You're Just a Lost Boy

Part 1 Chapter 1 - The Introduction.

"She asked where he lived.

Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning. "
― J.M Barrie, Peter Pan

Part 1 Chapter 1 - The Introduction

"Anna, focus!" Her English teacher snapped as Anna Lee stared into space. She was trying to figure out what to do for last months rent she arranged with her foster parents.

Should I work extra hours? She thought.

"Oh right!" She panicked reassuring the already flustered English teacher. "I am completely focused Mrs. Gore."

There were snickers passed all around the classroom as the teacher strutted towards her desk.

"Then tell me this," Mrs. Gore sneered, "Why did Wendy leave Neverland with her brother's leaving the luxury of never growing up?"

Anna was confused as to why they were reading Peter Pan and doing an analysis on it, but she went on with it.

"Um, I guess she felt it was necessary to grow up, that it was part of life, something that they couldn't avoid." Anna wasn't paying much attention.

She rolled her eyes, "Good enough, I guess." Mocking Anna.

The bell rang and Anna got up, she heard Mrs. Gore reminding all of the students to study for a quiz that they were having next week. Anna rushed out the door relieved that school was over.

Pulling her phone out she checked to see if she had any important messages. She was really hoping for a call from her employer saying she got the higher position that meant she would get paid more money for, a lot more an hour. Like ten cents more.

Which would bump her salary to ten dollars an hour.

Walking down the outside corridor she made her way down the street.

"Omph," somebody grunted as did Anna. Anna looked up to see a boy he had a tint of red to his brown hair, and a sharp nose. His hood covered his eyes but Anna could see the brown tint in his eyes.

"Sorry," he muttered.

At the same time Anna said, "Watch it."

"I could say the same to you." He retorted, a grim expression turned on his face.

"Excuse me," Anna snapped.

"You were the one who wasn't paying attention to your path, so you should be saying sorry to me."

"Whatever," she muttered not feeling like getting into an argument. Anna looked back to see a wicked grin on face.

She tried to forget about the boy but she couldn't. He had an odd aura to him.

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Stacking shoes neatly on the shelf, Anna hummed along to music playing in the background.

"Anna!" she heard a low voice beckon her.

Anna set down the shoes she had been putting away, and tucked her messy vibrant orange hair behind her ear. She rushed over to the quiet back office her manager had been settled in ever since day one.

Coming around the corner she saw the gloomy look on his face, the scruffy mustache hovering over his mouth. No longer in the happy dancing mood she had come to know as Colin Brandy.

"What is it Mr. Brandy?" Anna said worriedly.

He set his lucky pen down as a sigh escaped from his lips.

"Sir?" she laughed nervously her fingers dancing frantically behind her back. "What's going on?"

"Anna," Colin Brandy the overly eager manager, who now had a frown on his face, said. "There's no easy way to say this, but I'm going to have to let you go."

Anna's stomach dropped, any happiness she ever had, diminished completely.

"What? Why?" her paces growing more frantically nervous. She looked back to Colin Brandy. The guy with the usual happy demeanor and scruffy mustache. His face was growing with an empathetic look hoping she would understand.

She did.

He sighed before saying, "There's not enough revenue to keep you and I had to let somebody go..."

"Mr. Brandy, you don't understand how much I need this job," she cried desperately.

"I'm sorry Miss Jameson, you will be paid in full for your service this week, I assure you."

Anna Jameson stormed out of Mr. Brandy's office without another word. Her desperation grew with each footstep out of the rinky dink store she'd worked at for one year she'd finally get emancipated and out of her foster home.

She never told anyone about it, because she just couldn't go into the foster system again, because of her age. Still a naive seventeen year old, who was forced to grow up because her parents dropped her off at age 1 at a foster home they had arranged.

She never liked her foster parents, they never liked Anna. Every month she had to pay them rent. That job was her only income.

Anna walked down to the bus stop and pondered whether she should walk home and save her money. She decided to walk through the city even though it was considered dangerous.

Pocketing her phone, she unraveled her ear buds slipping them in her ears. The warm breeze would ever so gently blow the hair out of her face. It would reveal a girl in tears. Tears for worry that she could be homeless. Everything she worked for in her life, her good grades, her money, all down the hole.

Bill boards lined the empty road, street lamps making them glisten under their light. It didn't faze Anna, but one specific billboard caught her eye.

It shown a boy. His hair and pointed nose: the same from the boy earlier. The sign read in very delicate cursive-

"Need an escape to feel like a kid again.

Come to Neverland."

Shivers made their way down Anna's body. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes and the sign dissipated to a blank slate.

I must be going insane she thought.

Neverland isn't real, it was only in fairy tales.

Her thoughts ran mercilessly around her brain and drove her to the point of insanity until she reached her foster parents home.

Street lamps flickered outlining the majority of the tiny neighborhood.

The neighborhood wasn't a nice one, but it was her home for 16 years. Her foster parent's house was deteriorating at the seams, windows dirtied, molded wood and an untrimmed lawn that was overdue for a cut.

That was Anna's job but her foster parents were too up in space to tell her to do anything. They only wanted her for her money. She basically had to fend for herself. Which she wasn't exactly sure how she did.

Her foot steps were treading lightly as she stepped in the house. Two adults were passed out on the couch with a pizza box open on the coffee table and the TV's light brightening the whole room.

Sighing she set her bag down in the corner and sat down in front of the coffee table. Her fingers reached for a slice of leftover as she watched the television, the only noise occupying the room was the sound of children laughing and dancing around a fire, while a boy played a pan flute. His melodies seemed to bring joy to his peers.

Anna realized she was watching Peter Pan.

"Ironic," she murmured to herself quietly.

After finishing her pizza, she draped her parent's bodies in a blanket before yawning. She left the TV on because they would be mad if she turned it off, they liked to wake to the TV every morning.

Another yawned escaped her. Her foot steps quietly made their way up into her room.

Anna plopped on her bed and closed her eyes.

Not long before she fell asleep a faint pan flute playing in the distance reached her ears.

Little did she know she was the only one who could hear it.

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