Off to Neverland

Off to Neverland (9)

"Are you sure you want to go see your evil step-sister and step-mom?" Terra asked as she pulled up in front of my house. "Your dad's at work, so why would you want to come and visit?"

"I told my dad I would," I sighed, clutching onto the handle. "He wants to know what happened on my first day, so he told me to come back and tell Claudia everything so she could tell him later."

"Does he really not see how evil she is?" Henry asked, leaning in between the front seats so he could look at me easily. "It's like you're living a Cinderella story or something! Except... you didn't lose a shoe. And there's no masquerade ball. And you don't have a prince charming."

"Okay," I said loudly, my eyebrows furrowing at him as I let go of the handle and faced forward once again, "I get it, Henry, I get it. I'm going to die all alone by myself. I'm never going to have a boyfriend and I'll be a lonely old cat lady. Yeah, you told me this before."

"What about Simon?" Terra gasped, her eyes going wide as she looked into the back seat at our other friend. "You told those kids at the mall that Simon was your boyfriend!"

"I was just trying to get Courtney to just go away," I explained, as if it wasn't completely obvious. "If she knew that Simon was off limits, she'd back off for today..."

"So you want Simon to be off limits, huh?" Terra asked suggestively, her eyebrows wagging at me.

"N--no!" I stuttered, shaking my head like a crazy person as I turned toward her in my seat. "I just wanted Courtney to go away! That's all!"

Terra rolled her eyes, shrugging her shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal to her. I guess it really wasn't, since I wasn't interesting in Simon that way at all. We had been best friends since before I could even remember! There hadn't ever been a time when Simon wasn't with me...

Except for at Neverland Academy, of course.

"Who was that girl, anyway?" Henry asked, still hanging over our seats.

"Just this chick from a class of mine," I shrugged, trying my best to act like I didn't even care at all. "She follows The Lost Boys like a lost puppy. They were the boys who were with her, if you didn't figure it out  by what I told you earlier."

"Was the one that made fun of you Eli?" Terra questioned, leaning closer to me with a weird smile on her face. "Was that Eli? Was it?"

All I could do was nod.

"He was so cute!" she gushed, causing me to roll my eyes at her in utter disgust. She thought he was cute? What about Jack? He was the cute one, not Eli Hunter! Eli was a huge jerk, and his looks were not going to change that for me!

"What about the guy with the accent?" Henry now asked, still hanging over our two seats while Simon stayed silent in the back. "He actually told that Courtney girl to leave you alone."

"That was Jack," I murmured, staring down at my lap so I didn't have to make eye contact with any of them. I knew that Terra and Henry were probably grinning like idiots, and I didn't even want to think about Simon's reactions. The sooner I got into the house the better I would be...

"Ooh, Ivy!" Terra giggled. "He was protecting you! He must like you, he just has to!"

I stayed silent, not knowing what else I was supposed to say to her. I didn't know if Jack liked me or not, and I had to pretend that I didn't really care. I hadn't ever let a guy get to me like this before, and I had to act like myself as much as possible...

"I've got to go before Claudia gets mad," I excused quickly, grabbing onto the handle and pushing the door open as quickly as I possibly could. "I'll see you guys later."