Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! A (belated) Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my readers! You guys, as you know, are great. People with usernames should have gotten private messages. To Wendypan, thank you so much! I'm so happy you like it! And yes, Felix does have a tragic back story, but he needed a reason for his fierce devotion to Peter. We will see more about that in the future. :)

Finally, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

~ladykikyo1792

Chapter 15: I'm Learning All Your Tricks, I Can Hurt You From Inside

It was midnight, and Peter Pan walked the streets of Storybrooke, as he had every night since he'd made his contract with the Evil Queen and the Savior. True to his word, he roamed it as if it were his kingdom, though he harmed no one- and true to their word, they stayed inside their homes anyway. What they all failed to realize was that he was moving around the town to memorize it. He wished to examine every stone so closely that he knew the town layout almost as well as Neverland. If he was to succeed in his plan, he needed to understand all he could about this mysterious Land Without Magic. Peter thought it a rather pitiful place since it lacked magic, though some residents seemed happy enough.

But not all residents were, and it was these residents he was particularly interested in. Peter knew who some would be, of course- Slightly and Felix definitely, and most likely Nibs. However, he didn't know all of them, though he was looking forward to it. Carefully, he lifted his pipes to his lips. An eerie tune softly drifted throughout the town, though only a select few could hear its notes. He observed three boys in the houses he passed just now pull their curtains aside in confusion. They didn't climb out of the window, as they once would have- all the windows were locked and bolted tonight. But they looked around, puzzled, until they spotted him. He smiled and waved at them, and he could practically see the thoughts in their minds:

Peter Pan! This is the one everyone's afraid of! But he doesn't look dangerous. He looks...nice.

Then their faces morphed into a perplexed curiosity. Peter's smile grew wider as he continued to play. When he waved again, two of the three boys he'd spotted waved back. He knew then that if he could only speak to them, they would be his. Still, he sensed that flying to their windows now wouldn't help his cause. He had to talk to them in a setting more natural for them, a setting where he looked like an ordinary boy who could be their friend.

And he knew exactly where.

Wendy stood at her window, frozen in place by the haunting song that used to play only in her dreams. Part of her hated that she heard it. It meant that she felt lost, lonely, and unloved- all things she shouldn't feel. She was in Storybrooke, reunited with her brothers at last. Why should she feel this way, when she had everything she'd ever wanted?

Despite the fact she had those things, Wendy could hear Pan's pipes. Frustrated, she put her fingers in her ears, but that didn't help. She opened the window, where Felix, commanded as ever to guard her, stood as a sentinel on her porch. He was smiling- but then again, he would smile to hear the song. For him, it wasn't a song of loneliness or despair. It was a song signifying the return of his greatest leader, and a sign that he would have new friends soon.

At the screech of the window, he turned to look up at her and murmured, "Wendy, go to bed." He gave the order distractedly, and she knew his focus was more on the song than her.

"I can't," Wendy said through gritted teeth, "It won't stop. I can't stop hearing-" abruptly, she cut herself off. She was unwilling to admit this weakness to him, but Felix could guess what had happened anyway. The color had drained from her face, and she looked stricken.

Felix chuckled to himself as he realized her predicament, "So Wendy Darling can hear the song of the Lost Ones!" It was something that had never happened to her before. Even in Neverland, she had been secure in the love of her brothers. She knew they loved her, and while she might have felt lonely on occasion, she had never felt lost. She had been exactly where Pan had wanted her, and exactly where her brothers hoped to retrieve her. She'd had a place, even if she did not much like it. As such, she'd never heard Pan's pipes.

"Shut up, Felix!" Wendy snarled. The last thing she needed was his mockery.

The Lost Boy laughed at her rage, "What, Wendy? You think me not saying it will stop it? Once you hear the song, nothing makes it stop-"

"Henry doesn't hear it anymore!" Wendy insisted. She had no idea whether this was true or not, but she thought it must be. He was home in Storybrooke- thus he was no longer lost -and with his family and friends -and thus he was no longer lonely or unloved.

"Have you asked him?" Felix inquired, but Wendy didn't reply. He was betting she hadn't- Wendy had spent the majority of her time since they returned from Neverland pretending the whole thing never happened. As such, while she'd say hello to Henry, she never talked to him in depth, let alone about Neverland.

At Wendy's silence, Felix smiled. He had been right. Satisfied, he continued, "If you've been to Neverland, and you hear those pipes, the song never stops. If you haven't been to Neverland, and suddenly you don't feel lost, lonely, and unloved, maybe it does," he shrugged, "I don't know. But once you've been on Neverland's shores- if you hear it, it doesn't stop." He grinned at her, somewhat perversely pleased by her unease.

Wendy said nothing for what seemed like ages. She merely stared at the Lost Boy, anger blazing like a raging fire, but beneath it, resignation. Felix merely gazed up at her, unsure why this was such a shock to her. Had she really thought she would never hear the pipes? All Neverlanders did, eventually. Pan's music matched the emotions within their hearts, tying them to him and to the island forever.

"Come on, Wendy," Tinkerbell appeared next to Wendy at the window. Clad in a blue pajama set, her golden hair loose around her shoulders, she looked far less haughty- and hunted -than usual. Gently, she put her arms around the girl, then guided her out of Felix's view- presumably back to her bed. She returned to the window a few seconds later, her green eyes meeting Felix's stormy gray for a long moment.

Felix queried, "Are you going to ask me to tell Pan to stop?" It was what he expected her to do. Although Tinkerbell was conscious of Pan's power, she also was conscious of how close she'd once been to Felix. Most people wouldn't balk at requesting a favor from a former lover, and Tink was never one to hold back.

"No," she replied immediately, her voice clear and distinct in the night air. Her answer came swiftly, quickly and without consideration of any other option.

Surprised, Felix asked, "Why not?"

Tink explained, "Because I couldn't ask Pan for anything. I'm not fool enough to think you can ask him either."

With that, she shut the window, leaving the usually unflappable Lost Boy utterly unnerved.

The next few days passed in a blur. Felix guarded Wendy every second from the moment she left her house to when she returned to it. Wendy didn't see Peter, though she knew, just knew, he was around. She'd awake in the middle of the night to find her bedroom window open, a cool wind on her face. Her covers would be mussed, and she swore she heard footsteps, though her room was always empty. Then, of course, there was the music from his pipes.

Nevertheless, Wendy did not have nightmares, and that knowledge made her gut twist. She told herself she didn't have nightmares anymore because the central feature of her nightmares was physically walking around. The alternative for what exactly was keeping her nightmares at bay was too confusing, and too unnerving, to contemplate.

Meanwhile, the other inhabitants of Storybrooke were at first braced for war, going about their daily lives with trepidation. Yet when the blow didn't come, they began to relax a little. Most forgot about Peter's presence, or at least didn't think of him until curfew set in. And even then, when he didn't show himself, he remained in the back of their thoughts.

That was exactly what Peter wanted. Complacency in a game was a trait reserved for the loser.

And he never lost.

Content with his strategy for the game, Peter continued to spend his nights wandering around Storybrooke, playing his pipes and scouting the area. Sometimes Felix accompanied him. Often, though, he left his second at the house at the edge of town occupied by Wendy Darling and Tinkerbell, and prowled around the town alone.

So long as people didn't look out their windows, they wouldn't see the Shadow King creeping amongst them as he sought out the Lost souls of this world.

When Peter did finally show himself in the light of the day, it stunned the mayor. Regina, the former Evil Queen, was shell-shocked. Standing across from her longtime enemy, she said:

"Let me see if I understand this correctly," she crossed her arms, "You want to go to high school? Doesn't that go against everything you stand for?" Pan's entire quest for the Heart of the Truest Believer had been based off the desire to preserve his youth and immortality forever. Attending high school was one of the signs a child was growing older. It didn't correlate with anything she knew about Pan.

The eternal boy sitting in the chair before the principal's desk shrugged, "I stand for not growing up. To my knowledge, in this world, you're not grown up 'til you turn eighteen, which is after high school."

"Not always," Regina riposted instantly. She was suspicious of what Pan's motives were- for he invariably had them. Despite his face, he was no innocent.

"But mostly," Peter countered easily. He smiled at her, confident in what Felix had explained to him. There were twelve months in a year here, and of those, only those born in the first four and a half would be eighteen before they graduated high school. Peter kept the knowledge of his actual birthday to himself- but he had been born in the summer, and so even had he attended high school as a mortal boy, he wouldn't have reached that critical age of adulthood.

"How old are you, exactly?" Regina demanded. She narrowed her eyes at him, wondering for the first time how ancient the being sitting across from her was. He looked harmless enough, but she knew from experience he wasn't. Similarly, he looked enough like an adolescent, but his own eyes gave away the calculating wisdom of someone who had lived far longer than anyone should. She had the discomfiting sensation he was older than her, and perhaps older than Rumplestiltskin. It made her skin crawl.

"Seventeen," Pan stated.

"You can't be seventeen," the mayor pressed. Each of them knew he was beyond seventeen- mentally he was beyond all humans who had ever existed.

"You forget in Neverland, time is frozen. I arrived at seventeen. I'm seventeen," Peter slightly adjusted his position, so he was no longer sitting respectfully in the chair. Instead, he was lounging in it as though it were a throne. Regina felt a flash of irritation at the sight, and she asserted:

"You're not a boy, then. You're a teenager."

Peter smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes, "I expected more of the Evil Queen than arguing semantics. In this world, I still count as a boy. And aren't there laws saying children have to be in school?" This was another tidbit Felix had mentioned to him.

"You're not exactly a minor."

He shrugged, and simply stared at her. An exasperated Regina began to pace around the room. As she reached the side of the room by the window, she approached the princess who had destroyed her life. Mary Margaret, the former Snow White, was present as the representative of Storybrooke's newly-formed School Department. She wasn't talking to Pan directly- that had been left as the prerogative of the mayor -but she was there to observe and comment.

"I don't think this is that bad of an idea, Regina," she whispered furtively, keeping her gaze on Pan.

"How is this not a bad idea?" Regina almost yelled at the woman, as stupid as an adult as she had been as a child. Letting a teenage serial killer into a school- the very school were one of his victims had been brutally murdered -hardly seemed ideal. Admittedly, the contract forbade him from killing- but she firmly believed Pan was capable of much more than death. His continued existence was a blatant demonstration of that.

"In the daytime, you said he promised Storybrooke was Emma's," Mary Margaret explained, "He'd have to follow the rules. Besides, wouldn't it be better to have him somewhere we can watch him? Keep your friends close, and enemies closer kind of thing?"

"You realize I can hear you," Peter said. He was smirking in his chair, and Regina wanted to slap him. He was far too insolent- and, though she refused to say it, too powerful -for her liking. She could not punish him, though she dreamed every night of the tortures she'd like to inflict on him for what he'd tried to do to Henry.

Ignoring the tension, Mary Margaret pressed, "What's worse? Peter Pan walking around Storybrooke, or Peter Pan confined to a building Monday to Friday where we can keep track of him?"

"It's always better to have your prey in sight," Peter noted. His eyes glittered with mirth. Regina bit her lip, running a hand through her hair. She had to think clearly, and she couldn't do that with Pan making snarky commentary. All it made her want to do was throw a fireball at him.

"Stay here," she commanded Mary Margaret, then left the flustered teacher with the devil boy. She closed the door to the principal's office, then walked down the hallway, determined to be out of the earshot of Pan. Her heels clacked on the linoleum, the sound as loud as fireworks in the quiet hallways. Retrieving her cell phone, she dialed Killian Jones.

"Your Majesty," the pirate answered immediately, "to what do I owe the honor?"

"Peter Pan wants to go to high school," Regina said without preamble. Typically, she would have berated him for his arrogance, but she didn't have time today.

There was a hesitation on the line, but then Hook hypothesized, "And you want to know if it's a good idea."

"You know him better than anyone."

Hook admitted, "Not quite true, but close enough. In either case, there are no good ideas with Pan. It's all bad, with various degrees of bad and worse."

Regina rolled her eyes and leaned against a locker, "I'm aware of that, but could you perhaps add a little more of your expertise to the matter? Something helpful, perhaps."

The pirate considered the concept, then said carefully, "I think it would be better than letting him walk around town unaccompanied. He might run into Henry otherwise."

"What do you mean?"

"From what Swan told me, Pan can't kill anyone, kidnap Henry, or curse you. Doesn't block him from seeking Henry out on a daily basis. You can keep watch on Henry before or after school, but what about during it? You've got to run the town; Pan can easily move around unobstructed."

"So you're saying I should let Pan into high school to guarantee he's away from my son while my son's in school."

Hook clarified, "I'm saying that you only get the certainty of Henry being left alone during those times by letting Pan go to high school. Otherwise, Pan might go to Henry; he might not, but you can't be certain. You don't know what he'd do. And you can't force Henry to be with you all the time."

Regina sucked in a breath, "Thank you, Hook." She quickly pocketed the phone, then walked back into the office, head held high.

"Welcome to Storybrooke High," she practically spat out the words.

Pan smiled.

It came as no surprise to Wendy that the first day Peter appeared at Storybrooke High School as a student, certain boys immediately gravitated to him. Peter Pan was enchanting when he wanted to be, but was always, always, planning and cunning. Still, he presented a figure of strength, confidence, and welcome to the boys who came to him.

Some had been orphans in the Enchanted Forest. Some had severe conflict in their families. Some were simply the prodigal sons in the town.

In short, they were Lost, and Peter Pan, whatever his many faults, considered it his duty to save Lost Boys. They were pulled towards him like planets gravitating towards a newly formed star.

Pan basked in the attention, and he reveled in the companionship of new friends. In addition to regaining the Heart of the Truest Believer, here too was another noble cause for him in Storybrooke: saving boys who had been lost for too long.

Wendy watched as Peter held court in the lunch room. He sat at a table by the window, with Felix on his right. His left was occupied by a boy Wendy knew as Owen Dodge. Owen was a loner by nature, but the other kids avoided him regardless. He was one of the unfortunate sort who was automatically, unanimously, unconsciously chosen by the majority to be the designated school outcast. Despite her elevated social status- Wendy had been absorbed into the popular group of girls headed by Grace -Wendy had always felt pity for Owen, and when no one was looking, gave him a smile and kind word. Owen had never said much back- maybe he didn't trust her since she only talked to him when they were alone -but he seemed absolutely starstruck by Peter. He was constantly talking to Peter, and Peter gave him what appeared to be his undivided attention. To Owen, this singular, directed attention was more than he had ever received, and what he'd desired for years. He genuinely believed Pan was focused on him and him alone.

Wendy and Tink knew better. Peter was constantly observing everything. He absorbed and catalogued details around him with a precision no mortal could hope to match. After all, he'd had centuries to practice. Now, Peter was a predator adjusting to his new environment- he was surveying his surroundings, and the people within it.

Owen paused in whatever he was telling Peter to take a drink from his water bottle, and Peter used the opportunity to cast his gaze around the cafeteria. Upon his eyes meeting Wendy's, his lips spread in a feral grin. Chills ran up Wendy's spine, and it took her a few moments to break the stare. Rattled, she stabbed at her salad, the tomatoes bursting open in sprays of red juice. The bright color reminded Wendy of blood.

That sight, combined with the memory of Peter's smile of a few minutes before, was enough to make Wendy lose her appetite. She sighed, then picked up her plate and made her way over to the trash can. Tink didn't follow her since Wendy was in her direct line of sight. As Wendy deposited her plate in the bin, she heard a familiar voice behind her:

"Bird, you need to eat."

Of course he was here. Of course he was. He'd take advantage of any opportunity to get her alone- even if she wasn't truly alone. Wendy turned around to face Peter, whose smile had since disappeared and been replaced by disapproval.

"I'm not hungry," Wendy replied.

"That's a lie."

"I'm not, Peter. I'm really not," she maintained.

"Wendy-bird, you need to eat. Birds can't fly if they don't eat."

At his words, Wendy flinched. He was deliberately bringing up a memory, and this time, it was a particularly painful one.

No, she thought, pushing the memory down, I can't keep doing that. I can't keep sinking into memory. I have to live. I have to try.

Emboldened, Wendy stated, "I don't want to fly, Peter. I want to be normal. I want to go to school. I want to go shopping. I want to go to football games-" she was mentioning everything that she had ever thought of going to as Gwen in a desperate attempt to remind herself that she wasn't in Neverland. Even seemingly insignificant things, such as sports, counted, for these were things that never would have happened in Neverland, and these were the things that would keep her grounded in the real world.

"Football?" Peter sneered, "You'd rather see football than fly?" He crossed his arms, both incredulous at her assertion and completely contemptuous of it.

"Yes!" Wendy said, "It can be fun, being normal!" The words sounded weak, even to her own ears.

"I am not normal!" Peter argued, the words coming out on a hiss. His eyes had narrowed into slits.

"I know!" Wendy shot back (God knew Peter was anything and everything but normal), "But you're having fun talking to ordinary boys right over there! Normal, ordinary boys, who do normal, ordinary things-" she gestured to the table of boys who waited for his return, eager as puppies. They were observing the exchange between Peter and Wendy with sheer fascination.

"They can be more," Peter waved his hand toward them carelessly.

"Right now, they are normal," Wendy said through gritted teeth, "and I want that. Freedom. A chance to start over." A chance to forget you.

"Football," Peter rolled his eyes, "Normal. Ordinary. Wendy-bird, you aren't normal. You aren't ordinary. You, who live in a land of mermaids and fairies and pirates, would be bored." He said this as if he had merely told her the sky was blue, and Wendy was annoyed at his casual assumption about her.

"The fairies are dead, Peter; the pirates are in Storybrooke; and many of the mermaids left Neverland as well. I'm not bored by it. I won't be," she said confidently, then added brazenly, "and I bet you wouldn't be bored either, if you gave it a chance. It has everything you like in it- chase, fighting-" With this statement, she was only hoping to defend normalcy to Peter. She never expected him to acknowledge normalcy, or seek it out. Her mouth dropped open as he replied simply:

"Fine. There's one tonight, isn't there? Dodger mentioned it."

"His name is Owen," Wendy sputtered, too shocked Peter was even considering the football game to say anything else.

"I know a Lost Boy when I see one, and I name the Lost Boys. His name is Dodger. And if you're so desperate for me to go to a football game, Wendy, then I'll go. Let's see what kind of games they play here." Then he granted her another sinister grin before he strode back to his table.

A few hours later, Wendy and Tink sat next to each other in the football stands. Wendy wore a black pleated skirt, a maroon and white sweater (Storybrooke High's colors), and boots, while Tink wore jeans and a Storybrooke High sweatshirt. Since the town had decided to proceed as though everything was normal, that included sports activities. Wendy, both to hold onto the remnants of her sanity and to give what measure of protection to her friends she could by her presence, had decided it was worth it to attend the football game she'd taunted Peter with earlier. Tink, who went with her everywhere now, had joined her. Grace and Gretel waved to her from the field- both were cheerleaders -and Wendy gave a halfhearted wave back.

"That was convincing," Tink snorted.

"You're not nervous?" Wendy retorted, quickly defensive.

"Of course I am," Tink replied, "but what's that going to do? You challenged him to go, and you know Peter never says no to a challenge. He'll be here, no matter what."

Wendy sighed. Tink had a point. She had provoked Peter at lunch. She'd been dead set on reminding herself that she was in Storybrooke, not Neverland, and had let words spill out of her without considering the consequences. Then, she'd found herself strangely fearless, as if by mentioning little things about Storybrooke, she could cocoon herself among them as a form of protection- for Peter did not acknowledge small things, let alone the ordinary.

But stupidly, she'd forgotten he never backed down from a challenge. And now Peter Pan was going to a football game. She'd made her entire school targets to Peter Pan's wrath, instead of just her and Tink. And she had no one to blame but herself.

"Hello, Bird."

Wendy forced herself not to shudder as she heard his voice. She turned to greet him, fighting with everything she had to be neutral; to hide her fear.

Still, it was hard, especially as he stood there, smirking and self-assured. As usual, he wore his outfit of stitched leaves- she supposed that would never change -though even Felix, who stood loyally next to him, had conceded to wearing Storybrooke High colors. He'd traded his typical brown sweatshirt for one of maroon and white- almost identical to Tink's.

It would have been cute had Wendy not known who they really were.

"Peter," Wendy stated, a bit unnecessarily, "You're here."

Peter raised an eyebrow, "Of course. You said this was game would be interesting. I wanted to see for myself."

"And he's here because?" Tink asked, gesturing toward Felix. His presence blatantly made the fairy uncomfortable.

Pan gave her an angelic smile, "Felix is my best friend. Besides, he's a student here too."

Wendy examined Pan's and Tink's faces. Tink glared at Peter with unabashed hatred, still furious with Peter for his mistreatment of her. Pan continued to smile innocently, but his own eyes were dark. Felix noticed none of the exchange, because he was so stunned- and apparently, pleased, judging by his broad smile -at Pan openly naming him as his best friend.

Wendy wondered if Felix knew what Peter had done to separate him and Tink. If Felix did, would he still be so happy to be called Peter Pan's best friend?

She wasn't so sure.

Before she could ask, Peter sat next to her. Although Felix moved to sit on Peter's other side, he was stopped by Pan shaking his head. Peter gestured towards Tink, and puzzled, but obedient as ever, Felix moved to sit next to the fairy. Pan was playing with them, and Felix didn't even know it. Tink, though, was more than aware of Pan's machinations, and her cheeks flushed red with anger. Wendy went to reprimand Peter, but the words died on her lips. She knew it would do more harm than good.

"So, Wendy," Peter said casually, "How do you play this game?" The made it sound as if he were genuinely curious, but Wendy doubted his sincerity. He was trying to make her as uncomfortable as possible by pretending this was normal- and much to her consternation, he was succeeding.

Wendy swallowed, "There are four quarters. Each team tries to get the ball, and they get a chance to kick it, and run with it towards those big posts at the end of the field-"

Peter's brow furrowed in confusion (though Wendy suspected it was feigned), "Where does chase come in? You said there was chase, and fighting." He looked her directly in the eyes, and she was torn between staring at his own ethereal orbs or focusing on what he actually was. Heart pounding, she shook her head, attempting to break the connection.

"One team goes after the other, because they don't want that team to reach the posts with the ball. They can stop the team that's running with the ball however they want," Wendy recited the words robotically, still struggling not to be pulled in by him, "They can run into them, or tackle them, try to pin them to the ground-" Desperately, she tried to ignore that Peter was beside her- that in fact, if she wasn't mistaken, he was inching closer to her with her every word.

For a second, she allowed herself to wonder what it might have been like if they had been in the Enchanted Forest when the curse had occurred- if Peter, Wendy, Felix, and Tinkerbell had been caught up in the Evil Queen's original curse. If they didn't know who they were, or the horrible events that bound them all together.

Wendy might really have been Gwen Carissima, sitting between her handsome, charismatic boyfriend and her best friend. Tinkerbell might be flushing not with anger at Pan, but in annoyance over a silly fight with Felix. The Lost Boy might be suppressing a smile, not over being acknowledged as Pan's best friend, but over Tink's antics. And Peter might have been the man she'd once imagined him capable of being- a leader, surely, admirable, definitely, but also kind and generous, without a malicious, sadistic bone in his body.

If only.

Wendy sighed and shivered in the crisp, cold fall air. Peter noticed instantly. One of his arms slid easily around her, bringing her close to his body.

She hated herself when, honed over years of habit, her body automatically relaxed in his warmth. She hated herself even more when she realized that, as he'd predicted, she was horribly, incredibly, entirely bored with the game. The quarters seemed to drag on forever, while the cheerleaders' cries seemed silly and ridiculous. The dwarves barely moved the ball down the field with each play, and though they were not as short as they had been in the Enchanted Forest, they still had a small stature here. It made it hard to see them do anything on the field.

Surreptitiously, Wendy shifted in Peter's arms, trying to sneak a glance at her watch. As always, he caught her every gesture. He laughed softly:

"Bored, Bird?"

"No," Wendy retorted, "I just- I wanted to see how much time was left until half-time."

"What happens at half-time?" Peter queried. She could hear the amusement in his tone, though he was pretending to be sincerely inquisitive. He knew she was lying, and he found it incredibly amusing.

"Grace and Gretel- my friends -they said the cheerleaders are doing some kind of dance," Wendy had stopped paying attention to the girls' lunchtime conversation halfway through (she'd been too absorbed in watching Peter), but she clung to the very first thing they'd mentioned. It was her excuse, however implausible.

Tink begged, "Please tell me we can leave before that. Please, Wendy." They were her first words since the game had started, and while she made them sound sarcastic, Wendy was all-too aware that Tink was agitated and uncomfortable around Felix. Wendy shot her an apologetic glance. Under any other circumstances she would leave, but Peter was here, and now she had to prove a point: not everything normal was bad or mundane.

Even if this particular instance was terribly dull.

"I want to stay until the end," Wendy said, silently promising that she would make it up to Tinkerbell later. The fairy groaned, then hugged herself. Wendy couldn't figure out if she did it because she was cold, miserable, or both. Apparently, neither could Felix, because every so often he shot Tink a puzzled glance. A few seconds later, though, Peter would smile at him, and the Lost Boy became distracted again.

Eventually, Wendy became so guilty she couldn't bring herself to look at them anymore. Refusing to meet Peter's gaze, she kept her own fixed on the dwarf players. Perhaps if she tried to focus on the game a little more- however excruciatingly boring it was -she could stop focusing on him. Or so she told herself for the next twenty minutes.

It felt like ages had passed, but finally, the team jogged off the field. Half-time had arrived at last. Wendy turned to Tink, intent on whispering an apology.

Suddenly, the lights on the field died. Everything went black.

"...is this supposed to happen?" Peter inquired, his tone deadly.

"No," Felix answered. Wendy flinched as she heard the shriek of metal- the Lost Boy had drawn his switchblade. Pan released her a few seconds later, and she reached for Tink's hand as she heard Pan withdraw his own dagger. They were wary, and that part alone scared Wendy more than anything else- because if they were wary, they hadn't planned this.

However, the lights came back on as fast as they'd switched off. They illuminated the lone object on the field: a body. Immediately, most of the crowd started to scream. Peter let loose a delighted laugh. Tink grabbed Wendy's arm, and Wendy covered her mouth with her other hand, blinking back tears as she recognized the body: Tootles.

"Peter," she said, practically sick, "What did you do?"

"Wendy," Peter replied, quite seriously, "I didn't do anything. I was sitting next to you the whole time, watching this 'game.' Though you're right, Wendy. It isn't boring. It does have everything I like."

Author's Note: I hope you all liked the chapter! Please let me know what you think! And I know Peter Pan in high school seems a little odd- but it's important for future plot points. As always, Peter has a plan. ;)

~ladykikyo1792