Chapter Three: Off to Neverland

Start from the beginning
                                    

There's not that many other places that aren't over crowded with people.

But in this faraway nook

I've yet to encounter a single soul

It must've been an office at one point,

but now its more like storage

Filled to the brim with boxes and catalogues

It's dusty up here, but there's a nice view of the track

students look like ants shuffling to and fro

Up here, I feel above it all

Nestled in A fortified tree house}

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"Did you cancel your appointment with Dr. Simmons?" Mom asks, looking worried.

"Just rescheduled."

"Why?"

She knows there's nothing pressing going on in your life. Nothing at all.

"Homework. I've got too much of it this week. I needed to reschedule."

Mom looks away, but she doesn't seem satisfied.

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{Considering there are hundreds of books up here,

You'd think at least one would be a gripping read.

But they're mostly outdated scientific journals

And biographies of people no one remembers.

I've taken to bringing my own reading material,

Nestling on a dusty old couch in the corner

And letting my book take me elsewhere.

I'm ''sending' you a page

You'll like it:

________To induce her to look up at him he pretended to be going away, and when this

failed he sat on the end of the bed and tapped her gently with his foot.

"Wendy," he said, "don't withdraw. I can't help crowing, Wendy,

when I'm pleased with myself."

Still she would not look up, though she listened.

"Wendy," he continued, in a voice that no woman has ever yet been able to resist,

"one girl is more use than twenty boys."

Now Wendy was every inch a woman, though there were not very many inches,

and she peeped out from the corners of her comforter.

"Do you really think so, Peter?"

"Yes, I do."

"That's perfectly sweet of you to say," she declared, getting up and sitting with him on

the side of the bed. "I'll give you a kiss if you'd like."

But Peter did not know what she meant, and he held out his hand expectantly.

"Surely you know what a kiss is?" she asked, aghast.

"I shall know when you give it to me," he replied stiffly.

Not to hurt his feeling she gave him a thimble.

"Now," said he, "shall I give you a kiss?" and she replied with a slight primness,

"If you please."

She made herself rather cheap by inclining her face toward him, but

he merely dropped an acorn button into her hand, so she slowly returned her face to

where it had been before, and said nicely that she would wear his kiss on the chain

around her neck.__________

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"Has anyone heard from Ben?"

It's Kenji asking, of course, in your weekly zoom with the rest of the gang. You've tried to get out of going, not because you don't love them all, but because you're just not feeling it sometimes. But Kenji is so annoying when you bail and Sammy gets that scared tone in her voice, so it's easier just to show up.

You say nothing to his question—it's not like you know. And though there was a playfulness to Kenji's tone, you know he's not asking just to tease you.

"I've texted him a few times. Phone does that thing where you know your message didn't get through."

"I heard he's gone off grid for a while," Darius offers. "Trying to recover from everything that happened."

There's a beat of silence as they nod or look away, understanding full well the desire to escape.

"Is there reason to worry?" Brooklyn asks, sensing something in Kenji's inquiry.

"Nah. Just wondering. Kinda miss the kid."

He's careful not to look at her when he says that, or maybe she's just imagining that because this is zoom after all.

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{Where are you, Ben?

I'm not just asking

because of this ridiculous crush I'm harboring

(are you happy I can admit that's what this is?)

In all seriousness,

We're starting to worry about you.

All of us.}

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