Chapter 2: Bedtime Stories Bring...Peter Pan?!
It was getting dark and Arianna was just finishing the last piece of corn. She was still thinking about what she saw flying away. Even though Arianna thought it was a crazy idea, she still thought it was a boy, maybe around her age. But boys can't fly. No human can really just jump off a roof and expect to soar away into space. If it were possible, Arianna wouldn't have been late to school almost every day. She just stared at the wall behind her mother's head.
"Ari?" her mom said quietly.
Arianna jumped and blinked. "Oh, wha...? Sorry." She stabbed her fork into the remaining piece of chicken and led it into her mouth. Her mother looked at her somewhat confused and returned to her salad. Ari sighed and set her fork down. "I'm full," she muttered.
She pushed the chair back and walked upstairs to the huge loft or gameroom as she called it. She plopped down on the couch and clicked the power button for the TV on the remote. Ari flicked through the channels, finding nothing really good. She finally stopped on Disney channel since there wasn't much else to watch.
It was Peter Pan, the old animated Disney version. Ari always loved to watch Peter Pan when she was little. But she liked her grandmother's story much more. Her grandmother said that her grandmother told it to her, and her grandmother told it to her, and so forth. Her great, great, great, whatever grandmother started the story. Her name was Wendy. Grandmother Wendy's (as they called her for short) story goes that she actually met Peter Pan and she met Hook and became a short-time pirate on the Jolly Roger. Her name was supposedly Red-Handed Jill. It was a wonderful story. Better than the animated version. It was more exciting.
Ari stretched her legs out and laid her head back on the couch and continued to watch. Soon, Maggie ran upstairs and jumped right next to Arianna. "Turn it up, turn it up!" she said excitedly.
Ari just handed Maggie the control, who turned it up full-blast. Ari had to yank it away and turn it down some. Maggie giggled as Tinkerbell was stuck in the drawer and Peter Pan was trying to catch his shadow. Ari rolled her eyes. It wasn't all -that- funny. She sighed and got up, sauntered into her room and plopped down on her bed. She rested her chin on her hands and looked around her huge room. She blinked slowly then closed her eyes and laid her head on the bed.
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"Ari! Ari!" a little voice exclaimed. Arianna moaned and groped her hand out, grabbing a pillow and shoving it over her ears. A little finger was poking her. She waved her other hand around to ward of the pokes. "Ari," the voice whined.
Arianna shoved the pillow off angrily and sat up, glaring at her sister. "What?" she growled.
Maggie was in her pajamas, still clutching her bear, which you could never pry away from her. She even took it with her to church, to the bathroom, in the store, you name it, she has it. She even takes it to preschool. The poor bear's head hung limply down because its neck had been squeezed out of it. Ari thought that someday the eyes would pop out, then the nose, then all its stuffing. It was dirty all over ("bath time" is every four months) and its once soft fur was in clumps and rough to the touch. Maggie never did give it a name but she sure loved it anyways.
"Can you tell me a story tonight, please?" Maggie asked, doing a puppy-dog face, but Ari wasn't fooled. Her eyes flew to her clock that read 10:38. She looked back up at Maggie. "Please?"
Arianna sighed and muttered, "Okay." Maggie's eyes lit up, she gave a toothy grin, and then she hopped on the bed. Arianna sat herself in a comfortable position and grabbed some of her many pillows and held them in her arms, a habit she had. She stared up at the canopy of her bed, searching for a story in her head. Maggie situated herself in the pillows and waited for Arianna to begin.
"Okay, once upon a time there was a beetle. He was a big black beetle named Bobby. One day Bobby went out for a walk in a softball field while high school girls were playing a softball game. Bad decision for Bobby. The pitcher threw the ball on Bobby and he was smooshed, the end," Ari said quickly, without much effort as you can tell. Maggie giggled and looked up at Ari, grinning.
"Awwww, c'mon Ari, you can do better than that!" she blurted, giggling. Ari looked down at her giggly little sister and smiled.
"Oh, alright, I'll-" Ari stopped her sentence.
Did she hear a laugh? It couldn't have been Maggie. Her giggles were high pitched and quick but they soon died away anyways. The door was closed; her parents rarely come up. Who else could it have been? Definitely not Farrah, Ari's high school sister who was always out with her friends, most likely making out with all the hot guys she could find in those scanty clothes she wore all the time. Ari rolled her eyes at that thought. It sounded like it came from her window. Ari got up from her comfortable bed and moved to one of her large windows, pulling back the curtains.
"Where ya goin', Ari?" Maggie asked, jumping off the bed to look with Arianna.
Arianna looked through the window. All she could see were the tall trees in their yard and a few of the neighboring houses and the city lights in distance. The rest of it was dark. Ari wrinkled her brow, pondering. "Hm," she muttered.
She sighed and walked to the other large window on the same wall. Pulling back the curtains she looked out. Same thing as the other window. But wait! Her window was open! It was the fall and cold outside; she wouldn't leave it open.
"Ari, -what- are you looking for?" Maggie asked in a whiney voice. She wanted to get back to the stories, the good ones. Ari was about to close it when she decided to just leave it open. It *was* getting a little stuffy in her room and she wasn't a wimp. She could handle the cold.
"I was just looking for...oh, nothing," Ari replied quietly. She shouldn't let it bother her. It could've been her for all she knew! Ari did a lot of things without knowing it. Once at school she totally knocked a kid over while running to class, sending him and his books sprawling, and she didn't even notice! Maggie just shrugged and stared out a little longer.
Ari returned to her bed and grabbed her pillow again. "Okay, back to the real stories." Maggie, grinning, bounded back onto Ari's bed, her grubby bear still being squeezed to death by Maggie's strong little arms.
"Once upon a time," Ari began, "there lived a princess in the kingdom of Karsch. But she wasn't any ordinary princess. During the day she was a pretty little thing, prim and proper and all, just like a princess should be. She was so kind to the people in her kingdom, good deed after good deed here and there. But at night...At night the princess was a feared pirate on the sea. She would sneak out at night with her band of pirates and board her own ship because the Sea of Pex was right next to the castle. The Sea of Pex led to Findago, the rival country of Karsch. Many people of Findago were cruel and heartless; many of them were pirates and theif, always stealing from the rich -and- the poor. So the princess, having a good heart that she did, would sail out known as Captain Sea Angel, the name given to her by her crew. Her real name though was Princess Vanelly of Karsch, daughter of King Ornun and Queen Tanysthalarni-" Ari paused to think of what else to add on to the fun, long name for the queen. "Queen Tanysthalarnisenwenitomlanikar, Queen Tanys for short." Maggie giggled at the long name and Ari couldn't help but smile herself. She continued:
"Well anyways, Captain Sea Angel would sail out on her ship, the Daughter of the Sea, and encounter all the pirates from Findago, sinking their ships to the bottom of the sea. The people of Karsch, not even the king and queen, knew that Princess Vanelly was Captain Sea Angel. Anyone that saw the Daughter of the Sea sail out from the castle at night thought it was the ghost ship of the pirate of Karsch from the past, the dreaded Captain Dayer, who unlike Princess Vanelly, would sail out and steal from any ship he could find. So one night when Captain Sea Angel and her crew were out sailing, scouting for Findagian ships, a huge ship from the kingdom neighboring Karsch, Gia, snuck up quietly and quickly behind the Daughter of the Sea. Karsch was friendly with Gia so they did not take it as a threat. But actually, pirates from Findago had raided the Gian ship and now they were targeting the Daughter of the Sea. The Gian ship, called Seahopper, pulled up beside the Daughter of the Sea and the pirates used the captain as bait, causing Sea Angel to think everything was okay. The captain of the Seahopper was a coward so he wouldn't tell Sea Angel that they had been attacked. He just wanted to save his own skin. But then just as the Seahopper was about to shoot its powerful cannons at the Daughter of the Sea, a crew member on the Seahopper worked up his courage and shouted the truth across to the Daughter of the Sea. But it was a little too late. A cannon fired but missed the hull and hit the main mast. It was knocked from its original target because all the crew below that was tied up somehow got loose and attacked the pirates. But it still damaged the Daughter of the Sea and the Seahopper because the mast fell over on the Seahopper. The pirates quickly jumped onto the mast and climbed over to the Daughter of the Sea. The Daughter of the Sea was a large ship too so it had to have a lot of crewmembers. The crewmembers of the Daughter of the Sea did a good job defending the ship. They would throw off the oncoming pirates into the sea and stab them in their gut, anything to save their princess who they thought to be tucked away safely in the captain's cabin and she was soon supposed to be sent of on a dinghy to safety. But Captain Sea Angel snuck out and fought as well. She was very brave and skilled with a sword. Guns didn't exist in those countries. Everyone else was too busy fighting that they didn't notice Sea Angel sneak onto the Seahopper. She found the pirate captain and put her dagger to his throat. The pirate captain, Waren, just smirked and pulled out his own dagger, attempting to stab Sea Angel." Maggie gasped.
"Sea Angel narrowly dodged his dagger but Waren still managed to get a gash in her stomach. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground, clutching her wound. Waren quickly grabbed his sword and put the point to her neck. 'Don't move,' he warned her coldly. Sea Angel glared at him and swept her hat off, letting her flaming red hair cascade down her shoulders. Waren was surprised to find out that Sea Angel was actually the beautiful Princess Vanelly of Karsch. Vanelly worked up her courage and while the pirate captain was recovering from his shock. Vanelly grabbed the blade of the sword and yanked it out of Waren's hands, grasping it in her own hands. The blade bit deep into her hands and of course Vanelly screamed out because it would hurt really bad. Now Waren was out of weapons except his own hands and he now was backed up against the wall with his own sword at his heart. Then suddenly he lunged for Vanelly and punched her right in the gut. She was knocked backwards and the wind was knocked out of her, meaning she couldn't breathe for a few seconds. Waren tried to punch her again but she ducked and stabbed Waren's sword right into his heart. He gasped and screamed. He started coughing out blood."
Maggie grimaced. "Ewww, gross."
"Waren fell to his knees and then died in his own blood. Sea Angel quickly grabbed her own sword and ran up to the deck, plowing through all the pirates. Her crew was surprised to see Sea Angel out of the captain's cabin. After fighting the rest of the pirates, the Daughter of the Sea's crew gathered all the gold from the Seahopper and loaded it onto their own ship, along with the original crew of the Seahopper. There were only a few surviving pirates that they had taken prisoners. This battle lasted almost the whole night so when Vanelly's maids went to her royal chambers in the morning, they screamed when they discovered she was missing. Everyone is Karsch was frantic. But back at Findago, Sea Angel turned in the remaining pirates, presented the sword of Captain Waren to the king and queen of Findago because Waren and his crew were the most feared pirates in Findago. She gave a small portion of the gold to the king and queen and then traveled to the poor areas of Findago, giving out the gold. There was still some left so Sea Angel sent some of the gold with the Gian captain back to Gia, but his crew had to watch out for him. They were charmed by Sea Angel's beauty that they followed her orders not to run away with the gold and become pirates themselves. The Gians sailed back to Gia on a Findagian ship. The news of all these good deeds reached Karsch who had groups and groups of people searching for Princess Vanelly. Sea Angel safely returned to Karsch where her father and mother welcomed her with open arms. Although they were disappointed that their own daughter had lied to them and done something very unprincess-like, they were still joyful that their daughter had returned safely, knowing that she had done good for many. Soon after that, Findago and Karsch became great friends and there were no more wars between them. After time, King Ornun and Queen Tanys of Karsch passed away of old age and so Princess Vanelly took to the throne. But she didn't have any king along side her because...well, because no one knew why. But not to worry, she adopted two twins, a boy and girl, that would both be the heirs to the throne. Karsch then would have to have two kings and two queens unless one of Vanelly's children died, which they didn't. So eventually Queen Vanelly passed away as well, leaving her children, now Queen Jana with her husband King Cenneron and King Jeron with his wife Queen Yenel. Captain Sea Angel became a hero after that, her legend known to every Karschen child and adult. The end."
Maggie sighed and rolled over on her back, looking up at Ari's canopy. "That was a good one, Ari," she commented. Arianna nodded in appreciation.
"And just to add," Ari said, smiling, "After that, Queen Jana and King Cenneron had to move away from Karsch to create their own kingdom, later known as Rhine, because it got too confusing with two kings and two queens." Maggie giggled. Arianna looked up at her canopy herself. Everything was oddly silent.
All of a sudden, a voice of a boy yelled out, "That was a –wonderful- story!"
A boy around Arianna's age bounced out of her open window. He was dressed in leaves and vines and other natury things. He didn't even have proper shorts or a shirt on! His hair was a messy dirty blonde and he had stunning blue eyes.
Arianna's eyes grew wide in surprise. Then her eyes narrowed and she clutched the pillow she had wrapped her arms around tightly in her hand. "Get out of my room, you freak!" Ari screamed as she hurled the pillow at the boy. It hit him smack in the face. They could both hear him groan.
"Ari, what did you do?" Maggie panicked. She rushed over to the boy that was sprawled on Ari's LuvSac* and bent over looking at him, pushing the pillow off his head.
Ari grabbed another of her many pillows. "Maggie, get away from him, he could have come here to abduct us!" Maggie looked up at Ari balefully.
Ari, still clutching the purple pillow, crept cautiously over to the boy she had just clubbed. She looked down at the strange boy and gasped, dropping her pillow. "Oh, I'm so stupid. Oh gosh!"
She bent over and tapped him lightly on his cheek. She seriously thought he was a middle-aged man. You couldn't blame her for freaking out with all these abductions going on lately. There was no way a boy like this could take on -both- of them. Implanted on the boy's face were little round indentations, most likely from the sequins that had covered that one pillow. His whole face was red.
"What have I done?" she groaned. She continued trying to wake him up by tapping him lightly on his cheeks. But she didn't want to slap too hard. It might wake him and he could go on a rampage after what Ari had just done to him. And she was still a little wary because he could be some psychotic kid that had escaped from an asylum. A wild child.
Arianna growled at herself as she stood up and bolted into her bathroom, grabbing her cup she always kept in there and filled it up with water. Then she ran back to the boy and dumped it on his face. "Waaake up!" she shouted.
His eyes fluttered open revealing his stunning blue eyes and he looked around wildly. "Wha-what happened?" he muttered half to himself. Then he spotted Ari.
"You!" he said, standing up. Arianna started to back up. Maybe she shouldn't have woken him and gone to get her parents, who she was surprised hadn't come up yet from all the shouting.
"You leave us alone," Ari warned, curling her fists just in case. The boy just laughed.
"You'd make a great mother!" he said eagerly. "What's your name?"
Arianna gave him a strange look. Her mind was beginning to side with the wild child thought. "Errr...my name is Susan...Hopkins," she lied. Maggie snorted and ran up to the boy, looking up at him.
"That's not true. Her name is Arianna Evelyn Wendy Katherine Moira Hatch. And my name is Margaret Jocelyn Rachel McKenzie Hatch, but you can call me Maggie," she said rather proudly, grinning her toothless grin. He looked surprised.
"Those are awfully long names," he said. "Wait a second...I recall the names Wendy and Moira. But where have I heard them?"
"They're part of my great great something grandmother's name, which was Wendy Angela Moira Darling," Maggie stated.
The boy's eyes widened. "She was our first mother!" he shouted, finally remembering. Maggie and Ari both gave him a funny look. "You're funny!" Maggie giggled.
He slumped down onto the LuvSac and stared at nothing. "What are you gawking at?" Ari asked somewhat rudely and she stared at him, studying him a little more. The boy's expression changed to a sad one. "She didn't come back," he mumbled to himself.
Ari sat down next to him and just watched him, figuring he wasn't dangerous, but still a little crazy. "How was Grandma Wendy your mother? We'd be related and you'd be way older than me but you're about my age," Ari said, puzzled.
The boy looked up at Arianna and his expression brightened. "You'll see how. We need a mother to take care of us. Will you be our mother?"
"Who is 'us' and how would I be your mother? I'm too young," Ari replied.
"The Lost Children! Or the Lost Kids. They can't be called the Lost Boys anymore because we finally got a girl! And how fiesty she is too! But she can't be our mother. She's not quite a lady," the boy said, laughing quietly at the last part.
"Oh! Let's go Ari! We can pretend!" Maggie exclaimed.
"No, Maggie, we're not going, you have to go to bed right now anyways. I'm going to go get mom and dad," Arianna said, getting up and moving towards her door but Maggie quickly blocked her path.
"No! Please, Arianna! Pretty please?" begged Maggie.
"Move, squirt, we don't even know who he is." Arianna started to lift Maggie up and move her aside. She started pleading with Arianna and started kicking a bit. The little girl was finally moved aside but as soon as she was, she bolted right back to the door.
"Boy!" she shouted. "What's your name?"
The boy laughed and jumped up. "Who am I?"
He hopped onto Arianna's bed and jumped off, but instead of landing, he was floating in the air! Arianna and Maggie stared at him in awe. The last time she checked, Ari didn't remember finding a rope and harness on her ceiling and there was no way he could have gotten one and set it up. But people couldn't fly! Ari gasped. She knew him! He was the one she saw in the tree! It wasn't an animal she saw in their tree, it was this boy.
"Why I am the magnificant Peter Pan!" he hollared, zooming around Ari's room doing all kinds of tricks. She couldn't believe it. This nut thinks he's Peter Pan! But Maggie' eyes lit up.
"Peter Pan?" she asked, confirming. The boy stopped and sat on a patch of air, nodding. Her blue eyes looked longingly up where Peter sat. Arianna could tell she really wanted to fly.
"Oh, Peter, will you give me some faerie dust?" Maggie squealed. She yanked away from Ari's grasp and jumped onto her older sister's bed. Peter floated over to her gracefully. From a leather pouch, Peter Pan grabbed a handfull of faerie dust. He sprinkled some lightly on Maggie and closing her eyes, she jumped off the bed as high as she could. Arianna gave a small gasp as Maggie almost hit the ground but she soared right up to the ceiling, finally opening her eyes.
"Arianna, get up here! It is so fun!" exclaimed Maggie. Arianna rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms, and watching Maggie have the time of her life. Her little sister was tossing her teddy bear up and down, dropping him and then zooming down to catch him giggling uncontrollably. She -was- having the time of her life. Arianna decided this must be a dream so she closed her eyes and pinched herself. Opening her eyes, she still saw Maggie flying around with the boy who thought he was Peter Pan.
"C'mon Ari!" said Maggie in her high voice. She then turned to Peter. "Where is Tinkerbell, by the way? I would love to see her!"
"Oh, Tink's back in Neverland. I think she's found her own faerie Prince Charming," he said with a smile. Maggie giggled and started to walk on the ceiling. Peter grinned and sat on some air once again, looking down at Arianna who kept her gaze away from them. Giving a small, quiet laugh, he gently flew down in fron on Arianna.
"C'mon. I won't let you fall," he said. Arianna looked up at him with clear, green eyes. Their gazes met and locked. Arianna blinked a bit but the boy didn't blink even once. Without knowing it, Arianna was sprinkled secretly with faerie dust by Peter Pan.
She finally looked away back up to Maggie and Peter sat on her canopy. He didn't even break it! Peter Pan was incredibly light so he sat on the cloth like a bubble. He smirked without either of the sisters seeing. Arianna watched her little sister do flips and spins that she couldn't do on the ground.
She couldn't help but think that if flying was really possible, she could fly to school everyday and land near the crowd of popular (poptarts you could call them) kids that always chatted and grouped near her locker for some reason. Of course they weren't there because of Arianna. She wasn't part of their group even though she looked like she could be. She could even be the most popular girl at school! But most of those kids were pretty snobby so she didn't like to hang out with them. But not all of them were brats. There were a few that didn't talk much, even though they weren't nice to Ari, they weren't mean to her either. Then there were very few (five to be exact, out of the 30 or so, yes there's A LOT) that said hello to her every now and then. She had one very good friend in that group: Cali Jenkins. She was nice to everyone. But there was one person in the poptart group that Arianna had her eyes on. The ever-popular, hottest guy at school, one and only, Norris Kapler. That is who Ari mainly wanted to impress with her flying, even though it was quite a silly thought. But she smiled at the thought of sitting next to him. He was in almost all her classes but one and in all those classes he sat on the other side of the room.
Before she knew it, Ari was off the ground. She was so lost in daydream that she didn't notice. When she did notice though, she had already bumped her head on the ceiling. She gasped and frantically set back down to the steady ground. Laughing came from above.
"Oh, the cleverness of me!"
Ari looked up to see Peter laughing. She glared at him for a few seconds but then let up, even chuckling quietly herself.
"What were you thinking about, Arianna?" Peter asked slyly. "Or –who- were you thinking about?" He laughed again.
"None of your business," Ari snapped, but not too harsh. She sighed and thought about Norris Kapler again, causing her to lift into the air.
"Yes, the cleverness of you," she muttered and tried moving forwards a little to Maggie.
"Ari, you've decided to come!" she said. "It's okay, it's easy."
Arianna sighed, not believeing she actually believed this. She flew forward and flipped slowly and cautiously. She was getting the hang of it. Peter, seeing her actually flying now, zoomed around, showing off, even circling around Arianna with skill. Ari actually laughed a bit and finally took this weird experience as reality. She began to enjoy flying and she would toss Maggie up and then catch her like Maggie did to her bear.
"Well then, we're off to Neverland!" Peter announced. Maggie squeled with delight but Ari didn't. "Arianna, you'll be our mother!"
"But I have a piano recital tomorrow early in the morning!" Ari floated back down to her bed.
"Well then can I be your mother?" inquired Maggie.
"No, sorry, you're too little," replied Peter, frowning. He too set his feet down on the soft carpet followed by Maggie, who only frowned for a few seconds. She didn't entirely mind and she herself thought she was too young to take care of Peter and the Lost Kids. But when Peter mentioned she could become his sister, she brightened up.
"Please, we need a mother," said Peter. Arianna laid her head down and rolled over, facing the wall on the other side. Peter flew over to that side and crept up to Ari. Maggie just watched from the other side.
"One girl is worth more than twenty boys," he said irresistably. He had said that many times before and it always worked. Except for this one. She closed her eyes and her thin, brown hair fell down in her face. Peter gently brushed it aside which made Ari's eyes jolt open. Knowing that Maggie was on the other side, Arianna just stuck her head under her pillow and held it fast over her head.
Maggie sighed and looked sadly at Peter. He bit his lip thinking, then motioned for Maggie to follow him out the open window. They were as silent as a fox so Ari could not hear. Once outside, Peter smiled, his gears working frantically in his head. Maggie surpressed a giggle, knowing it was a plan from the clever Peter. He motioned her closer and whispered something into her ear. When he was through, Maggie flew upwards and did a flip.
"That's a great plan, Peter Pan!" she said.
"Oh the cleverness of me!" said Peter. The two of them zoomed away from the Hatch residence into the night, laughing quietly.
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-Goodness, that was a long chapter! O.O In case you're wondering, a LuvSac is like a big bean bag chair except it is really soft and comfortable. It has foam in it instead of beans, or whatever they may be. Please review!
Give comments, suggestions, whatever! Look for the next chapter soon!
It was getting dark and Arianna was just finishing the last piece of corn. She was still thinking about what she saw flying away. Even though Arianna thought it was a crazy idea, she still thought it was a boy, maybe around her age. But boys can't fly. No human can really just jump off a roof and expect to soar away into space. If it were possible, Arianna wouldn't have been late to school almost every day. She just stared at the wall behind her mother's head.
"Ari?" her mom said quietly.
Arianna jumped and blinked. "Oh, wha...? Sorry." She stabbed her fork into the remaining piece of chicken and led it into her mouth. Her mother looked at her somewhat confused and returned to her salad. Ari sighed and set her fork down. "I'm full," she muttered.
She pushed the chair back and walked upstairs to the huge loft or gameroom as she called it. She plopped down on the couch and clicked the power button for the TV on the remote. Ari flicked through the channels, finding nothing really good. She finally stopped on Disney channel since there wasn't much else to watch.
It was Peter Pan, the old animated Disney version. Ari always loved to watch Peter Pan when she was little. But she liked her grandmother's story much more. Her grandmother said that her grandmother told it to her, and her grandmother told it to her, and so forth. Her great, great, great, whatever grandmother started the story. Her name was Wendy. Grandmother Wendy's (as they called her for short) story goes that she actually met Peter Pan and she met Hook and became a short-time pirate on the Jolly Roger. Her name was supposedly Red-Handed Jill. It was a wonderful story. Better than the animated version. It was more exciting.
Ari stretched her legs out and laid her head back on the couch and continued to watch. Soon, Maggie ran upstairs and jumped right next to Arianna. "Turn it up, turn it up!" she said excitedly.
Ari just handed Maggie the control, who turned it up full-blast. Ari had to yank it away and turn it down some. Maggie giggled as Tinkerbell was stuck in the drawer and Peter Pan was trying to catch his shadow. Ari rolled her eyes. It wasn't all -that- funny. She sighed and got up, sauntered into her room and plopped down on her bed. She rested her chin on her hands and looked around her huge room. She blinked slowly then closed her eyes and laid her head on the bed.
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"Ari! Ari!" a little voice exclaimed. Arianna moaned and groped her hand out, grabbing a pillow and shoving it over her ears. A little finger was poking her. She waved her other hand around to ward of the pokes. "Ari," the voice whined.
Arianna shoved the pillow off angrily and sat up, glaring at her sister. "What?" she growled.
Maggie was in her pajamas, still clutching her bear, which you could never pry away from her. She even took it with her to church, to the bathroom, in the store, you name it, she has it. She even takes it to preschool. The poor bear's head hung limply down because its neck had been squeezed out of it. Ari thought that someday the eyes would pop out, then the nose, then all its stuffing. It was dirty all over ("bath time" is every four months) and its once soft fur was in clumps and rough to the touch. Maggie never did give it a name but she sure loved it anyways.
"Can you tell me a story tonight, please?" Maggie asked, doing a puppy-dog face, but Ari wasn't fooled. Her eyes flew to her clock that read 10:38. She looked back up at Maggie. "Please?"
Arianna sighed and muttered, "Okay." Maggie's eyes lit up, she gave a toothy grin, and then she hopped on the bed. Arianna sat herself in a comfortable position and grabbed some of her many pillows and held them in her arms, a habit she had. She stared up at the canopy of her bed, searching for a story in her head. Maggie situated herself in the pillows and waited for Arianna to begin.
"Okay, once upon a time there was a beetle. He was a big black beetle named Bobby. One day Bobby went out for a walk in a softball field while high school girls were playing a softball game. Bad decision for Bobby. The pitcher threw the ball on Bobby and he was smooshed, the end," Ari said quickly, without much effort as you can tell. Maggie giggled and looked up at Ari, grinning.
"Awwww, c'mon Ari, you can do better than that!" she blurted, giggling. Ari looked down at her giggly little sister and smiled.
"Oh, alright, I'll-" Ari stopped her sentence.
Did she hear a laugh? It couldn't have been Maggie. Her giggles were high pitched and quick but they soon died away anyways. The door was closed; her parents rarely come up. Who else could it have been? Definitely not Farrah, Ari's high school sister who was always out with her friends, most likely making out with all the hot guys she could find in those scanty clothes she wore all the time. Ari rolled her eyes at that thought. It sounded like it came from her window. Ari got up from her comfortable bed and moved to one of her large windows, pulling back the curtains.
"Where ya goin', Ari?" Maggie asked, jumping off the bed to look with Arianna.
Arianna looked through the window. All she could see were the tall trees in their yard and a few of the neighboring houses and the city lights in distance. The rest of it was dark. Ari wrinkled her brow, pondering. "Hm," she muttered.
She sighed and walked to the other large window on the same wall. Pulling back the curtains she looked out. Same thing as the other window. But wait! Her window was open! It was the fall and cold outside; she wouldn't leave it open.
"Ari, -what- are you looking for?" Maggie asked in a whiney voice. She wanted to get back to the stories, the good ones. Ari was about to close it when she decided to just leave it open. It *was* getting a little stuffy in her room and she wasn't a wimp. She could handle the cold.
"I was just looking for...oh, nothing," Ari replied quietly. She shouldn't let it bother her. It could've been her for all she knew! Ari did a lot of things without knowing it. Once at school she totally knocked a kid over while running to class, sending him and his books sprawling, and she didn't even notice! Maggie just shrugged and stared out a little longer.
Ari returned to her bed and grabbed her pillow again. "Okay, back to the real stories." Maggie, grinning, bounded back onto Ari's bed, her grubby bear still being squeezed to death by Maggie's strong little arms.
"Once upon a time," Ari began, "there lived a princess in the kingdom of Karsch. But she wasn't any ordinary princess. During the day she was a pretty little thing, prim and proper and all, just like a princess should be. She was so kind to the people in her kingdom, good deed after good deed here and there. But at night...At night the princess was a feared pirate on the sea. She would sneak out at night with her band of pirates and board her own ship because the Sea of Pex was right next to the castle. The Sea of Pex led to Findago, the rival country of Karsch. Many people of Findago were cruel and heartless; many of them were pirates and theif, always stealing from the rich -and- the poor. So the princess, having a good heart that she did, would sail out known as Captain Sea Angel, the name given to her by her crew. Her real name though was Princess Vanelly of Karsch, daughter of King Ornun and Queen Tanysthalarni-" Ari paused to think of what else to add on to the fun, long name for the queen. "Queen Tanysthalarnisenwenitomlanikar, Queen Tanys for short." Maggie giggled at the long name and Ari couldn't help but smile herself. She continued:
"Well anyways, Captain Sea Angel would sail out on her ship, the Daughter of the Sea, and encounter all the pirates from Findago, sinking their ships to the bottom of the sea. The people of Karsch, not even the king and queen, knew that Princess Vanelly was Captain Sea Angel. Anyone that saw the Daughter of the Sea sail out from the castle at night thought it was the ghost ship of the pirate of Karsch from the past, the dreaded Captain Dayer, who unlike Princess Vanelly, would sail out and steal from any ship he could find. So one night when Captain Sea Angel and her crew were out sailing, scouting for Findagian ships, a huge ship from the kingdom neighboring Karsch, Gia, snuck up quietly and quickly behind the Daughter of the Sea. Karsch was friendly with Gia so they did not take it as a threat. But actually, pirates from Findago had raided the Gian ship and now they were targeting the Daughter of the Sea. The Gian ship, called Seahopper, pulled up beside the Daughter of the Sea and the pirates used the captain as bait, causing Sea Angel to think everything was okay. The captain of the Seahopper was a coward so he wouldn't tell Sea Angel that they had been attacked. He just wanted to save his own skin. But then just as the Seahopper was about to shoot its powerful cannons at the Daughter of the Sea, a crew member on the Seahopper worked up his courage and shouted the truth across to the Daughter of the Sea. But it was a little too late. A cannon fired but missed the hull and hit the main mast. It was knocked from its original target because all the crew below that was tied up somehow got loose and attacked the pirates. But it still damaged the Daughter of the Sea and the Seahopper because the mast fell over on the Seahopper. The pirates quickly jumped onto the mast and climbed over to the Daughter of the Sea. The Daughter of the Sea was a large ship too so it had to have a lot of crewmembers. The crewmembers of the Daughter of the Sea did a good job defending the ship. They would throw off the oncoming pirates into the sea and stab them in their gut, anything to save their princess who they thought to be tucked away safely in the captain's cabin and she was soon supposed to be sent of on a dinghy to safety. But Captain Sea Angel snuck out and fought as well. She was very brave and skilled with a sword. Guns didn't exist in those countries. Everyone else was too busy fighting that they didn't notice Sea Angel sneak onto the Seahopper. She found the pirate captain and put her dagger to his throat. The pirate captain, Waren, just smirked and pulled out his own dagger, attempting to stab Sea Angel." Maggie gasped.
"Sea Angel narrowly dodged his dagger but Waren still managed to get a gash in her stomach. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground, clutching her wound. Waren quickly grabbed his sword and put the point to her neck. 'Don't move,' he warned her coldly. Sea Angel glared at him and swept her hat off, letting her flaming red hair cascade down her shoulders. Waren was surprised to find out that Sea Angel was actually the beautiful Princess Vanelly of Karsch. Vanelly worked up her courage and while the pirate captain was recovering from his shock. Vanelly grabbed the blade of the sword and yanked it out of Waren's hands, grasping it in her own hands. The blade bit deep into her hands and of course Vanelly screamed out because it would hurt really bad. Now Waren was out of weapons except his own hands and he now was backed up against the wall with his own sword at his heart. Then suddenly he lunged for Vanelly and punched her right in the gut. She was knocked backwards and the wind was knocked out of her, meaning she couldn't breathe for a few seconds. Waren tried to punch her again but she ducked and stabbed Waren's sword right into his heart. He gasped and screamed. He started coughing out blood."
Maggie grimaced. "Ewww, gross."
"Waren fell to his knees and then died in his own blood. Sea Angel quickly grabbed her own sword and ran up to the deck, plowing through all the pirates. Her crew was surprised to see Sea Angel out of the captain's cabin. After fighting the rest of the pirates, the Daughter of the Sea's crew gathered all the gold from the Seahopper and loaded it onto their own ship, along with the original crew of the Seahopper. There were only a few surviving pirates that they had taken prisoners. This battle lasted almost the whole night so when Vanelly's maids went to her royal chambers in the morning, they screamed when they discovered she was missing. Everyone is Karsch was frantic. But back at Findago, Sea Angel turned in the remaining pirates, presented the sword of Captain Waren to the king and queen of Findago because Waren and his crew were the most feared pirates in Findago. She gave a small portion of the gold to the king and queen and then traveled to the poor areas of Findago, giving out the gold. There was still some left so Sea Angel sent some of the gold with the Gian captain back to Gia, but his crew had to watch out for him. They were charmed by Sea Angel's beauty that they followed her orders not to run away with the gold and become pirates themselves. The Gians sailed back to Gia on a Findagian ship. The news of all these good deeds reached Karsch who had groups and groups of people searching for Princess Vanelly. Sea Angel safely returned to Karsch where her father and mother welcomed her with open arms. Although they were disappointed that their own daughter had lied to them and done something very unprincess-like, they were still joyful that their daughter had returned safely, knowing that she had done good for many. Soon after that, Findago and Karsch became great friends and there were no more wars between them. After time, King Ornun and Queen Tanys of Karsch passed away of old age and so Princess Vanelly took to the throne. But she didn't have any king along side her because...well, because no one knew why. But not to worry, she adopted two twins, a boy and girl, that would both be the heirs to the throne. Karsch then would have to have two kings and two queens unless one of Vanelly's children died, which they didn't. So eventually Queen Vanelly passed away as well, leaving her children, now Queen Jana with her husband King Cenneron and King Jeron with his wife Queen Yenel. Captain Sea Angel became a hero after that, her legend known to every Karschen child and adult. The end."
Maggie sighed and rolled over on her back, looking up at Ari's canopy. "That was a good one, Ari," she commented. Arianna nodded in appreciation.
"And just to add," Ari said, smiling, "After that, Queen Jana and King Cenneron had to move away from Karsch to create their own kingdom, later known as Rhine, because it got too confusing with two kings and two queens." Maggie giggled. Arianna looked up at her canopy herself. Everything was oddly silent.
All of a sudden, a voice of a boy yelled out, "That was a –wonderful- story!"
A boy around Arianna's age bounced out of her open window. He was dressed in leaves and vines and other natury things. He didn't even have proper shorts or a shirt on! His hair was a messy dirty blonde and he had stunning blue eyes.
Arianna's eyes grew wide in surprise. Then her eyes narrowed and she clutched the pillow she had wrapped her arms around tightly in her hand. "Get out of my room, you freak!" Ari screamed as she hurled the pillow at the boy. It hit him smack in the face. They could both hear him groan.
"Ari, what did you do?" Maggie panicked. She rushed over to the boy that was sprawled on Ari's LuvSac* and bent over looking at him, pushing the pillow off his head.
Ari grabbed another of her many pillows. "Maggie, get away from him, he could have come here to abduct us!" Maggie looked up at Ari balefully.
Ari, still clutching the purple pillow, crept cautiously over to the boy she had just clubbed. She looked down at the strange boy and gasped, dropping her pillow. "Oh, I'm so stupid. Oh gosh!"
She bent over and tapped him lightly on his cheek. She seriously thought he was a middle-aged man. You couldn't blame her for freaking out with all these abductions going on lately. There was no way a boy like this could take on -both- of them. Implanted on the boy's face were little round indentations, most likely from the sequins that had covered that one pillow. His whole face was red.
"What have I done?" she groaned. She continued trying to wake him up by tapping him lightly on his cheeks. But she didn't want to slap too hard. It might wake him and he could go on a rampage after what Ari had just done to him. And she was still a little wary because he could be some psychotic kid that had escaped from an asylum. A wild child.
Arianna growled at herself as she stood up and bolted into her bathroom, grabbing her cup she always kept in there and filled it up with water. Then she ran back to the boy and dumped it on his face. "Waaake up!" she shouted.
His eyes fluttered open revealing his stunning blue eyes and he looked around wildly. "Wha-what happened?" he muttered half to himself. Then he spotted Ari.
"You!" he said, standing up. Arianna started to back up. Maybe she shouldn't have woken him and gone to get her parents, who she was surprised hadn't come up yet from all the shouting.
"You leave us alone," Ari warned, curling her fists just in case. The boy just laughed.
"You'd make a great mother!" he said eagerly. "What's your name?"
Arianna gave him a strange look. Her mind was beginning to side with the wild child thought. "Errr...my name is Susan...Hopkins," she lied. Maggie snorted and ran up to the boy, looking up at him.
"That's not true. Her name is Arianna Evelyn Wendy Katherine Moira Hatch. And my name is Margaret Jocelyn Rachel McKenzie Hatch, but you can call me Maggie," she said rather proudly, grinning her toothless grin. He looked surprised.
"Those are awfully long names," he said. "Wait a second...I recall the names Wendy and Moira. But where have I heard them?"
"They're part of my great great something grandmother's name, which was Wendy Angela Moira Darling," Maggie stated.
The boy's eyes widened. "She was our first mother!" he shouted, finally remembering. Maggie and Ari both gave him a funny look. "You're funny!" Maggie giggled.
He slumped down onto the LuvSac and stared at nothing. "What are you gawking at?" Ari asked somewhat rudely and she stared at him, studying him a little more. The boy's expression changed to a sad one. "She didn't come back," he mumbled to himself.
Ari sat down next to him and just watched him, figuring he wasn't dangerous, but still a little crazy. "How was Grandma Wendy your mother? We'd be related and you'd be way older than me but you're about my age," Ari said, puzzled.
The boy looked up at Arianna and his expression brightened. "You'll see how. We need a mother to take care of us. Will you be our mother?"
"Who is 'us' and how would I be your mother? I'm too young," Ari replied.
"The Lost Children! Or the Lost Kids. They can't be called the Lost Boys anymore because we finally got a girl! And how fiesty she is too! But she can't be our mother. She's not quite a lady," the boy said, laughing quietly at the last part.
"Oh! Let's go Ari! We can pretend!" Maggie exclaimed.
"No, Maggie, we're not going, you have to go to bed right now anyways. I'm going to go get mom and dad," Arianna said, getting up and moving towards her door but Maggie quickly blocked her path.
"No! Please, Arianna! Pretty please?" begged Maggie.
"Move, squirt, we don't even know who he is." Arianna started to lift Maggie up and move her aside. She started pleading with Arianna and started kicking a bit. The little girl was finally moved aside but as soon as she was, she bolted right back to the door.
"Boy!" she shouted. "What's your name?"
The boy laughed and jumped up. "Who am I?"
He hopped onto Arianna's bed and jumped off, but instead of landing, he was floating in the air! Arianna and Maggie stared at him in awe. The last time she checked, Ari didn't remember finding a rope and harness on her ceiling and there was no way he could have gotten one and set it up. But people couldn't fly! Ari gasped. She knew him! He was the one she saw in the tree! It wasn't an animal she saw in their tree, it was this boy.
"Why I am the magnificant Peter Pan!" he hollared, zooming around Ari's room doing all kinds of tricks. She couldn't believe it. This nut thinks he's Peter Pan! But Maggie' eyes lit up.
"Peter Pan?" she asked, confirming. The boy stopped and sat on a patch of air, nodding. Her blue eyes looked longingly up where Peter sat. Arianna could tell she really wanted to fly.
"Oh, Peter, will you give me some faerie dust?" Maggie squealed. She yanked away from Ari's grasp and jumped onto her older sister's bed. Peter floated over to her gracefully. From a leather pouch, Peter Pan grabbed a handfull of faerie dust. He sprinkled some lightly on Maggie and closing her eyes, she jumped off the bed as high as she could. Arianna gave a small gasp as Maggie almost hit the ground but she soared right up to the ceiling, finally opening her eyes.
"Arianna, get up here! It is so fun!" exclaimed Maggie. Arianna rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms, and watching Maggie have the time of her life. Her little sister was tossing her teddy bear up and down, dropping him and then zooming down to catch him giggling uncontrollably. She -was- having the time of her life. Arianna decided this must be a dream so she closed her eyes and pinched herself. Opening her eyes, she still saw Maggie flying around with the boy who thought he was Peter Pan.
"C'mon Ari!" said Maggie in her high voice. She then turned to Peter. "Where is Tinkerbell, by the way? I would love to see her!"
"Oh, Tink's back in Neverland. I think she's found her own faerie Prince Charming," he said with a smile. Maggie giggled and started to walk on the ceiling. Peter grinned and sat on some air once again, looking down at Arianna who kept her gaze away from them. Giving a small, quiet laugh, he gently flew down in fron on Arianna.
"C'mon. I won't let you fall," he said. Arianna looked up at him with clear, green eyes. Their gazes met and locked. Arianna blinked a bit but the boy didn't blink even once. Without knowing it, Arianna was sprinkled secretly with faerie dust by Peter Pan.
She finally looked away back up to Maggie and Peter sat on her canopy. He didn't even break it! Peter Pan was incredibly light so he sat on the cloth like a bubble. He smirked without either of the sisters seeing. Arianna watched her little sister do flips and spins that she couldn't do on the ground.
She couldn't help but think that if flying was really possible, she could fly to school everyday and land near the crowd of popular (poptarts you could call them) kids that always chatted and grouped near her locker for some reason. Of course they weren't there because of Arianna. She wasn't part of their group even though she looked like she could be. She could even be the most popular girl at school! But most of those kids were pretty snobby so she didn't like to hang out with them. But not all of them were brats. There were a few that didn't talk much, even though they weren't nice to Ari, they weren't mean to her either. Then there were very few (five to be exact, out of the 30 or so, yes there's A LOT) that said hello to her every now and then. She had one very good friend in that group: Cali Jenkins. She was nice to everyone. But there was one person in the poptart group that Arianna had her eyes on. The ever-popular, hottest guy at school, one and only, Norris Kapler. That is who Ari mainly wanted to impress with her flying, even though it was quite a silly thought. But she smiled at the thought of sitting next to him. He was in almost all her classes but one and in all those classes he sat on the other side of the room.
Before she knew it, Ari was off the ground. She was so lost in daydream that she didn't notice. When she did notice though, she had already bumped her head on the ceiling. She gasped and frantically set back down to the steady ground. Laughing came from above.
"Oh, the cleverness of me!"
Ari looked up to see Peter laughing. She glared at him for a few seconds but then let up, even chuckling quietly herself.
"What were you thinking about, Arianna?" Peter asked slyly. "Or –who- were you thinking about?" He laughed again.
"None of your business," Ari snapped, but not too harsh. She sighed and thought about Norris Kapler again, causing her to lift into the air.
"Yes, the cleverness of you," she muttered and tried moving forwards a little to Maggie.
"Ari, you've decided to come!" she said. "It's okay, it's easy."
Arianna sighed, not believeing she actually believed this. She flew forward and flipped slowly and cautiously. She was getting the hang of it. Peter, seeing her actually flying now, zoomed around, showing off, even circling around Arianna with skill. Ari actually laughed a bit and finally took this weird experience as reality. She began to enjoy flying and she would toss Maggie up and then catch her like Maggie did to her bear.
"Well then, we're off to Neverland!" Peter announced. Maggie squeled with delight but Ari didn't. "Arianna, you'll be our mother!"
"But I have a piano recital tomorrow early in the morning!" Ari floated back down to her bed.
"Well then can I be your mother?" inquired Maggie.
"No, sorry, you're too little," replied Peter, frowning. He too set his feet down on the soft carpet followed by Maggie, who only frowned for a few seconds. She didn't entirely mind and she herself thought she was too young to take care of Peter and the Lost Kids. But when Peter mentioned she could become his sister, she brightened up.
"Please, we need a mother," said Peter. Arianna laid her head down and rolled over, facing the wall on the other side. Peter flew over to that side and crept up to Ari. Maggie just watched from the other side.
"One girl is worth more than twenty boys," he said irresistably. He had said that many times before and it always worked. Except for this one. She closed her eyes and her thin, brown hair fell down in her face. Peter gently brushed it aside which made Ari's eyes jolt open. Knowing that Maggie was on the other side, Arianna just stuck her head under her pillow and held it fast over her head.
Maggie sighed and looked sadly at Peter. He bit his lip thinking, then motioned for Maggie to follow him out the open window. They were as silent as a fox so Ari could not hear. Once outside, Peter smiled, his gears working frantically in his head. Maggie surpressed a giggle, knowing it was a plan from the clever Peter. He motioned her closer and whispered something into her ear. When he was through, Maggie flew upwards and did a flip.
"That's a great plan, Peter Pan!" she said.
"Oh the cleverness of me!" said Peter. The two of them zoomed away from the Hatch residence into the night, laughing quietly.
+++
-Goodness, that was a long chapter! O.O In case you're wondering, a LuvSac is like a big bean bag chair except it is really soft and comfortable. It has foam in it instead of beans, or whatever they may be. Please review!
Give comments, suggestions, whatever! Look for the next chapter soon!
