An awful, muddled smell permeated the air around me. It stuck like glue in my windpipes and stung my eyes like that little unfortunate drop of shampoo you missed while in the shower. I coughed and sputtered awake, my chest feeling uncomfortably tight. A tight hand on my shoulder hardly got my attention, and I could very faintly make out the sound of someone's voice. What was I even doing here? Where even was I?
In my disorientation, I completely forgot to open my eyes. Once I realized this, I snapped them open with newfound energy. My eyes met the soft-looking dirt that I had very nearly buried my whole face into. My confusion continued, but I could finally make out the voice I'd been hearing.
"Melinda Jean Morano, get off your goddamn ass and look at me," Seethed Jacky, her bulky nails coming dangerously close to piercing through my shoulder. I slowly rolled over, relieving my nostrils of the potently-scented soot I was lying on.
After a moment of trying to find my voice again, I croaked out a few words, "Jacky, how drunk was I last night? You know I hate camping, right?"
"We're not camping, you fucking maroon. We're in Neverland."
The information woke me up like a bucket of freezing water to the face. I sprang – more like wobbled hastily – to my feet, nearly toppling over from the sudden dizziness. With tired, disoriented eyes, I tried to take in my surroundings to the best of my abilities. Instead of freaky woodland creatures running rampant through the island, I got… Trees. The expected monstrous kidnappers I figured we'd run straight into – which would've been just my luck – were replaced by… Trees. Thickly forested was Neverland, so much so that you could barely see the sunlight that spilt through the canopy.
The only thing I didn't especially expect was to be overwhelmed by foliage. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. "Why didn't you wake me up, Jacqueline something-rather Brown?" I spat in exasperation, trying my best not to wake the whole island by screaming at her.
Jacky threw up her hands in exasperation, groaning to herself, "I did try, Mel. I nearly threw you into the river, but I wasn't sure if you'd survive that. You fell out of the sky, dumbass. You'd probably be dead if I didn't swoop in like Spiderman to save your stupid life!"
While I could hardly remember the flight here at this point, it was extremely embarrassing to have plummeted out of the sky like a bird who'd just hit a window. The ink that gained us the ability to fly over here was said to contain 'the blood of a pheonix'. I thought it was a bullshit story, but who was I to judge? Your friends and family being dragged off to another realm via detached shadow was a bullshit story. Hell, Steven spent a whole year trying to find someone who could give us even the slightest clue as to how to make it here, I wasn't about to give up when we hit a suspicious roadblock. Unfortunately, it was a one-way trip. We could very well save Cole, Georgie, and anyone else we lost, but we still wouldn't have a way home.
I clammed up at her words, having been put in my place. It probably wasn't the best of ideas to immediately blame my friend, but I wasn't in the 'best of ideas' kind of mood right now. "… I'm sorry…"
Jacky slowly raised an eyebrow at me, looking extremely unimpressed with my apology. "That's it? That's all I get?" I shrugged slightly, trying my best to make myself look small. An angry Jacky was the worst kind of Jacky. She sighed, the aggravation seemingly increased gravity as she looked slightly more sunken than beforehand. "You so owe me, you whore." I'll keep that in mind, hun.
We started off on our way, trekking through the vast amounts of forest that existed on this so-called imaginary island we'd – somewhat literally – crash landed on. As far as I could tell, it was just a big mass of um, trees and dirt. That should be kind of natural, considering we're on a technology-lacking island of kids who may very well not know what a light bulb is. I'd never really been too fond of nature, actually. There was too much pollen, litter, and people outside for me to spend a whole lot of time enjoying the greenery. I was pretty much forced leave the house when I started working with Steven, but beforehand, all training I got was at my own house. The only incentive I had to stare at all these God-forsaken, mindless oxygen factories was that I may eventually find Cole and Georgie. I can pretty confidently identify a lot of plants, though. Look, over there – poison ivy. Great – fun.
After hours on end – or at least what felt like hours on end – we were starting to get really restless. By 'starting', I mean we'd gotten tired of this dense forest about an hour after we'd initially started walking. My feet were probably bleeding, Jacky had decided against her better judgment to take off her shoes and start walking around, and we were both starving. Things were looking up for us. No, really, I think the maggots are just waiting for us to keel over and die. I wouldn't be surprised if we had a stroke – we were looking pretty damn pathetic.
"That's it…" Jacky forced out, throwing her knapsack down, "I'm done. I can't go any longer." She plopped onto the dirt, quickly carving out a small indentation to sit in. In all honesty, I couldn't agree more. This felt like a battle of wills between us, really. For once, I was the one winning.
I slowly placed myself next to her, lying on my back to rest. For a good amount of time, we were silent. The two of us exchanged very few words as we gazed up at the stars. Neverland – at the time – wasn't too bad. Besides being rather vastly unpopulated and heavily forested, it was peaceful. At least, much more peaceful than I thought it was going to be. Jacky seemed to agree, deciding to kick back as well, wiping the sweat from her brow as she propped up her hoodie for a makeshift pillow.
A small smile crossed my lips, and I murmured to my friend, "Hey… You still awake?"
"… This isn't a sleepover, you know. We're in the middle of the woods," She laughed half-heartedly, starting to doze off.
True. "Ya' know… It's after 12:00 AM… I turn 18 today, and I almost forgot… Again…" I rolled my eyes inwardly, hardly shocked that I'd forgotten myself for the umpteenth time. It had been happening since I was 14, and my parents had quickly stopped reminding me after Cole had vanished.
"Tch, good for you, loser. Now it's legal that you moved out of your parents' house… Too bad that governmental jurisdiction doesn't apply here," She droned, taking a swig of water from her canteen.
Feeling my eyes droop closed, I fought to maintain consciousness as the dispersing scent of lavender lulled me to sleep. I'm sure I shared these misgivings with most other people, but I really didn't feel any older than I did yesterday.
"I don't mind it, I don't mind if you're overrated, or if you're staring at the edge of the world. Keep in mind that I'm a sore eye with blurry vision. Now you can see that it has to be your love that I've been dreaming of. And if we climb this high, I swear we'll never die." – Of Mice and Men: My Understandings
AN: Lots of exposition, sorry. I don't like this one… At all… Tomorrow's chapter will be action-y. Probably. Thanks to Lady Cocoa for her review (on the chapter I may or may not have posted, like, an hour ago). Au revoir~