Chapter 4
He smiles. "You know you're probably the most talented stowaway we've had in a while. Usually we find them within the first couple of hours."
"Well, I didn't pick the spot."
He nods like he understands. "Oh, did an experienced friend tell you were to hide?"
I laugh. "No, more like dropped me in the right place. And he's not my friend."
"Wait-"
Peter lands on the railing between us.
At his entrance Rob jumps into a fighting stance, his own sword drawn to match Peter's.
Neither one makes a move.
"Daphne, get up." Peter commands without looking at me. I rise slowly. Standing in the cramped space, their swords are inches from my skin and only a foot of space separates me and Rob.
Rob who's looking at me with a calculating intensity.
Out of the corner of my eye I see pirates climbing up towards us, and from the way Peter stiffens and Rob's hands begin to shake, I can tell they can too.
"Get…Her…Outofhere," Rob growls under his breath to Peter.
He needs no more urging, and soon I'm flying straight up. A couple seconds too late, Rob swings his sword at the height my face used to be. It grazes the bottoms of Ron's borrowed moccasins. Grappling their way up, the rest of the pirates miss their chance as well.
I hang on tight to Rob, my body shivering in the cold now that the adrenaline is gone. The rest Peter's men fly below us, leading us to the looming mountains.
We land on a rocky overhang in front of a cave. The steep incline of rock is devoid of trees or any type of plant and the grayish rock glitters subtly in the morning sun.
The guys start smacking Matt when he lands, playfully slapping him for his stupidity.
"Alright, alright, but guess what I learned?"
Peter rolls his eyes and approaches the grinning boy. "What, Matt?"
The smirk stretches wider. "They didn't know we left the island! They thought we were in hiding the entire time; Hook was desperate for where our "secret hiding spot" was. Well I gave him a bull shit map, is what I did. He should be out of our hair for a week at least as he follows my directions!"
"What did you tell him?" Someone shouts before Peter can speak.
His eyes gloss over with mischief and he laughs once. "Oh, you know, a little something about how the mermaids keep it hidden and the only way to get them to reveal it is to insult them. I was very generous on which words would work too."
"Matt," Peter begins.
"Listen, Pete, didn't you hear what I said? Do you know what that means? They don't know Daphne's here yet, idiot!" He whoops with pride over his discovery.
"They know Daphne's here guys, they saw her."
All the glares turn in my direction.
"I knew we shouldn't have brought her!" Brian said.
"Seriously Daphne, how hard is it to hide?" Zack asks with annoyance.
I widen my eyes in outrage. "Maybe you should ask Peter why he hid me there!"
"I bet she didn't even bother ducking down." One guy supplies.
I turn to Peter, looking for support.
"It really wasn't that difficult to do, Daphne. You just had to duck and stay quiet." He accuses.
"Uggghhh!" I shriek, marching fast and deliberately into the cave. Fine with going anywhere as long as it was away from them.
"So what do we do now?" I hear Zack ask.
"Well now that Daphne screwed us, we're going to have to start watch duty again."
"Thanks a lot, Daphne!" Zack yells.
I smack into rock, not being able to see in the dark and all, and slump into a sitting position facing the wall.
He wants me so bad he has to steal me from my bed, and then what does he do? Blame everything on me.
I felt beyond exhausted, I needed to eat, I was freezing, my pajamas were soaked, not to mention dirty and ripped. And now, hours after the abduction, my bruises from all the times Peter had dropped me and my cuts from the glass shards of my former window stung.
I sighed and felt like crying. What a shitty day.
Footsteps echoed in the cave and my eyes dried up. Fine, he was so determined to make me stay here, but who said I had to make it easy on him?
Determined not to show them how upset I was, I joined their group. The wide entrance let in enough sunlight to light the first couple feet so they were spread out within the sunny boundaries.
I stood behind one of the boys in the group closest to me, pointedly waiting for them to make room for me.
They didn't.
I began to move on to the next group, pretending the rejection was not personal and failing miserably.
"Hey Daphne!" Ron called. I turned back to that group and noticed him sitting in the lopsided circle. He moved to his right, pushing the guy next to him into the guy on his other side, nearly toppling the group. He patted the newly opened space with an excitement that had me cringing.
Years of following the unwritten rules of high school told me to turn away, pretend I didn't notice, and hope and pray he wouldn't call any more attention to himself and me. But my experience with the boys so far told me this embarrassing display of acceptance was my one and only chance.
I sucked in the last of my pride and collapsed into the spot. Looking at the faces, I had a feeling I had just found myself in the loser circle.
"Hi Daphne," Ron said, grinning like an idiot. He started with the guy he had toppled before and went around the circle, telling names I knew I would never remember. "This is Luke, that's Quinn, and the guy next to you is Will."
Will gave me an embarrassed grin, complete with a full face reddening, and pretended to be extremely fascinated with the floor.
"Hey, what should Daphne's fairy name be?" the guy next to Ron, Luke or Quinn or whatever, asked.
My ears began to burn red. "Why do I need one?"
Will snorted. "Because you'll be in our stories now."
"Well…well can't I pass as Tinkerbell?" I mean I did have blond hair after all.
All the guys started laughing these really nerdy, snorting laughs. "No," Ron answered. "You can definitely NOT pass as Tinkerbell."
"How about Glimmerdaisy?" I think Quinn answered.
"No," said Will, "what about Sparklecherry?"
"Jinglepoppy?"
"Twistersnow?"
"How about just Daphne?" I asked.
They looked at me like I had just grown two heads.
"Carrydew?"
"Twinkleleaf?"
A shadow appeared in front of me and I looked up to see Josh standing over the group. Though he was grinning, the boys shut down and got silent, looking like they'd all just been slapped.
And then Josh's hands began to move, a sign language all its own. The boys nodded their understanding as he went, but I was still lost. Was this the first time I saw him do this? I couldn't remember.
Despite the rudeness of it, I asked, "Why can't you talk?"
The boys looked at me like I'd just asked a fat lady when the baby was due.
Josh gave a silent laugh, over exaggerated for my sake. Then he sank down with the rest of us and signed something to Ron.
Ron shot me a thanks-a-lot look. "Josh wants me to share the story with you."
"Oh," I said, curious, "ok."
"When Wendy was here, she didn't really get along with the mermaids."
I remembered Peter shouting about the mermaids earlier but I couldn't remember what he had said.
"We were allies with the mermaids, because they all loved Peter, but Wendy was jealous because Peter was spending so much time with them. So one day she went down to their lake to go yell at them. Peter always made someone go with her no matter where she went, and that day it was Josh's turn."
I looked at Josh, but he was eyeing the ground, lost in his story.
"When the mermaids got mad at Wendy for telling them off, she also called them whores I think, they started reaching for her. Josh saw and knew Peter would kill him if anything happened to Wendy, so he flew in front of her just in time for them to grab his clothes instead. But instead of drowning her like he thought they were going to, they were planning on stealing her voice, dooming us to never have stories from her again. They took his voice instead."
"Oh my God," I whispered. I looked at Josh. He was grinning sadly, defeated. "Is it still there?" I asked.
"The mermaids hold on to all their stolen voices." Will answered.
"But Peter's trying to get it back, right?"
Luke/Quinn glanced at Josh, asking permission, before answering, "Peter doesn't think it's worth the risk."
"What!" I shrieked. The boys around us stopped talking at my outburst, and then seeing no threat, began again.
The boys nodded. I looked for Peter and found him sitting between Matt and Drake. What an asshole.
An idea started forming in my head. "Where is this lake?"
They all looked at me.
"You know, so I can avoid it."
Ron sighed, not skilled enough with talking to others to notice a lie and an obvious plan. "It's about a half a mile east of our campsite."
The other boys nodded their agreement.
"I'm sorry," I told Josh. "That really sucks."
He shrugged in that "I don't care" way that meant he really did care. Then he stood up and walked away.
The guys all seemed so convinced that I had all this magic, surely I could trade some of it for Josh's voice back? And…maybe even a trip back home? I'm not as stupid as Wendy, the mermaids and I could become allies if I played my cards right.
"So what did Josh come over here to say?" I asked no one in particular.
"He wanted to tell us that Peter is going to round up a couple of us in a second to go make sure the cost is clear on our camp. If it is, he'll let some of us stay there and then everyone else will move back tomorrow." Will supplied.
Move there tomorrow? I hid my internal smile. Tomorrow I would visit the mermaids.
Author's Note: Please send me what you think Daphne's fairy name should be! You don't have to choose from my weird ones, make up your own!
