Grounded - Peter Pan After Neverland

Chapter 1 - No looking back

Wendy Moira Angela Darling awoke abruptly to the horrible, sharp ringing of her alarm clock, alerting her that today was mildly more important than the other days in her life. Today Wendy was moving out of her home and moving into a house with her best and only friend Eliza. Eliza's parents owned a chain of fancy cake stores and Wendy was going to work in one of them, to pay rent to Eliza and to actually do something with her life.

Even though the day was quite important, Wendy didn't get out of bed straight away. She lay there, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember the name of the boy.

“So it wasn't the cold,” Wendy muttered to herself. “He really is gone.”

This year, Wendy had turned seventeen and her hair had reached down to her elbows. Wendy wasn't short, but she wasn't ridiculously tall either. You could say that she had the perfect height, but being a seventeen year old girl, nothing ever felt perfect to her. Her size was pleasantly petite and her skin was perfectly porcelain. Wendy was a beautiful girl, no matter how hard you looked for imperfections. She wasn't proud of much, but if she had to be proud of something it would be her wrists. She liked waking up in the morning and just looking at them, all thin and delicate. You see, Wendy enjoyed the little things in life, which was turning out amazingly for her. She had no wish to see the world, no desire to learn another language and not a single thought of getting married. She may have grown up, but certain things hadn't changed. Oh yes, Wendy Darling was living and loving the simple life.

Wendy stretched her arms and smiled at her wrists before getting up and starting her morning routine. She brushed her long, dark brown hair twice and styled it into a delicate twisted bun at the back of her head. When her hair had first started turning brown, she had been devastated, but now she thought that it suited her quite well. She went to her wardrobe and picked out the only unpacked outfit, a long black dress and a dark red velvet overcoat. She also picked out a light red hat with feathers on the side. Wendy looked into the mirror and sighed. She admitted that she looked a little depressing in the black, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Nobody ever looked at her anyway.

She brushed her skirt with her hand and proudly smiled. She was finally moving out and really starting her own life.

Wendy glanced over at all of her bags ready to be taken to her new place and sighed. Sure, she was excited, but she was still a little sad about leaving her family here. She was happy however, about leaving the memories behind. Wendy smiled as she walked towards her door. Finally she was going to be able to forget.

Wendy walked into the middle of the hallway and stopped. She closed her eyes and traced her fingers on the wall, listening and taking in all of the things that she would miss: the vibrant floral wallpaper that mother had always loved, the strong smell of her father's shoe polish, the subtle smell of burning from John's experiments that wafted from his room and the sound of Michael and the dogs running through the house.

Wendy's eyes opened and she found herself staring at the door to her old nursery. The wallpaper slowly faded as it approached the door, eventually ending in a dusty brown colour. Wendy hadn't visited the nursery for years, and she hadn't wanted to. She wished to move on with her life and forget everything that had happened. However, that day she had decided that she was going in. She would never get to see it again, seeing as her mother was changing the room into a study for John. Wendy had seen her going in there recently and leaving with toys and bedding in her hands. There couldn't be much left in there and one final look wouldn't hurt, would it?

The nursery didn't have a lock, but Mrs Darling knew that no one would go into that room. Not after The Treatment. At some points, Mrs Darling barred the door with chairs and tables, but that was only when Wendy began to ask questions. Wendy had not asked questions for a very long time, which made Mrs Darling just a little more relaxed about security.