Peter Pan Is Dead

Adalynn didn’t know how long they were flying because she was too busy squeezing her eyes shut and praying the boy, Jack, wouldn’t let her fall. Before she could even get her heart to slow down slightly her feet were hitting the ground and Jack was laughing at the look on her face, which should could only think would be one of pure terror.

“You okay there?” he asked though his laughter. “Are you going to be sick?”

“What do you mean Peter Pan is dead. All the children’s stories said that Peter Pan ran Neverland, not some kid named Jack,” she said asking the one thing she wanted to ask the second he told her his name.

“Peter Pan’s dead, he left Neverland to me,” he smiled. “Why don’t I show you around?”

Before she could say a word Jack was grabbing her wrist once again and pulling her after him. As she stumbled along the path behind him, he made quick work of climbing up the mountain that was in front of them.

What felt like an eternity later they finally reached the top and Jack let go of her and walked over to a nearby ledge and smiled. “Neverland’s a beautiful place that very few people ever get to experience. You should come and take a better look.”

Without saying a word Adalynn walked forward and took her place at Jack’s right. Once she was firmly in place she finally took a proper look around at the landscape surrounding her and couldn’t help but gasp in amazement.

From their place at the top of the mountain she could see everything on the island. The whole island seemed to be covered in green; from the grass covering everything but the thin line of sand going around the island to the tall trees. Unlike back at home where trees were dying left and right the trees in Neverland were all tall, healthy and looked as though they would never fall. Many of the trees covering the island were covered in various fruits, while others were full of blooming flowers. Turning to her left she noticed a small lagoon that lead to the ocean surrounding Neverland. In the lagoon Adalynn could barely make out the people playing in the water. She couldn’t help but laugh as she watched one of the boys in the water push a girl under the giant waterfall that was coming out of the mountain further down, only to be dunked under the water himself by a few girls that Adalynn could only assume was the girls friends.

“Why don’t we go down to the lagoon so you can meet everyone?” Jack suggested startling her slightly.

“Okay,” she said quietly before Jack offered his hand out to her and pulled her back down the mountain and through the woods. The only way she knew that they were getting close to the lagoon was the sound of laughter that started filling the air.

"They might seem loud and obnoxious, but trust me, everyone here is super nice,” he smiled as he pushed a branch aside and pulled Adalynn onto the beach of the lagoon.

“Jack, you’re back,” a blonde girl exclaimed as she looked towards the two of them as the branches fell back into place and gaining everyone’s attention.

“You should come join us,” another girl, with bright red hair said with a bright smile.

“Maybe in a minute. First I want to introduce everyone to our newest friend,” he said as he reached over and wrapped an arm around Adalynn’s waist and pulling her right against his side, making the girls in the lagoon glare up at her. “This is Adalynn. She came all the way from Oklahoma to join us.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to go back?” the blonde from earlier asked, glare still on her face.

“What jealous she’s going to like you more?” one of the boys in the lagoon with a buzz cut asked as he sent the girl a blindingly white smile and pissing her off even more.

“Can it Rian,” she said before turning back to Jack. “Are you sure we need a bigger family? I mean we were an even number before she came along. Now she’s going to throw off the whole balance.”

“I don’t care. She’s staying and that’s final,” Jack said in a very authoritative voice that made the girl instantly clam up.

“Now as for introductions that is Tink,” he said pointing at the blonde. “One of Pan’s left behind rejects,” he whispered quietly so only Adalynn would hear him.

“Any on else here left over from when Pan was in charge?” Adalynn asked. She was slightly curious to know if she would get to meet any other characters she used to read about to her sister.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but no. The lost boys were gone right after Pan,” he said with a shrug, not really wanting to go into detail about their disappearance. “Next to Tink with the teeth are way too white is my bubby Rian. After Rian with the large muscles covered in tattoos is my other friend Zack.”

“I think you forgot to mention that I’m also superior to Rain,” the boy who had just been introduced as Zack said with a laugh as Rian tried to dunk him under water.

Choosing to ignore him friends and their childish antics Jack continued on with his introductions. “The red head next Zack is Harmony. After Harmony we have Lisa, who is of coursed attached at the hip with her boyfriend Alex,” he said gesturing to the two who were further out in the water, near the waterfall wading in the water next to each other.

“Tink said that there was an even amount of you guys,” Adalynn said with a confused look as she turned to Jack, after realizing that there wasn’t anyone else in the water for him to introduce. “Where’s the last person?”

“I’m not too sure,” Jack said looking around the lagoon. “Rian, where’s Cassadee?”

“Up there,” Rian said with a smile as he pointed to the top of the waterfall where a girl was standing, looking as though she was getting ready to jump in.

“Is she seriously going to jump in?” Adalynn asked looking at the height of the waterfall and feeling scared for Cassadee.

“Don’t worry, she’s fine. She does this all the time and nothing has happened to her yet,” he said with a smile. “If you want you can try it next.”

"Hell no, there is no way I’m going up there,” she said feeling as though her heart was about to stop as she watched Cascade take the plug and jump into the lagoon below,

“It’s so exhilarating though,” Jack said as he smiled down at her. “It helps to make you feel more alive.”

“So what brought about this new friend?” Zack asked as he climbed out of the water with Harmony trailing behind him and meeting them on the beach.

“She wanted to escape her home town, so I offered her a place to go. Also since I know you will realize later on that you never asked her name, I figure I should tell you that it’s Adalynn.”

“Well it is so nice to meet you Adalynn. Where are you from?” Zack asked hoping to get to know their newest friend a bit more.

“Oklahoma, land of the tumble weeds,” she laughed. “What about you?”

“We’re all from Baltimore; well mostly. The girls are from different areas too.”

“That’s cool. So how did you all end up in Neverland?”

“Same way you did. They wanted to escape their home lives for something new,” Jack said while shooting Zack a look over Adalynn’s head that told him to shut up and go along with anything and everything Jack was saying,

“Guess we have a bit in common then.”

“Guess so,” Zack agreed with a tight smile.

“Why don’t we go have a welcome to the island dinner for Adalynn,” Alex suggested as he walked up the beach, Lisa’s hand held within his own.

“Why don’t you guys go start cooking then? I still have more of the island to show her,” Jack said as he once again grabbed Adalynn by the wrist and pulled her back into the woods before anyone could object.

Walking along the trail Jack took time to point out various locations to Adalynn. He showed her the small clearing that Zack had made into a make shift gym. Since they didn’t have all the material things Oklahoma and Baltimore did Zack had make weights out of rocks, and used vines to make pull up bars of various heights.

Two minutes down the path from that was a small alcove that was hidden by the waterfall that made up the girls hang out. Jack told her that she could go in and check it out if she wanted, but he had promised the girls that no man would enter their sanctuary. Opting out of checking out the cave without one of the girls, preferably Cassadee or Lisa, showing her around, she followed after Jack as he continued down the path to the next location Jack wanted to show her.

“Now this is the most important place of this whole tour,” Jack explained as he leave her through a cave entrance.

As they walked further into the cave Adalynn started bracing herself for the darkness that she assumed would surround them the second they got too far away from the mouth of the cave. Surprisingly though, the further they got in the cave the brighter it got. The top of the cave was carved out to make a skylight, although she was concerned about what would happen when it was raining she ignored the thought and continued to take in her surroundings.

The wall opposite the mouth of the cave had rows of bunk beds, all of which were carved out of the stone walls. Counting them quickly she realized that there were twelve bunks and that she easily could have her own bunk to sleep on that night. There were four rows of bunks, each of them three beds high.

Along the wall to the right of the beds was a table that was clearly made by hand from the trees outside that was pushed up against the wall with at least ten chairs haphazardly surrounding it. Opposite the tables was an open area that was clearly where everyone went when they wanted to stay in the cave but needed something to do. There were blankets and pillows scattered on the floor, clearly being used at makeshift beanbag chairs for the makeshift family that inhabited the cave.

"Wow, this is very homey,” Adalynn said as she looked around with a smile. She still wasn’t too sure if coming to Neverland with Jack was a good idea, but at least she could make herself comfortable around their makeshift house.

“It is, plus everyone has their own little area where they can go to be by themselves. Zack and the girl’s is on the way back from the lagoon, while Rian, Alex and myself have ours on the other side of the cave,” Jack explained.

“Do I get to see where everyone else’s special places are?”

“Maybe later,” he said as he nudged her towards the sleeping area. “It’s starting to get late and we still have to go get dinner, plus no one’s allowed out after dark. Plus, you need to decide which bed you’d like.”

“Which ones are off limits?”

“Well, that one’s is mine,” he said pointing to one on the very right at the very bottom of the wall. “The one to the left of it is Alex and Lisa’s, and next to them is Rian and Cassadee. Two up from Rian and Cassadee is Zack and to the right of Zack is Harmony. So now that you know, go pick one.”

“Where does Tink sleep?”

“She has her own place on the island,” he said with a shrug.

“But she seems like she’s one of you. Why doesn’t she get to live here too?”

“Because she already had her own place, I wasn’t just going to make her move here to so that we could all be close,” he said with a tone that told her to drop it. “Now pick a bed before you get the floor.”

Knowing that Jack was so obviously irritated with her because she was asking too many questions for her liking she quickly picked a bed. She ended up on the bottom row of bunks, to the left of Rian and Cassadee, and as far away from Jack as she could while still staying close to the ground.

“Alright, well everyone should probably have dinner ready by now, and since it’s a special night they’ll have it set up by the lagoon, so let’s head back,” Jack explained grabbing her by the wrist again and dragging her back the way they originally came.



“So did you leave anyone behind?” Alex asked as pushed his plate away once he had finished his dinner.

“Of course, but then again doesn’t everyone leave someone behind when they go away?” she asked, making Alex think.

“Good point. Let me rephrase that; did you leave behind anyone who it might break your heart to be away from after a while?”

“Yeah,” she said quietly as she looked down at her plate and thought of her sister. She couldn’t help but think of what her sister was going through right now. Did she think Adalynn hated her? Did she understand that Adalynn left because she wasn’t happy at home? She hoped her sister would be okay eventually.

“Well who’d you leave behind then?” Lisa asked, taking part in Alex’s questioning.

“My little sister, Lisa,” she said through a small chuckle. “I’m just hoping that she’ll understand why I left, she knew I was never happy back home.”

"I'm sure she'll understand eventually,” Lisa said with a small smile as she reached across her boyfriend to pat Adalynn’s shoulder. “She might be mad that you’re gone for a little while first, but I’m sure once she really thinks about it she’ll realize that you only did this to make yourself happy and that’s all she can really ask for.”