Wendy's Storybook Letter

SUMMARY: Wendy goes home to find out from Manly Dan that her late mother left her something.

MAIN CHARACTERS: Wendy and Manly Dan Corduroy.

The school bell rang to end the school day and Wendy Corduroy immediately sprinted to her locker to gather whatever she needed for her assignments and went to run to her friends when she ran into her younger brother, John.

"Hey, Wendy," he groaned painfully as he rubbed his nose. Like Wendy and her other two brothers, John had the red hair and had freckles across his face. He had a bigger nose and he was getting facial hair above his lip. Most of his red hair was covering his eyes, which were a light green like her own, and covering his red hair was a knitted green cap. Due to the chilly fall weather he was wearing a dark green hoodies and jeans, his normally muddy brown boots going halfway up his calf. John was the oldest Corduroy boy, so he was only a year and half younger than Wendy, so he was sophomore in high school.

"John!?" Wendy gasped. "Hey, man, you know that I go hang out with my friends after school."

John rolls his eyes. "Yeah, that may be, but dad wants you home today since you don't work at the Mystery Shack or Soos' hardware store," he tells his older sister.

Wendy gives an annoyed groan. "Fine. Let me just go tell the others," she grumbles as she walks away.

"Hey, Wendy, what's the holdup?" Tambry asks her, the tan colored girl texting away on her phone while Robbie had an arm around her shoulders.

"Sorry guys," Wendy apologizes. "But apparently my dad wants me home since I don't work today."

Lee and Nate looked at each other and sighed with annoyance. Robbie gives a huff as Tambry continued texting.

"If you wanna hang later, just give us a call, okay Wendy?" Robbie tells her.

"Yeah, sure guys." Wendy replies as they turned and walked out of the school.

In a way Wendy wished she had to work at one of the shops today, she didn't really enjoy being at home much. At home she was the only girl, her mother passed away a few months after her youngest brother, Peter, was born. At her jobs though there was at least Mabel or Melody, so she did have some girly conversations. She still worked at the Mystery Shack a couple of times a week, if she didn't she felt that she would miss the twins and even the twin Mr. Pines' too much, she enjoyed their company and they were like extended family. Wendy went and worked at the hardware store that Soos and Melody ran since she started to miss Soos' company while working at the Shack, and again he was like extended family.

Wendy then leaves the high school, John walking next to her in sync. They then walked to the middle school and got their brother Michael, or Mikey they called him, who as well had red hair and freckles. Like their father, Manly Dan, he had a longer face, and unlike the two other brothers his hair was neater looking. Afterwards they went to the elementary school where the youngest, Peter attended, who had bowl haircut since Manly Dan got impatient with him at the barbers.

The four Corduroy siblings walked to their cabin house that was in the middle of the woods, the younger boys play fighting with each other as they walked. According to Manly Dan he had built the house himself when he and their mother first got married and were expecting Wendy, and since he was a lumberjack like other members of his family he knew how to make a nice home. The home had four rooms, one was Wendy's since she was the only girl, John's because he was eldest boy and there was an age gap between him and Mikey, the one room Mikey and Peter shared, and the final room was Manly Dan's.

Stepping inside the house Wendy knew it would be a mess, it always was. When she was younger she did help clean and cook with her mother, but after she had passed Wendy gave up as she couldn't keep up with her father and brothers' continuous messes. The floor was covered with wood shavings and various flannel clothing, and a few axes were randomly around the house, a few actually in the wooden walls.

"Oh, boy…" Wendy grumbled as the three boys ran into the house and immediately went to jump onto the couch to watch TV. As she walked pass them to get to the kitchen, Manly Dan comes in from the back door. "Hey, Dad." Wendy greets as she gets herself a glass of milk.

"Wendy, you actually came home!" Manly Dan bellowed in his naturally deep voice.

"John said you wanted me home," she exasperates.

"Yeah… and there is a reason," Manly Dan told her. He then gestures her to follow him, and she complies. He takes her into him room, which surprisingly was the cleanest in the house, not even Wendy's room was cleaned.

The room had a moss green wall, the border around the ceiling a continuous rose vine, with small rose flowers of different colors sprouting from it. There was a king sized bed, the bedspread a dull blue with a floral pattern, it all looking neat as the pillows leaned against the oak wood headboard. In the corner was a dresser and vanity, a round mirror accented with a silver attached to it, it looking very neat and proper. In the opposite corner was tall oak dresser, pictures of the kids and the scenery sitting atop.

It looked like her mother never even left…

"Whoa, Dad," Wendy gasps. "I didn't know you kept Mom's decorations."

The lumberjack gives a sad shrug. "In a way it makes me feel like she's still here, ya know?" he sadly say, him giving his daughter a sad smile. "You look just like your mom, ya know that?"

Wendy did know that. A lot of the older residents of Gravity Falls often told her that she looked like her late mother. She gives her father a nod.

Manly Dan went to the vanity that was in the corner and pulled out an old, tattered book from a drawer. He then sits on the corner of the bed, it creaking underneath his weight, and he pats next to him for Wendy to sit next to him. She goes and sits by him, the bed making a soft creak from her weight. In Manly Dan's massive hands was a leather bound story book titled Peter Pan.

"You mom really loved this book…" Manly Dan barely whispered. "When she found out she was pregnant with you she would read this every night aloud for you to hear… She always wanted a little girl to name 'Wendy'. Even after you were born she would read to you this story… and she always said that she could've sworn that you smiled when she did, like you recognized it. And of course with our brothers she decided to name them after the characters too.

The character Wendy in the book was the elder sister, often looking after her younger brothers, John and Michael. But one day she was told that she had to leave the nursery and get her own room so she could grow up and stop telling the story of Peter Pan. That night Peter Pan came to their home and whisked the three away to Neverland, where no one ever grew up.

Wendy smiled, remembering her mother's voice as she read the pages of the book. Her mother would try to do different voices for each character, her pirate voice for Captain Hook being the worse of them all, but it always made Wendy smile brightly.

"You're growing up…" Manly Dan murmured, his voice tight. "A little too fast in my opinion… You're going to graduate high school, move out of Gravity Falls to go to college, meet a nice guy, and eventually start a family of your own…" He then hands the tattered book to Wendy. "And I know your mother wanted to give you this…"

As Wendy held the book in her hands, it then suddenly feeling like it weight a million pounds, all the memories flooding back. Her mother would read to all the children the story, and each time a new baby was on the way Wendy would sit next to her mother with a hand on the massive pregnant belly to listen to the story and pipe in her small voice for the parts she had memorized.

Then one night her mother didn't read the story…

She got sick, very sick, to the point where she couldn't stay home anymore and had to be at the hospital most of the time. The doctors said he had breast cancer, but they caught it too late and it spread to the other major parts of her body. Wendy would try to clean the house and make dinner, but to her it was never as good as her mother's. And when her mother did come home, she was so happy, but then she immediately became sad again as her mother was still sick.

Her mother had no longer wanted to be in the hospital, but instead wanted to be home with her family until she passed.

One night Wendy had went to her parents' room and grabbed the book, and as her mother lied weakly in the bed Wendy would read the story, her doing the funny voices and all. It had warmed her heart to see her mother smile at her, even if it was pained and weak looking, so she would do it every night just to see her mother smile. But on the final night, her mother said something to her that confused the young Wendy at the time.

"Soon Peter Pan will come and guide my shadow to Neverland," she had told Wendy.

"But why, Mommy?" Wendy has asked her sadly.

"So I can live in the second star to the right… to watch you and your brothers every night," she had barely whispered. "And one day I will greet your father and all of you with open arms, and together we will all fly as a family in Neverland." She had then let Wendy snuggle up with her on the bed, her reading the book in a hoarse voice.

It was the last time she read to Wendy.

It was the last time she read at all.

That morning Peter Pan had come and took her mother's shadow to Neverland.

"She… wanted me to have it, Dad?" Wendy finally asked her father in disbelief. Her hands went over the now worn and dull golden letters that read Peter Pan.

"She wrote in one of the blank pages for you, Wendy," Manly Dan told her. "Read it."

Wendy opened the book, it stiff from not being opened in so long. The pages were yellow with age, it smelling dusty like a library. At the very end of the book, with its random blank pages, was a hand written note in her mother's handwriting.

"To my dearest Wendy," the letter began. "Like I told you before, soon Peter Pan will take my shadow to Neverland, I can feel it. I won't be around to watch you grow up into a beautiful young woman, to see you on your first date, or be at your wedding, or hold my first grandchild from you… It pains me to think that my shadow will be in Neverland and not with you and your brothers. But I know that one day you will read this book to your own children, and I hope that they would read it to theirs.

"I don't think I ever told you why I loved this book… When I was little, I never wanted to grow up, I wanted to go to Neverland with Peter Pan and be with him and never grow old. I didn't want to get older, to go high school or college, and I never wanted to get married. But then… one day I realized… I did want to be called mom, everyone needs a mom like the Lost Boys did… The book isn't just some fairytale about never wanting to grow up, it's a story about how you do have to grow up, but that doesn't mean you have to give up the things you love in life.

"I named you Wendy because I wanted you to grow up loving life. To grow up and be your great individual person. You're going to be making so many friends, I just know it, and some in unexpected places… After all, we do live in Gravity Falls, Oregon…

"So my dear Wendy Lillian, I wish you all the love and luck I can offer, because one day you will learn that you don't need to go to Neverland to be happy… you just need your friends and your family at your side. And with them… you can fly anywhere.

"This isn't goodbye, my dear Wendy Lillian… we will see each other again for when you do come to Neverland after leaving your mark on the world. No matter where I am… whether it be in Pixie Hallow, Captain Hook's Ship, or swimming with the Mermaids, I will always love you, John, Michael, Peter, and your father with all my heart, and I could never forget you.

"Grow up and fulfilling life, Wendy, and one day you can tell me all about it when we fly in Neverland.

"Love, Mom."

Tears slowly dripped from Wendy's face, her fingers tracing over the elegant writing that was her mother's. After her mother died she never read Peter Pan again, or watched the various films of it. It was like she couldn't handle it, making her heart ache and wanting her mother.

"Wendy…?" Manly Dan soothingly questions, putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Are you alright…?"

"I… I never knew she felt that way…" Wendy cried gently. She then wipes the tears and gives a smile. "But she was right… I did make unexpected friends, like Dipper and Mabel, Soos, and even Mr. Pines… both of them. And I am growing up, even if I don't like it, I am… and she wants me to be happy while doing it." The young redhead then gets up from the bed, the book tightly gripped in her hands. "I think it's time to tell a story…"

Wendy leaves the room and goes into the living room, seeing the boys wrestle each other. She gives a sharp whistle, them stopping in their tracks and looking up at her. John's eyes widens when he sees the book in her hands, him just barely remembering how that book was read to them every night. John then sits up on the couch, letting Peter fall onto the cushion. Wendy then takes a seat next to her brothers, her in the middle, and she opens the book to the very first page. Her brothers surrounded her, their wisps of memory remembering how their mother would read to them.

The girl then clears her throat and begins the story, "All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this…" Her voice flawless read the words, her remembering fully how her mother would read it.

And so the four Corduroy siblings sat on the couch, the boys hearing their elder sister reading in the same funny voices their mother would. Manly Dan stood in the doorway of his room, hearing his daughter read to his sons, and he couldn't help but think that she was indeed growing up into fine young woman as she continued to read.

"One day when she was two years old…"

A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you survived the FELLS TRAIN! I always headcanoned that Wendy was named after the "Peter Pan" story, and even though we never got official names for her brothers I headcanoned them to be named after the "Peter Pan" characters too.

"Peter Pan" is written by J.M. Barrie, and these were excerpts from the first chapter.

Thank you for reading as always!

~Skye Hendersen~