The group of children landed in front of an old dead tree with a noose hanging from one of its branches. "Here it is—Hangman's Tree," Peter said.
"You mean this is your hideout?" Alice asked.
"The entrance to our hideout. Just wait till you see what it's like on the inside." There were many different holes in the tree acting as entryways into the hideout. Each Lost Boy entered through a different hole. Alice crawled through the bottommost hole in the tree, very much reminding herself of when she crawled through the rabbit hole. But of course, that time was just a dream. She then climbed down a ladder into what looked like a giant rabbit warren. As if there couldn't be any more similarities. She walked through the underground hallway, and she noticed that she was walking underneath a pond that was somehow on the ceiling.
"How curious," Alice said. "I've never seen a pond without a bottom before." There were some fish swimming around in the waters above.
After walking through the hallway, Alice was led to the main room of the hideout. There was a large bed, a hammock, and a small bed on a ledge in one corner of the room. In another corner, there was a pot hanging over a fireplace. Nearby was a table with seven short chairs. On the table were several empty bowls, plates, and pitchers.
"Welcome to our home, Alice," Peter said. The Lost Boys began arriving in the room one by one.
"This is our bed," Slightly said. "It's good for jumping on just as much as sleeping." He began jumping on the large bed to prove his point.
"Look! Look! This is our hammock, Alice," the Twins said as Meep pulled Jeep up into the hammock.
"Oh, I see. How very lovely," Alice said.
"This is where we keep our weapons for when we go huntin'," Cubby said, picking up his trusty club.
Slightly ran over to where Cubby was and picked up a device that looked like a slingshot stuck on the end of a crossbow. "Look, Alice, look! This is my Skullbuster! Isn't it neat? Huh? Huh?"
"Yes, very interesting," Alice said, though she was feeling completely overwhelmed at the moment. She changed the subject so some order could be reestablished, "Now, Peter, didn't you say we would have something to eat here?"
"Uh-huh, dinner's cooking in the pot right now," Peter said, leaning back in his chair at the table while playing his pan flute.
"Oh, how splendid!" Alice said. "What are we having? I assume it's something from your latest hunt?"
"Oh, no, we never kill any animals when we go hunting," Nibs said. "We just shoot sticks and rocks at them."
"Yeah, it's just for fun," Cubby said.
"Oh. Well, then, how do you explain the bear rugs?" Alice gestured to the multiple bear rugs in the den—several on the floor in the main room, and one hung up as a curtain in front of Peter's room.
"Oh, those?" Peter said. "They were given to us as gifts from the Indians. Most of the stuff we have in here was either given to us by the Indians or stolen from the pirates."
"I see," Alice said. "Well, in that case, if you don't hunt your food, then what is it we will be eating?"
"It depends. What do you want?" Peter asked.
"What do I want? I thought you said it was already cooking," Alice said. She walked over to the fireplace and saw the pot brewing over the fire with steam seeping out from underneath the lid. She lifted the lid; there was nothing but boiling water in the pot. "You lied!" she said, slamming the lid back down.
"I wasn't lying! You just don't know how these things work in Neverland," Peter said, getting up from his chair and walking toward Alice.
"Okay, then, explain to me. How do these things work in Neverland?"
"Well, you just gotta believe. Imagine whatever you want to eat, and if you believe hard enough, it'll actually appear."
"Do you honestly expect me to believe food will appear out of thin air if I just think about it hard enough?" Alice said.
"Well, not with that attitude, it won't," Peter said. "But come on, just try it."
"Okay, fine. I think I'll have… a nice, tasty beef stew," Alice said.
"Good! That's a good start!" Peter said. "Now think about it more. Really think about it. As if it's sitting in front of you right now. Picture it in your head."
"Juicy beef, with potatoes, carrots, peas… and a scrumptious, succulent broth." Alice sniffed the steam coming out of the pot. "I can smell it already!"
"Yep, it's as easy as that!" Peter said.
Alice lifted the lid and saw the perfect beef stew she had just been thinking about. "How marvelous! It's exactly the way I wanted it!"
"That's how we eat here in Neverland. Pretty great, huh?"
"Absolutely. It's the greatest thing I've ever seen," Alice said. "It certainly takes the burden off of cooking." She went to the table to go get an empty bowl, but when she looked, all the bowls and plates that were previously empty were now filled with a wonderful assortment of foods. There were corn cobs, loafs of bread, cake, chocolate pudding, and gelatin desserts. "Where did all this food come from?" Alice asked.
"That's the food we dreamt into existence," Slightly said as he took his seat at the table.
"Now that you've believed in the existence of your dream food, you can see and eat our dream food, too," Peter said.
"How wonderful!" Alice said. She grabbed eight empty bowls from a shelf and filled them all with beef stew. She brought the bowls to the table as the rest of the Lost Boys took their seats.
Before Alice was even able to seat herself, the boys began gorging themselves on the food. They grabbed pieces of the cake with their bare hands before shoving it in their mouths, and they slurped up the stew straight from the bowl, without spoons. Jeep reached out to grab a piece of the bread, but Slightly shoved his arm away and grabbed the bread for himself.
"Hey, keep your hands off me!" Jeep said as he shoved Slightly.
"Give me that corn cob, Nibs!" Cubby said.
"No, I saw it first!" Nibs slapped Cubby's hand away.
"That's my cup you're drinking from!" Meep said.
"No, it's mine!" Jeep said.
"No, I put my cup right here, then you took it!"
"That's where I always keep my cup!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!" The Twins began choking each other.
"Boys! Boys! That's enough! All of you!" Alice said. All the boys suddenly turned silent and stopped in their place. "Look at you all. You don't know the first thing about manners. First of all, you should use your utensils properly. I gave you all forks and spoons, so you should put them to good use. Second, there will be no hitting or shoving or other violence at the table. If you have a concern, rather than expressing it through violence, simply raise your hand and calmly tell me what is wrong, then I will deal with the matter myself. Understand?"
"Yes, mother," the Lost Boys said.
"Good. Now, let us enjoy our meal," Alice said. Slightly raised his hand. "Yes, Slightly? What is it?" Alice asked.
"I complain of Nibs. He's eating dessert before he finished his stew and corn."
Nibs then raised his hand. "Go on, Nibs," Alice said.
"I complain of Slightly. He's judging the way I eat."
Cubby then raised his hand. "I complain of Tootles. He just stole my bread!"
Tootles raised his hand in defiance, but since he didn't speak, he simply pointed at Cubby and pouted.
The Twins belched in unison.
"I complain of the Twins for burping at the table!" Slightly shouted as a piece of beef flew out of his mouth.
"We complain of Slightly for talking with his mouth full!" the Twins said.
"I complain of Nibs!"
"I complain of Cubby!"
"I complain of Tootles!"
Finally, Alice said, "I complain of all of you for being such beastly children! You should all be ashamed of yourselves for the way you've been acting. As your mother, I cannot allow such behavior." The Lost Boys sank in their seats and looked down at the ground in shame. "Peter, what do you think of all this?" Alice asked.
Peter was trying his best to hold back laughter. "I think this is the best the boys have ever behaved at the dinner table." He snickered.
"This is their best behavior? I shudder to think what they're normally like."
"We're sorry, Mother," the Twins said.
"Yeah, we deserve whatever punishment you give us," Cubby said.
"Punishment? Oh, no, I can't bear to do that," Alice said. "However, you can all help me clean the dishes."
"Nah, don't worry, Tink will clean the dishes for us," Peter said.
"Are you sure? Seems like an awful lot of work for such a tiny creature," Alice said.
"No, it's quite easy for her. Really. Come over here, Tink. Time to clean up."
Tinker Bell flew over to the table and sprinkled pixie dust over all the plates, bowls, cups, pitchers, and utensils. As the dust coated them, they were magically cleaned in an instant. Then, the dishes floated up to the shelf and neatly stacked themselves back into place.
"Oh, how magical! How fantastic! How wondrous!" Alice said, clapping. "I think I am going to like living here after all. Especially since you're all such great company."
"You mean you do like us?" Slightly asked.
"Of course I like you all."
"Even though you got mad at us?" the Twins said.
"I was frustrated in the moment, but I forgive you. A mother always forgives her children eventually. No matter what they've done. But you must promise me you'll at least try to be better behaved from now on."
"We promise," the Lost Boys said.
"Good. Now, I think it's time we all get ready for bed," Alice said.
The Lost Boys groaned. "But we're not even sleepy," Slightly said as he yawned.
"I quite think otherwise," Alice said. "Besides, bedtime means I'll be able to tell you a story!"
"Yay! A story!" the Lost Boys cheered. Alice settled in underneath the covers of the bed, and the Twins snuggled up to her, one on each side. Slightly, Cubby, and Nibs sat at the foot of the bed, and Tootles rested above in the hammock. Tinker Bell went into her little room inside a hole in a tree trunk, behind a leaf curtain.
"Peter, would you like to hear the story, too?" Alice asked.
"Depends. What's the story about?"
"Well… it's about a baby duckling and his mother."
"A story about a mother? No thanks," Peter scoffed as he walked off into his own room.
"Oh, dear," Alice said. "I didn't mean to upset him." She turned back to the Lost Boys. "Maybe I could ask you boys a question—if Peter doesn't like mothers… why did he bring me here?"
"I guess 'cause you're a kid," Nibs said. "I think he only has a problem with grown-up mothers."
"But why? What is it about grown-up mothers that bothers him?" The Lost Boys all looked at each other awkwardly. "Oh, fine. I can see you still don't want to tell me," Alice said. "But it seems like you boys have no problem with mothers."
"Yeah, 'cause we didn't leave our mothers on purpose," Slightly said. "We just got lost from them. But we miss having a mother around."
"Have you ever tried finding your parents again?" Alice asked.
"Yes," the Twins replied. "But we weren't able to find our old homes," Meep said. "Even with the help of Peter," Jeep said.
"They don't call us the Lost Boys for nothing," Nibs said. "We're not very good with directions."
"And our parents probably forgot about us by now," Cubby said.
"Now, I'm sure that's not true," Alice said. "A parent would never forget their child, even after years and years of not seeing them."
"Well, I sure don't remember what my mother looked like," Slightly said.
"Me neither," Cubby said.
"How peculiar that you've forgotten so much of your old life," Alice said. The Lost Boys shrugged. "Do you… like living here in Neverland?" Alice asked.
"Of course we do!" Slightly said.
"It just seems to me that you didn't have much of a choice in the matter. You got lost from your parents, then Peter brought you here."
"Yeah, but we're happy here," Nibs said.
"But you said that you missed having a mother."
"Yeah, well, that's the only part we miss," Cubby said. "But now you're here, so everything's fine!"
"You've never desired to leave Neverland and grow up?"
"One time we thought about it," Meep said.
"But when it came time for us to actually leave, we couldn't do it," Jeep said.
"We've spent so much time in Neverland that it was… just scary to leave," Slightly said.
"Yes, I understand that. Growing up is scary," Alice said. "So I suppose I don't blame you boys for never leaving this place. I just hope I can be a suitable mother to you. And if not, I hope I can at least be a good friend to you all."
"You've been a great mother so far," Jeep said.
"And a great friend," Meep said.
"Well, which one?" Alice said. "I can't be both your mother and your friend."
"Of course you can!" Slightly said. "You're our friend-mother! Our… frother? Hm. I'll have to work on that."
Alice and the other boys laughed. "If you say so," she said. "But do you think Peter likes me? Even though I'm acting as a mother?"
"Oh, yeah," Nibs said. "He wouldn't have asked you to come to Neverland at all if he didn't like you."
"Oh, I see. That's good, then. But I still don't get it. If he doesn't want a mother, why does he take interest in me?"
"Well, Peter gets like that with girls sometimes," Cubby said. "There was this girl before you named Wendy, and he acted the same way with her."
"Oh? And how's that?" Alice asked.
"We don't know," Slightly said, scratching his head. "He feels a certain way towards girls, but not like a mother, and not quite like a friend. It's something else."
"Oh… I think I know what he feels." Alice smiled.
"Can you tell us a story now?" the Twins asked.
Alice chuckled. "Sure. Now, as I was saying, this is a story about a duckling and his mother."
"What about the story of Cinderella?" Jeep said.
"Yeah, you said you knew it," Meep said.
"Would you like to hear about Cinderella instead?" Alice said.
"Yeah, tell us that one!" the boys said.
"All right. I suppose I'll save that other story for another time." Alice told them the story of Cinderella in a soft, soothing voice, and one by one, the Lost Boys drifted off to sleep, until finally Alice nodded off to sleep herself in that warm, cozy bearskin bed.
A/N: I hope you've been enjoying the story so far, even though we haven't even reached the main conflict yet! Just to let you guys know, it's going to take a bit longer for the next chapter to be posted, as I had pre-written these first four chapters, but I've yet to finish writing the fifth chapter. But it shouldn't take too long.
The scene where the imaginary food became real may remind many of you of a similar scene in the movie "Hook", however, the roots of that idea go all the way back to the original book. It describes in the book how Peter will have imaginary feasts, but that he'll actually get filled up on imaginary food as if it were real food, since he believes in make-believe so much. There was then a deleted scene from an early version of Disney's "Peter Pan" of Wendy witnessing the Lost Boys having an imaginary feast, but with sound effects, as if they were actually eating invisible food. And then of course there's that famous scene from "Hook" where the imaginary food becomes real once Peter starts believing again. All of those scenes acted as inspiration for the scene in this chapter, but I took the idea one step further so that it's not just imaginary food, but that they are able to conjure up real food using their imaginations, through the magic of Neverland.
Also, the moment where all the Lost Boys start complaining to Alice about each other is directly inspired by a scene from the book. In the book scene, Wendy tells the boys to settle their disputes at the table diplomatically by raising their hands and telling their complaints formally to Wendy. She does this in the hopes of bringing some order, but the boys end up abusing the "complaint system", and things turn into chaos once again. It was such a good scene that I've never seen in any adaptations of "Peter Pan", so once again, I really wanted to duplicate it here, with my own spin, of course.