Breaking The Rules

Chapter 45: The Trees

Yo people of Wattpad, reading time.

Wendy POV 

I didn't know what was going to happen once Nick and I got to camp. I had a feeling Pan was off to his thinking tree, that being the direction he was walking when he left me broken and scarred in more ways than one. 

I ended up convening Nick that I could, in deed, walk on my own and there was no need in carrying my bruised body, though he did keep a close eye on me. 

I've come to the conclusion that I, unlike the others, was never granted the gift of forgetting. After long on Neverland you start to forget your old life, no not the memories, but the feeling in which they give you. 

You forget the way it feels when your mother smiles proudly at you, or how sad it made you feel when a sibling cried. You forget the way it felt when your crush smiles at you, or when they reject you. The feeling of your old life was nonexistent, but the feeling you create on Neverland lasted on forever as you did.

As we walked in silence I wondered if Pan had ever felt those same feeling for Rumple or the woman that mothered him. If he ever smiled proudly at his son or if his stomach ever fluttered when she kissed him. 

And if so why would he ever leave them. But then I remembered something, Peter Pan doesn't love neither will he ever. Maybe the he had been hurt so badly to the point of returning. If had just went numb, because when you get hurt you're vulnerable, and the Peter Pan that I know is not vulnerable in any way. He has no weakness and nor will he ever.

I turned my head and noticed something. It was the path to my thinking tree. "Lets go this way." I said quietly. Nick looked confused for a second but followed as I walked on. I spread my arms out and touched ever leaf and branch. I kept my eyes closed. I remember the path like it was the back of my hand.

"Come on Wendy!" Johnson yelled as he pulled me along through the jungle.

"I'm coming as fast as I can!" I yelled through the giggles. H giggled back and flashed his teeth at me. He said he had a surprise for me, and I didn't ask questions.

Suddenly he stopped in a small clearing. "Okay, close your eyes." He said in a hush tone. I nodded and closed my eyes, feeling as Johnson's hand left mine.

I waited a few moments and then heard his voice boom. "Open!" He yelled exited.

I opened my lids and  saw Johnson standing next to a large tree, presenting it to me with his hands. "A tree?" I said with an eyebrow raised.

"Not just any tree! A thinking tree, your thinking tree." He said with a proud smile.

He noticed I still had a confused look on my face and sighed. "A thinking tree is a private place where a person comes to think and get all things off their mind. Most of the lost boys have one, even Pan. Its kind of tradition." He explained. I nodded.

"Oh, how lovely Johnson,  but why did you get me a thinking tree?" I asked as I walked towards the tree.

He looked up as he thought. "Well, I noticed how you sure did think a lot back at camp, and I thought you'd like somewhere private to think, you know because, girls are real private." He shrugged. I giggled.

"Well thank you." I said messing up his hair as I often did.

"You have to carve your initials into the tree so other people don't take it, here." He handed me his dagger. I took it and carved W.D into the wood. "There." I whispered to myself.

"Come on, lets get back to camp." He said waving for me to walk.

"Wait, do you have a thinking tree Johnson?" I asked. He shook his head, his mess of brown hair covering his forehead.

"Well come on, you need one now." I said with a smile. I looked around and found a tree right across from mine. "That one." I pointed to it. It was just as big as mine and it was cover in beautiful green vines.

"Knife." He demanded with hand out. I handed him the handle and he carved his initials into the wood. J.L

"J.L, huh?"  I raised an eyebrow playfully. "Johnson Levonie." He said walking back down the path we had created from our run.

"Do you miss your family?"  I asked suddenly. It kind of sounded like a forbidden question on Neverland. No one ever talked about their old lives, and no one asked. He looked up at me, a hint of sadness in his eyes but looked back down to his shuffling feet.

"No. I mean, I know that I'm supposed to, and some part of me wants to, but I just don't. I can't . And its not like I don't remember my mother of father, or little brother, its just I don't remember ever loving them, or them loving me. They're like a whisper in the back of my mind. Barely heard and barely know. So I don't even try to miss them."

I put my arm around his shoulders and we just walked back to camp without talk. 

When I opened my eyes I saw the two trees. Mine alive with blooming pink flowers, the other cut down and rotting.

I looked at it horrified. "What happened?" I whispered as I walked to the once beautiful tree. "What do you mean?" Nick asked. "This-this tree here, it used to be a boys. A boy who I loved greatly. What happened to it." I looked at it in disbelief.

"Is he dead Wendy?" Nick asked carefully with a hand on my shoulder. I nodded slowly.

"Pan demands that when a boy dies we must destroy any belonging of them. So they must be forgotten." He said solemnly. I turned around quickly in anger.

"That's bullshit! Why is my tree still up and alive!" I yell pointing to my tree. Nick went pale.

"We tried to cut it down Wendy." He said looking at me. I looked at him in confusion.

"What?" I whispered as it seemed the island suddenly went silent.

"It kept growing back." He gripped both my shoulders.

I feel like I'm depriving you all of Pan, wahahahahah!