Belief Extraordinary

Chapter Sixteen: Fire

Sarah remained still, trying not to panic that the maniacal boy king was going to try-actually try-to break her. Deep breaths, Sarah. She told herself. She schooled her face to calmness and put one foot in front of the other through the camp. "Sarah!" Arthur's voice called from nearby. Slowly, she turned her head to see him waving her over to where he stood with several boys she did not yet know. Cautiously, she walked towards them. Arthur offered her a bowl of something warm, which she took gratefully. "You ok?" He asked her. "You look like you've seen a ghost." Sarah looked at him, blinking.

"Something like that." She told him at last. She may not have seen one, but she had a feeling she might become one soon.

"Ghosts aren't real." A young voice declared. She looked over to see the green-eyed boy from earlier, the one who'd doubted reparations existed.

"You have a lot of opinions for someone so young." She told him. The boy shrugged.

"I'm older'n you, probably." Sarah looked at him a long moment. She didn't quite know how time passed on the island, but there was a very good chance he was right. Still, she resented being talked down to by someone so much shorter than her.

"You might be older," She told him primly. "But I'm still taller-and this is Neverland, so I always will be." The boy narrowed his eyes at her, but then shrugged.

"At least I know my way around the jungle." He told her casually. The other boys laughed, and Sarah bristled. Stop getting into fights with children, she told herself. Biting back whatever remark she'd been about to make, she took a bite of the stew in her bowl.

"I suppose you do." She told him finally. The boy's eyes sparkled with victory. Sarah resigned herself to her dinner, swallowing it down with a hefty side of annoyance.

"Don't mind Rasheed." Arthur told her, gesturing to the boy. He grinned, and pitched his voice louder so the subject could hear him clearly. "He's just covering for the fact that he's the worst shot in camp!"

"Better than her!" Rasheed called back. It was probably true, but that was hardly a fair comparison-she'd only just arrived, and who knew how many years he'd been here. Sarah noticed that one of the boys in the mix wasn't laughing with the others. In fact, he was glaring at her with a vengeance that made her wonder exactly what she had done to him. Spiky dark hair stood in contrast to pale white skin and stormy gray eyes. He looked to be about her age, or at least he looked as though he'd come to the island when he was about her age. Who knew how long any of the boys had actually been alive for. She stared back at him, her expression blank, meeting his glare with a schooled non-reaction. The boys around them feel silent as the two engaged in a silent battle of wills. Long moments passed until at last, someone grew impatient.

"What are you two doing?" Rasheed demanded. Sarah tilted her head to the side as she continued to stare, waiting for the other boy to answer. She certainly had no idea what had started this. The boy narrowed his eyes.

"She shouldn't be here." He said at last, eyes still fixed on Sarah with a shimmering venom. "Girls don't belong on Neverland." Sarah said nothing, continuing to stare at the boy. It was an old trick she'd used on bullies in school-stare at most anyone for long enough, and they quickly grew uncomfortable. Sure enough, the boy at last broke his gaze. "Doesn't matter anyway," He grumbled, mostly to himself. "Won't last the week." The hair on Sarah's neck prickled at his suggestion.

With her eyes still locked on him, she spoke at last. "We'll see about that." She told him coolly. She might have been afraid of Pan, but she wasn't afraid of a single Lost Boy. Especially-her eyes twinkled-when she remembered that the island itself wanted her here. A slight smile crept onto her face. With a derisive snort, the dark-haired boy left the group. When she looked back to the group, Arthur was observing her with a strange look on his face. She scrunched her brows. "What?" She asked him. Hopefully she hadn't just made an enemy of something important.