Never Grow Old - Peter Pan

Chapter 1

Noisily, Noah drug the rake across the ground, not caring if he even touched the leaves, determined to not be obedient to those monsters. He huffed with frustration, blowing air out of his mouth to shift his brown curly fringe out of his blue eyes.  He became even more frustrated with the long sleeved button up he was wearing, knowing he could only roll the sleeves up to his elbows. The dark blue shirt remained scruffy looking as Noah's braces hung lazily from his waist. 

After a couple minutes, Noah became bored. He began to scratch the minutes left until lunch into the grimy stone floor with a metal rod from the rake. Knowing he would get punished for slacking, he subconsciously traced the scar just above his left eyebrow, he wouldn't be like the rest of the children in the orphanage and do what they were told - he was always different. 

The children in the orphanage kept their distance from Noah - which was fine with him because he didn't really want to socialise with them either - aware that trouble followed him wherever he goes. Noah never went looking for trouble, trouble just seemed to find him. Like that time where he was walking down the gloomy corridor and tripped on a loose floorboard, sending him straight into the table that had the only thing that was worth something in the orphanage; a vase that was painted by some fake artist who claimed they were someone they weren't. Almost in slow motion, Noah watched as the vase toppled off the table and landed in a million pieces with a smash. He had gotten twenty strokes for that. 

No matter the hardships that he had to live with, Noah always held hope that one day he would get out of the prison. He only wanted to go to one place... the sea. Even though he lived in the middle of a polluted London, he had always been fascinated with the ocean. He found it truly  magical and it was the only sanctuary in this hell to think about how free he would feel at the beach, with the silky sand between his toes and the sun beating down on his exposed back. 

Picking at his shoes, Noah has a small smile on his face as he pictured the seaside. His happiness was ended quickly when he saw two massive feet in his view. His piercing eyes widened as he slowly looked up. Surrounded by grey storm clouds was the face of the orphanages mistress - Miss Burk. It was understandable why she wasn't married, with a crooked nose, uneven yellow eyes and brown teeth, she looked more like Frankenstein's monster than a person. Her personality didn't make her any better either - unless you count finding pleasure in the abuse and suffering of others attractive. 

He knew he was doomed, "Ah, shit."