Rising Dawn (Willy Wonka X OC)

Starshine

     "Wait, what?" She knows Will?! I look at Will with wide eyes. Why wouldn't he tell me? He gives a half-mouth grin and shrugs.

      Mum laughs. "And still trying to woo my Dawn. Some things never change."

     "Hold on! Still?" I fold my arms and glance at Charlie bounce around to the grandparents with hugs. "We knew each other?!" I look at Will incredulously.

     "You must have been too young to remember, I am a bit older than you, it's understandable," Will chimes in assuringly.

     "We...we were friends?" I wrap my arms around myself. I still don't believe it. He was familiar, is familiar. Like a puzzle piece I just found after many, many years. It makes sense, but...

     Mum smiles. "Oh, the very best. You two were inseparable for a few months..."

     "What happened?" I ask quietly, almost afraid of the answer. Did I do something wrong? Mum doesn't answer, instead she looks to Will. Why? Doesn't she know? Does she want it to come from Will? I look to Will as well and he lowers his gaze grimly. What could possibly have happened?

     "My father happened," Will answers in an equally quiet voice. He looks up with an apologetic sincerity in his eyes. "He loved you, you somehow charmed your way into his heart." Will smiles with a disbelieving shake of his head. "But when he found out who your family was, when he found out that you...weren't...well off, he packed us up and moved us away." He took my best friend from me? I didn't even know I had a best friend because of him. My fists clench and tremor unnoticeably. Will doesn't notice, he just swallows hard and continues. "He thought I was above being friends with you, wanted me to follow in his footsteps, and, apparently, I couldn't do that with a friend like you."

     A face surfaces in my mind. An angry man. A sneer. A pearly white sneer. My father? No. Will's father. And suddenly, that day, the worst day of my life, comes rushing back to me.

     It's like I'm there again, in my current body though, like an extra character that wasn't there the first time. I see a little girl with two braids holding hands with a little boy wearing a vest. He's a little taller than her, maybe six years old while the little girl is five. We are on a street that I know well. Houses line one side and a small park lines the other. The two kids stroll down the street, silent, just enjoying each other's company until an angry bark comes from the houses a little ways down. They both turn with scared looks on their faces and my heart breaks for them even though one was me. I turn too and see Will's dad standing, hands on hips in the doorway of what must have been his house.

     The boy and girl look at each other before venturing closer to the street they must cross in order to get to Will's dad. They look both ways cautiously and I take a breath of relief I didn't realize I was holding until now. The little boy walks on the girl's right, then her left once they pass the centre of the road. I follow them and we make it to the other side of the road.

     "You wait here, Starshine," the little boy says to the girl, pointing to the sidewalk. He lets go of her hand and starts up the steps to his intimidating father with arms folded. She boldly follows, choosing not to be afraid and to follow her best friend. She grabs his hand, but he brushes her off and shakes his head. "You can't come with me."

     "You're going to be scared," she whispers, so his father won't hear. "You're going to need me."

     "I'll always need you, Starshine, but you can't come with me," he responds, looking down. He turns, ascends two steps, and his father grips his shoulder. He glares at the little girl and she shudders back, unused to this treatment.