Chapter 7: A lesson worth learning

The next morning Wendy awoke to someone banging loudly on her door and then the ear piercing whiny voice of her aunt telling her it was time to get up.

"What time is it?" Wendy groaned without thinking.

"Wendy how dare you ask me a question as ill-mannered as that. Get up right now or I shall have your breakfast cleared from the table and you can go hungry." Aunt Millicent replied with the same usual strict, vindictive voice.

"Yes aunt." Wendy replied as she crawled out of bed still feeling miserable from the night before.

She stood on the carpet at the side of her bed and blinked a few times before the blurriness disappeared from her sleepy bright blue eyes.

"Oh what a night." Wendy yawned as she stretched her arms up way above her head and yawned yet again.

I'm glad I did what I did though. It had to be done and it's not like I can just leave at Peter's request anyway. Plus I was afraid if he did ask me to go with him, I wouldn't have been able to say no. I'm not a young girl anymore, I'm just not right for Peter. There should be plenty of other young girls that Peter can find. Why does he keep coming back to me?

Wendy snapped out of her painful thoughts and decided to have a shower. She didn't want her aunt to throw away her breakfast.

&&&&&&&

It was about ten minutes later that Wendy walked into the dining room, to find that Aunt Millicent was waiting in her chair, at the far end of the table, with a grim look upon her face.

When she noticed that Wendy was now in the room she looked up and said in a quiet, stern manner, "Wendy my dear, we are certainly going to have to get you more prepared for the morning's activities. You are showing a great lack in the field of waking up on time. I have now decided that until you can accomplish this new little aspiration of yours, you will be awake at four in the morning and you can help cook breakfast in the kitchen. That way you can get practice on your cooking skills. It's the best of both worlds."

Wendy couldn't believe her ears. Four in the morning? No way. It was absolutely ridiculous. However she decided to keep quite about the matter and restrain herself from arguing, otherwise her aunt might make her get up at three in the morning to collect the eggs from the chicken coop as well.

Wendy then replied as politely as she could without sounding sarcastic, "That sounds interesting Aunt. I am looking forward to becoming skilled at cooking."

She then sat down and began to eat her eggs and bacon.

Her aunt eyed Wendy with suspicion, but Wendy gave her a sincere smile and that put her aunt at ease.

&&&&&&&

"I am so, never going to learn another French word as long as I live." Wendy complained as she dragged her feet along the carpet in the hallway, as she headed towards her room for the night.

"Somehow I don't think that's an option." Said a voice coming from behind her.

Wendy spun around startled by the reply of the familiar voice.

She raised her left hand to her chest and breathed heavily, "Slightly, you scared me."

"Sorry Wendy." He said smiling slyly. It was almost as if he was amused by the fact that he had scared her.

"So how was it?" he asked.

"How was what?" asked Wendy confused by his unspecific question.

"Your day." He said simply as he pulled out a little brown sack and began to toss it back and forth in his hands.

Wendy followed the sack with her eyes and became dizzy after a few seconds. So she shook her head and faced Slightly once more and replied bluntly, "Oh you know, the usual study, no fun."

"Oh." He replied seeming to ignore her as he found his new toy more amusing.

Wendy frowned in annoyance and said, "Well I'm going to bed. Goodnight." And headed off towards the end of the hallway.

Slightly looked up and called after her, "Wendy wait. I have something for you."

She stopped and turned around with her eyebrows raised.

When he caught up with her he handed her the brown sack and said, "Here."

Wendy held it up in her hand and looked at it with a look of confusion on her face and asked, "Uh…what is it?"

He gave her the same sly smile as before, and replied deviously, "You'll know what it's for, when you want to know."

Before Wendy could question him any further, he had run up the hallway and slammed his door shut.

"Sometimes he can be the strangest little man I've ever met." Stated Wendy to no one in particular as she gazed at the brown sack in her hand.

I wonder what's inside? Wendy thought as she pulled the little string on the bag and peered inside.

Strange. There's nothing there. Wendy thought once more and closed the bag back up and as soon as she entered her room she threw it in the direction of her large window, and it landed on the edge of where the window and her carpet met.

"Time for bed." she whispered to herself, as crawled into her warm bed, not bothering to change out of her clothes and tried not to think of her early awakening in the morning.

&&&&&&&

"Wendy?" 'Knock, knock, knock'.

Wendy rolled over in her bed to face the door.

"Wendy? Are you awake?" whispered Slightly from the other side of the door.

"Leave me alone. I'm tired." Grumbled Wendy, not realising that he was in fact waking her up for her early morning.

"Wendy. It's three-thirty. You have to be ready by four, remember?" he questioned.

Wendy sat up in her bed abruptly with her eyes wide open.

"Oh my gosh. I totally forgot. How did you know Slightly?" She asked from her bed.

"Oh I heard mother talking to the cook last night after dinner. I wanted to wake up at the same time, just in case you overslept." He whispered.

"Oh thank you so much Slightly. You have no idea just how much you've helped me." Wendy said kicking off the blankets quickly and running to the door.

When she opened it she saw that Slightly was already dressed and wide-awake.

"Oh I think I have a pretty good idea." He smiled referring to her last statement.

He then moved aside and said, "You better go have a shower. There's plenty of hot water left. Don't worry. I didn't use it all."

"Thank you so much. You have helped me so much since I've been here. You really have." She said smiling sleepily.

"Well I have been living here with 'her' for three years now practically. I think I would've developed a few skills." He said snootily.

But Wendy knew he was just playing.

Wendy then hurried towards the bathroom and closed the door behind her as she entered.

She walked over to the cupboard below the basin, and bent down to grab a towel, but on the way she caught her reflection in the mirror above.

She stood up from the cupboard below and looked at the girl who had looked at her so strangely at the Darling house.

"Wendy what are you doing?" Asked the girl.

Wendy was shocked. She saw her face turn a pale colour and she felt faintish. This girl was talking to her. But it wasn't just any girl, it was Wendy's reflection.

Wendy answered the girl not quite knowing what else to do.

"Um…I'm going for a shower." She said clutching onto her towel in fright.

The girl shook her head and said in an annoyed manner, "No I mean what are you doing with your life? Why did you not want to see Peter yesterday night?"

Wendy grew upset and whispered, "Because I didn't think he'd want to know a grown up. Especially a grown up who doesn't believe."

"Oh Wendy wake up to yourself. You may not be a child any longer, but you can still believe." The girl said irritated by Wendy's silliness.

"But what does it matter if I believe anyway? Peter will want a young girl in the end, not some grown up woman. I could never make him happy." Wendy said sadly, as fresh tears started to appear in the corners of her eyes.

"Wendy…if you want something bad enough, it will come your way. Don't push your hopes and dreams away because they seem too impossible." And with that being said, the girl quietened and returned to Wendy's normal reflection.

Wendy realised this after minutes of trying to ask the girl more questions and getting no reply.

'Knock, knock, knock.'

Wendy jolted as someone began knocking on the bathroom door.

"Yes, who is it?" She asked.

"It's me Slightly. It's a quarter to four now. I just thought I'd tell you because I haven't heard you turn the shower on yet."

"Oh no. I'm going to have to rush now." Wendy said to herself panicking. "I won't be long." She said to Slightly as she hung her towel up on the towel-rack.

As Wendy stood under the shower, letting the warm water trickle over her body, she spoke softly to herself, "It's not that I push away my hopes and dreams, they just seem to…slip away from me, from being under all this pressure. If I could, I would go back to the way I was before I came back to London three years ago. But that's impossible."

A/N: Well there goes Wendy pushing away her hopes and dreams again because they are too 'impossible'. I think there's a little bit more to it then just the pressure of everyone around her don't you?

Hey everyone. I hope this chapter was good enough for you. I have been on a roller coaster of brainstorms lately and I am hoping that it hasn't been all for nothing. There is more good stuff coming your way. There is going to be a fair amount of chapters in this story, so don't think I haven't shown much of Peter or anything, his part will come into play at the right moment. But I guarantee that it won't be long before he comes in. So enjoy.

P.S. I am going on holidays for two weeks starting on the 30th of December. That is this Thursday. So if you don't hear from me, that's why. But while I'm away I will be writing a whole lot more for this story, so a little bit of waiting won't kill anyone now will it? LOL! Anyway I have decided that after I come back, my usual updating day will be every Friday night.

Thanks everyone.

Tidus' girl Candy