It was six thirty when Wendy was woken, the sun just peeking over the dark silhouette of the city through the nursery window. It was strange; most mornings she would be woken from dreaming about Peter coming to live with them, but now he was here she hadn't known what to dream about.

'Wendy sweetheart, it's time to get up,' whispered her mother gently. Looking around, Wendy saw that the rest of the room was full of sleepy boys, stifling yawns as they attempted to get up out of their warm quilts into the cold room.

Wendy smiled at her mother and sat up, stretching. Mrs Darling walked around the bed and knelt down beside Peter, who was still deeply asleep, with nothing but a woollen blanket draped over his shoulders to protect him from the cold. Mrs Darling shook his shoulder gently, and he muttered something under his breath. Then, quick as a flash he jumped back against the wall, his knife in his hands and his teeth bared.

Mrs Darling gasped and stepped back quickly, a hand on her chest and her eyes wide. It didn't take Peter long to realise that there were no pirates or crocodiles to defend himself from, He relaxed and let his knife hang by his side.

Mrs Darling recovered herself quickly, not wanting to shout at the new boy on his first day, but she felt ever so on edge knowing he had that knife in his hand.

'Peter, darling,' she said kindly, 'Peter, did... did you sleep well?'

The way Peter's face frowned at that question was very bizarre, but then Wendy wondered, had anyone ever asked him that before?

'What I mean to say is... you weren't cold, or uncomfortable were you? Only we didn't want to wake...'

'No, I wasn't cold.'

'Well, that's good then!' and not knowing what to do with herself, Mrs Darling quickly made herself busy waking up the boys who had not yet stirred.

'Oh Peter!' Wendy exclaimed dramatically.

'Yes?' Peter replied, looking almost disappointed when Wendy only flung her arms around him again.

'I thought you might have perhaps ran away in the night, but you're still here. Or flown away I should say...'

'Run away? I've never ran away from anything!'

'Oh, I know, it was silly.'

'Was that your mother?' Peter asked, watching as Mrs Darling fussed over Slightly and Tootles.

'Our mother Peter... and yes, isn't she splendid!'

'I'm not entirely sure...'

'Well, maybe if you didn't brandish your knife at her this early in the morning,' Wendy said with a sweet smile.

'So, what happens now?'

'What, today? It's school in a bit, and we have to get ready.'

'Why? Is it dangerous?' asked Peter, leaping onto her bed.

Wendy blinked, then, thinking him joking, just laughed and put on her slippers.

At that moment Susan came in carrying all the boy's freshly laundered clothes, followed by nana dragging a box of variously sized black school shoes.

Wendy riffled through the shoes until she found her own, grabbed her pinafore and ran quickly to the bathroom to get dressed.

'Oh! The new boy's awake!' Susan exclaimed in her thick cockney accent. 'Peter isn't it? Very pleased to meet you.' Before she had the chance to stick out her hand for a hand shake Peter had bowed lowly. Susan giggled into her hand as Peter stood up straight and gave her a dashing grin.

'Well, aren't you odd! But oh well, Mr Darling asked me to ask you how old you are, so he can enrol you at school.'

'I don't know how old I am.'

'What?'

Peter looked rather uncomfortable as he said it again. 'I don't know how old I am.'

'Oh! So you're a joker as well as odd are you? Wait, you're serious? Oh.' The maid, looking completely stumped, set down the clothes in the middle of the floor and walked out.

Wendy came in, dressed smartly in her school uniform, her hair brushed and neatly plaited.

'I just passed Susan in the hall muttering something about 'feral children'. What was she talking about?'

'You wouldn't understand,' said Peter, even though Wendy sensed he didn't know either.

The sound of Father's voice then echoed down the hallway, accompanied by the sharp tap of his work shoes on the wooden boards.

'Oh come now Susan, it was a simple question. Why can you never seem to give a straight answer girl?'

'I did ask Sir, and he couldn't give me an answer!'

Mr Darling came briskly around the corner into the nursery, where a half dressed Michael immediately jumped on him from his bedpost shouting something about Indian ships.

'Michael! Not now! I hope you slept well, did you?'

'Yes father,' said Michael innocently as he slid down Mr Darling's leg like a fireman and crawled under his own bed.

Mr Darling looked around the nursery as Susan came into the room behind him.

'Ah, Peter my good man!'

Peter had flinched slightly as the word man, but remembering himself set his face firmly in a pleasant smile.

'Did you sleep well?'

Peter took a moment, looking the smartly-dressed man up and down. 'I've slept worse.'

Mr Darling looked uncomfortable to say the least, but he threw on a charming smile. 'Well...good! Now Peter, I need to know how old you are, so I can enrol you at school.'

'I did ask him, Sir, He says he doesn't know,' Susan said stubbornly.

Peter forgot to smile as Mr Darling looked at him in shock. 'But how can you not know how old you are!? All the lost boys knew!'

Peter frowned, and Wendy eyed apprehensively the knife that was still sitting in his hand.

'I cannot remember how old I was when I stopped getting older, and I don't know how long it has been since then,' Peter said, who went to sit cross legged on the bed, resting his knife hand on his knee.

Mr Darling's face wore the same expression it did when he was trying to understand German on the radio.

'But what do you mean...' he said, shaking his head.

Wendy didn't like where this conversation was going. The less her parents knew about Neverland the better.

'I'm sure he's around my age father. Put him in my year!' said Wendy coming to stand beside Peter on the bed.

'Well yes, I suppose...' said Mr Darling, mulling it over.

'Counting time!' said Mrs Darling as she entered the room happily. 'Come on now boys, line up!'

The lost boys lined up, their backs straight and noses in the air, each trying to be taller than the boy next to them.

'One, two, three, four, five and six. John makes seven. Wendy, darling, of course,' Mrs Darling said, earning a neat little curtsey from her only daughter. 'And Michael. Michael? Where is he?'

'I found it! I found it!' cried a muffled voice suddenly, coming out from under Michael's bed.

'Michael! Oh now, look! You haven't got any shoes on and your jumper is inside out!'

'But look Mother! I found the cursed dagger!'

'Found the what?' Then Mrs Darling almost let out a shriek when she saw what her youngest child clutching a lethally sharp looking knife, it's blade longer than Michael's arm and it's hilt rapped in a soft brown binding and decorated with leaves. 'Where on God's Earth did you get that?!'

'It's from the Neverland! Peter gave it to me to protect against the pirates, but when we got back home nana put a curse on it and ever since...'

'Michael, give me that item at once!' said Mr Darling in a harsh tone, his brow furrowed in a deep frown.

Wendy looked to Peter still sitting on the bed, watching the scene unfolding before him. He really did look very pleased with himself as Wendy watched his cheeky smile play about his lips.

Mr Darling held the weapon gingerly between his thumb and finger and turned to leave. 'I am going to throw this away! Peter, we shall need to have a chat later about what is appropriate to give...' but the rest of his scolding was lost as he was immediately followed by eight shouting boys in school uniform, leaving Wendy and Peter alone in the nursery.

Wendy was about to open her mouth to say something when Peter cut across her. 'Now you must promise not to miss me too much whilst you're at school Wendy. It is important for young girls like you to learn about... everything!'

'Well soon you'll get to learn about everything with me,' Wendy said, going to sit on the bed beside Peter.

She was surprised when Peter's face lit up with excitement. 'Will I get to go with you then!?'

'Oh, well...' and the look on her face made Peter's expression look more like the one Michael wore when faced with a bath.

'You see, girls and boys get taught separately at our school. But we will still see each other at lunch, and in the play ground at break time. It will be lovely Peter, truly!'

Peter Pan turned from her and looked away out of the nursery window. 'You are going to be late if you don't hurry.'

'Will you be alright Peter? I'll be back in eight hours or so.'

'Eight hours? Stuck in here on my own!'

Wendy smiled at him, leant forward and placed a small kiss on Peter's dirty cheek.

'What are you giving me a thimble for?'

'Because I wanted to.'

'Maybe I'll give you one,' Peter said, looking cheeky again.

Wendy narrowed her eyes at Peter playfully, grinning happily. Peter leant forward slowly, until his eyes were looking right into hers and their lips were the breadth of a fairy's wing away from each other. Wendy's breath hitched in her throat before Peter picked up her hand in his own, and leaning down placed a soft kiss on it, all the while grinning madly.

Mrs Darling watched them quietly from the crack in the nursery door. Seeing the two of them together was like watching the sun trying to convince the sky to pull back it's clouds and let the light shine through. This peculiar boy had a hold over Wendy that she couldn't quite pinpoint, and while that worried Mrs Darling, when Wendy was around him she was a completely different person. She was no longer the responsible and sensible Wendy that had always looked after her brothers. Instead she looked wild and care free, sitting there on her bed beside a boy covered in leaves with a dagger at his hip. The change unnerved Mrs Darling, and she didn't really know what to make of it.

One thing she knew for sure however, was that fairies would fly before life in this house was ever the same again.