Didi is a fourteen year old girl, who lives in the city of London. She lives in one of the most expensive apartments in the city, also the tallest. One night, a boy of fifteen opens her window and sits on the sill, watching her, she is reading a book at the time, and drops it when she notices the boy looking at her from her window. She gasps and stands by her bed, watching him. He starts to walk toward her and she notices he doesn't have a shadow. He says "Hi, I'm Peter, my shadow must have gotten loose in your room, can you help me catch it?" Didi stares at him blankly, and out of the corner of her eye, sees his shadow doing some sort of Irish dance. She looks back at the boy, and is confused that the boy isn't controlling his shadow, she then looks more closely at the boy and takes in his appearance. He was tall, blonde with flecks of brown in his hair, he had vines wrapped around him like clothing, that was showing most of his chest and legs, he had his hands on his hips and had a crooked smile on his face. He had freckles on his nose and his eyes were a greyish colour. Didi came back to reality and looked over at his freed shadow again. "Okay," she said cautiously. "How?"
"Well usually I use glue, or fairy dust, but Bella is at home, and. Wait, you have glue right?" He looks hopefully at her.
"Of course I do, how do we catch it?" She walks over to her desk and grabs her craft glue. Peter grabs his shadow by its foot, and Didi swabbed both their feet with glue, and Peter stuck his shadow back on, it tried to get away, but Peter kicked his foot up, and his shadow snapped back into place.
"I'm Wendy, Didi for short. How did you get into my room? I live in one of the most tallest buildings in London." Didi studies him curiously, noticing he was quite attractive, she wrapped her nightgown around her self-consciously.
"I flew." He said simply. Didi laughed.
"Right. You grew fairy wings from your back and flew into my room just to catch your shadow. Think of a better story next time." Didi got back into her bed and got her book out again.
"I am being serious Wendy. My full name is Peter Pan and I live in this magical place called Neverland. If any child goes there, they shall never grow old. I may sound crazy, but this is one of the things you have to see to believe. Would you come with me to see? I would love to show you." Peter raised off of the ground and flew to the window again, holding his hand out to her. Didi rolled her eyes, but was curious about the flying and got out of bed again and took his hand.
After flying through the solar system and most of London, Peter smiled. "Hold on tight, and don't let go, no matter what."
Didi nodded in agreement and her hair whipped back off her face as she and Peter entered the place he called 'Neverland.'
As they landed, Didi took in her surroundings. They were near a lake, with gleaming blue waters, and a girl sitting at its edge, her bottom half in the water. "Have you ever seen a mermaid before?" Peter asked her. Didi gasped and her eyes fixed on the girl again, she was no longer sitting down, she was in the water, graceful as a dolphin, her bottom half was scaly and fishlike, but beautiful at the same time.
Didi turned her head from side to side and widened her eyes as the mermaid came closer to them. To Didi's surprise, the mermaid hissed at her like a cat and tried to scratch her with her webbed claws.
Peter grabbed Didi from behind and pulled her away from the edge, whispering to her, "Careful, they're vicious, jealous creatures. Not like something from a fairytale like you used to read, what was it called? The Little Mermaid. If you get too close they'll drown you."
Didi relaxed in his embrace, her heart beating rapidly from her close call with danger.
"Are all Neverland creatures like that?" Didi asked, looking up at Peter, still in his arms.
"Not all of them, there are the mermaids and the pirates, and that's about it, the others are alright, but some others are just plain cheeky."
"How long have you lived here? Where are your parents? Or sisters and brothers?" Didi stood up, brushing imaginary lint off her clothes. Peter stood up too, running a hand through his hair. "I ran away, I have lived here for around fifty years, I think, it's hard to count the years as they go by. In the Nineteen-Sixties my parents died in a plane accident. Bella, a fairy from here, came to my window the night after the funeral and asked if I would like to come here, where no one ever ages. She and I have been friends ever since."
"Oh I'm so sorry, but why did you bring me here?" Didi followed him as he started to walk through the small forest they had rolled into by the lake.
"Your parents had been fighting and you ran upstairs to avoid it, I was flying through the city at the time, it was quite a coincidence really, I was flying by your window at the time, when you slammed your door and got onto your bed to read. Usually kids are brought here if they have trouble with their parents or even no parents to start with. To live here where they will never grow up, to live for eternity, or until they die of something other than old age." By then, they had reached a tiny village with things like fireflies darting around in the air. "Bella!" Peter called, and a blonde fairy wearing a short green dress zipped in front of them, curtseying in front of peter and poking her tongue at Didi.
Didi waved to her awkwardly. "This is Bella, the one who brought me here." Peter held his hand out to her and the fairy hopped onto it, flicking her short blonde hair back out of her face. "She doesn't talk much?" Didi asked, looking anywhere but at the little fairy, instead casting her eyes around the tiny village, taking in the smell of fairy dust and mushroom soup coming from most of the houses. Bella flew to his ear and whispered to him. When she had finished, Peter nodded slowly, and Bella took off to one of the many tiny houses.
Peter held his hand out to Didi again and she took it. He blew into her face softly and she started to raise off the ground, Peter grinned and copied her.
"I can fly?" she asked, amazed.
"I gave you some fairy dust, so if you want to fly, all you need is happy thoughts." Peter lead me through the trees to a little clearing, with something that resembled a house made of sticks, leaves, flowers etcetera. Didi gasped at the beauty of it and glanced back at Peter.
"It's my house, I made it myself. Do you like it?" Peter smiles at her hopefully.
"Yes, I like it, it looks so complicated! You live here on your own?" Didi opened the door and looked inside, there was a small bed, a table, a small room with a blanket hung over it as privacy, she thought it must be a toilet and a large bowl full of water, probably for washing hands.
"I do, but I was wondering if you'd like to stay here, if you don't want to go back to your own home." Peter walked into the house and grabbed a small sword from a shelf and grabbed one for Didi.
"I'd love to stay." she said, taking the sword he held out for her and looked at it, confused.
"If you are to stay, you must learn to defend yourself." Peter cleared his throat and stood in a fighting position. Didi understood and copied him. They practiced for the rest of the day and after nightfall, Peter grabbed a blanket and a pillow from the floor and spread them out. Didi took off her robe and got into the bed in her pyjamas, Peter lying in his makeshift bed on the floor. "Good night Didi." Peter murmured in her direction.
"G'night," Didi said back, she snuggled down into the bed and tried to get some sleep.