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Chapter One: Best Friends

"Not again…"

Wendy jumped, squinting against the golden headlights. Frantically, the girl dried her cheeks as the solar surfer sagged to earth. Embarrassed, she looked away as a somber boy ducked beneath the luminous sails.

Disgustedly, Jim shook his head. Sighing, he settled beside Wendy. Far below them, the grey ocean gargled. Jim stared over the gusty cliff, waiting.

"You finished yet?"

Blue eyes shinning, Wendy nodded but the gesture tipped a stream of tears over her cheeks.

Jim rolled his eyes. Cursing silently, he reached around Wendy's shoulders and pulled her close. He immediately regretted the gesture when she cried harder.

"Cut it out."

Miserably, Wendy rubbed a hand across her eyes. Her neck shook beneath Jim's fingers with every attempt to stop crying.

It was pathetic and Jim scowled; he hated when she cried.

Shifting, Jim let Wendy press her nose against his jacket. Although he appreciated her attempts to muffle the weak sobs, Jim glowered all the same.

They played this game every week.

And Jim knew exactly why.

"That kid again?"

Wretchedly, she nodded.

"Pan?"

Again, a nod.

Anger boiled through Jim like hot oil. "Asshole. What happened?"

She shook her head.

"What happened?"

Sniffle. "…nothing."

"Oh don't give me that crap." Twisting an arm over Wendy's head, Jim frowned as the girl pushed off his shoulder. He knew his frustration was upsetting her, but Jim could not understand why Wendy was keeping this a secret.

Jim caught Wendy crying at least once a week. It had started a while ago, ever since the beginning of the school year. Jim had just ended his last shift at the Benbow Inn to see Wendy running toward the ocean cliffs, school bag banging against her back. A quick flight later, Jim found her at their secret hideout, sobbing.

It had been a shock: Wendy never cried. Certainly, her father's manic drunkenness saddened her, but Wendy was a resilient girl. She hadn't even cried when her mother died.

Which was why, when Jim finally coaxed the reason out of her, he was angered.

"A boy?"

Standing up, Jim ground his heavy boots into the cliff.

"A boy. You're still getting worked up over a jerk ass boy. Unbelievable."

He didn't bother apologizing. By now she was use to the swearing.

Jim and Wendy were a different breed, despite their strong friendship. Fatherless, Jim lived with his mother above the Benbow Inn at the junction of shitburge and nowhere.

It was the ideal neighborhood for any abandoned mother and son wishing to live everyday in fear and serve cheap rum to the pirates and scoundrels weighing anchor on their front porch.

Wendy was the product of a once affluent bourgeoisie marriage. Wedged comfortably in a quaint, unassuming neighborhood, the girl's life crumbled following her mother's death. And although Wendy denied it, Jim was sure the bruises dotting her arms where marks of her father's reactive misery, never totally healed.

Jim had first met Wendy at this very spot. He had been a brittle little boy aching for his father. She had been a sad little girl aching for her mother. Friendship ensued. So, in reality, the two were not so different at all.

They needed each other.

And they told each other everything.

Silently, Jim joined Wendy at the cliff's edge. Wind tossed her little ponytail up and down as the waves battered the jagged docks far below. Impassively, Jim noticed the Benbow creaking against the ocean before turning to Wendy.

"You're really not going to tell me what happened?"

Wendy cleared her throat apologetically, imploring Jim with big, blue eyes.

Shrugging to her silence, Jim turned away from the ocean view.

"Whatever." The solar surfer surged to life as Jim gripped the sails. The yellow energy highlighted the shadow laid over his eyes. "I'll just find out tomorrow after I kick the crap out of him."

"Jim! Jim, you mustn't!"

"Yeah?" The solar surfer hummed angrily in Wendy's path. Balancing on the metal board, Jim leaned forward, "You wanna give me a reason not to?"

Wearily, Wendy bowed her head. The surfer's yellow reflection shimmered over her tearstains. When the girl finally spoke, she sounded worn.

"Just…just…"

Sighing, Wendy shook her head, "…just not on your first day. Not on your first day back to school."

The yellow light splashed into Wendy's blue eyes, mixing like green paint as she raised her head. "Please?"

Jim did not respond.

He hadn't attended the high school, Fantasia School for the Magically Skewed, since his father left. His mom had tutored him; but the course work was getting harder and business at the Benbow was hectic these days. Jim was not thrilled about returning to the public school system, but could stomach the idea in hopes of pounding the daily-lights out of that Pan creep.

Jim knew next to nothing about Pan, neither what he looked like nor how swift his left hook was. He only knew that Pan made his best friend cry. And he hated when she cried

"Tell you what…" Tipping down the board, Jim pulled Wendy up onto the surfer. He waited as she fastened her back pack. Over their shoulders, the sun dipped below the waves.

"Promise to quit the crying," Jim said, kicking the engine ramp, "and I'll kiss the jerk instead. Deal?"

"Oh Jim…"

The engine puttered and sparked before blasting forward. Allowing his worries to burn away with the exhaust, Jim leaned into the curve of the glowing sails, unaware that Wendy, her cheek pressed against his shoulder, still had tears in her eyes.

fanart: check out DisneyGirl10's fanart on her tumblr account (name DisneyGirl10universe). Also, check out my DeviantArt page (name sultal-wf) for art by me and by HeartofGold7.