrous act had unfortunately garnered him attention from a majority of the girls, with Eloise leading the charge. She honestly hoped all that attention would not go to his head; his ego was already big enough as it was without it over-inflating. Well, there went another peaceful afternoon.


They were seated in the kitchen, pouring over their schoolwork, when Mia stormed inside. She noticed how close Eloise's chair was to Peter's, so close that if Eloise shifted she would be seating in his lap. It looked liked she was whispering something intimate into his ear from the way Peter moved in his seat, his neck reddening. Mia's fists clenched tightly.

"May I speak with you" she spoke tersely, watching Peter spring away from Eloise. Both were blushing, but it seemed Eloise was less than thrilled about the interruption. Mia rolled her eyes, uncaring that she was currently at the receiving end of a death glare. "Alone." She emphasized the last word by shoving pass him into the sitting room, silently telling him to follow.

A moment later, Peter entered the room, warily standing before her.

"I want you to stop intimidating the boys at school," Mia said seriously.

Peter made a face, walking pass her to glance out the window. "And how do you propose I do that?"

Mia huffed. "By being less standoffish and more friendly," she retorted, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"What of Edward Burke? Should I extend the same curtsey to him? Never mind the fact that he deserved to be knocked down a peg or two," Peter refuted drily.

"Not all of them are bad," she insisted, her mind drifting to Charles Bradford and George Livingston.

Peter snorted then, turning around to face her, amusement in his eyes. "It will be rather tedious to convince Liam to agree to such an arrangement."

She gritted her teeth, wanting to clear that smug look off his face. It was most certainly too late to prevent his ego from over-inflating; the blasted thing was big enough to fill the sitting room. She advanced upon him until they were chest to chest, finger jabbing him after every other word. "Susan and Lucy may not care, but I rather value my right to speak to whom I please. You will be complying to what I asked," Mia stated ardently, eyes blazing.

He caught her hand mid-jab, irate eyes unflinchingly meeting hers. "And why don't you do so?"

She wrenched her hand free. "Because you have scared them off, you and Liam both!"

"It is not any of my fault if the boys at our school are sniveling cowards!"

Mia screamed in disbelief, stamping her foot down harshly. "You are incorrigible!"

"And you a pretentious, ungrateful brat! I didn't see you complaining when I defended you from Burke's advances. On the contrary, I do remember you thanking me."

"My first mistake," she spat, breathing harshly.

"No, your first mistake was thinking that your pitiful excuse at flirtation worked," he sneered.

She flinched from him, his words hitting her like a slap to the face. Hurt flashed across her face before it was gone just as quickly as it appeared. She didn't bother dignifying his words with a response of her own, allowing her disappointed eyes to clash with his surprised ones.

He realized his mistake as soon as he had uttered those words. "Mia, I'm—"

She turned on her heels and calmly walked out the front door, head held high while inside her heart was racing.

Peter growled lowly, fists clenching tightly at his sides. He longed to hit something—anything— at the moment. Why was it that anything that pertained to her as of late garnered rather violent, irrational reactions from him? Did he ingest something peculiar?

"Peter," a tentative voice called.

Peter closed his eyes, his back rigid, before he spoke in a tight whisper. "Go home, Eloise." He didn't wait for her response before he stalked up the steps, slamming his door shut on Susan's disapproving face.

On her way home, she realized with regret that he had changed, but the thing was that so had she.