Mary made her way back to the dead tree where Peter and the boys lived. The sky was lightening, but she shook her head in amusement as she realized they were all still sound asleep. It wasn't surprising on Danny and Jane's part. They had gotten maybe five hours of sleep before coming to Neverland, and had been up until sometime after the sun had set. However, Mary got the feeling that Peter and the Lost Boys always slept in. Oh well. In a place where growing up was impossible, what did it matter?
Mary sat back down on her bed, carefully smoothing the skirt of the dress that the mermaids had given her. It was like a swimsuit with a transparent skirt that attached along the hemline of the holes for her legs and ruffles along that upper hem. The lower hem of the skirt was lined with pearls, as were the halter straps at the top of the dress, allowing it to match her necklace perfectly. The whole outfit was a sky blue. She thought it made for a nice contrast to her midnight blue hair. That too had been fixed up by the mermaids. It was nothing much, just a slightly more elegant hairstyle than simply wearing her hair down had been. She debated what to do about shoes. Going barefoot seemed oddly tempting, but even Peter and the boys didn't do that, which gave her the impression that it might be a bad idea. Maybe Tinkerbell could help her when she woke up.
With a sigh of content—she had truly hated her old clothes, she planned on burning them—Mary lied back in her bed and fell asleep again.
星
"How long is she gonna sleep?" A boy's voice asked.
"Let's just wake her up!" Another said.
"No! Don't do it like that!" A girl's voice suddenly cried before Mary felt somebody shaking her shoulder gently. "Mary, wake up. It's already afternoon."
Mary yawned and stretched as she sat up, having be roused by Jane's gentle urging. Everyone else in the tree gasped.
"Mary! Where'd you get that new dress?!" Peter exclaimed in surprise.
"Hm? This?" Mary replied groggily as she stifled a yawn. "I came by it while I was out with Silvermist last night."
"Last night?" Peter replied in confusion, "Did you go out while we were sleeping?"
"Yes. Is there a problem with that?" Mary asked. She hadn't thought that the Lost Boys had any kind of rules.
"Well no, not really." Peter admitted, "But you should be careful going off on your own, especially at night, Mary. You're lucky you didn't run into Captain Hook."
"Who?" Mary asked in confusion.
"Didn't I tell you about him?" Jane asked, concerned that she had forgotten to mention something rather important. Mary looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Oh yes. The pirate captain from the stories you told me on the train, right? I understand your concern, but don't worry about it. I wasn't alone. I just said that I was with Silvermist. If that... what was it you called him before? A codfish? If he had come along, I would've just flown away." She assured them while walking over to the knothole where Tinkerbell's room was. "Tinkerbell, are you there by chance? I have a favor to ask of you." Tinkerbell pushed aside the leaf that served as a door and flew out, hovering in front of Mary and jingling softly. "You're a Tinker Faerie. I was hoping you could help me come by some new shoes. I rather hate my old ones, but you and your friends come by your own shoes somehow, right?" Tinkerbell nodded and then flew down to Mary's feet, circling around them while apparently taking various measurements in her own way. She then flew back up to Mary and nodded. "Oh thank you Tinkerbell!" Tinkerbell saluted playfully and then flew off to get to work, and Mary turned back to the others, "Right then. What's for breakfast?"
"Hm..." Peter said thoughtfully, "Why don't we catch some fish from the river and cook them over a fire?"
The boys all cheered in approval and Jane smirked as she leaned over to whisper to Mary, "Bet you theirs all end up burnt."
"Um, actually..." Mary began awkwardly, "I'm a vegetarian..." The Boys all turned and looked at her like she had grown a second head.
"A... what?" Cubby asked in confusion. Clearly none of them knew what the word meant.
"A vegetarian." Mary said again, "It means that I don't eat... well... animals. I only eat fruits and vegetables and things like that."
"Ew!" All seven boys declared at once.
"Why on earth would you do something like that?" Peter exclaimed in disgust.
"I... um... It's a personal thing, all right?" Mary said awkwardly.
"Are you sure you can be a Lost Girl?" Said Toodles, "Cause Lost Girls don't eat their veggies."
"Oh really?" Mary asked, seeming a bit offended, "Then tell, me what do Lost Boys and Girls do?"
The others, including Jane, all looked at each other and grinned.
"We like to dream all day." Slightly sang.
"And then at night we play." Nibs added before the others joined in while dragging Mary outside.
"We swing on limbs of trees, til we wake up the bees." They weren't kidding. They disturbed a hive and an entire swarm came after them. "These are the things we Lost Boys do!"
"Sorry bees!" Mary called as she fled from the swarm with the others.
"We swing from rope to rope." The others continued.
"Sounds fun." Mary said with a smile.
"We have no use for soap." They added.
"Ew..." The dark-haired girl grimaced.
"With open mouths, we chomp" The Boys said.
"Well, no manners then." Mary muttered with a bemused smile to Jane.
"On mud pies from the swamp."
"Or common sense, apparently." She added.
"And then we top it off with pudding from a trough!" The Boys continued.
"They actually think they're pigs!" Mary exclaimed in disgust.
"These are the things we Lost Boys do!" Jane just shrugged with a "what can you do?" Expression and followed their friends.
"We're rolling in dirt!" The Boys sang, "We won't change our shirt!"
"You most certainly will, Danny." Jane said firmly.
"We're marching around to see what makes a sound!" They continued.
"That part actually sounds like fun!" Mary exclaimed as she followed after them.
"Dare you to throw that rock!" Peter exclaimed as Jane picked up a rock from beside the river.
"Come, get a triple skip!" Jane encouraged, gently tossing the rock to Mary. She attempted to skip the rock as Jane suggested, but it only plopped in the water, causing her to pout in frustration, although Peter was quickly distracted by something else.
"Dare you to explore that cave!" He shouted.
"Let's have an overnight trip!" Jane encouraged as she took Mary by the hand and led her into the cave with Peter and the others.
"And if you're feeling scared..." Peter continued.
"You'll have your friends right there!" Jane added.
"These are the things that Lost Boys..." Peter began.
"These are the things that Lost Girls...!" Jane added.
"These are the things we love to do...!" The entire group finished as they came out of the cave.
Mary laughed happily. "So this is what boys are like?" She asked with an amused shake of her head.
"You didn't know?" Peter asked in confusion, and Mary shook her head.
"The orphanage where I lived in London was only for girls." She explained, "I've never really been around boys before."
"Well now you have us!" The twins exclaimed.
Mary laughed lightly, "Yes, well, be that as it may, I'm afraid that girls are a little different than boys. Mostly in the hygiene area, apparently. At any rate, I still won't be eating fish, so I think I'll go and see what the mermaids have to offer."
"That might not be a good idea." Jane warned, "The mermaids here aren't always the nicest people."
"What are you talking about?" Mary asked, turning to look at Jane, "They're the ones who gave me this dress. At any rate, if you guys need me, I'm heading to the lagoon where I met them with Silvermist last night." As if on cue, the aforementioned pixie flew up to Mary and covered her in dust. "I'll see you soon!" Mary called as she waved to her friends.
"Mary seems kinda picky..." Peter muttered.
"Oh Peter. I don't think she means to be." Jane assured him, "But I get the feeling that she's never really been allowed to have fun before, so she doesn't know how."星
Sometime later, Mary sat perched on the rock again, happily eating something that Marina had brought for her from the nearby mermaid city. "This seaweed casserole is so good, Marina!" The young girl exclaimed, "There's something... nostalgic about it. It's as if I've had it before or something."
"Do humans normally eat seaweed?" Marina asked curiously, and Mary rolled her eyes in amusement.
"Humans normally can't control water, so why are you asking me?"
"I guess that's a good point." Marina grinned.
"All the same..." Mary began as she set down the empty dish, "I'm afraid I must admit that I don't know. I've heard that people in other countries in that world eat many things that people in Britain never would, so I can't say for sure if there isn't somewhere that people eat it regularly. I don't really know much about that world beyond the city where I lived. It would've been interesting to learn, but now that I'm here, I've no intention of going back."
"Why not?" Marina asked.
Mary moved so that her feet were dangling in the water below her, kicking lightly as she explained, "I don't like that world. Not at all. London is so... dirty and noisy and chaotic. The air is so awful that you can hardly breathe. It's much nicer here, where the air is fresh and clean and the sun shines so brightly! I don't think I've ever seen anything quite as beautiful as the sun shining upon this sea..."
"Oh... so you like the sea too, my dear?" A voice said, and suddenly a rowboat appeared from around the corner with a man dressed in a red captain's coat and hat standing in the bow. Marina gasped and dove beneath the waves to hide.
"You're... you're Captain Hook!" Mary exclaimed nervously as she stood to her feet upon the rock, and the man grinned sinisterly.
"Why, I'm flattered that you know my name." He remarked. Suddenly, the small man beside him scooped a bucket of water from the sea and threw it at Mary.
"Oh, Silvermist!" Mary exclaimed in concern, quickly reaching forward and catching the pixie with her hands when Silvermist began to plummet from having been soaked by the water. "Oh no! Your wings!"
"That's right, my dear." Hook began as Mary looked at him wearily while setting Silvermist down gently, "So now there will be no using pixie dust to fly away." Before Mary could reply, or even make a move to defend herself, the pirate captain reached forward and grabbed the young girl's forearm, jerking her forward, off the rock and into the boat.
"Hey! Let me go!" Mary cried, focusing her mind on the water below them to ensure the boat didn't capsize, because that would not be advantageous since she didn't know how to swim. Hook pushed her so that she fell back in the boat and then a rag was tied over her mouth by the oar-man.
"Now please miss, just hold still." The man said placatingly as he began to tie Mary's hands behind her back. Mary glared at him over her shoulder. This must be Smee, Captain Hook's oddly gentle, yet loyal first mate.
Hook chuckled fiendishly, "When Peter and that girl Jane learn that I have their friend, I'll be able to get my revenge on both of them." He looked over at Silvermist, who was watching helplessly from upon the rock, "Now little fairy, when your wings dry, fly off and tell Peter Pan that if he wants his new friend back, then he and Jane must come to my ship, alone."
There may be a point where I forgot to mention this, but this story is actually more of a Peter Pan/Sofia the First/Disney Princesses crossover, due to the statement in the final episode of Sofia the First that Neverland exists in the same dimension as Sofia and all of the Disney Princesses except for Pocahontas and Tiana. At any rate, the song the others sing is from Peter Pan 2: Return to Neverland, which I'm thinking should be fine since this is a Peter Pan fic. The lyrics were altered a little to fit this story and obviously Mary's commentary is not part of the song. XD
