Pan's Redemption

Chapter 3 ~Alone*

Wendy awoke from a peaceful sleep. She felt calmer and more collected. Maybe crying had been the medicine she had needed to pull herself together. She would have to go to school and face Daniel. She wondered if she would prefer to fake a illness but decided against it. She wouldn't run away anymore. This was the last time anyone would ever made her cry again.

Apparently having woken up early, Wendy decided that maybe a warm shower would help relax her tense thoughts of school. It almost worked. As she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and down the drain, she also washed away most of her fear. No matter what she tried to think of to distract it, the voice in the back of her head wouldn't quiet.

"Your not good enough for them. No matter what you do or what you say you will never amount to anything."

She wrapped her self in a blue fluffy towel and ringed out her long curly hair. After finally getting her hair to part on the side the way she wanted it to, she cranked the blow dryer on high.

She kept the towel wrapped around herself and tiptoed into her room to grab clothes without waking the boys. She decided she would wear something different to fit the mood. She felt different; she felt reborn. She decided to pack her favorite pair of white jeans. They fitted her perfectly, but she couldn't be seen wearing them with her father home.

Wendy's father wasn't abusive. Thank God for that. Wendy, though, wasn't so sure. She was always waiting for the day when he would snap and hit her or her mother, but that day hadn't happened so far. He scared her. He would always tell her to grow up. He would tell her that she was never good enough. He never showed his true colors to his wife or boys. Wendy didn't understand why he acted that way towards her.

Without thinking much more of it, she stuffed her clothes in her bag where she had packed her dance clothes. She would have to change in the bathroom at school. She put on her usual black skirt and a white long sleeved shirt. She slipped on her classic black flats and headed down to breakfast.

She hurried to get to school early so no one would have known she changed her clothes. She put a piece of bread in the toaster and tapped her fingernails impatiently on the counter top. She grabbed the toast as it popped up and quickly wrote a note saying she had to get to school early and ran out the door.

She always ran to school. The route that was the closes to get to school cut through a dangerous looking alley that always scared her half to death. One day she just decided that it wouldn't be so scary if she just ran and the faster the better.

Her feet tapped against the cold cobblestone making loud tapping which Wendy couldn't help to think about when she took tap dancing lessons as a child. Almost as fast as she had taken off through the alley, Wendy emerged out of it and slowed to a fast walking. She breathed out a sigh of relief and then rounded the corner to come face to face with her school.

Lance High School was all about the old gothic architecture. It had been around for eighty years. Wendy looked at the giant buildings trying to remember which one had the nearest bathroom.

Wendy tentatively walked through the empty halls and into the bathroom. She quickly slid off her skirt and dug through her bag for her white jeans. Once those were on she fished for her dark light blue blouse that made her brown eyes stand out. She put her nerdy glasses back on her walked out into the hallway toward her locker. After dumping her stuff, she stayed in the library until the bell rang.

Her stomach erupted into butterflies. She knew exactly what was going to happen. She was going to either be talked down to by everyone or Daniel was going to make a big scene of apology to save his reputation. Wendy was hoping to be talked down to. She was used to that, at least.