Disclaimer:

I Aslansphoenix declare that I do not own 'Peter Pan', Neverland or anything that you find familiar. Technically some of the characters did come from my head ... but I think they belong to Neverland just as much as any canon characters.

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Author's Note:

This is short, but I think it's character building.

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"All Children Grow up Except One"

Everyone Knows about Neverland,
About the home of Peter Pan.

Second to the Right, and Straight on till Morning.
To the place between dreaming and awakening.

There are rules in Neverland
Rules that must be obeyed.

Boys forget much easier than Girls.
"No Girl can resist Peter Pan,
When he uses a specific voice."
One more thing, which is True ...
In Neverland, You learn all about You.

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Chapter Three.

George was a rather logical thinker and always took the stance that 'What is, is, and you cannot change what was.' To George; it didn't matter whether Wendy and Peter had been in love or not; Wendy had grown up and Peter had stayed in Neverland. That was the way the story went, no matter what changes or embellishments were made, that was the story.

And caring about 'what ifs' or 'alternative ways the story could have gone' was; in George's opinion, stupid and a complete waste of time.

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School was boring.

Actually George enjoyed some subjects at school; the sciences especially. George liked tinkering and engineering ... Not that the school allowed George to take those subjects, but that was why Great-Uncle Micheal was George's favourite great-uncle; he was an engineer. But despite George's appreciation for learning, George was still a kid, and that meant - school was boring. And the lunch break was fun.

The group of friends that George claimed were playing spy-pirates, because they all wanted the excitement of cool gadgets and sword fights. Maria, who was currently Captain Red-Boots, and her team had just secured the oak tree as their base of operations against the other side's sandpit.

George ran up to Maria. "Captain, the tree is secured Ma'm!" She nodded, then their friend Daniel (who was lookout) clambered down the tree. "Ma'm, unexpected enemy!" They turned to look at him confused (they could see the others on the other side of the playground) when a snotty laugh was heard.

"Aww it's the losers, how's it going Georgina."

George turned to glare at the bully, and his cronies.

"What do you want Mitch?"

Mitchell's eyes glinted dangerously, and he stalked towards the small group of friends. Mitchell had a presence that made him seem larger than he was (George hated how much that always installed a sense of fear). "Listen you little freak-"

Before Mitchell could continue Maria stepped and glared up at him.

"How dare you speak to my crew like that?"

"Aren't you a little short to have a crew?" Mitchell's cronies laughed and the smart git Alexander (who was just as much a bully and who always flaunted his intelligence over everyone else) made a mocking sounding statement in Latin. This caused more laughter and George was sure that Maria's head was about to start smoking in anger.

"I am Captain Red-Boots of the pirate ship Oak Tree, that's Double-O-Daniel-Spy-Glass this-" she gestured to George, who was torn between pride and wanting to just back away "-is my loyal first mate Special Agent Peg-Leg. We are Pirate Spies and we not afraid of you!"

Unfortunately this only made the bullies laugh (snigger) even more. Mitchell gave a scoff "Pirate Spies? That is one of the most stupid things I've heard you say."

George glared and spoke up in defense of their game "You're just jealous that you don't have a peg-leg that is also an awesome secret weapon!" Sadly George could not detect any envy in Mitchell's face, as he again scoffed.

"First of all - that idea is so impractical that there is nothing to be jealous of. I mean what are you going to do 'hop around to deploy your weapon'. Secondly - Pirate Spies sounds stupid and even if it didn't girls can't be pirates anyway."

Welp, those were the magic words, the ones the George knew would lead to a fight. Maria's face went red and she stepped boldly forward to shout at Mitchell and his cronies with her anger, to which they responded with insults designed to hurt. To be honest; George did not pay too much attention to the words.

Maria was shouting facts about actual female pirates, then smarty-pants Alexander was spouting off information about more popular male pirates. Daniel was having his family insulted by a couple of the scarier looking cronies. Mitchell was looking smug and turned to leave with a 'final' taunt "Let's go mates and leave the losers to their stupid game where they think girls can be pirates. Later Georgina."

And that was it.

George's group of friends included a variety of personalities. It was just unfortunate that on this day the group had split into teams, and that the guys with more restraint were on the other team, placed on the other side of the playground.

Daniel; who was usually very calm, had a temper when it came to being protective over his family. Maria was a hot-head with a chip on her shoulder about being at least as good as the boys, she was also loyal to her friends and knew George hated being called 'Georgina'. Maria threw the first punch and Daniel eagerly dived into defending his family's honour.

And George followed, just as George had known would happen; because if friends were going to get into a fist fight for important matters like friends, family and names, then George was going to be a good friend and fight alongside them.

And, as George had suspected would happen (though that hadn't stopped George from joining the fight), Eliza appeared with a teacher to put an end to the fight.

"That is enough! What is the cause of this trouble?"

Naturally everyone began to speak at once, truths, falsehoods and accusations being thrown all around, and George just had to accidentally pick the moment when the noise was quieting down to shout "Mitch started it!"

The denials started then Eliza spoke up and the teacher turned to listen to her.

'That is not true Sir. My friends and I were sitting on the bench just there talking about our upcoming assignment, when we saw my brother his friends talking to these three. It seemed very peaceful to me. It looked like they were about to go their separate ways then suddenly Maria just suddenly tried to punch Mitchell, and the boy jumped at at James there - I'm sure I saw him try to bite poor James. That was when I was rushing to get you Sir, because I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

George's eyes rolled hard.

Eliza was such a suck-up to authority figures, and because she never got her own hands dirty many adults believed she was a 'golden child who always told the truth'. The kids knew better. There were plenty of children around who were honest and kind and didn't get into fights. But because they didn't make a point of buttering up the adults, they were sadly more ignored. Where as Eliza made herself known as the 'good girl' and combine with them being favoured by the teachers, George just knew that the bullies would not be the ones in trouble.

Sure enough; James (who was rich, thus fawned over), Geoff (who was talented at sports), Alexander (A+ student), Michael (he was a slimy idiot, but knew how to pretend to be charming) and Mitchell (their 'leader, who wasn't special - as far as George could tell); they got off with just a verbal warning.

After the teacher had left and the students were dispersing to their classes, George had seen Eliza stop her brother and speak softly to him.

"So, you'll be paying for my friends and I at the carnival in the weekend then."

Mitchell tried to shake her away. "Bugger off."

Eliza gave a fake smile while her eyes glinted with displeasure. "Well I would hate to tell Mummy that you provoked a fight at school, causing me to save you from detention ... again." Mitchell glared, then shot her an impressed smirk - against his best wishes. He mumbled a "whatever" before stalking off.

So George, Daniel and Maria were given detention. Not the first, and probably wouldn't be the last (sometimes, George had to admit, they did do things deserving of detention), but they still complained at the unfairness of it. Walking to their homes after school, Maria complained about prejudice and boys and of course the bullies.

"Honestly he is such a git! Why does he think girls can't do anything, it is so unfair! Especially with the way Miss Eliza is always manipulating him. Honestly George, I don't know how you are related to either of those twits."

"Neither do I. But I do know that the summer holidays are coming soon, and so they'll be off to France as they always are, and we'll have a few months free from all twits! We can play as much Pirate Spies as we want!"

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Plans never seem to work out the way you expect them to, do they.

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End of Chapter Three.

Author's Note:

Here this chapter ends.

Hopefully this story is not too horrible.

If you have read this, then thank-you.

I will update whenever I update.

Thursday 15th February 2018.