Belief Extraordinary

Honesty

Sarah glared after him for as far as her neck could crane. Some freedom. She thought grumpily. Thanks a lot. Then again, now that the secret was out...well, at least Felix couldn't blackmail her any further with it. In that sense, she supposed she was free – but she hardly considered it something to be thankful for.

Still trying to crane her neck in a glare, she didn't notice until she bumped into him that Xavier had made his way up to her. She regarded him cautiously, nervous of how their friendship might be changed by her revelation. He strong-armed her off to the side of the group of boys, perhaps more forcefully than necessary considering she wasn't putting up much resistance. "Is it true?" He demanded. Sarah looked guiltily off to the side. She nodded. His silence led her to glance back. His brows were furrowed as though concentrating very hard. Finally, he all but exploded, "Why didn't you tell us?" Sarah winced. She opened her mouth, but Xavier wasn't done yet.

"When did this happen? How did this happen? Is this why you disappeared? Why Pan was so angry while you were gone? Is –" His barrage of questions thankfully came to an end as Arthur appeared, placing a soft hand on his shoulder. Sarah glanced up at him gratefully at first, but felt her stomach tighten into even more knots when she saw the look on his face. She gulped.

"I thought I told you to be careful." For an island with no adults or parents at all, Arthur had the tone of "I'm not mad, just disappointed" down pat. She looked away.

"I know." She said at last. Arthur frowned. He wouldn't exactly call kissing Pan being careful.

"You know he – " She cut him off. Whatever warning he was going to give, she had probably scolded herself with it already.

"I know." Many steps passed in silence. "It's –" Sarah felt her throat began to tighten. No, she pleaded. Not right now. She blinked aggressively at the start of stinging in her eyes. She'd already lost an irreparable amount of face today, she wasn't going to add crying to the mix. "It's very complicated?" She twisted the end of her sentence to a question to hide the high-pitched pinching out of her voice. Arthur remained silent.

"Well, duh." Xavier rolled his eyes, oblivious to her rising distress. "It's Pan. I mean yeah, he's gorgeous – but in the "look but don't touch" way, like fire. Or a bear." A choked laugh escaped from Sarah's throat. "Is this why he keeps bringing you into his tent?" The laugh died. Sarah sputtered.

"No." She managed at last. "No, definitely...not really." Arthur and Xavier exchanged glances. "It's not like that!" Sarah insisted. "It's –" This was humiliating. "Look. Could we just, maybe, not talk about this?" She stared pointedly at the path they walked along. "I wouldn't have told anyone at all, if Felix hadn't twisted my arm."

"Felix knew? You told Felix, but not us?" She might have known, with Xavier's fondness for stories and even greater fondness for exaggeration, that he'd be a busybody. The fact that Pan's lieutenant, who he knew Sarah hated, would be told before him, her friend, was insult to injury. Sarah sighed, casting her eyes upwards.

"It wasn't on purpose." She groaned. "Believe me, Felix is the last person I wanted to know – for this exact reason." Arthur's calmer voice cut in.

"If you don't want to talk about it, we won't." Xavier turned to complain, but a look from Arthur silenced him. Arthur glanced at the boys to their left. "Though I can't promise no one else will." Sarah sighed. She could already hear whispers and louder from the boys around them, and when she happened to catch Loto's eye he coughed and looked away. She squared her shoulders.

"I showed you all before that I belonged here." Sarah said firmly, almost as much to herself as to her friends. "Now I'll just have to show you...again." Her shoulders slumped. "I guess." She hadn't even won all of them over the first time, she knew. How much harder might it be now? After a moment, Arthur gave a halting laugh. He was worried about Sarah, there was no denying that, but at least she seemed to be walking forward with both eyes open.