Always Neverland (9 page)

“I'm going to bring her some,” I said, running to the cupcake tree. I picked off a tray-size leaf and loaded it up with half a dozen cupcakes, all different kinds, hoping that Tiger Lily would like one of them.

Kyle and Pounce exchanged another look. This time they didn't smile. “I don't know if that's such a good idea,” said Kyle.

“She's
proud
, my sister,” Pounce said in a warning way. But I didn't listen to them any more than I'd listened to Peter about the mermaids. I was
determined
to get on the princess's good side.

“I have a plan,” I reassured them, and, rising into the air, I flew after Tiger Lily.

Chapter 13.
The Pirates Want My Cupcakes

M
y plan had one major problem.

I couldn't find her.

Balancing the leaf tray of cupcakes carefully, I flew one way and came to a cliff—a dead end. I turned back and went another way, passing huge, towering trees with flaking gray bark. Their branches were covered in so many leaves that I couldn't see anything beyond them.

I was so disappointed at not finding Tiger Lily that I had a hard time holding on to my happy thought. My toes brushed the forest floor as I flew. Too bad everything wasn't as easy as fighting with a sword and faking a thunderstorm. . . .

Suddenly, I had an idea.

I landed on the nearest branch, closed my eyes, and Pretended that I was
already
Tiger Lily's friend. I Pretended that I already knew her so well that I knew exactly where to find her.

Then, suddenly, like someone had whispered the answer in my ear, I
did
know.

I flew past seven trees and circled the last one's trunk. There, crouched low between the exposed roots, was Tiger Lily. She didn't see me. This time I was 100 percent positive. Her head was tilted slightly, as if she was listening to something in the distance.

“Hi!” I said, very pleased with myself.

Tiger Lily jumped a foot and a half. Obviously, she hadn't been expecting me.
“Silence!”
she hissed, her eyes very wide.

I tried again, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Listen—I brought you some cupcakes. Want some?”

She scowled. It actually looked pretty intimidating with all the war paint on her face. “You foolish Wendy girl, can't you hear the pirates?”

“The pirates?” said a sea-roughened voice behind us. “You wouldn't mean us, would you, Princess Tiger Lily?”

I whirled around.

Five pirates circled us, grinning, only a few feet away. Their drawn swords gleamed even in the shadows of the great trees overhead. Up close, I could see the holes in their clothes and the gaps where teeth were missing. I could even smell them—a mixture of saltwater, sweat, and something else unpleasant, like very bad breath.

“And who's this?” asked the same pirate who had spoken first, the one in the yellow-and-blue striped shirt. He took a step closer, staring at me. “Have you made a friend, Tiger Lily?”

Tiger Lily didn't answer. She drew an arrow out of her quiver, holding it near the top like a dagger, and with her other hand, she picked up a stout clublike stick from the forest floor. She was obviously prepared to fight.

I definitely wasn't. My heart thudded in my chest, and the blood rushed in my ears.

It's one thing to come up with a plan to scare off pirates when you're safely up a tree with four Lost Boys, one fairy, and one Pan as backup. On the ground, totally surrounded by pirates, it was almost impossible.

“Look at them little cakes,” said a pirate behind the one in front. He dipped the tip of his sword into a cupcake on my leaf tray, and then, smirking at us from under his red cap, he licked the chocolate icing straight off the rusty blade.

I won't lie. I did want to fly away. But I couldn't just abandon Tiger Lily—not when I'd led the pirates straight to her.

“Yeah—where did you get that food, missy?” asked the pirate in the striped shirt. “You didn't nick it from our cook again, did you?”

“First the cap'n's hat, now our food,” said another pirate, clucking his tongue. It was the short chubby one from yesterday—Smee.

I tried to Pretend to be a warrior, the kind that struck fear into pirates' hearts. It didn't work. It was hard to make-believe you were fearsome when holding six cupcakes instead of a sword.

“Do you know what the punishment is for stealing from pirates, missy?” asked Stripes, raising his sword.
“Death
.
”

Tiger Lily raised her stick, preparing to block the blow.

I couldn't let her fight alone. She was completely outnumbered. I had to do
something
. I
had
to help.

“The Sixth Amendment in the Bill of Rights clearly states . . .” It just popped out. My voice was a little squeaky. Scrambling to come up with a plan, I took a deep breath and continued, “‘In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury—'”

Mouth open, the pirate in front lowered his sword, and behind him his shipmates all raised their eyebrows.

“What's a Bill of Rights?” asked one.

“What's a jury?” asked another.

“What are you talking about?” ask Smee, sounding very suspicious.

I gained a little more confidence. “What I mean is, you can't convict someone of a crime without any evidence,” I said, and my voice wasn't as squeaky.

The pirates were even more confused. They just kept gaping. Even Tiger Lily stared at me with a small, puzzled frown.

“What's evidence?” asked the red-capped pirate.

“Proof,” I said.

“What about all the food?” said Stripes, but he was starting to sound a little unsure.

“Circumstantial,” I said loudly. Mom used that word a lot when she talked about work. I wasn't completely sure what it meant, but it sounded so impressive that the pirates paused, looking at each other.

“Your lot stole our dinner from us yesterday,” said Smee. “That's what our cook said.”

“Yes, but does your cook usually make this kind of food?” I made a big show of looking down at the leaf tray in my hands. “A cupcake with sprinkles and pink icing? That doesn't seem very piratey.”

All Hook's men lowered their swords. One even scratched his head.

“I guess there's no help for it,” said Smee. “We'll have to take 'em to the cap'n. He can sort out this evidence and jury business.”

That was such a happy thought that I rose an inch off the ground. Being captured was better than being killed. We would have a better chance of escaping.

But then another voice came out of the forest. “Smee? Is that you?”

I didn't recognize the voice—I had only heard Hook speak once before—but the pirates knew it right away. They all straightened up, doing their best to look scary again.

“Yes, Cap'n,” said Smee. “What are you doing off the ship, Cap'n, sir?”

My heart sank, and so did I, as my happy thought drained away. I had the feeling that Hook would be much harder to trick, and Tiger Lily and I didn't have time to get away.

The princess tightened her grip on her weapons, determined to go down fighting.

“Smee, you fool, come and help me,” said the voice.

“We have two prisoners here for you, Cap'n,” Smee replied.

All of a sudden, a roar filled the air. To our right, leaves rustled like a huge animal was crashing around out there.

The pirates froze, gulping.

Even Tiger Lily shifted nervously on the balls of her feet.

I stared at the woods in horror, remembering the carving Button had shown me the night before. “Are there
real
lions in Neverland?”

“Never mind them, Smee,” cried Hook's voice, a little shriller now. “It's coming!”

Then there was another roar, and then branches snapped violently, as if the lion was starting to chase its prey.

“Smee!” cried Hook's voice, fainter than before, like he was running away.

The pirates bolted, disappearing into the woods in every direction. Only Smee loyally ran in the direction of Hook's voice.

Hearing the roar, Tiger Lily and I backed up as much as we could. We pressed ourselves flat against the tree trunk and hoped the lion wouldn't notice us.

But a lion never arrived.

Instead, Dibs, Kyle, Button, Prank, and Peter emerged from the leaves, grinning from ear to ear. Tink zigzagged around their heads, chittering smugly, as if she knew all along that I would get in trouble by myself.

Tiger Lily's mouth fell open.

“Oh.” My knees went a little weak with relief. “Was it just you guys?”

To answer, Peter opened his mouth and let out a very realistic lion roar.

“And I did the other parts,” said Dibs with Hook's voice, obviously pleased with himself. “I can imitate that ugly old pirate almost as good as Peter.”

“We would've attacked earlier,” said Button apologetically, “but we all left our swords at our tree. We don't usually need them right after breakfast.”

“Tricking works too,” Peter said with a little shrug.

“But I can't remember the last time we tricked the pirates two days in a row,” Kyle said, excited.

“And I know just who's responsible,” Prank said, sweeping forward and shaking my hand heartily. “Our own Wendy girl, the most cunning lady to ever visit Neverland.”

With a little laugh, I turned to grin at Tiger Lily, but she didn't really look relieved. She just looked mad—and actually, even scarier than before.

She thanked Peter with a deep nod, and then she started off through the woods toward the Grove of Food Trees and her own tribe. She glanced back only once—glaring at me so fiercely that I fell back a step.

I didn't understand it. We had just defied pirates side by side—the same way Pounce and Kyle had fallen off a cliff together. Why couldn't Tiger Lily and I be friends after this?

We watched her go. Then Kyle whispered, “I don't think that she likes being rescued very much.”

But I remembered what Pounce had said earlier—
she is proud, my sister
. He had
tried
to warn me.

I swallowed hard. Tink still didn't like me. The mermaids didn't want to be my friends, and now, Tiger Lily had just snubbed me. Well, that settled it. Maybe Peter was right. Maybe all my plans for this trip to Neverland weren't very smart.

The Lost Boys like you, though,
I reminded myself firmly, before I started to feel
too
sorry for myself.
So you've made
some
friends.

“Well,
I
certainly appreciate getting rescued,” I said with feeling, and Peter and the Lost Boys grinned at me.

“You can thank us with cupcakes. Rescuing always makes me hungry,” Prank said, picking one up from the leaf tray I was still holding, and he took such an enormous bite that he smeared yellow icing on his chin. “Who else wants one?”

Chapter 14.
A Crocodile Sings Christmas Carols

“T
ime to finish the spring cleaning,” Button said a few minutes later, licking the last cupcake crumbs off his fingers.

“I thought we did that yesterday,” I said as we rose in the air to fly back. “What else do we have to do?”

Apparently, now that the Never birds were out of the way, we had to wash the Tree Home from crown to roots.

Kyle scrubbed the outside of Peter's little red house, paying special attention to the windows. Button swept the stairs and checked to make sure the vine netting around each of the leaf hammocks wasn't fraying. Peter disappeared into his house.

The rest of us got stuck wiping down the leaves with damp rags.

I know that I had already had a couple of adventures that morning, but cleaning a tree was
not
how I'd pictured spending my second afternoon in Neverland. And the whole thing with Tiger Lily was still bothering me.

“Is this really necessary?” I asked finally, after I had cleaned so many leaves that I had lost count.

“Peter's orders,” Dibs said. That was apparently all the reason he needed.

I was instantly suspicious. What
was
Peter doing inside? For all I knew, Peter could be napping while the rest of us cleaned.

Prank rubbed down a leaf as long as his arm. “We've lived here for so long that we've covered the whole tree in fairy dust. See it on the leaves?”

I did see it. I'd noticed it the day before, too. It made the tree glitter in the sun, at least on all the leaves that we hadn't wiped down yet. “Yeah. But why are we washing it off? Are you afraid that the tree's going to have a happy thought and fly away?”

Prank shook his head and moved on to another leaf. “If the pirates ever notice, they'll know it's ours. We can't take any chances now that they're roaming the woods, searching for Hook's hat.”

“They didn't find us last night.”

“It was almost dark,” Prank said.

“Maybe there's something we can do to make cleaning more exciting,” I said hopefully. “You know, like the contest yesterday with the Never birds. What if we raced?”

Prank shook his head. He concentrated on the leaf he was cleaning as hard as he had when he'd organized the fake thunderstorm that morning, almost like this was just another trick. “We did that one year. We didn't do a good job, and the pirates ended up finding us anyway.”

It definitely sucked. I only got to visit Neverland for a few days, and we were spending most of them
cleaning
. The other Wendy girls had to be a bunch of pushovers if they just helped the Lost Boys do all their chores without a
peep
of protest.

“Wendy girl, if you're sick of wiping down leaves, I'm sure there's something else you could do,” Dibs said.

I looked up hopefully.

Dibs flew down to a branch a little below us and scooped up a bundle of cloth piled against the trunk. I'd thought they were extra rags, since they were so frayed and dirty.

He shoved them into my arms. “You can wash the blankets.”

Laundry would suck even more than cleaning the leaves, and from the smirk on Dibs's face, I guessed that he knew it. I could definitely add him to the list of the people who
still
didn't like me. I probably had a better chance of winning Tink over than Dibs.

I was about to complain, but then Button said, “Would you mind, Wendy girl? I was going to do it after I finished, but this is taking longer than I thought.”

He sounded exhausted. I couldn't say no.
Button
had always been so nice to me.

“Thanks,” he said, and I could tell he really meant it. “I usually take them down to the waterfall.” Button pointed. “There's a path over there.”

So, I flew down a well-worn path with a bunch of smelly blankets in my arms. I could only find
one
happy thought to keep me in the air—I didn't have to work with Dibs anymore.

When I heard water crashing up ahead, I knew I was getting close, but that didn't prepare me for how spectacular it was.

The waterfall wasn't that big—barely twice as tall as I was, and maybe two-and-a-half feet wide—but it made a merry sound. The water fell fast over the sparkling rocks, throwing up so much spray that it made little rainbows. Very green vines bordered it on each side, covered all over with red and pink flowers. The waterfall pooled at the bottom and then flowed out quickly to meet the ocean.

I sat down on a sun-warmed rock with the bundle. The Lost Boys certainly didn't do their laundry often. The blankets were stiff with dirt, and I had no idea how to clean them.

First, I tried the simplest solution. I closed my eyes and Pretended that the blankets were already clean, dry, and folded. But I didn't feel a tingle even in my pinky toes.

That's the thing about Pretending in Neverland. It only works if you really
want
whatever you're make-believing. That meant I could Pretend to find Tiger Lily and to make thunder—but
not
to do laundry.

I sighed. It looked like I had to tackle the blankets the old-fashioned way. I picked up the whole pile, dumped it all in the pool, and poked at the blankets with a stick, kind of swirling the sodden cloth around a little.

“I can't believe it,” I mumbled to myself. “One day in Neverland, and I'm already doing their laundry. I'm
not
their mother.”

“That's not how Button does laundry,” someone said.

Shocked, I nearly toppled into the water.

On the other side of the pool, sunning herself on a rock, was a mermaid. Her blond hair was so curly that it stuck out like a triangle around her head, and her green tail had silver and blue stripes running up the sides. She wore a shirt woven from seaweed, and tiny white seashells hung from the hem and the ends of her sleeves, which looked a little like lace if you squinted.

I couldn't believe my luck. A mermaid, sitting twenty feet away! And I hadn't even noticed.

“I saw you yesterday,” I said quietly. “You're the one who waved.”

I really wanted to swim over to her rock. After all, this was my chance to make friends with a mermaid, but I felt much shyer than usual. I mean, Tink, Tiger Lily, and Dibs hadn't liked me. I'd started to think that as a Wendy girl, I wasn't friend material, at least in Neverland. I didn't
want
Peter to be right about that, but I was kind of afraid he was.

The mermaid only smiled. She certainly
seemed
friendlier than the princess.

“My name's Ashley.”

“I'm Buttercup.” Some people have a gravelly voice, but this mermaid actually had a
gurgly
voice. Every time she spoke, it sounded a little like someone blowing bubbles in their milk with a straw.

Peter had talked about the mermaids drowning people, but I had a hard time imagining Buttercup hurting someone. “You know Button?”

Buttercup nodded. “He's the one who taught me how to speak human. He comes here sometimes with the laundry.”

“How does Button do it, then?”

“I'll show you.”

The mermaid slid into the water with only a very small splash. She grabbed a blanket underwater with her webbed hands. Then she twisted it very tightly, hit the bundle with a rock a few times, so hard that I saw bits of dirt float off. Next she shook out the blanket, twisted it up, and hit it again with the rock, knocking more dirt off.

“Just like that,” she said, passing the twisted blanket and the rock to me.

Glumly, I banged the rock against the blanket and watched more grime float off.

Buttercup grabbed another one of the blankets and started washing it. I'm not sure what amazed me more: the fact that I was doing laundry with a mermaid, or the fact that someone would do chores when she didn't have to.

“You don't mind it?” I asked Buttercup, still feeling shy. “Cleaning, I mean.”

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, and I realized she might feel shy around me, too. That made me feel much better.

“We mermaids don't clean, you know. We live in the water. It doesn't make sense to wash. Cleaning is kind of fun, because I've never done it before.”

I thought for a second. “I've actually never washed my clothes by hand before either. At home we have a washer.”

“A wash-her?” the mermaid repeated skeptically.

“You know, a machine,” I explained. “You put clothes in it, and some soap, and you turn it on. Then you can come back later, and the clothes are all clean.”

“Ma-chine?” Buttercup said.

She was just repeating everything I said. It made me wonder if mermaids might be . . . well, a little slow. Then I remembered what Peter had said right after I met him, and I snorted softly.

“This is magic where you come from?” she asked.

I nodded. “Magic. Or machinery.” I didn't want her to ask me what machinery was, so I quickly added, “I've never done laundry with a mermaid before either.”

She smiled, wider than before. Her teeth shone extra bright, like pearls. “You know mermaids don't usually get along with Lost Boys. Or their Wendy girls.”

Maybe she was trying to tell me that she wasn't allowed to hang out with me. “But you're friends with Button,” I pointed out hopefully.

“Yes, but no one knows about it. It's a secret.”

“Oh! Then I won't tell, I promise,” I said, and Buttercup smiled again, gratefully.

So Peter didn't know
everything.
Maybe a Wendy girl
could
make friends with a mermaid, after all.

We worked in silence for a while. The more I hit it, less and less dirt came free of the fabric, and when I couldn't see any more dirt come off, I started on another blanket.

By the third blanket, I had fallen into a rhythm. Buttercup started humming, and since her song seemed so familiar, I joined in. Then we started hitting the blankets in time to the music, and when we caught ourselves striking rock against fabric in unison, Buttercup and I grinned at each other.

It did start to feel kind of fun—much more fun than it might have been if I were alone, anyway.

The sound of sleigh bells came over the water. Hearing them, I recognized the song we were humming.

I stopped myself and turned around. “Where's that music coming from?”

“Him, probably,” Buttercup said, pointing toward the ocean. At the mouth of the river, a huge and leathery creature swam. Only a few bumpy ridges were visible above the water. “He used to tick like a clock, but he's been singing since yesterday. Very strange. Very sudden.”

The music got a little louder, and I could hear the words “Jingle all the way!”

Then the crocodile surfaced, lifting its head out of the water, and I saw the scar around its slitted eye and the row of enormous yellow teeth.

“Yesterday, he swallowed my mother's iPod!” I watched the crocodile's head fall back into the sea.

“Eye pod?” said Buttercup. “What's that? Is it like glasses? Button says he needs glasses.”

I shook my head. “It makes music. I think ‘Jingle Bells' must be playing on repeat.”

As if it could sense us, the crocodile started swimming upstream, slowly and purposefully.

I gasped, scrambling back from the rock, away from the water. “Buttercup, get out of the water! It's coming this way!”

The mermaid looked up, drenched blanket in one hand and rock in the other, watching the crocodile come closer and closer.

“Buttercup, hurry!” I cried, running forward to drag her to safety.

But instead of hurrying, Buttercup did a strange thing. She slid deeper into the water until her mouth was covered, and she began to hum, the same way that the mermaids had done the morning I arrived in Neverland, right before the huge wave splashed Tink.

I couldn't hear her very well over the sound of singing, but apparently, the crocodile did. It slowed, stopped, and finally turned around, swimming back to the ocean like it was in a daze. Buttercup didn't stop humming until it was out of sight.

My mouth was open, and I closed it with a snap.

Buttercup laughed. Or at least she smiled really wide and made an extra-loud gurgling sound, which I assumed was how a mermaid laughed.

“He never bothers the mermaids,” she said, rising from the water and taking a seat on the rock with a tiny, smug smile. “We have our own ways of dealing with him.”

“That's so cool,” I said. “Can you teach me?”

Her smile started to look a little apologetic. “I don't think magic can be taught, not to a human.” I must've looked disappointed, because she added, “But maybe I can get you a trident. That's what we use when he's extra hard to manage.”

I perked up. A trident would be cool.

Buttercup looked over my shoulder, toward the path that led back to the Tree Home. “Someone is coming,” she said, dumping the blanket she'd been cleaning and the rock onto the shore. “I have to go, Ashley.”

“See you soon!” I said quickly, hoping that it would be true. She was the first person in Neverland to call me by my name.

She slid under the water and started to swim out to the ocean, the way the crocodile had gone.

“Wendy girl!” shouted a Lost Boy behind me. I turned. Kyle glided through the trees. “I finished early, so Peter said to come and help you!”

“Great!” I called back, picking up the half-cleaned blanket Buttercup had left behind. Looking downstream, the way she had gone, I wondered if I
would
ever see her again. I hadn't even gotten the chance to thank her.