Heyyyy lovely readers!

Happy Sunday. Aaaaaand school is tomorrow. Just like that, my mood went down. But I made another chapter! Idk, I thought it was cute. If you think not, please don't be mean in your reviews, k? I don't really have anything to say but THANK YOU for all the reviews I got on this story. Honestly, I never expected this much. Love you guys all dearly!

Thanks to those who commented!

Flying By Wire

Avril Lambert

Kieran

She knows

Endings aren't my thing. But maybe you can make it?

-Peter

Peter was telling a story.

Alice had never heard anyone tell a story as well as Peter did. He had told her the fairytale of Little Red Riding hood, adding pirates and witches and dragons that swooped down and carried off the heroine.

"But then the dragon dropped her off in front of her boyfriend," Peter said, waving his hands animatedly. Dazzled, Alice sat on the floor as if in a trance and giggled as Peter ruffled his own reddish hair when he said "boyfriend."

Alice waited for Peter to continue. He just stood there, gazing into her eyes. "Um," he said.

Alice tilted her head. "Um? Is that...it? Where's the rest of the story?"
"Um." Peter raised his eyebrows. "Yeah. I'm...I'm no good at endings. Endings are overrated."

Alice smiled a little. "Aw, Peter, the endings are the best part. You have to finish stories. They're even more important than beginnings, in my opinion."
Peter shrugged. "Endings aren't really my thing, Alice. But maybe you can make it?"
"The ending?" Alice shrugged and leaned back against the bedpost. "Okay, Peter." Alice thought about a good ending, and decided to make up something random. "But then...Red Riding Hood," she began. "took her boyfriend's hand and wanted to kiss him. But he wasn't much for kissing." She gestured at Peter, who nodded excitedly.

"So, Red asked for a gift, for her boyfriend to remember him by, after she returned to her own home from leaving her grandmother's town. So he gave her a small metal trinket that had been passed down through his family. And in turn, she gave him a trinket of her own. They both kept the trinkets forever, so even though they couldn't be together, they had small remembrances of each other that they would never let go of as long as they lived."

Peter raised his eyebrows.

Alice tucked a wisp of blonde hair behind her ear. "The end."

Peter clapped. "Standing ovation for the best storyteller ever."
Alice blushed and ducked her head. "Thank you, Peter, but I only made up the ending. The story isn't mine."

Peter pulled a piece of her yellow hair gently. "You still have to go, don't you?"
Alice looked down. "I do, Peter. I'm so sorry."

Peter shrugged. "No big deal." He jumped up onto the bedpost and walked along it, balancing perfectly. He stood with one leg up in the air, his balance amazing. "No big deal," he repeated.

"No," said Alice. "It is a big deal. I'll have to get going soon, Peter, but can I give you a kiss first?"
Peter took a deep breath and jumped off the footboard of the bed and placed his hands on her shoulders. "No. I have a better idea." He scrounged through his pockets, checking all around, and finally came out with a small silver thing. He fingered it, his back to Alice, running his fingers along it. It was originally Cindy's, and it was a beautiful silver acorn. He spun around and handed it to Alice. "For you," he said softly. "To remember me by?"

Alice choked. "Oh, Peter!"
She grabbed the acorn and stared at it. She smiled. "I'll keep it forever. Oh!" She rooted around in her pockets as well, and then ran to her dresser and swept her hand along it and through the few top drawers, looking for something worth to give Peter. Her hands settled on something circular, like a bracelet. She pulled it out. It was her charm bracelet by the most popular jewelry manufacturers in New York, Wonderland.

Alice looked over each of the charms carefully. There were many charms on the silver bracelet: a striped wide-eyed cat with a long banana-like smile; a bottle of tonic; a stopwatch; and symbols you'd normally find on playing cards, two spades, two hearts, two clubs, and two diamonds. Alice looked over the charms and ripped off one of the hearts. She bit her lip and held out the charm. "Um, h-here, Peter," she said softly. "There's two of everthing else so everytime I notice that there's only one of these hearts I'll realize that you have it."
"I have your real heart too." Peter said finally. "Right?"
Alice blinked, and a tear slid out of the corner of her eye. "Right."

Peter leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Alice's waist, and the two of them hugged for a long time.

Suddenly, they heard a honk from outside.

"My sister!" Alice sucked in air. "Peter, Peter, I have to go."
Peter gripped her arm tightly. "Don't leave, Alice!"
Alice shook her head. "Please, please, please, Peter, please don't make this harder than it already has to be."

Peter gripped the heart charm and held Alice's arm, then slowly let go. "So goodbye then?"
"I'm no good at goodbyes," said Alice, wiping her eyes.

"Me neither." Peter tilted her face up. "We'll see each other again, right? This isn't the end, right, Alice?"
"Endings are overrated," said Alice with a tiny grin.

"But they're the best part," Peter whispered.

"And they usually end happily ever after," Alice replied. "So I know this isn't our ending."
She ran downstairs and out the door, waving to Peter every step of the way.

This isn't our ending, Peter thought. Alice wasn't a princess. Peter wasn't a prince. But their happily ever after would soon come—they just didn't know it yet.

We met, it seems, such a short time ago

You looked at me—needing me so

Yet from your sadness

Our happiness grow

And I found out I needed you too

I remember how we used to play

I recall those rainy days

The fire's glow

That kept us warm

And now I find—we're both alone.

Goodbye may seem forever

Farewell is like the end

But in my heart is a memory

And there you'll always be.

I'm glad I told them the truth now, rather than holding it off for later.

-Arista

Robbie stopped the car at the hospital, and Arista sprinted—which was difficult with her swollen belly—across the parking lot and ran to the front desk. "Ariel Triton," she panted. "I'm her sister, please, how is she?"
The receptionist gaped at Arista, who smacked her hand down repeatedly on the desk. "Did you hear me? Are you freaking deaf?" Arista shrieked.

Robbie entered and pulled Arista away. He spoke to the receptionist in a low voice, and she gave him directions to the room where Ariel was. "She's in the Intensive Care Unit," he told Arista in a soft voice. "She's hopefully going to be okay. Let's go check out how she's doing with the doctor, okay? And then let's go talk to your family."
Arista trembled just thinking about it.

She flicked a piece of white blonde hair out of her pretty face and allowed Robbie to lead her down to the ICU, where a doctor with streaked hair and tan skin was waiting. She was very tall and wore a white coat over a black turtleneck. "Hi, I'm Dr. Julia Makai," she said with a smile.

Arista felt better seeing that smile. It made her feel like Ariel was okay. "I'm Arista Triton," she said. "Ariel's sister. And this is my boyfriend, Robbie Frayman."
"Nice to meet you both," said Dr. Makai, shaking their hands. "Now, Ariel, is very lucky. She has six broken ribs, unfortunately. And she lost a lot of blood from a contusion in the side of her stomach. Her forehead was hit with pieces of shattered glass, but none of them went near her brain, thank goodness, because that would have made this whole process a lot more tricky. She was bleeding heavily when we found her, and her left leg was crushed underneath the bottom part of the car."
"Crushed?" Arista wheezed. "Oh, God. Oh, God. Please don't tell me she has to lose her leg."
"No, no, honey!" Dr. Makai held up two hands. "No, no. We think it's alright, as long as the antibiotics we've started her on gets rid of all that nasty infection. It should be alright. We've stitched up any wounds, done bloodwork, and everything seems to be okay. We've removed the glass shards, and her leg is clearly broken. We're doing an operation tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. to get the bones back in place and then we're going to set it in a cast. She seems like the strong type."
"My sister said she was asking for me," breathed Arista. Holy God, she was gonna have a heart attack.

Arista was wearing baggy track pants and a loose t-shirt. It was so easy to tell she was pregnant at this stage. She was afraid to face her family.

"Ariel was," said Dr. Makai. "She asked for Arista specifically, which is you. She was lying their moaning, bleeding heavily, trying to free herself from the gurney. She was moaning for you, saying she wanted you. And she was crying for her mother." Respectfully, Dr. Makai bowed her head.

Arista choked on her grief. It tasted like blood and ashes and death. "Ariel."
"She's gonna be okay," Dr. Makai reassured Arista. "We're taking excellent care of her. The last fancy-schmancy thing she has to get done is the leg surgery tomorrow, and that's a fairly simple process for us. Okay?"
Arista sniffled. "Okay. Thank you for taking good care of her, Doctor."
Dr. Makai touched Arista's shoulder sympathetically. "No problem. Your father and sisters are in the waiting room. Perhaps you'd like to go see them...?"
Arista sucked in air. This was the defining moment, the moment that drew the wall between total shunning from her family. The moment that created her future, her ending.

She strode down the waiting room, her green jacket back on, concealing her stomach, and stepped into the waiting room, a disgruntled Robbie right on her heels.

"Arista!" her father stood up, opening his arms up wide.

"Arista! Ohmygod, you're here!" Alana stood up.

The other girls rose too, murmuring praises to God and coming towards her to embrace their sister. Triton raised his snowy white eyebrows. "Wait, who's this?"
Arista narrowed her eyes. She couldn't hide behind lies anymore. She couldn't keep building a house out of the lies she told. She had to destroy the house. She would be homeless, but she'd have Robbie. And her baby, soon to come. And Ariel, if everything worked out in her favor.

"My boyfriend," Arista replied, and shrugged out of her green jacket.

It was as if time had frozen up. The looks of shock on her family's face made Arista wish she hadn't marched in here with Robbie like she owned the hospital.

Her father staggered back against the wall, sliding onto the couch. "Good God, Arista!" he cried.

Attina let out a shriek and covered her hand with her mouth.

No one said anything.

It was Andrina who broke the silence. She crossed her arms over her fairly substantial chest and made a smug little face that looked like a smirk to Arista, which was disgusting and low—even for Andrina—considering the circumstances.
"Well, well, well," said Andrina in a cold whisper. "Little Arista's no longer a virgin."

Arista opened her mouth to protest.

Andrina moved forward and shoved Arista hard. "YOU'RE PREGNANT? YOU'RE IN FRICKIN' HIGH SCHOOL!"

Robbie moved protectively in front of Arista, but Andrina wasn't done. "Do you understand what's happening here?" she demanded. "Our sister is dying, and you show up pregnant? That is an ILLEGITIMATE baby you're having!"
Arista didn't say a word. "I'm not here for you sluts," she hissed. "I'm here for Ariel. Do you understand me? You can kick me out of this family if you want. I'm here because Ariel is here, and I love her. You can say what you want to say, Andrina, but I'm staying right here because as far as I'm concerned, Ariel is my sister, and she hasn't disowned me yet."
Triton kept shaking his head. "Not my little girl," he kept saying. "Not Arista."
Arista sucked in air. She couldn't stop the tears, but she knew she had to wait for Ariel—do something for her after all Ariel had done for her.

Arista sat down to wait.

It was 1 in the morning.

9 hours to go until Ariel's leg surgery, and then possibly a bit longer for Ariel to wake up and begin to accept visitors.

She glared at her sisters, who were glowering back at her like they had murder on their mind. Triton had left the waiting room.

Fine, girls. You want to shun me? Bring it on. I'll be here. For as long as necessary.

Just for Ariel.

The end! Like it, hate it, love it? Review!

And the song in the first part is "Goodbye May Seem Forever" from The Fox and the Hound Disney movie.

-Crystal