“Bells!” one of the little toddlers called out. I sit and up and walk over to the little girl. It’s Lily again.



“What is it Lily?” I whisper as the little blonde head shakes its way out of the blankets. “Did you have another nightmare?”



Lily looks up at me. Her big blue eyes are scared and tired, and they look up to me. She nods.



“Was it that evil pirate again?” She nods again. “Well we know how to take care of him don’t you?



She looks up at me and smiles “Yep! I kick him in shins and run!”



I pick her up and spin her around, “We know how to take care of that old fish!”



She giggles as I spin her; I go a couple more times around and set her down with a plop on her bed. She scrambles up and gives me a hug around the neck. “And if that doesn’t work, Peter Pan will save me!”



I c*** my head and smile,” Who’s Peter Pan Lily?” I sit crossed legged on her bed and she crawls into my lap.



“He comes here when I’m scared, he plays me music and tells me stories about his adventures. He makes me fly with his little fairy plays with my hair.” She says happily. She reaches for my long black hair and starts to twirl it with her finger.



I smile quizzically and think to myself, childish nonsense, but I guess I’ll play along.”What’s the fairy’s name Lily?”



“Tinker Bell!” she answers, “She didn’t tell me her name because she only speaks like a bell does, but Peter told me.”

“And when does the fairy come?” I ask, holding back a laugh.

“She comes at night with Peter Pan,” she says. “When everyone else is sleeping. He seems to like you; he always hopes you wake up during his visits”

I don’t know what to make of this. She doesn’t sound like she’s lying but I don’t know. I pick her up and get up from her bed. “Next time this Peter Pan comes, you can wake me up.” I lay her down on her bed and head back to my bed. Or I would have if a melody from coming from the window hadn’t stopped me in my tracks. I had heard that song before!


“He’s here!” Lily says excitedly as she gets up and runs to the window. “Peter’s here!” I follow her to the open window and peer outside. Just outside the window a boy is floating! He’s playing a pan pipe and he has green clothes on, with a green hat with a funny red feather in it. He stops playing and looks up at me.


“Jane!?”

“Excuse me?” I reply. “My name is not Jane!” I pick up Lily and turn around.



“Well you certainly look like her.” He puts the pipes away and flies into the room, “ Peter Pan at your service.” As he says this he bows and pulls off his hat revealing a shaggy red mop of hair. And out from under the hat, a little fairy flies out!



“Tinker Bell!” Lily cries out happily as the little pixie zooms over to her and makes herself comfortable in the little girls head. “I knew you would come back!” The little fairy opened up her mouth and spoke, but she could only hear little bell sounds



“Little bells!” Lily continued, “Just like you Bells, just like you!” The little girl clapped her hand as the fairy sprinkled shimmery dust all over her head. All of a sudden, the little girl started to rise, I let go of her and she started to rise up to Peter Pan, who was hovering up near the ceiling.



“Good to see you Lily,” Peter said as he took Lily’s hands in his. “Did you miss me?”



“Lots and Lots Peter!” she smiled, “Do you have any new stories?”



“Not this time.”



“That’s okay; Bells can tell stories real good!” She let go of Peter Pan’s hands and floated down to me, “Tell me a story Bells, please, please!”



I pull her into a hug and say, “First I need to think for a bit. I need to talk to your friend here and figure some stuff out.” I put her down and look up at ‘Peter Pan’ “I need to talk to your friend here, why don’t you go play with your fairy”



“Okay,” she skips away and goes to the corner and starts to show the fairy her little doll she made.



“Get down here,” I say firmly to the floating figure above me. He comes down and lands lightly in front of me. “Who exactly do you think you are?”



“Is that a trick question?” He cocks his head, confused.



“No,” I say strongly. “It’s a question!”



“I’m Peter Pan,” he laughs uneasily. “Haven’t you been told stories about me before?”



“Nope, when my mother, Jane-“



“Jane?” He cuts me off, “Your mother is Jane?”



“Yeah,” now it was my turn to laugh uneasily. “What does that have to do with anything?”



“Now you have to come to Never Land!” As he said this he starts to rise of the floor again.



“Never Land?” I ask,”What’s that?”



“It’s where I live, where your mom went, and your Grandma before her,” he looks over to Tinker Bell. “Hey Tink.” The fairy flies quickly over and puts her hands up in a mock salute. “Time to leave, we’re taking Bells and Lily with us!” At this, the little fairy turns in defiance, “Come on Tink, you like Lily don’t you?” She nods. “Why don’t we bring Bells too?”



Tink sighs visibly, “That’s a good girl, Pixie Dust!” At that the tiny fairy conjured up more of that glittery dust and tossed it over me and Lily. I started to rise off the floor and so did Lily. Peter grabbed my hands and pulled me out or the nursery room.



“Come on!” He shouts with glee



“Where are we going?!?” I shout out as we speed toward the sky.



“Second star to the right and straight on till morning,” he turns back to me, “Never Land!”

I look over at Bells as we fly to Never Land. She keeps looking behind her at the orphanage. I can tell she misses it. But then she looks over at Lily and smiles, because she looks happy.

“Are you okay?” I ask her. She looks around and nods. The night passes quickly as we fly towards Never Land, but I don’t want to get there so quickly. A thought unbidden enters my mind, maybe I should slow down so I can hold her hand longer. I shake my head trying to rid my mind of these thoughts, she’ll just leave like all the others.



I sigh as the Never Land comes into sight. The familiar rainbows greet us as we fly in. Bells gasps at my side, I expected that reaction. Never Land is beautiful, crystal clear lagoons, and it’s lush forests, and-



Boooom!



We dodge a flying cannonball, “Sorry about that,” I shout. “Forgot about the pirates, hide behind the cloud.” I watch as Bells takes Lily and behind the puff that is a cloud. I fly up and stick my tongue out at the far away ship. I see the glint of a spyglass and I know that Hook can see me.



“Missed me, you old Codfish,” I shout so loud that I’m sure he can hear me.



“I’ll get you Peter Pan!” I hear his voice waft over the water. Another cannon goes off and it comes flying at me, I dodge it easily.



I turn to Bells and Lily, “I think we need to get out of range.” I take her hand and pull her out from the cloud. We fly quickly toward the forest. A cannon goes off and I pull them quickly away from the ship and out of danger. I direct her towards Hangman’s tree. As we pull in close I hold her over an entrance and we drop down to the den. Bells lands softly on the bed and catches Lily. She giggles and crawls out of Bells’ arms and down to the floor.



I watch as Lily waddles over to me and looks up, “We gonna meet the Lost Boys Peter? We gonna meet them?!?”



I lean down and pick her up, “Yep, they really wanted to meet you to Lily.” I turn my head in the direction of their beds.
“Lost boys! Fall in!” I hear a rumbling as they come. I also hear them laughing and I see them dangle from the tree branch. “Sound Off!”



“Slightly!”



“Nibs!”



“The Twins!”



“Cubby”



The little skunk at the end drops down and says nothing. I turn to Bells and say “That’s Tootles, he doesn’t talk much.” Tootles scampers over to me and looks up at Lily, confused. I set Lily down and look over at Tootles, “This is Lily.” The two exchange a look, Lily looks down, embarrassed and scampers over to Bells.



“This is all very nice,” Bells stands and picks up Lily. “But-“



I cut her off, “You want to go home to your family and your mother.” I look up at her, and she stares back at me.



“I have no mother, she died when I was very young.”



“Jane died?”



“I’m afraid so, the disease got her.”



I turn away, thoughtful. “You don’t remember anything about her?”



“Nothing”

Peter stares at me. He seems so curious about my mom for some reason. He shakes his head quickly, as if to rid himself of a memory. I turn around to view the Lost Boys den. It is very well made. All the beds look soft, and the cots are hung with care.



In the side of one of the walls, a large fur hangs. I can see a little cavity behind it that can only be Peter Pan’s private room. Everyone is standing in an awkward silence, except for Tootles and Lily. Their silence wasn’t awkward, they kept looking at each other, communicating through looks.



“So” I say, “Why exactly do you do around here?”


The boys turn to Peter and he laughs. “Well, sometimes we go hang out with the Indians, other times, we play treasure hunt or we run around, making mischief.”



“Really? That’s all you guys do?”



“Pretty much,” He scratches the back of his head, “But tonight, the Indians are having a powwow of sorts.”



“Are we going,” I say, excited. “Sound interesting.”



“Sure,” he thinks for a moment, and then brightens. “Yeah, that could be fun!” he turns to the Lost Boys, who quickly straighten up and salute, “Ok men! We’re going to go see the Indians!”



The boys break rank and begin to cheer loudly enough that the pirates could’ve heard them. Obviously visiting the Indians was a big deal. Everyone quickly ran out to get ready to go to the powwow. I myself was excited, even though this was most likely a dream and I was going to wake up and be back in that orphanage.



The day passed quickly and Peter and I watched the horizon for smoke from the Indian’s camp. We were up there for a long time and we talked a lot.



“So you knew my Mom?” I started the conversation, hesitantly.



He turns to me and smiles, as if remembering a good memory, “She was taken by Hook because he thought she was Jane. She showed up here and the first thing she did was punch me in the jaw.” He chuckles slightly.



“You knew my Grandma too?”



“Yeah.”



“Cool.”



“Sure.”



The conversation lags again and I turn back to the horizon. It’s getting dark, and I saw a little smoke. “Hey,” I point towards the horizon. “Smoke”


“Probably time to go.” He stands and offers me his hand, “Let’s go get the boys.” I take his hand and we head down to the den.

As we fly towards the Indian encampment, I realize that I’m holding Bells’ hand. And then I realize, that I don’t want to let go. So I slow down and try to make the flight longer. The Lost Boys and Lilly fly forward quickly and laugh



“Haha,” Slightly turns and looks at me. “Slowpokes!” Obviously, I can’t turn down a challenge like that so I hold Bells’ hand firmer and speed up, leaving them in our dust.



We land lightly at the camp, the firelight makes Bells’ black hair look like-



I stop myself from finishing that thought. I know how this will end, she’ll want to go home, like Wendy, and… and Jane.



I turn towards the Chief, he raises his hand and says, “How”



“How,” I say. I look to Bells and nod. She raises her hand.



“How,” she says uncertainly.



I bow and say, “This be Belladonna of the former Darling Family.” He nods deeply to Bells and sit cris-cross. I see Tiger Lily sit down by her father. I scratch the back of my neck, sheepishly. I kinda led her on awhile back, so it got really awkward between us. I go to sit by the Chief and Tiger Lily looks up at Bells. They do that weird thing where girls seem to communicate through glances. Tiger Lily gestures next to her, and Bells sits down.



The drums start to beat and the bring out the pipe. I take a puff, relishing the odd sensation that tingles in my throat and pass it on to the next person. When it comes back to Bells, she sniffs it and wrinkles her nose. She passes it on to Tiger Lily, who doesn’t take a draft either, but puts it away.



The Chief stands and raises his arms; he says something in his language that I can’t understand. All the girls stand and run off. Tiger Lily also stands and motions to Belladonna, who stands and follows her quickly.



“What’s going on?” I ask him. He looks at me and smiles slightly.



“The Dance of the Datazio.”



“Which is…”



“You will see,” he sits down and crosses his legs. After a short while in which the Chief communicates with some of the elders in his language, the drum beat changes. It turns faster and less rhythmic, and more erratic.



The girls come out. Their hair is down, with a braid down the side, with a white flower behind their ears. They are all giggling and looking at several of the young men in the crowd. Bells walks out last. She is dressed in moccasins and her hair is a similar to the other girls. They walk to the center of the circle and stand. The drums change again, more rhythmic again, and a little slower.



The girls start to dance, Bells hesitates and joins in, copying their movements. Several of the young men in the crowd run up to some of the girls and begin to dance. I then realize, that this is like a dating dance, I begin to blush. Do I dance with Tiger Lily or Bells?



Luckily, one of the young men run up to Tiger Lily and starts to dance. I turn to the Chief and he nods. I get up and walk over to Bells. She starts to blush as I start to dance. And we continue to dance throughout the night.

When He walked up to me and started dancing, my heart swelled. He smiled at me and I smiled back. We kept dancing the entire night, after the song ended, we went to sit down and I got to sit next to him.



Tiger Lily looks over at us, I can see sadness in her eyes, but the boy next to her puts his hand on her shoulder. She turns back to him and smiles as brightly as the sun. She seems happy.


Peter next to me yawns. I feel a light pressure around my shoulders. He put his arm around me! I don’t know what to do, so I put my head on his shoulder. I feel him tense up and then relax. He pulls me closer and I relax into him. He reaches over and takes my hand.

I don’t know what I’m doing. She’s just going to leave like Wendy and Jane. But Bells, she seems different. But she’d going to leave me. She’s going to grow up and get married. She’s going to forget about me.



I want to leave, but to close.



“Are you ok?” she asks me. “You’re tense.” She looks up at me, worried.



“No,” I reassure her. “I’m fine.”



Sadly, the powwow ended too soon. When we fly off, I’m still holding Bells’ hand. And I’m almost sad when I see the hideout.

As we land inside the den, I see Tootles and Lily giggling at something. I look down, and I’m still holding Peter’s hand. I quickly let go, he looks over at me. I look away blushing. I walk away and go sit on the bed that I've claimed as my own. The lost boys have run of somewhere, taking Lily with them. Peter stands awkwardly in front of me.



“So…” Peter starts, and trails off.



“Yeah…” I say.



“That was,” he pauses. “That was fun.”



“Yeah,” I nod. “That was fun”



“We should do that again sometime.”



“Sure, yeah.”



“Do you know,” he pauses again. “Do you know any other dances?”



I stand, “I know the basic steps to the waltz.”



“Could you teach me?” He looks down shyly, like a little kid.



“Sure.” I step slightly closer, “Definitely.”

Bells step closer, “First the stance.” She puts her hand on my shoulder and takes one of my hands and puts behind her back. She then takes my other hand and holds it. “Now, just watch my feet and do the opposite.



She steps backwards, and I mirror her. She continues to dance and it just starts to flow. We turn and continue, and we turn again. Her face starts to redden as her eyes meet mine, and I can’t help myself. I lean in close. Her eyes lock on mine and right there, I kiss her.



I feel her stiffen. She releases me. She turns, her face reddening.



“I,” I start, but she turns back to me.



“I need some air,” she says

He kissed me! I feel elated, but at the same time…


I hear myself say I need some air, and I feel myself turn away and walk outside. The fresh air is invigorating. I sit down on a log, close my eyes, and think for a bit. I hear a rustle nearby, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a small animal.

She’s been outside too long, eight, maybe ten minutes. She’s gone, I think to myself, she found Tink and flew off. I stand there for a few more minutes, but eventually I turn and walk to my room. I think I hear a muffled squeal, but it must just be an animal. I lie down on my bed; it takes awhile before I fall asleep.



The next morning I wake up, excited to see Bells. It takes me a moment to remember that she’s gone. I sit up and head out to the main den. The lost boys aren’t there, which is strange. They probably decided to head out early. I decide to go out and find them. As I emerge from the den I see that on a nearby tree there is a deep gouge that I’ve never seen before.



I step closer to investigate. It’s too neat to be a scratch mark, and too thin to be a knife mark. My eyes widen and I fly off into the sky.

He snuck up behind me, when I was about to head back down to the den. His hook got me by the neck and he muffled me with his head. One of his men restrained me as they took me back to the ship. I tried to escape, but the pirate was strong. He knocked me across the head and I was out.



When I wake up I see the pirate with the hook standing over near the edge of the ship with a spyglass. “Who are you?!” I shout at him.



He turns eyes wide, “Who am I?” he asks with mock shock, he steps towards me. “Who am I?” His voice rises with indignation. He reaches out towards me with his hook, tilting my head up with the point. “I’m the greatest captain to sail the seven Seas!” I want to nock away the hook, but I’m tied to the mast of the Hook’s ship.



“I don’t know who you are!” I say, moving the point of his hook away from my neck with my chin.



“No matter, who I am doesn’t matter. What matters is how you are to Peter Pan,” His voice rising at the end. He brings his hook back up to my neck.



“Bells!” I hear a small cry coming from above me. I look up and I see a net with Lily and the rest of the lost boys.



“Lily!” I shout back to her. I look back down to the pirate with the hook. “Let her go!”



“Oh I will,” He starts, he pulls his hook away from his neck and starts to twirl his long mustache with it. “Right after you, off the end of the plank!”



I gasp. Then I realize that my legs are somewhat free, so I draw back a leg and kick the pirate firmly in the shins. He jumps back yelling and holding his leg. One of the other pirates lunges forward and slaps me across the face.



My head whips around and my head slams into the mast. It hurts, but I don’t cry out.



The pirate with the hook straightens and approaches and starts to speak, “You insufferable little-“he starts to say, but something distracts him from above his head.



“Hook!” I look up and see Peter floating up by the net, “You old codfish!” He’s holding a small knife in his hand. My heart soars as our eyes meet.

I had been hiding near the ship for awhile, but I when I saw Bells get hit by one of Hooks cronies hard, I had to break cover. I looked down at Bells, our eyes meet and I see her eyes light up with hope. But right now, I have to focus on Hook.



“Let them go Hook!” I shout down at Hook. He narrows his eyes



“Make me!”



“Fine,” I say quietly to myself. “If that’s how you want to play it.” I switch the grip on my knife and cut the lost boys and Lily out. Tink flies out of my sleeve and coats them in dust. They fly up out of harm’s way. I shift my attention back towards Hook with a satisfied smirk.



“Do you really want to toy with me boy?” He says loudly. He lunges at Bells, cuts the ropes with his hook. She tries to run but he grabs her arm. He pulls her close and puts his hook to her neck. “Do you really want to bargain with her life?” He yells loudly.



My heart starts to pound. I look at her face, she does not look scared, but her eyes are filled with resolve. She rears her elbow into Hook’s stomach. He yells, and almost impales her, but she was ready. She turns and kicks him in the shin.



I fly down towards her, take her by the hand, and then fly back up to safety.

When Hook grabbed me, I wasn’t scared. I knew right then and there what I would do. Exactly what I told Lily to do in her dreams. When I got free, I ran and Peter came down and saved me.



“You’re okay,” he whispers. He brings his head close to mine. Tink comes up and sprinkles me with some dust. I let go of Peter and stay afloat.



“Yeah, I’m all good,” I say, barely meeting his eyes.



“Ah,” I hear Hook say, “Young love.”
Peter turns back to Hook, “What do you know about that, you old codfish”


“Enough to know it doesn’t last,” He curls his mustache with his hook. “So, let’s end this little affair right now.”


All of a sudden, ropes come up around Peter’s arms. He drops his knife and it clatters down onto the deck. They pull him down. I fly down and try to help him, but one of the pirates backhands me. I fall hard onto the deck.



“Peter!” I shout “No!” They pull him down farther. I see his knife, glinting in the sunlight, forgotten on the deck. I lunge for it.



“Watch her,” I hear Hook yell as he spots me. One of the shorter pirates runs awkwardly towards me, I hold out the knife and he stops short. I fly up next to Peter and cut him free.



Peter looks at me. I pull him close and whisper in his ear, “You’re okay.”



“NOOOO,” I look down and see Hook yelling. Peter lets go, flies down, and punches him hard in the nose. Hook pinwheels his arms and falls off the side of the ship. “Smeeeeee,” he screams shrilly as he falls over the edge of the ship. The pudgy sailor who tried to stop me earlier runs over to the edge.



“Capn’ are you all right?” the pudgy sailor ran over to the edge and looked over. I look over at Peter, he smiles and nods, reading my thoughts. I zoom down towards the pudgy sailor, Smee I think, and push him lightly. He tips over and falls over the edge.



As I fly back up to Peter, I see him laughing wildly. Our eyes meet and he flies toward me, arms out. He takes my hands in his and pulls me close. “I thought I lost you,” he whispers in my ear.

I pull Bells into my arms, I expect her to be trembling, but she is steady. “I knew I wouldn’t lose you,” she whispers back. I move around so her head is resting on her shoulders.



“I love you,” I say, full of relief of getting the words out of my head. I feel Bells stiffen slightly, but the she relaxes into me.



“I love you too,” She says quietly. My heart soars in my chest. She looks up at me, “What are we going to do about the pirates.”



I look down at the pirates, they are all scowling and shaking their fists, “Ah, they always go away after a little while.”



“We better get the Lost Boys and Lily back to the hideout,” she looks over to Boys and Lily; they look back at us, shocked. I can’t help but laugh a little at it.



“Yeah,” I start, “we better.”



Bells flies over to Lily and takes her by the hand. As Lily flies up, the Lost Boys follow the suit.



“Come on everybody,” I shout, “Here we go!!!” We all fly off the ship and towards the Hideout. Bells and I hold hands as we fly off. My heart is still soaring at Bells words, I can’t get them out of my head, I love you too.



As we near the Hideout, I look over at Bells. She looks happier than I’ve seen her this entire trip. She smiles at me, and I smile back. When we land safely inside the hideout, Bells leans into me and sighs serenely.



Lily walks up to her and tugs the hem of her dress. She crouches down and takes the little girls hand, “What is it Lily,” She asks kindly.



The little girl looks up at her, eyes full of hope, “Are we gonna stay here forever and ever?”



Bells takes a deep breath, and I take one too.

I don’t know what to say. She just asked the question that has been on my mind ever since the powwow. I take another deep breath; I look into Lily’s eyes. They are so full of hope, and they are happier then I have ever seen them.



I look around and furrow my brow in thought. I look back at Lily. I reach over, pick her up, walk over to my bed, and sit down. “Do you want to stay,” I ask her.



She looks up at me and smiles, “I like it here.”



“So you want to stay?” I ask her and she nods happily.



“Yes,” She starts to bounce in my lap. She claps her hands excitedly, “Yes!!”



“Ok then,” I address the words to Lily, but I look up at Peter. “We’ll stay!” As I say this, I see Peter’s eyes light up. Lily starts bouncing faster in my lap and she jumps off. She runs to Tootles who smiles widely. I stand and look at Peter.



“Are you going to stay?” He asks, almost timidly.



I smile, take his hand in mine, “Of course.”



His eyes light up again and he pulls in.

I pull Bells in close. For once in forever I allow myself to feel, because I know, she isn’t going anywhere. I hold her out slightly and kiss her forehead.



“I love you,” she says, and she smiles. I smile back.



“I love you too,” I reply. We look at each other for a little bit, I love her. She loves me, and she isn’t leaving me. And she won’t be leaving anytime soon.





I love him, and I won’t be leaving anytime soon