ℂeleste || OUAT Peter Pan x OC

✭ 𝒪ne - 𝒮tars and 𝒮hadows ✭

Zendria. A small town, practically unfindable. One tiny spec amongst bold splashes of coloured countries on a map. 

The people that live there are friendly enough, with busy working lives, families, friends... basically, the life of any other person. Peaceful nights, peaceful mornings, peaceful days - sometimes, too peaceful. Apart from the occasional minor crimes that pop up every so often, bringing the front pages of newspapers to life, nothing much happens. Almost everyone that lives in Zendria is familiar with each other, and know their way around the place like the back of their hand. The large parks, the streets brimming with shops that outline the roads, the schools and houses and apartments...

And at the very end of it all, overlooking the small strip of forest and the sandy pier, a large house stands. That house is a daycare - Bright Sides Day Care, full of fifteen toddlers rushing around the place and playing outside for about ten hours before their parents and carers come along in their cars, taxis or from the bus, often having to carry them out. They come in the morning, all smiles and thanks, with side notes and small talk before they hurry off to their busy work lives. They come back at the evening, thankful all over again as they pay and leave, their children sucking their thumbs sleepily or quietly resting in their carer's arms as they're taken back home. That routine happens for six days each week, but I love it. It brings the house to life, fills it with laughter and innocent chatter and play. 

I pretty much grew up in Bright Sides. My dad was always working and still is, and with my mother completely out of the picture, I couldn't rely on anyone else except the young lady who runs it, Georgia Taite. She employed me last year, as soon as I turned fifteen. A lovely lady in her early forties who was a midwife and a primary school teacher before setting up her own daycare. Her life is full of children, and she loves it. I guess I love it too. I love the toddlers' innocence when they play with each other, carefully colour in pictures and sing nursery rhymes, and listen to me read them stories if their parents have booked them in for staying overnight. They know most of the stories already, so I frequently end up making my own. 

"So Amber was never a human?"

"What happened to her?"

"Did Cressela give her power?"

Wide eyes and eager questions were thrown at me as I sat at the end of a bed, shaking my head and smiling.

"Amber seemed human. But inside, she was just like Cressela. All she had to do was... believe."

"Is it important to believe?" one of the girls asked.

"Of course it is! If you believe, you can do pretty much anything, you know."

"So... so what happened when they leave insane island?"

"You'll have to wait until tomorrow to find that out," I answered, glancing at the clock and sliding off the bed, "it's getting late."

The children shifted underneath the covers and laid down, gazing up at the ceiling that was painted with shimmering gold stars. I left them with a smile, Georgia waiting for me outside the room.

"You're very good at telling them those stories of yours, Celeste," Georgia said after they had fallen asleep, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"They're all great kids," I replied with a small smile, "I loved being their age. I wish I didn't have to grow up, sometimes."

"Well, to me," Georgia started, as she walked downstairs, "age is an illusion. You're just as old as you want to be."

"Yeah, I guess."

Georgia nodded at me with her kind, warm smile and went into her room, leaving me alone in the hallway, dimly lit by lampshades. Sighing, I went upstairs, to my bedroom in the attic.