The Castle of Dreams

Chapter 1 - The Weekly Sleepover

Once upon a time, six best friends by the names of Peyton, Wiley, Beckett, Casey, Baylee and Rebecca were having a sleepover. The six of them had been friends since kindergarten, where they had all stood up for Rebecca against a bully. Since that day they had become almost inseparable. The six of them had always been close, they just had no idea how much closer they were. They just didn't know it. This week the annual weekly sleepover was at Rebecca's house. She had been madly cleaning her bedroom to the point where it was almost sparkling when her father knocked on the door and scared her half out of her wits. "Whoa, sorry sweetheart. I didn't mean to scare you. But Peyton is here and he wanted to wait outside for the others." Her father, Sean, said. Rebecca jumped to her feet. She smiled up at her father. "Okay, thanks for me telling me." She said, starting towards the front door. Once she stepped outside she took a deep breath. "Boo" someone said from right next to her. Rebecca jumped and would have fallen off the porch if Peyton hadn't caught her. "Sorry, Red." He said, laughing. Rebecca shook her head and laughed at her friend's nickname for her. Peyton had always been the jokester of the six of them and back when they were little he gave each of them nicknames based off of the fairytale character they were most like from the stories their parents used to read them. He named Rebecca after, who else? Little Red Riding Hood. But he shortened it to Red. He named himself after Peter Pan, but they were to call him Pan. Peyton smirked at Rebecca and the sat himself on the top step of the porch. "It's a beautiful day, huh?" Rebecca said sitting down next to him. Peyton nodded and put his arm around her. "Sure is. I bet you anything Wiley hasn't been inside once all day."
Rebecca giggled. "You're probably right." She said. They sat together awaiting the arrival of the others. Peyton had been the first to arrive since he lived right next door to Rebecca. He'd lived there for as long as he could remember, Rebecca and her father, as well as her late grandmother had moved in nearly a decade ago. So, Peyton and Rebecca had been friends just a week before they officially met the others that day in their kindergarten when they all protected Little Rebecca.
Peyton suddenly got bored and stood up. "Do you still have that chalk from when we were younger?" He asked. Rebecca nodded. "I think so. It should be right inside, why?" She replied. Peyton smirked down at her. "So we can play hopscotch. I'm bored and the others are taking forever!" He complained. Rebecca giggled and jumped up from her perch on the step. "Alright, alright. I'll go get it." While she ran inside to look for the chalk, Peyton cleared some fall leaves off of the sidewalk to make room for the game. Rebecca came back outside right as one of their others friends arrived. "Hey guys, um what are you doing?" Beckett asked walking towards Peyton and Rebecca with a confused look on his face. Peyton took the chalk from Rebecca and drew out their game. "Playing a game, You in, BooHoo?" He asked. Beckett rolled his eyes, dropped his bag on the porch and walked over to stand next to Rebecca and watch Peyton struggle to make straight lines. Rebecca giggled to her herself and looped her arm through Beckett's. "This is why he barely passed kindergarten, because he can't draw straight lines." Rebecca said simply staring off into the distance. Beckett chuckled and Peyton flat out laughed. He dropped the chalk he was holding and rolled onto his back. "Haha, I give up. Somebody else do this." He said inbetween laughs. Rebecca bent down and shoved Peyton out of the way, picked up the chalk and began fixing Peyton's terrible straight lines. Peyton jumped to his feet and walked over next to Beckett. Nudging him in the side slightly with his elbow, Peyton smirked at his friend. "Way to keep in your feelings, mate." He said quietly so only Beckett could hear him. Beckett ran a hand through his shoulder length black hair, trying to keep the blush that rose in his cheeks to a minimum. See the thing about Beckett is, ever since he met her, Beckett has had the biggest crush on Little Rebecca. The problem? It was painfully obvious to everyone except Rebecca. And he refused to tell her. The others always tell him to just tell her, he refuses, or they'll try to bring it up in conversation and he'll just change the subject. Really, He's just afraid of what might happen to their friendship if he tells her. "Come on, Boo, You know you're gonna have to eventu-"
"Yeah, eventually. That doesn't mean today, Pan." Beckett said cutting Peyton off mid sentence. Peyton sighed and looked away from Beckett and watched Rebecca instead. Her lines were definitely better than his, which was surprising to him since she's practically blind. When she was done, she stood up and looked at the boys. "Done. Who wants to go first?" She asked. Peyton raised his hand and jumped up and down like a child. Rebecca stepped aside and Peyton took his turn. He picked up a simple rock for his marker and tossed it with his eyes closed. It landed on the seven and as Peyton skipped his way through the small squares, Casey and Baylee arrived. "Sorry we took so long, The traffic out there is bizarre!!" Baylee said walking over towards them with Casey steps behind her. Casey shook her head, the bun on top of her head flopping back and forth. "That's a lie. There's barely anybody out there, Baylee's story time at the library went over time." Casey said plopping her bag on the stairs next to Beckett's and sitting down on the steps, resting her head in her palms. Peyton looked up and tripped over his feet, crashing to the ground. "WAIT. THAT WAS TODAY?" He yelled. Baylee nodded, while everyone else laughed at him. "Aw man, I love storytime." Peyton said getting back on his feet. Baylee smiled and sat next to Casey, crossing her legs and leaning forward. "Well, you can just come next week." She said. Peyton sighed, overdramatically. "Okay." He said handing Rebecca his rock so she could take her turn. Rebecca threw the stone, got a two and skipped to the end and back, picked up the rock and tossed it at Beckett within seven seconds. Beckett caught the rock with ease, but everyone stared at her. "How in the world did you do that so quickly?" Baylee asked. Rebecca looked at her friends. "What, that skipping? I guess you could say it's in my blood." She said.
"AROOOOOOOOOOO" A voice said from right behind her. Rebecca jumped and screamed. "AHH, WOLF." She screamed. Wiley, the sixth and final friend to arrive, stood there bent over struggling to breath through his laughs. When he finally got ahold of himself he said, "Yeah, I guess you could say being afraid of Wolves is in your blood too."
"Wiley, that's not funny!!" Rebecca said. Wiley just laughed once more and laid back in the grass. "I enjoy being the Wolf. It's fun to scare you like that." He said. Peyton's nickname for Wiley was Wolfie, he chose to name him after a wolf, mainly because Wiley loved being outdoors. If he had the choice he would live outside up in the treehouse in his backyard. But, instead of having to call him the Wolf, Peyton had long before decided they would call him Wolfie. Baylee was named after Belle. There was no question why. She is insanely smart, graduating high school at 14, super kind and selfless. She would also read for the rest of her life without stopping if no one forced her to stop and normally other people's opinions didn't bother her at all.
Casey was named after Cinderella, but to shorten it Peyton told them they were to call her Ella. Casey's blonde hair was always tied up into a bun on the top of her head and none of her shoes fit her perfectly. And lastly, Beckett, whom Peyton had named after The Boy Who Cried Wolf. But since that's an extremely long nickname, Peyton shortened it to BooHoo. And together they made the most misfit group of fairytale besties ever, but that didn't matter to them one bit. As long as they were together nothing could tear them apart. Or so they thought.