“Where are you going, Peter?” Tootles was asking for the umpteenth time and Peter was not
                      impressed.
                      “Tell him, Slightly.”
                      Slightly sighed and explained about the girl Peter had been watching for the past few days. It had
                      turned out that although she was seventeen, she was a firm believer in Neverland and it looked
                      pretty much like she wasn’t going to grow out of it. Peter liked this theory.
                      “Is she going to be…”
                      “…our Mother, Peter?” The Twins’ eyes shone as they both crawled out from the tent they were
                      constructing in one corner.
                      “You’ll have to ask her when she gets here, Boys. Anyhow, I’ve got work to do. Tink!”
                      “I’m coming, coming…” Tinkerbell grumbled behind her drapes as Peter rapped on the twigs
                      holding them up. She flew out immediately and started slapping Peter with a dead flower, which
                      she was supposed to be throwing out.
                      “You know I have only just fixed that – it was your fault Tootles pulled them down in the first
                      place…”
                      “All right, all right!” Peter tried desperately to keep a straight face. “Tink, we’ll be late if you’re not
                      careful…”
                      Tink put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Thanks to you peeving off that old witch, time
                      has stopped over there – if you don’t remember…”
                      Peter took off his cape, catching her in it mid-sentence and she carried on with her banter as she
                      kicked at the wearing material, much to the Boys’ amusement.
                      “If I’m not back by morning do what you normally would!” And with that, flew out of the
                      underground den leaving six confused-looking Lost Boys. Nibs scratched his head.
                      “What do we normally do?”

                                      ***

                      Peter alighted on the windowsill of the large brick house and cursed softly to himself. There was
                      no bay for him to balance on – the only thing that prevented him from falling was the fact that he
                      could fly, and therefore stay upright on anything. Peter tapped on the window, and was puzzled
                      when it sounded almost hollow, and not at all like glass he had rapped on in earlier days. He
                      tapped again and the dark mound, which so far had been curled up on the bed in the middle of
                      the room, stirred and sat up. Her eyes widened with surprise and delight and she jumped softly
                      out from under the bedcovers to open the window. Peter sailed in and sat on the bed with a grin.
                      “Peter! I knew you would come some day! What took you so long?”
                      “I didn’t think you believed enough to want to come to Neverland – obviously I was wrong.” He
                      eyed the shorts and t-shirt she was wearing to sleep in. “You’re going like that?”
                      She glanced at the door and put a finger to her lips. “Ssssshhhhh…you might wake my parents
                      up if you don’t keep your voice down!” She looked at her clothes and answered him. “No, I’ll get
                      changed – I can’t go like this.”
                      Peter went red. Obviously he wasn’t used to this kind of behaviour from girls. “Err…do you want
                      me to close my eyes?”
                      “If you want – you don’t have to worry though, I’ve got my underwear on.” Peter looked in
                      another direction, chewing his lip to try and take his mind off his reddening face. Tinkerbell,
                      however, sailed across the ceiling and settled on a small dragon ornament on top of a cupboard.
                      This one, she was interested in.
                      When the girl declared that she was ready, Peter nearly fell off the bed in shock.
                      “Those are trousers!” He looked her up and down and shook his head in amazement. The girl was
                      clad in jeans flared about a foot wide below the knee, with a ripped waistband and a white
                      vest-top. On her feet sat black ballet-shoes and a black string with a single silver bead on it was
                      high up on her throat. Her hair he could deal with; two plaits on either side trailing round to the
                      back on her head where the rest of her hair was tied up. Her face however…
                      “You…appear to have something in round your eyes…” Peter was suddenly reminded of Tootles,
                      only this wasn’t so large in diameter and the stuff was round both of her eyes – a smoky, metallic
                      colour. A single diamond was placed in the inner corner of her right eye.
                      “Yes, that’s my make-up.”
                      This time Peter did fall off the bed. He clambered up, and on remembering he was the all-knowing
                      one from Neverland, stood straight and tall. Tinkerbell was giggling helplessly at his bemused face
                      and had to hold onto one of the dragon’s horns to stay put.
                      “What’s your name, girl?”
                      “Riio.”
                      “What sort of a name is that?!” Tink exclaimed, as she fluttered to eye level. Riio grinned at her.
                      “You must be Tinkerbell – nice to meet you. And no, it’s not a very common name, but then
                      again, neither is Tinkerbell.” Tink looked slightly miffed and sailed to sit on Peter’s shoulder,
                      though not without another curious glance. Peter watched as Rio threw on a rucksack covered in
                      badges and patches with strange symbols and phrases on them.
                      “What’s in there?”
                      “Just a few things, books I can read to the Lost Boys, toys, change of clothes, music…”
                      “You can’t put music in a bag, silly.” scoffed Peter.
                      “You’d be surprised. How do we get to Neverland then?”
                      Peter signalled to Tink and she sprinkled fairy dust into Riio’s hair, perhaps using a little more
                      than she should do. On flying back, she brushed Peter’s ear, whispering something incoherent to
                      any others around.
                      “Ok, you know what you need now…think of a happy thought.”
                      Riio took Peter’s hand, and he led her out of the window. Tinkerbell shot ahead, crying out
                      something that sounded very much to Riio like; “This one’s a strange one…”

                                      ***
                      “PETER PAN FROM THE NORTH!”
                      Hook slammed open his cabin door at the sound of his bosun’s cry, and glared skywards for a
                      trace of his enemy. Smee ran as fast as his bandy little legs would carry him to Billy Jukes’
                      hammock, and tipped him out with the order to load Long Tom. The gypsy boy was tall for
                      seventeen and hit the floor with a small amount of muscle, putting bruises on bruises that were
                      already there. Nevertheless he raced to the cannon and started about his work.
                      “’E’s got a new one Cap’n!” Mullins roared across the deck. “Another of the stinkin’ brats to deal
                      with!”
                      Peter, Tink and Riio dove into the treetops as they spied Hook aiming the cannon after shoving
                      Billy out of the way, and as they departed they heard him cursing over his missed chance once
                      again, using words that were enough to make Mason blush.

                                      ***

                      Nibs soared in through a hole in the roof and collided with The Twins at the bottom, and they
                      untangled themselves as best they could whilst Nibs mumbled and squawked something involving
                      the words “Lost Girl”, “Peter” and “far away”.
                      “They’ve gone far away and left us?” cried Tootles in dread. Nibs removed a Twinnish foot from
                      his mouth and enlightened them.
                      “No! I said Peter, Tink and the new Lost Girl aren’t far away –they should be back any moment!”
                      The group of boys gasped in the way that only excited children can without feeling stupid, and
                      lined up waiting for Peter to bring their newest arrival. Sure enough, she tumbled down the steps
                      a foot behind Tink, who was a foot behind Peter, who was bowled over when Tink moved out of
                      the way.
                      “Ugh! Ah!” Peter jumped to his feet to restore his authority and gestured at Riio, who was
                      sprawled on the floor in the most ungainly fashion. “Lost Boys, this is Riio.”
                      “Hi!” Riio smiled at them and the Boys smiled back in wonder. Tootles crept forwards and turned
                      to the others proudly.
                      “She’s got eyes like mine!”
                      “You’re Tootles, aren’t you?”
                      Tootles swelled, “She knows my name too!” At which the other Boys laughed. Slightly pulled her
                      bag off her back and started to pull things out of it, while Nibs stared at this newcomer.
                      “Have you come to be our Mother?”
                      “If you want me to be…”
                      “What’s this, Riio-Mother?”
                      “It’s a biro. You write with it.”
                      “Wooooooow…if only I could write…”
                      Peter lay back beside the fire, feeling pleased with himself – his work was done and a more
                      interesting addition to the group he could not wish for. Suddenly he sat up in shock as a loud but
                      strangely pleasant noise echoed around the cavern. The Twins were standing behind Riio, and
                      one dropped the circular silver thing he was holding causing a little draw to fall open, ejecting two
                      black rods.
                      “Twins! That’s my CD player!”
                      “Your what?”
                      “It’s a machine that plays music – see you put this plate in here…NO! Don’t touch the shiny side
                      or it’ll never play again!”
                      “Is it cursed?” Curly wanted to know. Riio sighed, knowing this was going to be hard