Author's Note: I don't' know what it is about this story, but I like it. And I should, shouldn't I, because it's my story? You know how it's discouraging when you don't get many reviews for a story? Even so, I think that I'll still continue. I'm attracted to it. Have you ever written and were like, "Wow, I can't believe I wrote this?" Yeah, sort of like that…except not. It's not exactly like that for this story, but close. Alright. I'm done rambling.

Only In Your Wildest Neverdreams

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Chapter Three

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"No way," was the first thing that Peter heard Ellie say. "Peter Pan? Give me a break! Did my aunt hire you? Is this some kind of birthday scheme because I'm really, really not buying it," she laughed. "I thought she would be able to do better than this. I thought she was way more creative than this. She has two eight-year-old twins, for God's sake! You'd really think—"

"Girls talk too way much," Peter noted, not for the first time. This comment seemed to startle Ellie, for she stopped talking all together. It was not what she expected him to say.

"You are not Peter Pan."

"Why not?"

"Because…well…you can't even fly!"

"I can't fly, you say?" Effortlessly, he rose into the air, leaving Ellie's mouth agape. "So as I was saying before, I came to talk to you about a dream that I—"

"Dream?" she interrupted. Crossing her arms across her chest, she said, "You really don't have to keep going with this. The gig's up. How much is my aunt paying you? Aunt Felicia!" she called, walking into her room. "Aunt Felicia! She must be around here somewhere, laughing at me."

"Look, can I just talk to you for a moment? This is important." He followed her.

"You look," she said, poking him in the chest. "This is the worst birthday that I have ever had! You haven't made it any better. Just leave. I'm sure you've collected your money and if not, I'll tell my aunt to call you and—"

"Why can't you just listen?" Peter exploded, getting in her face. Shortly after his little outburst, tears began to form in his eyes. He turned his back on her, wiping them away as they fell. Perhaps coming to the Other World was not the best idea. He had already been disappointed once and he was finding another disappointment.

Ellie felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Why would he be crying? Could he be telling the truth? She had seen him fly, after all. It was a confusing moment.

"P-Peter," she said reluctantly, gently resting her arm on his shoulder. He brushed her off. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…well, at first I didn't believe you and I'm not saying that I do now…well, maybe I do, but—"

"Wendy's dead," came the mumbling through tears. He had cried all the way there and had stopped just as he had sight of Ellie's balcony.

"Wendy? Wendy…oh, Wendy...Peter, it'll be all right. Trust me. My parents died and—and I'm living through it. You'll be fine." She only wished that she could convince herself of what she was saying.

Something about the way she said it made him believe her. He would be fine, wouldn't he? He had gotten by all those years without seeing Wendy, hadn't he? He would be okay.

"Don't cry anymore, okay?"

"I'm not crying," he said, wiping away his tears and sniffing. He crossed his arms over his chest and lifted off into the air, hanging in front of her as if hanging upside-down from a set of monkey bars, scrutinizing her.

She was not anything like Wendy. While her eyes were hazel, her hair was dark brown and just barely reached her shoulders. She was a great deal shorter than he, who stood at five foot eight. "Why are you so small?" he bluntly asked.

Ellie frowned. She hated when people made comments about her tiny frame. At a solid five feet, she was often said to look the size of a little twelve-year-old girl. "I'm not small," was her answer. "I'm just…vertically challenged." He continued to examine her while she strived to not look him in the eye. Finally, she swatted him away, saying, "Stop it. It's rude to stare, you know that?"

"Pardon me." He landed right side up in front of her.

And that's when she knew where she recognized him. She saw his eyes for a second time and knew. "Peter?"

"Yes?"

It was so strange. She had just accepted it the fact that he was here, claiming to be Peter Pan, in her bedroom, intruding without explanation. Just like that. It was so...strange. So unlike her. But she did know one thing and that was that her heart was beginning to believe him, but her brain still needed some convincing.

"Ellie Rose?" Peter examined the girl. She was thinking hard about something. He tried snapping his fingers in front of her. "Ellie Rose?"

She broke out of her stupor. "Oh...yes. It's just that, you look so strangely familiar, that's all."

"From where?" he asked, curious.

A dream, she wanted to say.

"A dream perhaps?"

Ellie stared at him, eyes extremely wide. How had he known? He was holding off a great deal more than she thought, like how he knew her name, for starters.

Peter was smitten with himself. "Oh, don't be so surprised," he said, sitting in Indian-style in the air. "I've had dreams with you in them a thousand times."

"Y-You have? But how is that possible?"

"Well, you've dreamt about me, right?"

"Right, but—"

"So when you dream about me, I dream the dream that you dream."

Tilting her head to the side, she displayed a look of confusion.

Peter gave an exasperated sigh and shook his head, placing his arm on his leg and supporting his head with it. "Are you that dumb?"

Agitated, Ellie said, "You come here, confusing the hell out of me with this nonsense talk about dreams a-and-and you call me dumb when I don't get it? Hell, I'm still not sure if I'm in a dream or not!" She stopped briefly to cough a few times. "You flew into my room, meaning you're under my rules and they don't include being a pain in my ass cheek!" Exasperated, she went to the window, turning her back on him. She so badly wanted to be able to grasp what was going on.

Shocked, Peter's face was adorned with the same confused look that Ellie had shown moments before. Girls in the Other World didn't act like that. Girls in the Other World were nice and harmless and didn't call him names. Girls in the Other World loved him. All of them. There was something wrong with her. "What's wrong with you?" he asked her quietly.

"Hmm, let's think about that for a moment, shall we?" she snapped. "You're just like the kids at my school. You think you're better. Well, you're not, if nobody's told you that already. You're stuck up."

Stuck up? Him? Never.

"All I wanted to talk to you about was my dream."

"We can talk after you get an attitude adjustment."

Attitude adjustment? "I'm sorry, if an apology is what you're asking for."

Ellie turned just enough so that he could see her profile. "It's okay," she mumbled. "Now, how 'bout we start over. First of all, how do you know my name?"

"I've dreamt about you before," came his simple reply.

She turned completely around, facing him. "How is that possible?" she repeated.

"Well," Peter started, scratching his head. "When a child from this world dreams, I dream it. Occasionally I have dreams of my own, but most of the time it's not a dream of mine."

"So you're saying that you've dreamt about me before...because of a dream that I was having?"

"Right. But I've had two dreams recently where—"

"You died."

"Yes. But here is what I want to know: Why?"

"How am I supposed to know?" The answer was that simple.

Ellie was right. How was she supposed to know? "I just don't understand it," he continued. "You couldn't have known what Hook looks like because you haven't seen him, which means it was my dream. But why were you in it?"

Ellie shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she did not know the answer. In fact, she did not know what to say at all.

This was a stupid idea. He should have never have come. Why had he thought that she would know the answers? But something had told him to come, something that he couldn't put his finger on, but he had felt it and that had been enough motivation. "Ellie Rose, I'll leave you alone now."

She nodded, watching him turn around and lift off, but then slowly float back down.

"Why did you say that you hate your life?"

"Oh…because…I don't like being sad all the time."

"Sad? What for?"

"You know that I'll wake up tomorrow and think that this was all a dream?" She started towards her bed, yawning. "You'd better go, Peter. I'm getting awfully tired." Coughing and climbing into bed, she turned over, not caring to see him fly away to Never Neverland.

Well…yeah.

November 20, 2002

Copyright theMuse