Take me to Neverland

Chapter One: Alice

Seventh Grade

I do not like reading fairy tales.

Not because they're old, or because they're foolish, though both are true. However, I have a different reason: everyone embraces them and obsesses themselves with living "happily ever after." Mother always told me that I was "mature for my age" which may be why I feel as if I'm the only one who sees logic in this entire world. Why surround yourself with this fairy nonsense when it's not even possible? Not only that, but why would you want to live in a world where beautiful girls are princesses and brave, handsome boys are princes and rescue their "true love" and go on meaningless quests? Why would you want to live in a fictional world such as that when we have real life here? I personally can't understand it. So you can see why I was not exactly jumping for joy when Mrs. Barkley told us to find and read two fairy tales, then proceed to write our own.

"What was she thinking?" I muttered under my breath as I loaded my backpack and slammed my locker shut.

Still breathing out hateful things about the ancient Mrs. Barkley, I briskly strode past my annoying classmates. Before I made it out the door, however, I was stopped by a curious voice.

"What's wrong?" I immediately came to a halt and glanced over to where the voice was coming from.

There stood a pale girl about my height with lemon blonde hair; her school uniform was crinkled and her shirt was untucked so it swished and swayed every time she moved. I did not recognize her.

"Pardon?" I asked as politely as I could considering I was already in a bad mood. The girl's blue eyes sparkled in an unsettling way. I quickly looked down at her scuffed shoes.

"I asked you what was wrong. You were angrily muttering so I figured you were upset. I was just curious as to why considering today wasn't too awful," the girl replied in a smooth, cool voice. If it had been anyone else I would've been irritated by their interruption, but the girl didn't seem like she was trying to bug me; she actually sounded curious. Still, I wasn't going to spill out my feelings to this stranger.

"Um, do I know you?" I asked, avoiding her question.

"Yes, I'm Alice. I'm in your class," Alice replied, not at all offended that I had no idea who she was.

"Oh, well, hello, Alice. It was nice to meet you, but you should get going; you wouldn't want to miss the bus," I said, relieved to get out of the awkward situation.

"Oh, don't worry about me. I don't ride the bus. And besides, I still want to know what's bothering you. It seems rather dramatic," Alice answered with a smirk. Embarrassed, I felt my face burn.

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's nothing juicy. I was only a tad frustrated with an assignment I was given in language arts," I said with a huff.

"You mean the fairytale thing? I'm actually kind of excited. I do love a good fairytale," Alice admitted with a shrug. I could sense my temper rising slightly.

"But how can you?! They're so ridiculously unbelievable I don't even know how anyone can enjoy them when their fictitious sense is so distracting!" I spat out exasperatedly. Alice pondered this for an uncomfortable minute.

"Well, perhaps they're not as fictional as you think," Alice argued calmly. This puzzled me. Did she actually believe in fairies and magic and wizards and such?

"Do you mean to say that the stories told in fairy tales are true?" I asked genuinely confused. Alice just shrugged.

"Do you mean to say that not even at one point in your life, even when you were small, that you wondered if magic and fairies were real?" I stared into Alice's glistening eyes as they stared right back as if they were looking inside me.