~~ You are so queer, and Tiger Lily is just the same. There is something she wants to be to me, but she says it is not my mother. ~~
Katie could hardly contain herself. She woke up with the sun, long before any of the boys. Except Peter, of course. Peter always got up long before anyone else on the island, not bothering with sleep overmuch. After all, what was the use of sleep when you could be having a great adventure? Already, his knife was bloody, and as he wiped the runny, red liquid from the blade, he turned to face Katie.
"Pirates!" he said, with glee. It was quite as if pirates were a new invention that he had never thought of playing with before. "There are pirates on the island!"
"Pirates?"
"Capt. Smee, the only man who Jas. Hook feared!" Peter looked thrilled, but Katie was silent. Hook... Hook... it sounded familiar. Wait, that was it, Hook was the pirate who had tried to kill Peter the first time that great great grandmother Wendy came to the Neverland.
Hadn't Grandmother Margaret said that Peter was the only person Hook ever feared? Peter, and a crocodile, but the crocodile didn't count, as it was an animal and not a person. "Hook? Hook feared this man? I thought you were the only person who Hook feared."
"Really?!" Peter was astonished, shocked, and generally taken aback by the news. "How dare this Smee take that honor away from me!" he intoned, his voice pitched several keys lower than usual. Katie laughed.
"He wants a fight!" she exclaimed, eager for the battle.
"And a fight he shall have!" Peter crowed.
They were, at this point, making so much noise as to wake the lost boys. Beetle toddled up to Katie, rubbing his eyes. "Mother, why did you make so much noise?" Katie looked down at him. Mother? When had she agreed to be their Mother? Wait... oh... last night. She sighed.
"Peter has a new adventure for us all," she explained, and the lost boys, hearing this, wasted no time in tumbling out of bed and lining up next to their mother, to hear of the new adventure.
"We're going to kill pirates today!" Peter yelled, and the lost boys, even though they weren't quite sure what pirates even were, shrieked in laughter and joy. Killing pirates, now there was an adventure worth having!
* * * * *
The pirate ship sat low on the water, the dogs were sloth to get up. Their captain chose a select group of scoundrels to explore the island for him. "Look for a hot mushroom, it will cover a chimney," he had told them by means of farewell. "And several hollowed-out trees."
Of course, Smee had told them this, for he had no idea that when the lost boys all left that time, Peter chose to live with the fairies, and the house he had built, so lovingly, for Wendy, was taken up into the trees. Smee was also rather stupid, as can be seen by the fact that he was certain everything was exactly the same as it was before Hook's demise. This can be excused, I suppose. Things do rarely change on the Neverland.
It was on this fatal endeavor that Smee's dogs, the scourges of the seas, first laid their eyes on Peter Pan. They were walking through the forest, just as their predecessors had done so long ago before them, singing the sickening songs that their predecessors were wont to sing.
Peter recognized the songs, as if from a dream. Something instantly said, within him, pirates. He flew into a tree, as sure of his enemy as ever, wanting a closer look at him. There they were, right underneath him. They looked gruesome, big, poorly groomed, the perfect enemy for the perfect fight with the perfect boy. Peter crowed.
One of the pirates jumped out of fear. "What was that? Some kind of beast? Cap'n warned us to stay away from the animals!"
A guessing game! This could be fun! "Not a beast!" Peter shouted through the trees.
A whisper shuddered through the crowd. "Not a beast, not a beast... A redskin?"
"No injun neither!" Peter shouted. These pirates were slightly dull, not expecting a fearsome noise to come from a small boy.
"A lost boy?" one of them asked, confounded.
"No lost boy! I am all that is good about the world! I am the greatest and mightiest boy ever to live! I am the killer of pirates, the hunter of beasts, and the savior of Redskins! I am the leader of the boys!"
It was Pan! The dogs scrambled, wondering what to do next. They had their victim in sight. Or, not in sight, but very nearby. Now, if only they could see the dratted boy. "Come out, Pan, fight us face to face!" one of them shouted.
Peter crowed, floating down, effortlessly, from the tree, dagger in hand.
The fight was simple. None of the pirates were ready for the little boy, as he went through each and every one with a smile and a joy that they couldn't understand. They screamed, as they died, all of them. Peter had the last one pinned by his sword when he relented, smiling proudly. He stepped into the pool of blood from his victims; not noticing really that it even existed. The last pirate eyed him fearfully. This wasn't a boy. This was a monster.
"Who is your captain?" the boy asked, his voice clear and young, just like any boy's voice.
"S...s... smee..." stuttered the fearful pirate. He regained courage to spout off his captain's greatest achievement. "The only man Hook ever feared!"
Peter seemed unimpressed. "Well, tell Captain Smee that the next time he wants to fight, he should face me himself!" Peter crowed, and flew away.
* * * * *
The news of the pirate ship came as a surprise to the Indian camp. The braves and Tiger Lily went down to the shore to inspect the ship, instantly. They found nothing out of the ordinary there, only the usual accoutrements of piracy. Their princess led the warriors back, away from the stench. Not one of them had a single scalp.
If the news of the pirates return was a surprise, then Starkey's disappearance was hardly one. Tiger Lily had tried to make sure he was quite busy, but when she returned to the camp, she found the papooses untended, and Starkey's old gun and sword missing.
Of course.
She cursed herself, foolish to leave such a dangerous man alive. She should have scalped him like the rest of her enemies, and have his head as a trophy. Now he was dangerous again.
Not to mention the fact that their papooses were left untended. This simply would not do.
Quickly relegating the papooses to one of the trusted Squaws of the camp, she ventured into the forest, to find the house in the trees that belonged to Peter Pan. Surely, Peter Pan, the one boy Hook had feared, the sun and the moon and the stars, would help with this dilemma. Surely, he would.
Unfortunately, Tiger Lily could not fly.
That had always been a point of contest between her and Peter. He resolutely said that if he had tried to teach her how to fly, she would be able to. Tiger Lily, on the other hand, knew better than that. Her redskins were a functioning part of society, and just as they had papooses, they had elders. Once, she had been a papoose. Only, that had been a very long time ago, so long that she couldn't remember when. Eventually, she would become an elder. Her father, the chief, had died, leaving Tiger Lily in complete control. She had never remembered a time when she had been much younger, but she resolutely told herself that she was growing up here, that she couldn't waste time learning to fly when she would forget soon enough anyway.
There were even more braves courting her now. The squaws of the camp were now more likely to become angry with her as she kept the foolish braves away with a hatchet. That was a new development, this disrespect. She had even been kissed... once. Tiger Lily smiled at that. Peter would probably still call it a thimble. She never had understood why he called them thimbles, and thimbles kisses. One would have thought one of his mothers, Wendy or Jane, would have informed him of his misconception. Of course, that had never happened. Can one expect the pale-faced squaws to do anything?
Tiger Lily still hoped, somewhat bleakly, that Peter would come to his senses and start courting her himself. But, in some strange part of her mind, she knew that this would not happen. Courting someone on purpose was not the sort of thing that Peter Pan did. No matter how charming he was.
Tiger Lily resolutely set herself to climbing the tree to get to the house in the canopy, to ask for help. She was here to put to Peter a request for help. She would not think of courtship or charm. All those thoughts were pushed out of her head.
Only to fly right back in when she opened the door of the house in the trees.
There was a girl inside.
Not just any girl, but a girl her age. She could have sworn that Wendy and Jane had been younger than she. She stood there, dumbfounded.
"Hullo, Tiger Lily!" shouted Peter, charming and joyous as ever. She snapped out of her surprise and grinned.
"Hullo, Peter Pan!" One must keep up appearances, she thought. "Do you know there are pirates on the island?"
"Oh, yes! I've already killed a few!" Peter was proud and cocky as ever. Tiger Lily was hardly surprised. Peter would have killed a few already. And he would be the type to brag about it.
"They say these are as fearsome as Hook," she warned. It would be best to play it safe, to see if there was worry in the lost boys as well as her Indians. Peter, of course, feared nothing.
"They say they are more fearsome! They say their captain is the one man Hook ever feared!" Peter grinned. Surely this was going too far... wasn't Peter the only man Hook ever feared?
"But Peter, I thought that was you."
"Yes, that's what Katie said too... Funny, you girls always think alike!" Peter chortled at his own joke.
Tiger Lily sighed. "I think the important thing is this; do we act now, or wait?"
"I want a good adventure! Let's go get them now!" Peter yelled. He ran out the door, or tried to, but there was a hand holding him back. Katie, the new girl, stopped him.
"No, Peter, we can at least wait for the other lost boys." She pointed at the boys, who were frantically grabbing weapons of every sort to prepare for the fight. Peter grinned sheepishly.
"Of course! I was just waiting for the lost boys. You get your red skins ready, Tiger Lily!"
Sighing, Tiger Lily left. Peter was just as cocky and unreachable as ever. At least now he knew there was danger right under his nose.
* * * * *
Peter got bored with waiting for the boys to get ready and kill pirates, and by the time they finally were ready, he was quite over the idea and favored a swim in the lagoon instead. So the boys swam in the lagoon, and didn't fight the pirates for another day.
They were all swimming when the mermaids caught their attention. Peter swam deep down under to them and began playing with their bubbles. Beetle tried to swim down with Peter, being enamored of a certain mermaid with purple hair and a light blue tail, but every time he had to come up for breath before he reached her. This was just as well, because the mermaids didn't like any of the lost boys, and if Beetle had been able to approach the rainbow of bubbles without running out of breath, he would surely have scared the mermaids away.
Peter came up for breath soon after that, leaving the mermaids to their game. It was time for their mid-afternoon meal. Today, just like all the other days, they all clamored onto Marooner's Rock, and pretended the meal. None of them were really hungry anyway, so they all rejoiced in their pretend food. After the meal, they all pretended to be full, and lay back on the rock, blissful. A few fell asleep in the warm sun. They seemed to take it for granted that they were to wait 30 minutes before getting in the water again, and although Katie didn't believe in the rule, she also was too eager to fit in to do anything that the lost boys didn't do. So, Peter and she sat awake on the rock.
"Peter, have you ever had a lost girl?" she asked.
"Oh, certainly not! Girls are much too smart to fall out of their prams!" Peter sounded as if this were the answer she wanted.
"Oh..." Katie replied, saddened somehow by this news. Peter cocked his head to one side, noticing that she was less than happy.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing... It's just... I would have thought... You mean, the only girls here have been my ancestors?"
Peter was confused. "What's an ancestor?"
"Like Wendy, and Jane, and Margaret."
"Oh, yes! My other mothers! But no, Tiger Lily's been here too, and every so often I've had a fairy. Of course, there are the girl fairies, the blue ones, and the yellow ones which are silly little things which aren't really a girl or a boy, but I suppose they don't count."
Katie nodded. "I suppose I don't really fit into any of those groups..." she mumbled, not really intending for Peter to hear.
He heard. "What do you mean? You're a perfectly good mother!"
Katie sighed in disappointment. She didn't want to be a mother. She wanted to be a lost girl. Peter looked at her, confused again.
"Now you're being just like Wendy, and Jane, and Maggie, and Tiger Lily even! They all wanted to be something, but it was never my mother! What is it?"
Katie looked at him. "Nothing, Peter. You wouldn't understand."
Peter looked put off. "But I'm the cleverest boy in the world! Of course I'd understand! What is it you want to be?"
Katie smiled slightly. "A lost boy."
Peter grinned. "But you can't be a lost boy, you're a girl!"
Katie nodded. "I know. That's why I didn't tell you."
Peter, confused, didn't say anything. Katie didn't have the heart to tell him what she had meant. Soon the half hour was up and the boys were in the water, Katie with them. And so the lost boys spent a halcyon day in the mermaid lagoon.
Tiger Lily's Indians, on the other hand, were all ready for Peter to start the attack throughout the day, and waiting at dusk, when Peter was flying over, and asked them what the matter was.
Tiger Lily almost smacked him right then and there, but he was so innocently concerned and honestly confused that she forgave him.
After all, few of us could stand up to Peter Pan.
* * * * *
Sue was back in her element, sleeping through class, passing notes, chatting in the hallways. Who wanted to go off to get all dirty and mucky on adventures with that Peter fellow when one could be enjoying life with one's friends? She smiled, ruefully. This was the life.
On the bus, one of Katie's friends approached her. She edged away, not wanting to be associated with that poorly dressed, glasses-wearing freak. Her luck did not hold. "Sue," asserted the girl.
"What is it?" snapped Sue in return. If she had to speak with this mistake of nature, she would at least keep it short.
"Why wasn't Katie in school today? Was she sick?" the friend sounded concerned, plaintive. Sue had no patience. However, here was the perfect time to get revenge on her sister. She was no longer sure why she was angry at Katie, only sure that she had to get revenge, no matter how much that cost.
"Katie ran off," Sue replied, smugly and confidently, just as she was sure this friend expected her to say it. Katie's friends always thought of her as a manipulative, shallow idiot. She often wondered why. She wasn't an idiot at all.
"Ran off?" gasped the friend.
"Yes, she ran off," Sue repeated, savoring the moment before the betrayal. Because Sue knew that Katie's friend would betray Katie when the next bit of news came out. "With a boy."
Although the statement was true, it carried an endless number of connotations that were in no way, shape, or form appropriate to the situation. "Ran off with Peter Pan," or "Ran off to have adventures," would have been exceedingly more accurate to the situation. Sue was fully aware of what she was doing, and fully aware of the effect.
"You're lying!" shrieked the friend, her uncertainty showing in her anger. After all, if she really were so sure that Sue was lying, why would it be necessary to make a big scene? "Katie would never do that! Never, ever, ever!"
Sue remained calm throughout. "Deny it if you like, I'm only telling the truth. Katie ran off with a boy."
Katie's friend retreated, shaking, sobbing, to her seat. Sue smiled. She could tell exactly what the older girl was thinking; "This doesn't happen. This isn't real. My friends wouldn't run off chasing some crush, they're smarter than that, they're better than that, they're not harems."
Of course, Sue knew that now Katie would be called just that, a slut, and a whore. It was what she wanted for her sister, just the sort of revenge that would be the most worthwhile. Delicious, sweet revenge, it was all that Sue thought about for the entire ride home.
Her sister was ruined. Sue was happy. It didn't even occur to the younger sister that Katie might not come back. Of course Katie was coming back, she had only left for spring-cleaning. It didn't matter that the window was locked. It didn't matter that the apartment had burned down and grandmother Margaret was dead. Katie was coming back. Was she?
She has to. Or else, all that was for nothing. Or else, I really was right; she really did get the better deal.
Author's Note: This one was longer, I think. Anyway, thanks so much to Bil, Angelsmile06, and lupe silverwing. This chapter is dedicated to lupe, my one loyal reviewer. Thanks so much! Anyway, I already have two more chapters read, but I want to add some stuff in the middle of them, so it might be a while until my next update. Probably not this long, but then again finals are coming up, so who knows. In any case, everything will fall into place, eventually. Oh, and this time I'm going to be strict about my rule. I want to know if people like this, so I will wait until I get 5 more reviews, and then post. Basically, if you are the 15th reviewer, the next chapter will be up soon after you review. I want to know what you people think! If you hate it, then send me an e-mail if you don't want to post it on the site. The wonderful thing about fanfiction.net (or one of the wonderful things) is that you can revise your stories and re-post them even better than before. But I can't do anything if I don't have reviews to go by. So, in conclusion, REVIEW! Press that little blue button and make an author's day!
Here, this time I'll be nice and even have some questions for people who don't know how to review.
General: What do you think of Katie? Peter? The new lost boys? The plot? Does my grammar need work? (I hope not, I checked it several times)
Characters: Are my characters different from the norm, or the same as everyone else's? Is my portrayal of Peter up to par? What about Sue, do you absolutely hate her, through and through, or do you think she's just a jealous, misguided child who wants to be the best at everything? Did I deviate from the book at any point in my characters?
Plot: Is my plot interesting? Are you completely bored with the story or eagerly awaiting new chapters? (If you're eagerly awaiting the new chapters, then get your friends to review so I'll post more!) Is it the same as everyone else's or interesting and unique? Do you just want me to get around to Smee trying to kill Katie and Peter saving the day, (I laugh. Who says I'll do something like that?) or do you want me to explore the characters and wait a while before wrapping everything up into a nice little bow?
Appearance/Readability: Is it readable? Is it nicely presented? Does it flow well? Are spelling and grammar errors minimal? Do I successfully at least allude to Mr. Barrie's style and meter? (If I do I'll be happy!)
Okay. That's a pretty general format for a review, if you want to be in depth. Of course, you can just ignore all of that. As long as you post a review, I'll be happy. This did something.