Dreaming in Disney (Peter Pan)

Chapter Three

I can't breathe and continue gasping for air. I look up and see a person dressed in green. "Are you okay, princess?" they ask me. Princess? A hand grabs mine and pulls me up. I struggle to regain my balance as tears still stream down my cheeks, I'm sure I look like a mess.

I hear the green blob talking to someone, "I'll take her and make sure she's okay."

Her? Is he talking about me? My question is answered when he puts his arm around my shoulder and leads me away from the public. "It's okay. Everything's alright," he coaxes me.

I stop crying, but continue to hyperventilate. The boy leads me down some stairwell, and wherever we are, is much cooler than outside. I sit down in a chair, and I start calming down enough to think about what's going on.

"Who...who are you?" I struggle to ask through uneven breaths.

I can finally see the person who has helped me clearly. His hair is tousled and a rusty red color. He has on dark green tights and a lighter green long shirt. He stares at me with his light brown eyes, and I look away shyly. "I'm Peter Pan," he says with a grin. "Well, technically I just play the part of Peter, but I like to really get into the role. My name is actually Eric."

"I'm Bella."

I look around at where we are and it's just a small room with a mirror, a few chairs and a couple posters on the wall of various Disney characters. A dressing room?

"I saw you in the parade a few hours ago," I remember while nervously playing with the bracelet on my wrist.

"Oh, yeah I waved to you." He hands me a couple of tissues and I fix myself as best as I can. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened that you were so upset?" he cautiously questions.

I sigh, "I have panic attacks, and I got worked up over something stupid." I hate how I worry so much about the silliest things.

"I'm sure it wasn't stupid. Certain things trigger it, right?" Eric asks me.

I shift in my seat, "Yes...darkness, large crowds, being yelled at- I'm sure there's more I haven't figured out yet." He nods at me understandingly.

I never really talk about my anxiety, but here I am talking to a complete stranger about it.

"So, since you're better now, do you want to get back to your family or whoever you came here with?" he says breaking the silence. Oh, yeah my friends. I check my phone, only one message from Sylvie asking where I went. Dylan didn't even text me.

I frown and then tell Eric, "Not really. To be honest, it doesn't seem like they really want to find me."

"I'm sorry about that. Have you been here before?"

"No this is my first trip, I'm from Pennsylvania."

"Well, my shift is over, we could go play the Buzz Light-year game. It's basically just a shooting game, it's really fun," he suggests. I agree and wait for him to move.

"I kind of have to change. I can't walk around in my costume," he says shyly.

"Oh, right," I blush and walk out of his dressing room. When he's finished, he leads us out of the tunnels.

He looks so different in khaki shorts and a T-shirt with Simba from the Lion King on it. He looks older somehow.

He explains that every employee who plays a character, face or costume, are given a dressing room. The secret tunnels are used to keep the magic alive, so that characters can move around the park without being seen.