Cherry and Peter vs Hook

chapter 7

In Hook's ship, Jack, Maggie, and Felicity are in school desks while Hook comes before them with a blackboard and a piece of chalk. He may as well keep his hostages busy until Cherry and Peter return for their revenge battle after what felt like an eternity.

"Now, pay attention, class," Hook spoke up like a legitimate teacher. "We have a lot to go over. Lesson One: Why parents hate their children."

The children stared blankly at him.

"Anyone?" Hook smiled at them, trying to get them on his side.

Felicity didn't respond, but it made her think of her parents. Her father often spent most of his time in his room while her mother would be off on a random trip. She would take weeks to get home, sometimes even months. It made her feel like a neglected child, but she does love her parents and not even a thieving pirate will change her mind.
Maggie turned to her older brother. "Doesn't Mommy read to us every night?"

Hook then suddenly stabbed her desk, making the girl jolt in surprise. "You, the cute little urchin in the front row. Won't you share your thoughts with the whole class?"

"Yes," Maggie stated bravely. "I said 'Mommy reads to me and Jack every night'. Because she loves us very much."

"Loves you?" Hook scoffed. "Isn't that the...uhh..."

Smee whispered something to him to help back up his response.

"Oh, yes," Hook turned back to the youngest child in the room. "No, child. I think your mother reads to you every night in order to stupefy you to sleep so she and Daddy can sit down for three measly minutes without you and your mindless inexhaustible, unstoppable, repetitive, and nagging demands! 'He took my toy,' 'She hit my bear', 'I wanna potty', 'I want a cookie,' 'I want to stay up!' 'I want, I want, I want', 'me, me, me, me', 'mine, mine, mine, mine', 'now, now, now'! Can you understand, child?" he gave a sickly grin to Maggie about her parents loving her and told her what her parents might really think of her. "They tell you stories to shut you up."

"And conk you out." Smee added.

"That is not true!" Felicity protested.

Hook turned to her. "When was the last time your parents did anything for you? Your mother travels halfway around the world to get away from your whining, your father spends a lot of time alone, your parents don't even know anything about you!"

Felicity's eyes stung with tears, but she did well to hide her emotional stomach ache she was forming.

"That's not true, guys." Maggie tried to comfort her brother and new-found friend. She turned to Hook with sheer anger. "You're a liar!"

"Lie? Me?" Hook mocked her with a dark chuckle. "Never! The truth is far too much fun."

"Stop it right now!" Felicity slammed her fists on her desk.

Hook kept laughing and made his way to the girls. "Oh, my children, before you were born your parents would stay up all night together just to see the sun rise. Don't be frightened, Maggie, before you were born, they were happier. Felicity, before you were born, your mother was even happier. They were free."

Maggie shook her head, resisting the need to cry. "You're a bad man..." she whispered in sadness.

"Smee, flunk the maggot." Hook demanded.

"Abso-flogging-lutely." Smee wrote a big F on a blank sheet of paper.

"An 'F'!?" Maggie took the paper in dismay. "He gave me an F!"

Felicity nearly cried. Her mother was never there for her to see her really grow up. For the first seven years of her life, Felicity never knew her mother. She always thought Cherry was dead, whenever she would ask her father about her, he would even say a few words or quickly change the subject like he was ashamed of something. He even told her that when she was a baby, Cherry abandoned her into his care and never came back for them, until he found a way to reunite with her.

Felicity was starting to think maybe Hook was right and found herself crying on her desk. Felicity even wonders if Cherry is even her real mother because of how neglectful she is. One of the last things Felicity remembered last about living in Adam and Belle's castle was that Belle often saw Forte to give him comfort and even wound up sleeping with him.

After that, it was time for the new Forte family to go home, and Cherry mentioned Belle had an unfortunate accident the night before. Cherry was holding her wedding anniversary blade, stained with dried inky black and crimson blood, presumably and highly likely from Belle since the woman was found dead in her bedroom sometime after they left.

"Jack..." Hook went to taunt the boy now. "Your father went to your sister's school play, did he not? But, did he go to your baseball game?"

Jack was shocked and his face even paled. "How did you know about that?"

"He missed the most important game on what might have been the most important day of your young life."

Maggie finally had enough of Hook's words. She hopped up from her desk and grabbed onto the man's hook. "I wanna tear your hook off! I hate you, Mr. Hook!"

Hook laughed wickedly as the girl tugged on him. "What'd I tell you, Smee? No little children love me."

"Of course they do," Smee replied, grabbing Maggie in his arm to take her away. "Come in here, you're depressing the Captain. You too, pigtails."

Felicity wiped her eye, then went to be taken away anyway.

"Jack, you listen to me," Maggie looked back at her brother. "Never let him make you forget. Never forget Mommy and Daddy. Think of a way to run home! Run home, Jack!"

"Run home?" Jack echoed, watching the girls be taken away.

"Jack," Hook crept up behind the boy and held his shining hook in front of his face. "You are home...Right?" he laughed even darker as the sun went down and another day had passed.

Back at the Lost Boy's hideout, Cherry was fixing up a fire while Peter was groaning and moaning from today's hectic training. Cherry then came with the boys as a dinner had been cooked and ready for them all to settle down and eat. Peter was nearly starting to look like his old self when he was old Peter Pan. Peter took out a fork and knife, ready to eat.

"No, no, no, we don't use them." a boy corrected him for his use of silverware.

"Why have them?" Peter wondered.

"We have them so we don't have to use them." the boy shrugged.

Cherry rolled her eyes a bit, but didn't say anything.

Rufio came to the table. Everyone tried to scoot and give him some room. He put his hands together. "Everyone say grace." he demanded.

Peter was about to make a prayer.

"Grace!" the boys yelled, then they were allowed to eat.

Cherry tried to get what she could from the boys. Peter looked around him, but once the dishes were revealed. There wasn't any food. They were all eating air somehow and acted like it was real food. Cherry didn't really do anything with the Lost Boys as they ate with no concern or manners. She looked at Peter, hoping this would probably jog his memory or something with his endless childhood memories of Neverland. Peter started to pretend to eat like the others so he wouldn't seem out-of-place. Cherry never really ate much anymore before due to her being bitten by Forte and she found she didn't need to eat to survive.

"Are you eating that?" the chubby boy asked, pointing to the empty plate in front of Peter.

Peter wasn't sure what to say, but he happily gave the boy his plate. He then turned to Cherry and Tinker Bell. "Where's the real food?"

"If you can't imagine yourself being Peter Pan you won't be Peter Pan, so eat up!" Tinker Bell said.

"Eat what? There's nothing here. Gandhi ate more than this!"

"This used to be your favorite game."

"Forget the games, I want steak, eggs..."

"You can't." Rufio told him. "Eat your heart out, you crinkled, wrinkled, fat bag!"

"You're a very ill-mannered, young man!" Peter scolded.

"Slug-eating worm!"

"You can do better than that." Cherry nudged his shoulder.

Peter looked at the fairy and immortal young adult woman. "You're encouraging this?"

"Show me your fastball, dust brain." Rufio scoffed at Peter.

"You're a very bad role model for these kids, you know that?" Peter glared at him, while the other boys watched in silence. "I bet you don't have a fourth grade reading level."

"Hemorrhoidal suck naval." one of the boys teased.

"Maybe fifth grade." Peter added to his insult to injury.

"Oil dripping, beef fart sniffing, bubble butt!" Rufio lashed out.

"Someone has a severe caca mouth! You know that?"

"You are a fart factory, slug slimed, sack of rat guts in cat vomit, cheesy, scab picked, pimple squeezing, finger bandage. A week old maggot burger with everything on it, and flies on the side!"

A lot of the boys found that insult more disgusting than feeling hurting. Some of them even threw up.

Peter stood tall, glaring at the boy. "Substitute chemistry teacher."

"Come on, Rufio, hit him back." a boy whispered.

Rufio tried his best to make up a comeback. "Mung tongue."

"Math tutor." Peter said, plainly.

"Pinhead."

"Prison barber."

"Mother lover."

"Near-sighted gynecologist."

"In your face, camel cake!"

"In your rear, cow derriere."

"Lying, crying, spying, prying, ultra-pig!"

"Lewd, crude, bag of pre-chewed food, dude."

"Bangerang, Peter!" the chubby boy cheered.

The other boys cheered for him. Rufio didn't like it though. He looked really weak now that no one was on his side. "You man! Stupid, stupid man!"

"If I'm a maggot burger, why don't you eat me?" Peter taunted, feeling the victory. "You, two-toned, zebra-headed, slime-coated, pimple-farming, paramecium brain munching on your own mucus suffering from Peter Pan envy!"

"What's a paramecium brain?" one of the boys asked.

"I'll tell you what it means! That's a paramecium!" Peter pointed directly at Rufio. "It's one-called critter with no brain that can't fly! Don't mess with me, man! I'm a lawyer!" he sat down in victory.

"Banning! Banning! Banning!" the other boys cheered with Rufio now in defeat.

Rufio tried to cheer for himself, but no one would go for it. Peter was declared the winner with no doubt.

Peter even celebrated by scooping himself some fake food. "Oh, Rufio, why don't you just go suck on a dead dog's nose?" he then flicked the spoon which had nothing on it, but it flung a blue and red spot on Rufio's nose. Peter had no idea how that could have happened, but he looked in surprise to see there was no visible food.

"You've done it," Cherry told him.

"Doing what?" Peter asked.

"Using your imagination, Peter."

Peter had indeed. Once he was told that, he looked all around and saw the food among them. It had been there all along, he just never saw it before when he was thinking like a grown-up. The boys were happy because now Peter could be like them and he knew he could enjoy the food now. Cherry still didn't eat, she could see it all along, even before Peter, she just never really ate that much since food isn't a necessity for her anymore. The boys then had a food fight with each other. Cherry stood up and got away to take a giant turkey leg to cook over the fire.

"Hey, Pan the man, catch this!" Rufio flung a coconut to knock down Peter as the boys threw cake at him.

"Peter, look out!" a boy cried, throwing a sword for him.

Peter caught it and sliced the coconut in half with the milk squirting out. The boys, Cherry, and Tinker Bell were all very surprised by his amazing feat. Peter even suddenly unleashed a random rooster crow.

"Bangerang..." Cherry whispered, then viciously devoured the meat off the turkey leg she got with the blood dripping out.


Later that night, Cherry was getting settled for some rest. Peter was about to join her, but one of the boys wanted to talk to him in private. There was suddenly distant singing which caught everyone's attention. Cherry came to the chubby boy Thud and Peter who was now holding a bag of marbles marked 'Tootles' while the singing went on.

"What is that?" Cherry asked.

Peter shushed her and looked beyond where the singing was coming from. "Listen."

The singing was very harmonious and delicate. Even for a little girl like Maggie to be singing it. It was almost like a lullaby. Cherry and Peter decided to turn in for the night as it was getting very dark. Cherry made up a bed away from Peter while the Lost Boys blew out their lights and went to sleep.

"GOOD NIGHT, NEVERLAND!" a boy screamed.

Everyone went to sleep after a long day.