NEVERLAND ✧ Louis Partridge

1 | A Shadow In My Room

Y/N

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"JACK THREW my backpack in the trash again," I huffed, storming through my front door, "I wish I could punch some sense into him."

My mother was sitting on the couch, her feet propped up onto the coffee table, and her finger trailing down a column of newspaper riddles. She often did that while I was suffering at school, and I wished I could leave that prison to go do puzzles with her.

But I had to get an education, which unfortunately came with a side of idiots like Jack.

"I'd rather you not get expelled," my mother said smoothly, turning to look at me, "but if it was any other case, I would gladly let you punch him."

I gave her a half-smile, "thanks, Mom."

Jack Hardin. The brown-haired, freckled, stuck up idiot that thought stealing my backpack and throwing it into a trashcan full of rotten yogurt and pasta was the epitome of humor.

Spoiler Alert: it wasn't.

I wasn't sure what he and his gaggling group of pals had against me, but whatever it was, they hated me for it. Maybe it was because I told his girlfriend he cheated on her in freshman year.

Oh...yeah, that was probably it.

But! He did cheat on her, and I wasn't going to let a nice girl like her be humiliated and used by such a disappointing excuse of a human. Anyways, my stuff got thrown into a trash can, which would explain why the bottom of my bag was soaking wet and smelled like a dumpster.

"Can I quit school?" I sighed, throwing my bag onto the floor and flinging myself onto the couch, "I'll get a job and fake my resumes."

My mother laughed her haughty laugh, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger, "and go to jail?"

"Who says I'll get caught?"

"No one, I suppose, but then you'll just look like a coward."

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, "a coward?"

"Couldn't stand up for herself, so she quit school?" My mother smiled, nudging me slightly, "I think you're better than that."

I exhaled, stuffing my face into the couch cushions. She had a point. I just didn't want to accept the fact that I had to suffer another year of school and humiliation just to fit into society's expectations for humans (aka: go to school, go to college, get a job, get married, have children, die).

Sometimes Earth was such a bore.

"I wish I could live in a book," I sighed, "they always have happy endings."

My mother laughed again, the sound of her newspaper hitting the coffee table ringing out into the living room.

"I'm not sure what books you've read," she mentioned, "because a lot of them don't have those kinds of endings."

"Really?"

"Romeo and Juliet?"

"Oh."

"The Fault In Our Stars?"

"Hm."

"Every single history book?"

"Nevermind that, then," I sighed, sitting upright, "fairytales, I mean. They always 'live happily ever after' or something.

My mother nodded, slowly getting up from the couch and making her way towards the kitchen. Before she left, she paused, and turned around. She had a glazed look on her face, one that made her seem full of mystical thought, which I had rarely seen on her before.

"I suppose that's what those books are for, darling," she said, muttering the words as if she was thinking deeply about them.

I crinkled my nose, "for what?"

"Getting a glimpse at someone else's life."

"Right," I sighed, slumping back onto the couch, "I just wish I could escape this life and go to another world completely."

My mother gave me the same look. Weird.

"Like in Peter Pan?" She suggested, tilting her head, "escape to Neverland and never grow up?"

It had been a while since I thought about the story, so the memories all came flooding back for a solid moment. My mother used to read me that book to sleep every night. I would learn about the lost boys, Wendy, Nana, and mostly Peter.

I loved Peter.

"Yeah," I nodded, getting up, "something like that."

Of course, I never expected anything of the conversation. It was just a distraction from my horrible day, and possibly even an excuse for an impossible daydream.

But that night, as I tucked myself into my covers, I heard a tapping at my window. Considering I was a fair distance from the ground, a tapping noise was definitely out of the ordinary.

I wasn't sure what I thought it was, but I know for sure I definitely didn't think it had to do with the fictional boy I was thinking about earlier. I thought fairytales weren't real.

Until I saw his shadow in my room.