Always Neverland

by Zoe Barton

  “Then why do we have to help them?” Dibs said, still not convinced.

  “We’ve never helped the mermaids before. I kind of like it,” said Kyle.

  “And can you think of anything better to do?” Prank asked. The way he said it made me think that the Lost Boys had wanted new adventures for a long while. Peter had disappeared. None of us knew where he’d gone.

  In gratitude for our help, Queen Maris sent Buttercup to invite us to a celebration feast at their bay.

  “We aren’t going to have to eat homemade sushi, are we?” I asked worriedly when we landed and I saw the pile of raw fish and the mound of green-black seaweed that the mermaids had brought us.

  Button took matters into his own hands, building a fire to roast the fish and using his sword to chop the seaweed into salad. He hummed while he worked. Apparently, having the Grove of Food Trees hadn’t stopped Button from learning how to cook. It smelled wonderful. All our stomachs growled as we waited for him to finish.

  Some of the mermaids played tag with a school of flying fish, whose scales glittered in all different colors: silver and gold and magenta and turquoise and emerald.

  The mermaids let us watch, but when Prank tried swimming out to join them, they hissed at him and dived down way deep, where we couldn’t follow.

  Prank looked crestfallen.

  “Looks like it’s a mermaids-only game,” I told him.

  “No, I think they still remember the time Prank dipped their combs in ink,” Dibs said.

  “That was ages ago,” Prank complained, splashing out of the water.

  “Wow, is there anyone on the island you haven’t annoyed?” I asked.

  “The Never trees?” Prank said, grinning sheepishly.

  We all laughed a little, even Prank.

  Something had changed since the fight with the pirates. The Lost Boys had stopped treating me like a guest and started acting like I was one of them. I couldn’t get rid of the happy fizzy feeling in my stomach. I walked an inch or two above the ground, hoping that no one would notice how happy I was.

  “I wish Tiger Lily and the Cubs had stayed longer,” Kyle said, poking at Button’s fire with a long stick. “I wanted to talk to Pounce.”

  “Want to go visit them tomorrow?” I suggested, hoping to see Tiger Lily again.

  “Dinner’s ready!” Button called proudly from the tall, flat boulder he’d been using as a worktable. Roasted fish sat on six beds of seaweed salad. “Careful with the dishes. We have to give them back.”

  “Wow. Sparkly,” Prank said, inspecting the gold plate under his meal.

  “I want two fish,” said a familiar voice by the edge of the forest beyond the beach. Peter stood there, his fists on his hips. His timing was spooky. Something dangled from a strap in his right hand.

  “That’s my camera!” I cried, recognizing it.

  “Of course it is,” Peter said in his cocky way, thrusting it toward Kyle.

  “Take a picture of us together,” Peter told the littlest Lost Boy, and my mouth was still open with surprise when the camera flashed.

  “Wait! Let’s get one with all of us,” I told Kyle. I organized Peter and the Lost Boys in a row, and then I set up the timer on the camera and ran to a spot next to Button. By the time the camera flashed and took the picture, I was smiling like I was supposed to.

  Kyle flew over to pick up the camera, and the Lost Boys gathered around him, watching the photos print.

  “Can I take some more, Wendy girl?” Kyle said as I handed Peter a plate.

  “Sure,” I said, taking my plate and walking to the top of a boulder at the water’s edge.

  The light from Button’s fire reflected into the water, and I could see that the mermaids were already enjoying their dinner. Buttercup noticed me and waved enthusiastically, holding a small silver fish with a big bite out of it.

  I sat down on the boulder where I could see her. The mermaids’ treasure glittered under the water below my feet. Peter sat down next to me in his careless, sprawling way, and the Lost Boys followed, taking seats around me.

  My meal was a little weird, now that I saw it up close. The fish still had its eyes, but I forced myself to be brave. I flicked off a few scales and took a bite. “Button, this is delicious! You must be the best chef in Neverland!”

  Button smiled widely. “Be careful of the bones,” he said with a small shrug.

  We all ate together, like one big, Neverland-style family.

  The only thing that could have made me happier was if Tink could be there. You know, as long as she wasn’t going to yell at me or pull my hair.

  The mermaids who had finished their dinner had started to organize the treasure. I watched them as I ate. Gold and silver coins, strings of pearls, loose sapphires and rubies, and assorted dishware that matched the golden plates we were borrowing sparkled in the water.

  Then one of the mermaids picked up something that looked familiar, but it was so unexpected—so strange to see in Neverland—that it took me a while to recognize it.

  “Hey, it’s a cell phone,” I said, wondering how it got here. The metallic casing was very shiny—no wonder the mermaids had thought it was treasure.

  “What’s a cell phone?” Kyle asked.

  “It helps you talk to people,” I said.

  “That’s useless,” Peter said, laughing. “I’m talking to you right now, aren’t I?”

  “It helps you talk to people far away,” I told Peter. The mermaids picked up a laptop, very flat and as shiny as the cell phone. “Oh, look—a computer!”

  “I thought Peter banned them from Neverland,” Button whispered to Prank.

  “A computer? Isn’t that what you wanted when you were our mother?” Dibs said, sounding a little hopeful.

  I scowled. I really wished he would stop bringing it up.

  “She doesn’t have to be a mother,” Kyle said defensively. “She’s not a normal Wendy girl.”

  “Not if she can stop a pirate ship dead in the water,” Prank said slyly.

  “That’s right,” Peter said. “We like Ashley just the way she is.”

  All the Lost Boys raised their eyebrows at the same time. I didn’t move or speak.

  Peter peered into my face. I shook my hair forward to hide it, but it was too late. “Why are you turning red?” he asked.

  “Because you’ve called me by my name,” I whispered back, smiling. Without meaning to, I rose in the air, half a foot above my seat.

  Peter grinned.

  Suddenly, a head burst through the water.

  My first thought was of Neverland’s crocodile. I jumped and grabbed Peter’s arm, ready to pull us both into the air if I saw any enormous teeth.

  Chapter 20.

  I Get Crowned Queen

  “It’s just a mermaid,” Peter told me with a half laugh, and I felt kind of sheepish for overreacting.

  The mermaid smiled shyly, her wet blue hair plastered to her shoulders. She reached out a webbed hand tentatively and laid a small purple seashell at my feet before swimming to the other side of the bay.

  Then another mermaid, a dark-haired one, emerged and dropped a scallop shell in front of me, and then another came, placing a salmon-colored conch shell near my foot.

  “I think they’re paying tribute,” Button said in an awed voice. All the Lost Boys stared, but Peter crossed his arms and smiled cockily, like he’d expected the mermaids to start a seashell collection for me all along.

  One by one, each mermaid gave me a shell until I had a small pile.

  Last of all came Queen Maris herself. I gulped.

  The mermaid queen had a cold green-eyed stare, long clawlike fingernails, and a smile that revealed all her teeth. She wasn’t nearly as friendly as her little sister, and so I was really glad that she was on our side.

  The mermaid queen smiled wider, looking pleased with herself. I think she enjoyed being a little scary. Even Buttercup—rising out of the water just behind her sister, carrying something folded and golden i
n her hands—giggled.

  Queen Maris raised her hands. All the mermaids in the bay stopped swimming around and became completely still. She said something in a low, ceremonious gurgle.

  Buttercup swam forward to translate. “Maris, queen of the mermaids, would like to address Ashley, Wendy girl of the Lost Boys.”

  I put my plate aside and wiped my hands on my pajamas, hoping that I looked okay.

  Queen Maris smiled again and said something else, something much longer. When she finished, all the mermaids started splashing a lot, which was probably their version of applauding.

  The rest of us turned to Buttercup, who had a huge smile on her face. “The Wendy girl Ashley has done Queen Maris a great service. First, by rescuing the queen’s sister Buttercup—I mean, me. Second, by stopping the pirate ship from stealing Queen Maris’s treasure. Queen Maris is in the Wendy girl’s debt. From this day forward, Queen Maris declares the mermaids allies of the Wendy girl.”

  Button’s mouth hung open, and Dibs rubbed his eyes and looked again, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “Wow, we’ve never been allies with the mermaids before,” Kyle said.

  “Do you think this means they’ll stop trying to drown me?” Prank asked.

  That’s right. Not just friends with the mermaids, but allies. Who said it was impossible?

  I turned to look at Peter, and the corners of my mouth turned up no matter how hard I tried to keep a straight face.

  Peter knew exactly what I was thinking. He shrugged, both hands in the air, but his grin was wide and kind of proud.

  “I thank you, Queen Maris,” I said, trying to be dignified. “I would be honored to be your ally.”

  After Buttercup translated, the mermaid queen replied, “We would like to present this token of our appreciation to the Wendy girl.”

  Buttercup swam toward her sister, grinning broadly and gurgling something quietly. As Queen Maris took the golden cloth from her sister and settled it around my shoulders, Buttercup whispered, “I picked it out myself.”

  It was a golden coat. It was a little big for me, wet, and very heavy, but the metallic threads shone in the light of the fire. I slid my arms through the sleeves, and a very strange feeling came over me—I stopped worrying about Peter taking me home if I made a mistake or caring so much that Tiger Lily didn’t want to be my friend.

  With that coat, I felt like I belonged in Neverland.

  “I think it’s my favorite coat ever,” I said.

  All the mermaids started splashing again, and the Lost Boys got to their feet and cheered. “Ashley! Ashley! Ashley!”

  “She’s like a queen,” Kyle told Dibs over the splashing. “A queen of Neverland.”

  I ran my hand over the bright, stiff fabric of the coat, liking the idea very much.

  “Not bad for her third day here,” said Prank.

  “If Ashley’s the queen, who’s the king?” Button asked.

  “Peter, of course,” said Dibs. “But since he outranks the Wendy girl, he’s more like the emperor.”

  “Naturally,” said Peter, inclining his head with a regal air.

  Then I noticed Queen Maris. I didn’t think she needed a translation. She was watching us with her chin lowered, beginning to look dangerous again. Even Buttercup looked uneasy, and I knew that the mermaid queen’s gratitude could only stretch so far.

  “It’s only for fun, though,” I told her quickly. “We wouldn’t give orders or anything.”

  “Says who?” Peter said, turning to the Lost Boys. “Bow,” he demanded.

  The Lost Boys all swept him a very fine bow (although Kyle ruined his a little by snorting through his nose).

  But the mermaid queen was smiling again, and I knew she understood. She whispered something to Buttercup. My friend dived under the water and emerged a second later with a crown much smaller than the one Queen Maris wore.

  This, the mermaid queen took from her sister, and she raised it above her head. Its emeralds and sapphires sparkled in the light of Button’s fire. All the mermaids and the Lost Boys fell silent.

  She placed the crown on my head. It still dripped, soaking my hair, but I didn’t mind. Peter crowed in delight, so I knew it had to look pretty good.

  I remembered my manners. “Thank you, Queen Maris.”

  The mermaid queen inclined her head, looking even more regal than Peter, and then she sank slowly into the water. One by one, the mermaids retreated, following her.

  Buttercup was last. I leaned over to say good-bye, and she grabbed the boulder I sat on and pulled herself up to kiss my cheek. “Good night, Ashley.”

  “Night, Buttercup! See you later!” I said, and my new friend waved and slipped under the water.

  “I think we’ve been dismissed,” Dibs said, sounding miffed.

  “Lost Boys, prepare to leave!” Peter ordered.

  I noticed Prank stuffing a golden plate into his shirt.

  “Prank, leave that here!” I said sharply, not wanting to make my new mermaid allies mad by letting one of the Lost Boys steal their dishware.

  “Yes, my queen,” said Prank sarcastically. I tried to not let it hurt my feelings.

  Button took all the plates, scraping them clean and burying the bones in the sand. Kyle grabbed my camera, gathering up the photos he’d taken. Thinking that it would be rude to leave the seashells, I dropped them into my new coat’s deep pockets.

  “Lost Boys, to bed!” Peter shouted, and Button, Prank, Dibs, and Kyle all launched themselves into the air.

  Then Peter turned to me and extended his arm majestically. “Queen Ashley,” he said in a grand way, not even the tiniest bit sarcastic.

  For this Pretend, I didn’t even have to close my eyes. It came so naturally. The crown felt comfortable on my head, as my sword had felt in my hand earlier. I stood a little taller and gazed at the forest around us like it belonged to me, like it would obey all my commands.

  My fingers and toes tingling, I took Peter’s hand and smiled. When we flew through the trees to catch up with the Lost Boys, my new coat fluttered in the breeze and threw little bits of light on the leaves around us.

  “Two presents!” I said to myself. “It’s like Christmas came early.”

  “What’s Christmas?” Button asked.

  “You don’t know what Christmas is?” I said, aghast.

  “I remember Christmas!” Kyle said happily. “There’s this tree, you see, with these presents wrapped up under it. On Christmas morning, you get to open them.”

  “Presents?” said Button with sleepy enthusiasm.

  “We should have Christmas morning right now!” Dibs said.

  “No, not yet,” I said, starting to feel excited. Maybe back home, Christmas hadn’t worked out the way I wanted, but in Neverland, Christmas could be exactly what I Pretended it to be.

  All the Lost Boys turned to me, shocked.

  “You don’t like presents?” Kyle said.

  “Not when she already got hers,” Dibs said. He pointed at my new coat and crown. He was probably going to be annoyed with me until the end of time. Now that I was queen, I decided to ignore this. I would rise above it.

  “Of course I like presents. But one of the best parts of Christmas is getting everything ready, don’t you think, Your Imperial Majesty?” I asked, appealing to Emperor Peter.

  “I decree that Christmas shall be in two days,” he replied in his most emperorlike voice.

  “Decree—that’s very regal word,” Dibs said, turning to me with a look that clearly said he blamed me for Peter’s new flavor of bossiness.

  “Neverland’s first Christmas,” Kyle said dreamily. “But why didn’t we have it before?”

  “Because we didn’t have Ashley here before,” Button said.

  “Yeah—why didn’t you bring her earlier, Peter?” Prank asked, grinning at me. “Now we have mermaids for allies and Christmas in two days.”

  “Ha!” I said, thinking that he was being sarcastic.

 
“I’m serious,” Prank said, sounding wounded. “This Wendy girl has got to be the best thing to happen to Neverland since Pan himself.”

  I half grinned at the compliment—at least, until Peter shifted beside me. He wasn’t frowning exactly, but he had a faraway look with a little line between his eyebrows, like he was thinking about something he didn’t like very much. I was about to tell him that Prank didn’t mean it, but then Peter caught me looking.

  He grinned, confident as ever.

  Maybe there wasn’t anything to worry about, after all.

  I smiled back, my mind filling with Christmas plans. “Who wants a story before bed?”

  Chapter 21.

  I Catch a Little Lightning

  That night, for the Lost Boys’ bedtime story, I recited “The Night Before Christmas” from memory. When I couldn’t remember the details, I made some up. I figured that they probably wouldn’t know the difference, but apparently the Lost Boys had gotten a few of their Christmas memories back.

  Halfway through, Prank said suspiciously, “I don’t remember Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer making a gingerbread house out of mini marshmallows and gumdrops.”

  “Or Santa installing a hot chocolate machine in the kitchen,” said Kyle, and I squirmed uncomfortably, wondering if I could convince them that Santa’s elves rewrote the story recently.

  “Maybe my mom skipped that part when she read it to me,” Dibs murmured sleepily.

  “I think we’re getting Ashley’s new and improved version,” Button said from the branch where he was rigging up a new hammock for me, but he said it fondly. All the Lost Boys smiled.

  A gust of wind whistled through the leaves. The branches around us tossed and pitched.

  I drew my golden coat tighter around me, hunching up against the unexpected cold. A huge raindrop landed on my shoulder, splashing my neck.

  “Storm’s coming,” Peter said, his eyes glittering. He said it like the storm was an enemy he was eager to fight.

  The rain came harder, striking the ground with sharp plops, and I knew it was about to pour.

  Peter didn’t seem worried. He just flew up and up, higher than the tallest tree, and crowed at the sky, like he was challenging it.