Nova woke up that day to the sound of screaming. She sat up with a start, and immediately her heart rate sped up at what she saw.
She was on the shore of an island. The ocean water around her sparkled as though it had been infused with glitter, but a sizeable pirate ship that sailed just off shore had a large dark cloud looming over it, which seemed to cease the shining of the crystal blue waves completely. She immediately scurried backwards up the beach as fast as she could, as she was still crouching rather than standing and all her limbs ached. Upon further inspection, she could see pirates working up on the deck. Had her sheer confusion not been more prominent than her fear, Nova would have been scared out of her mind. After all, she had no idea how she got to be on this island. All she remembered was mopping the stage in the theatre after the last showing of her high school's production, Peter and the Starcatcher. Suddenly, on of the painted arcs dropped, and she heard someone yell 'heads'!
But she hadn't moved fast enough. She felt partial impact, felt the thud of the stage beneath her, but then Nova blacked out.
Nova began to panic. Where was she? The island looked eerily like what she imagined Peter's island to look like in her school play. It all felt so real, but things like losing consciousness only to wake up in a world that you've dreamt about before only happened in movies- like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. However, Nova couldn't think of any other explanation besides the possibility that she was now in Peter Pan's world, no matter how unreal and unconsciousness-induced it may be. The world in which Peter met Molly, in which Prentiss and Ted (more affectionately known as Tubby) fought playfully and ran rampant, in which Aster protected his daughter as well as the magical starstuff that was under his watch. In which there were pirates, much like the ones that were the source of the yelling that had woken Nova up, and the ones who inched closer and closer on their ship by the second. However, Nova now found herself too intrigued to move.
She looked to the side of the ship for confirmation of her hunch about her whereabouts. Nova didn't know what she expected, nor what she wanted to see, but there it was: The Wasp was carved and painted over into the side of the ship.
That was the name of the ship owned and run by the most fearsome pirate in the play: Black Stache.
Black Stache and his pirate right-hand-man Smee. Two of the funniest characters in the play, but they also raised some hell for the main good guys. Nova didn't like the looks of that pirate ship so, funny as they may be, she didn't doubt that they were ruthless as in the play- or even more so. Her sense quickly returned to her as the approaching ship came closer still. It wouldn't be more than a minute before it came ashore, and the pirates would find her lost on the beach, certainly looking out of place in the jeans, work boots, and white stretch shirt that she had been wearing at theatre. Who knows what they'd think of her, what they'd do?
She got up as quickly as she could, turned on her heel, and sped off- only to run into somebody. Or rather, somebody's legs. Confused, as soon as she recovered from her slight fall, she looked up to see whose legs she ran in to, and how it was possible to run into someone's legs without running into any other part of them.
Looking up, she saw a boy floating in midair. Normally, she would wonder how something like that is possible. But it made just as much sense as anything else in this place.
Nova gaped at the boy above her. She knew immediately that it was Peter, for he looked exactly like the boy who played him in the school production. He was sitting criss-cross with his hands on his knees, bobbing up and down slightly as though there was water beneath him. He looked to Nova like a genie with an invisible carpet, the way he was sitting.
"Who're you?" Peter spoke, his eyebrows bunching together as he looked her over, no doubt wondering what she was doing on his beach. When Nova gave no response, Peter rolled his eyes. She then remembered that he was significantly angrier in the play than he was in the more iconic movie. "You might want to get out of here unless you want to be Black Stache's newest pirate recruit. Trust me, it's not the 'little swash, bit of buckle' that he'll promise you it is." Nova nearly smiled at the quote that came straight from the script.
"I'm Nova." She told him. Peter nodded slowly, hesitantly like there was something about her he didn't like.
"Nova? Like, the stars?" Peter loved the stars. Nova nodded, wondering how Peter knew about the stars' connection to the word 'Nova'. He was supposed to be an uneducated (former) orphan in the play. "I knew a girl who loved the stars once. Her name was Molly. But you're not Molly." His voice lowered at the end of the sentence. I get it, Nova thought. He's still bitter that Molly left him. He doesn't want another girl on his island.
"Oh Peter?" A familiar man's voice rang out and caused both Peter and Nova to turn around.
"Stache." Peter growled. Nova looked and indeed saw Black Stache, also looking just as he was portrayed in the school play version, striding up the beach in an overconfident way. Even though this was Peter's island, Black Stache acted as though he owned the place.
"Good to see you, Boy." Stache sneered. "I see another girl has found her way to your island. Mind if I steal her from you- quite literally?" Peter folded his arms in defiance.
"Of course I mind!" Nova was taken aback by the fact that Peter defended her.
"Who is she?" Black Stache asked. "Another Molly?" Peter's arms fell limply by his sides and his eyes flashed with hurt- he was obviously caught off guard by Stache's remark, and Black Stache knew it; he did it on purpose.
"No, she's not!" Peter yelled angrily.
Black Stache smirked. "If she's not Molly, then this girl means nothing to you? Surely you can't be replacing your Molly already, Pan?" Peter shook his head furiously, dropping to the ground quickly and landing swiftly on his two feet.
"No! No, she means nothing! She's not Molly!" Peter suddenly turned on her, as if someone had flicked a switch inside of him. Molly was obviously a sore subject for him.
"Now, wait a minute-" Nova tried to interject, but was interrupted.
"Quiet, girl!" Black Stache snapped, shutting Nova up immediately. "You've made your bed, Pan, have fun living with yourself. She may not be Molly but you just gave up an innocent soul to the most vicious pirate on the seven seas. Why, I'm almost proud." He cackled like a witch before grabbing Nova by the arm, twisting it around her back and leading her to the wasp.
Peter seethed as Stache took her away, but it was soon replaced by guilt. Out of anger, out of what he felt for Molly, he had given up a person, a girl- to Black Stache no less! However, it was too late, for as much as Nova struggled, the tall and lanky but strong Black Stache held her tightly by the arm and forced her to board the ship. Peter panicked, and he turned and fled. The girl needed help, and she needed it now.
Aboard the ship, the deck was deserted, empty of pirates with the exception of Smee. Black Stache grinned at him triumphantly.
"I've been fishing, Smee, and I've caught a girl!" He cried. Smee laughed along with his captain. "Peter gave her up, threw her to me like a bone to a dog. Aster's girl was wrong, he really doesn't care about anything other than saving his own neck!"
Smee beamed back at Stache. "The Stache is cunning, the Stache is beguiling, the Stache is supreme!" He cheered.
"Yes, Smee, thank you, I know." Black Stache waved Smee off. "Tell me, do we have an open cell down below?" Smee nodded eagerly.
"Yes, sir!" Stache nodded.
"Very good, I'll take her down now. I promise to give the crew all the details later- they're quite evil!" He sang the last part in an amused fashion. "Come on, girl." He pushed Nova ahead of him and they walked down a long and creaky wooden staircase until they reached what Nova concluded had to be the very last floor of the Wasp. She didn't think it was possible to go down any further. "You don't speak much, do you, girl?"
Nova didn't know how to reply to that. Black Stache rolled his eyes, much like Peter had done when Nova had denied him an answer.
"I..." She trembled before Black Stache, although he was not too scary. It was the situation and the overwhelmedeness that was getting to her.
Black Stache pushed her into the room, a room with wooden walls and floors to match the rest of the ship. In the room there was a bucket, which Nova hoped was for a purpose other than what came to mind first, a bench, and a small window that surprisingly didn't go beneath the water. It was placed just barely above the surface of the water, and ever so often water would splash in and seep through the cracks in the wood.
"What, Stache got your tongue? No matter, I'll be back soon." He went silent and surveyed Nova for a moment, before he walked closer to her, stepped slowly so that each footfall of his shiny dark shoes echoed around the empty space. "We're going to have some fun." Nova's eyes widened; she didn't want to know what he meant by that. "TTFN!" With that, Black Stache turned on his heel and left the room, shutting the door and locking it behind him.
Meanwhile on another part of the island, Peter hurriedly shifted through a bag of his things. Normally he took pride in his messy hideout that he shared with Prentiss and Ted, but today he wished it was neater so that he could find just what he was looking for. Finally, he lifted up a golden locket and sighed in relief.
"What's that, Peter?" Ted asked, looking at the locket only for a moment before he returned his attention to the sticky pudding he and Prentiss were attempting to share. "How's that gonna help that girl you found?"
"It looks just like Molly's." Prentiss observed.
"It is just like her's." Peter confirmed. "Tink helped me enchant an old necklace that washed up on the beach with some of her starstuff. It'll let me talk to Molly- I need her help."
He held the locket in the palm of his hand, and both Prentiss and Ted watched intently as it began to glow a familiar golden color...