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✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩👬The Pevensies👭✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩

"Got your things packed?" Charlotte's aunt, Aunt Jill, lazily asked, sipping on a cup of tea.

"Yes, Aunt Jill," Charlotte replied, setting all her books into her backpack.

"Right, now girl," Aunt Jill eyed her narrowly, "forget all the fantasies of that Narina place and whatnot-"

"It's Narnia," Charlotte corrected her.

"Whatever!" Aunt Jill huffed an irritated sigh, "it is totally useless and full of fairytale nonsense."

Charlotte remained silent, choosing to ignore her words. She did not particularly like her aunt, but she had nowhere else to go. Aunt Jill was her legal guardian until Charlotte herself grew into an adult. Until then, she was stuck with someone who thought of her as inadequate for having her head stuck in the clouds.

She could understand that Aunt Jill was grieving her sister just as much as Charlotte was grieving her mother, and father separately, and that they were dealing with their grief very differently. Hence, she remained silent. But she disliked how Aunt Jill was practically forcing her to give in to this idea that Narnia was a fantasy.

"And all this nonsense is dissociating you from reality," Aunt Jill continued with a condescending tone, "if you go on believing in such fantasies, I may just need to take you to see a doctor."

Charlotte shook her head to herself. Her Aunt Jill was just oblivious to her own grief. For what it was worth, dreaming about her fantasies made her feel hopeful.

"I'm leaving now, Aunt Jill," Charlotte snapped, swinging her backpack over her shoulder and grabbing her briefcase.

"Listen to me girl," Aunt Jill insisted, "the earlier you accept it, the less painful it is when you realise all of it is not real."

"Goodbye, Aunt Jill," Charlotte rolled her eyes, walking out the door.

Charlotte sighed to herself, blinking back tears to avoid being seen as vulnerable by the neighbours. She knew she was getting older, but she knew it was real. It was literally the story of how her parents met. It was not possible to simply rewrite the way you met your significant other. She refused to believe it was all false.

She hoped every day that she would one day venture into the realm of Narnia, but with every passing day, it seemed to be fading as if Aunt Jill was right. She examined the bracelet she had inherited from her mother, and reminded herself that she believed Narnia was real.

She had her arms crossed all the way as she travelled to the train station, mentally preparing herself to face a new life in a new school in Finchley.

Just as she was walking down the stairs, the sound of punches and shouting snapped her out of her thoughts and brought her back to reality. With her standing in a crowd, she frowned and tried to push her way through the crowd, only eager to get to the platform to wait for the train. She had no interest in seeing the commotion. But then, as the scene unfolded before her eyes, she stopped in her tracks.

Directly in her view, she saw a tall boy with fair hair being held by two other strong, buff boys, while their friend punched him fiercely in the gut. The victim was wearing a Hendon House uniform, which indicated to her that they were going to nearby schools. The other boys wore different uniforms. She was horrified by the scene before her, and looked around her to the crowd, astonished to realise that no one was going to help the poor boy.

"Hey, stop it!" She exclaimed, getting in between the boys.

The one who punched the victim feigned a laugh, before resuming his fierce, dominant position facing towards her.

"Get out of the way, girl," he said through his clenched teeth.

"Stop this at once," she commanded once more.

"I'm not going to listen to a dumb little girl," he mocked her, causing the crowd to laugh.

"Your lack of anger control speaks volume about your own insecurities," she retorted, crossing her arms.

This angered the bully even further, as the crowd broke into whispers and murmurs among themselves.

"You think I'm insecure?" He taunted, "I'm not afraid to hit a girl."

With that, her face was instantly met with his clenched fist. She fell to the floor head on, and groaned in agony. Her cheek went numb, and pain spread through her thick skull.

"Hey! You can't do that!" The boy broke free from their grips and attacked the bully, and the fight continued.

"Peter!" Charlotte heard a voice shouting from among the crowd, catching a glimpse of a dark-haired girl staring at the fair-haired boy.

The blonde boy, whom she now knew as Peter, looked up at the girl, before he got fiercely slammed against the wall by the two boys.

"Stop it! Stop that right now!" Charlotte attempted to pull one of them off, only to feel herself being hurled away from the three boys.

Charlotte felt herself being picked up with her feet off the ground, and she met eyes with the one who intended to hit her again. She shut her eyes, preparing again to meet his fist again, when she fell to the floor once more, having felt no impact.

Her eyes shot open and she realised the boy was tackled by another boy. This saviour of hers had dark hair, looked about her age, and he also had on complementary uniforms as her.

"You've got some nerve!" He yelled in rage, shoving the boy, who intended to hit her, to the ground and broke into a brawl.

She shifted her attention to Peter, who was also fighting off the guys who were holding him previously. With their leader now fighting some other boy, she attempted to pull one of the two holding Peter down on the train platform.

Then, a whistle blew, catching everyone's attention. A group of even bigger, buff adults then approached the group, breaking up the fight between the boys. Charlotte picked herself off the ground and dusted her uniform.

"Act your age!" He barked at the group of boys, letting go of Peter and one of the bullies.

"You're lucky your boyfriend stepped in," the boy who kept harassing her shoved her hard by the shoulder, pushing her down again to the floor.

"Enough! Walk on, son!" The adult yelled once more, blocking her from the bully.

"Hey, are you alright?" A younger girl with braids approached her, holding a hand out to help her up, inspecting her face.

"Uh, yeah," she nodded, immediately noticing that they were wearing the same uniform, "that was quite a punch. But I'm alright."

"You're lucky Edmund stepped in, otherwise you'd have received two punches," she shook her head, "your cheek is all red."

The younger girl sat by an older girl and the fair-haired boy, leading Charlotte to assume that they were siblings. She looked over at the dark-haired boy who followed a distance behind them, whom she already knew as Edmund. Edmund had this furious glare plastered on his face, as he shifted his glance, from the boys walking off in the opposite direction behind them, to her.

"Are you alright?" He asked, still glaring as he examined her cheek.

"Y-yeah," she stammered, feeling a bit intimidated by his glare, "I think so."

"Your cheek is all red," he stated, reaching a hand out to her face, "May I?"

"Oh, sure," she nodded, before the back of his fingers softly caressed her cheek.

"Better get an ice pack," he suggested, his hands leaving her face.

"Oh, no," she refused, "I suppose it will be fine."

He nodded, "Good. You were reckless back there. What girl gets herself into a fight?"

Charlotte blinked twice, taken aback by his response, "I was helping that boy! He needed help, and no one was helping!"

"I helped, didn't I?" He reminded her.

"Well, where were you before I came in?" She challenged, crossing her arms.

He sighed, before taking a step back to calm himself down with a deep breath.

"Thank you, for helping my brother, Peter," he finally said, "I believe we got off on the wrong foot."

"Yes, we did," Charlotte agreed, "but thank you for helping me too."

"I'm Edmund, Edmund Pevensie," he introduced himself officially, extending a hand for her to shake.

"Charlotte Baker," she introduced herself, shaking his hand delicately.

"I haven't seen you around before," he remarked, noticing her matching uniform, "you go to Saint Finbar?"

"Oh, I just transferred. I'm new," she explained, "I live with my aunt. She enrolled me this semester."

"I see, well, you can hang around my siblings and I," he invited, "my sisters go to Saint Finbar too. I go to Hendon House with Peter, just across the street. They're not a fun bunch though, let me tell you that first."

"It's better than being alone on my first day," Charlotte said lightheartedly, following him.

He headed to place his suitcase down by the bench to sit by his brother, uttering a very dull you're welcome for the encounter just moments ago.

"I had it sorted," Peter defended himself, frowning at Edmund.

"Clearly not, you're very lucky this kind stranger stepped in," the older sister complained, looking over at Charlotte.

"We haven't seen you around before, are you new here?" The older sister asked.

"Oh yes," Charlotte replied, "I'm Charlotte."

"I'm Lucy, and this is Susan," the youngest Pevensie, who talked to her earlier, introduced herself and her older sister politely, "and you've already met our brothers. Not the cleanest introduction to start off with, if I say so myself."

"Well, thank you anyway, Charlotte, for helping our dimwitted brother here," Susan thanked her on their behalf.

"Dimwitted?" Peter scoffed, getting up from his seat.

"Well, what happened this time?" Susan asked, ignoring his complaint.

He paused for a moment, before turning around to face his siblings.

"He bumped me," he explained.

"So you hit him?" Lucy asked in disbelief.

"No, after he bumped me, they tried to make me apologise. That's when I hit him," Peter defended his actions.

"Honestly, is it that hard just to walk away?" Susan asked with a dull tone, "if it weren't for Charlotte and Edmund, I don't know what would have happened."

"I shouldn't have to!" He exclaimed, "I mean, aren't you ever tired of getting treated like a kid?"

"Um," Edmund spoke up, "we are kids?"

"Well, I wasn't always," Peter shrugged.

The three younger siblings exchanged looks with each other, piquing Charlotte's interest. They also stole glances at her, fully aware that she listened in on their conversation. They nudged Peter with their eyes to keep in mind that an outsider could hear him very well.

"It's been a year," Peter remarked, resuming his seat between his siblings, "how long does he expect us to wait?"

"What do you mean?" Charlotte asked sceptically, tilting her head slightly with her eyes narrowed at Edmund beside her.

"Oh it's nothing," he assured her, "you wouldn't understand. It's all fairytale talk."

"Enlighten me, then," Charlotte said, "I actually believe in fairytales."

Edmund looked at her oddly, "You do?"

She nodded, much to his perplexity.

"I think that it's time to accept that we live here," Susan suggested, looking over at Peter.

She glanced behind her, and suddenly turned back to them.

"Pretend you're talking to me," Susan suddenly said.

"We are talking to you," Edmund replied dryly.

"Ow!" Lucy suddenly jumped from her seat.

"Quiet, Lu," Susan advised, perplexed.

Lucy pointed at her spot, crying out, "something pinched me!"

"Ow," Peter repeated, shooting a glare at Edmund, "stop pulling!"

"I'm not touching you!" Edmund protested, glaring back at him.

Then, a huge gust of wind blew against the five of them, causing everyone to get up from their seats instantly. Charlotte could not believe what was happening, and felt herself holding on to Edmund's arm involuntarily. The train arrived, but did not come to a halt. Instead, it was driving ahead at full speed, contributing to the huge gust of wind.

"What's happening?" Charlotte yelled over the noises of the train zooming past by.

"It's just like magic!" Lucy exclaimed, grinning at Susan.

"Quick, everyone hold hands!" Susan instructed.

"I'm not holding your hand!" Edmund snapped at Peter in disgust.

"Just do it!" Peter shrugged, holding his younger brother's hand anxiously.

"What's going on?!" Charlotte asked once more, feeling her heart pounding louder, and she took her hand off Edmund's arm.

"Come on, Charlotte!" Edmund gripped her hand tightly, realising that she was witnessing the scene unfolding before them, "hold on!"

Charlotte then caught sight of a strange land appearing on the other side of the train. A single thought appeared in her mind without a doubt, causing a smile to spread across her face. She was finally venturing into the realm of Narnia.