"Look, Wendy! I'm a pirate!" a determined voice shouted as something heavy bounced on my bed.
I groaned and rolled over, not pleased about my rude wake-up call early on a Saturday morning. "That's great, Michael. Now why don't you be a pirate somewhere else, huh?" Michael, my lively seven-year-old bother was jumping on my bed, eye patch and all. John, my other brother, was sitting cross-legged nearby on his own bed, peering at us thoughtfully through his thick glasses.
"Arrr, matey!" Michael growled as he tried to cut out my heart with the hook of a clothes hanger.
I scowled at him. "There aren't any pirates in New York, Michael."
"So I'll be the first!" he declared, leaping off the bed and pretending to swordfight with an invisible opponent.
"We stayed up watching Pirates of the Caribbean in mum's room," John explained, rolling his eyes.
"Mum let you stay up late?" I questioned, surprised. Now that I thought about it, I didn't recall seeing my brothers in their beds when I retired to my own last night.
"She was too busy with you and your boyfriend to notice us," John sneered as Michael made annoying kissing noises.
"I don't suppose you're talking about Peter Pan are you?" I hissed, my eyes flashing. "That…that…boy is by no means my-"
"Boyfriend! Boyfriend! Wendy's got a boyfriend!" Michael and John chorused, dancing around and easily avoiding my snatching reach. I swear I was going to pommel both their faces in before breakfast.
"He's not!" I denied furiously.
"That's not what it sounded like last night," Michael replied smoothly. His voice suddenly became high and girly (and not at all Peter-like) as he imitated, "Oh Wendy, you're such an angel!"
I leapt off the bed and tackled him, locking the little blondish monster in my arms. He started squealing like a pig, trying to worm his way out. I pushed him flat on his belly, kneeing him in the back. "Do ye surrender yeh yellow-bellied blowfish?" I snarled in the best pirate voice I could muster.
"NO! A PIRATE NEVER SURRENDERS!" Michael bellowed at the top of his lungs. John started laughing at our apparent stupidity, making me look up to give him the stink-eye.
Turning back to my victim I exclaimed, "Then yer walkin' the plank!" I grabbed Michael up by the collar of his pajama top and shook him like a dog.
This was when my littlest brother looked at me as if I had grown an extra head. "What are you talking about? We don't have a plank! Now let me go."
Well so much for being pirates.
Frowning, I let go of Michael and looked over at the three small beds cramped together in our shared room. Bed sheets were torn back and messy and all of our pillows were lying on the floor. "Alright then, Cap'n Jack," I snapped at Michael. "Clean up this mess!" Michael took one look at me before fleeing out into the hallway. I sighed and glanced at my remaining brother. "John?" I prompted hopefully.
"I'm with him!" John declared, chasing after Michael.
Muttering, I started cleaning up the room. Just as I was straightening the elaborate blue-and-gold patterned cushions on the window seat, my mother called my name from the doorway.
"Wendy, you're far past the age that you deserve your own room, aren't you?" She sighed as she added, "We need a bigger apartment."
I glanced at her before sitting down on John's bed, avoiding a large spaghetti stain. "No mum, I'm alright," I insisted, giving her a comforting smile. "I like John's snoring and Michael makes a decent alarm clock."
"You're sixteen years old," she reminded me. "Surely you don't want to be stuck with your brothers forever?"
"Oh, it's not all that bad," I assured her just as I caught wind of something really smelly. I wrinkled my nose as the foul stench clawed its way through my nostrils. I looked down and saw a pair of Michael's shoes.
Oh.
Maybe I was just kidding myself.
Before I could ponder this further, my cell phone went off somewhere in my room. "Excuse me, mum, I need to take this." (Cliché, I know, but it sure made me feel important). I flipped open my phone and said hello as my mother retreated from my bedroom.
"Good morning," a dark voice announced smugly.
"You," I hissed, my eyes narrowing instantly. "How did you get this number?"
"You gave it to me, remember?" Peter Pan told me softly. "You know, before I left your charming abode?"
"Why are you whispering?" I asked, hushing my voice to match his.
"Why are you whispering?"
Well, I had no answer to that.
"Wendy! Breakfast!" my mother's voice shouted from the kitchen. "Hurry up…before your cereal gets warm…or something…"
I let out an annoyed huff as I snapped an "I-need-to-go" into the phone.
"You're not even going to ask why I called?" Peter demanded, sounding disappointed.
"Either make it quick or I'm hanging up," I told him impatiently.
"I'm coming to get you at noon," he told me seriously.
"Is that a threat?" I growled.
I could hear him laughing on the other side of the phone. "Probably, now that I think about it," he replied. "But you know what I mean…We have a date today."
"You're not serious are you?" I groaned. "I thought you did that just to annoy me."
"I did."
"And?"
"I'm not done yet."
"But…," I complained.
"Say what you'd like, Wendy, but I'm still coming to your apartment in about four hours. How about this, if you don't have a good time, I'll never go out with you again. Does that sound fair?"
"I remember an agreement sounding a lot like that in which you broke," I hissed to Peter angrily.
"Wendy!" my mother hollered.
"You made me swear on my mother's face," Peter reminded me. "Seeing as I don't currently have a mother, I can break whatever promises I make on her lack of a face. Maybe you should pick something to swear on that actually exists next time."
"Fine, swear on your own face," I snapped, desperate to get off the phone.
"You pose an interesting bargain."
"WENDY!" bellowed an angry voice.
"This is ridiculous! I shouldn't have to make any deals with you at all. If I don't have fun, then that's it. It'll be over. As a matter of fact, it probably won't matter if I have fun or not because I'm going to shake you off in the crowd today anyways and join my friends to go shopping."
There was a silence on the other end of the phone.
"Peter?" I prompted, thinking he hadn't been listening.
"We'll see."
The line went dead.
--
A/N: The next chapter of course will entail Peter and Wendy's date…which isn't really a date…More like an imprisonment actually. Anyways, tell me what you think. Ideas? Suggestions? Anything?
