Chapter 2:
"Hear that, Tink? He's perfect!" The brown-clad boy floated into the air briefly and came to rest on a tree branch. Smiling brightly, he turned to the tiny, winged girl sitting on his shoulder. "This is the one we've been looking for."
"But Peter," Tinkerbell replied. "He's not even human. He's a…a…"
"Who cares? He'll be loads of fun. Oh, they're going upstairs. C'mon, let's go." The boy launched himself gracefully from the tree straight into the air. Instead of falling, as any child of earth would have down, he glided upwards and soared around the house, coming to hover directly outside the chipmunks' bedroom window. Peeking through the glass, he watched the trio change into pajamas and climb into their respective beds. The boys whispered to each other for a few minutes, until the grown-up—Peter shuddered at the thought—shouted at them to go to sleep. The light on the bedside table went out and the house fell silent.
"Peter!" Tinkerbell grabbed the end of Peter's short ponytail as the boy moved forward. "Are you sure about this? He's not even lost! And why do we even need a new Lost Boy? I think we have enough already!"
"You're wrong, Tink. Neverland is getting boring. We need some new blood." Peter reached over his shoulder and flicked the fairy, who tumbled backwards with a cry. By the time she'd righted herself, Peter was at the window, very gently and quietly prying it open. Sighing, the pixie rushed after her boy, slipping into the darkened room in a flurry of pale pink and blue wings.
"Look at this stuff," Peter whispered, looking around the bedroom. He picked up a soccer ball, tossed it aside, then selected a robot monster that groaned when he turned the key on its back. Startled, Peter shoved the toy under a pile of clothes and turned to the three boys sleeping in their beds. The youngest murmured in his sleep and rolled over, a teddy bear clutched to his chest. The eternal boy breathed a sigh of relief and tiptoed across the room to the middle bed. The young chipmunk was curled under a red and white checkered blanket, his red cap hanging from the bedpost. Peter and the fairy stared at him for a moment, then the boy nodded to Tinkerbell, who sighed and reached into a tiny blue pouch at her side.
"I don't know why I put up with you, Peter," she griped, throwing a handful of glittering dust onto the sleeping chipmunk. He wrinkled his nose briefly and turned onto his stomach. They waited. After a few seconds, the chipmunk started to float gently upwards, his blanket sliding from his limp body. He moved higher and higher, finally bumping the tip of his nose against the ceiling. Only then did his eyes drift wearily open.
"Enough, Theodore. The game's over," he murmured, turning. It took his sleepy mind a moment to register his distance from his bed, and then his eyes flew wide. Pinwheeling his arms rapidly, he managed to float into a sitting position.
"Yikes! How did I get up here! Simon! Simon, help!"
Peter launched himself to the ceiling, clapping a hand over Alvin's mouth, but not before Simon rolled over and reached for his glasses.
"Alvin, will you be quiet! You're going to wa—huh!" Simon
blinked, took off his glasses and wiped the lenses, and looked up
again. To his utter amazement, Alvin continued to float against the
ceiling next to a strange human boy dressed in ragged brown clothes.
"What in the…?"
"Mmm mm!" Alvin said. Dipping his head away from the boy's
hand, he added, "Who are you? Get me down from here!"
The boy looked slightly troubled to find Simon awake and watching him, then a bright smile lit up his face and he executed a perfect backflip in midair, just barely missing the ceiling fan.
"I'm Peter," he announced. "I've come to take you to Neverland."
Alvin crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. "I'm dreaming," he
muttered.
"Then so am I," Simon admitted. He climbed out of his bed and onto Alvin's. Reaching it, he caught his brother by one ankle and tugged him down.
"Whoa!" Alvin cried, bouncing against the mattress and immediately floating up again. Simon grabbed both of his feet and pulled, but Alvin's momentum was stronger and lifted the tall chipmunk up onto his tiptoes. Peter laughed, hugging his sides and rolling in the air.
"Tink, this is great!"
"Tink?" Alvin struggled to straighten himself out again. "Tinkerbell?"
The tiny pixie showed herself finally, fluttering out from behind Peter and approaching the two chipmunks. Simon's mouth dropped open and he released Alvin's feet. Alvin shot upward, crashing into the ceiling with a loud thump.
"Ow! Simon!"
"Ooh, sorry!" Simon leapt up and dragged Alvin down again, holding him tightly by one ankle like a balloon. Peering myopically at Tinkerbell, he asked, "Did you do this?"
Tinkerbell laughed sweetly. "Guilty as charged, Simon."
"You know my name?"
"Uh huh. We've been watching you for a couple of days now. We know that you're Simon, he's Alvin …"
"And me! Do you know me?" Theodore jumped up from his bed where he'd been feigning sleep since Alvin's first outburst. His green eyes were wide with delight to see his brother and Peter floating in the room.
"You're Theodore."
"And you're Tinkerbell." Theodore held out a hand so the pixie could land. "Wow, you're a lot prettier than they show in the movies."
The pixie blushed and turned to Peter. "Oh, Peter, can we bring him instead?"
Peter was hovering with his legs crossed beneath him, looking slightly bored now. "Tink, we came to take Alvin …"
"Wait a minute," Simon interrupted. "Take Alvin where?"
"To Neverland, of course. To be one of my Lost Boys."
"Me?" Alvin was amazed and flattered. He was also starting to get the hang of flying and navigated himself towards Peter. "Really? You want me to come to Neverland? I'll get to see the mermaids and pirates and…" he paused, turning to look at Simon and Theodore, who looked rather dejected. "But what about Simon and Theodore? I…I couldn't go anywhere without them."
"Well, they can come too," Peter announced in a rare show of generosity. "Tink, fairy dust if you please."
"Kettles and copperpots, Peter, we can't take all three!"
"Why not? It'll be fun!"
"But…but…when they turn up missing…"
"Missing?" Alvin and Simon looked at one another. "Well…we'd be coming back, wouldn't we?" Simon temporized. "We could just go for one night and come back before anyone even noticed we were gone."
Peter raised his eyebrows at Tinkerbell, who sighed heavily again and dusted Simon and Theodore with her special pixie dust. "Now think of happy thoughts," she told them. Seconds later, both chipmunks were rising off the floor with gasps of delight.
"This is amazing!" Simon exclaimed. "It's like some anti-gravity compound that defeats the natural principle of atomic matter and…"
"And it makes you fly! Watch this!" Theodore, normally shy and reserved, leapt off his bed and soared across the room with his arms spread wide. "I'm an eagle!"
Not to be outdone, Alvin pushed off the floor and started spinning somersaults in midair. Around and around he went, moving in a faster and faster circuit until he became nothing but a bright blur of red and yellow pajamas. "Whoo hoo!" he cried, until Simon picked up a baseball bat and stuck it directly into the middle of another somersault. Alvin lost momentum and went careening over the bat and into the bottom of his bed, where he lay with his eyes spinning dizzily.
"That's great…" he slurred. Sitting up and shaking his head to clear it, he exclaimed, "We should show the girls!"
"Thimbles and skillets!" Tinkerbell cried. "No!"
"Yeah!" his brothers agreed, soaring to the door and peeking out. With no sign of Dave, they all slipped into the hallway, Tinkerbell fluttering to and fro, lamenting their decision.
In the guest bedroom down the hall, the chipettes were all sound asleep and completely unaware of the strange thing that had happened to their friends. Alvin flew into the room smoothly and drifted over to Brittany's bed. She was sleeping with a fuzzy pink face mask over her eyes—very carefully, Alvin lifted the mask from her face so the elastic was stretched taut.
"Oh Brittany!" he sang, and let the mask go. It snapped back against her face and Brittany let out a squeal, jumping up and thrashing blindly. Her squeal woke Jeanette and Eleanor, who let out cries of surprise when the three boys showed off by moonwalking across the room three feet above the floor.
"What in the world…?" Jeanette whispered. "That's…it's scientifically impossible."
Brittany finally managed to free herself from her eye mask and stared at the boys incredulously.
"I'm dreaming," she said. Then Peter flew into the room and landed at the foot of her bed. Brittany's heart skipped a beat as she stared into the boy's bright blue eyes. "And I like it." She scrambled to her knees, running her fingers through her messy, tousled hair. "Who are you?"
"I-i-it's Peter Pan!" Eleanor breathed.
Peter perfected an elaborate bow and lifted nimbly into the air. When Jeanette turned on the light beside her bed, all the children finally got a good look at the strange boy who had flown through their window in the dead of the night. He was dressed in ragged brown shorts and a tight fitted shirt of the same color, but had a short, soft cape hung about his narrow shoulders. On his feet were ankle high boots, one of which was strapped with a sheath for a small dagger. His dark brown hair was curly and wild and pulled into a ponytail at the back of his head. His eyes were cornflower blue, rakish and daring and just a little bit crazy. A tiny woman dressed in a cute pink dress and pink booties stood on his shoulder. She wore a flower as a hat over her bright orangey-red hair and had two pink and blue wings sprouting from her shoulders. The chipettes were enchanted.
"He's come to take us to Neverland," Theodore announced, flying over to land beside Eleanor. He tried to sit on her bed, but continued to hover a couple of inches above the mattress. Eleanor couldn't help herself and pressed up and down on his head, dribbling him like a basketball. She giggled.
"I want to fly too? Can you make me?"
"And me!" Jeanette exclaimed. "Please! Please! I've always wanted to fly!"
"Tink?"
"No!
Peter, this is getting way out of hand. Six! We can't take six to
Neverland! We've never…"
"Oh, c'mon, Tink. We've
never brought chipmunks to Neverland either. It'll be a great
adventure! Think of all the stories they could tell!"
Tinkerbell fluttered back and forth, muttering incoherently to herself. The chipmunks and chipettes watched her, their heads bouncing as though viewing a tennis match. Finally, Brittany heard the words, "three more Wendys," and perked up.
"Oh, I get it…she's jealous!"
Tinkerbell stopped pacing immediately. "Jealous?" she demanded.
"Uh huh…you're jealous that Peter will pay more attention to us than to you." The chipette turned and fluttered her eyelashes at Peter, who grinned back, much to Tinkerbell's annoyance. "Of course, if you're feeling that insecure…"
"I'll show you insecure!" Tinkerbell flew to each of the girls in turn and dusted them liberally with her pixie dust. They all started to float, with cries of delight. Jeanette flapped her arms experimentally, rising high enough to bump her head on the ceiling. Eleanor swam through the air to pull her down. Giggling, Brittany grabbed Alvin's hands and whirled around three feet off the floor.
"This is awesome!" she exclaimed. Alvin clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Not so loud…we don't want to wake up Dave."
"So, does this mean we can go too?" Jeanette asked. "We get to go to Neverland and see the mermaids and the pixies?"
"When?" Eleanor wanted to know.
"Now!" Peter flew to the window and pushed it open, revealing a crystal clear night. "Ladies first," he said, using some of the gallantry learned from Wendy. Giggling, the chipettes shot through the window, followed closely by Simon and Theodore.
"Wait!" Alvin whirled and flew back through the house. A moment later he returned, wearing his signature red cap. "Can't go without this," he told them, slipping outside. Peter came last, closing the window behind him, but leaving it open just a crack. Theodore turned to watch him, a look of worry on his face.
"We will be coming back, right?" he asked tremulously. Alvin swooped up beside him, putting an arm around his shoulders.
"Of course," he soothed. "We'll only go for a little while. We could never leave Dave."
"Come on!" Peter called, silhouetted against the moon. He waved an arm and the six young chipmunks hurried to follow him past the second star on the right and straight on till morning.