Unlike her classmates, Avery doesn't really care about boys, romance and fashion. Her phone contains fewer contacts than there are pens in her pencil case. Her classmates don't seem to care about her excistance, and at home it's basically the same s...
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First there was only the garden, in which the moon shone its silver light and the cool wind stroking her cheeks. And then there were only the tingles in her stomach as the boy, around whose neck she had wrapped her arms, dove out her window. She clung to him tighter as he shot into the air. She looked back, at the ever-shrinking light burning in her bedroom, the jitters gone and pleasure was left. Never in her life had she felt so anxious and so free at the same time. Before, she could only imagine how a bird felt, now she could experience it herself.
The cool wind blew forcefully through her hair and London beneath her grew smaller and smaller. She saw the bakery shop and the snack bar, where the last of the loitering youths were sent home by the owner who finally wanted to go to bed too and she saw the cars at the traffic lights, which now seemed as small as toy cars.
They flew deeper into London, past places Avery had never been before. She smiled when she saw the Big Ben in the distance and the London Eye standing right next to it with its bright blue lights. Her thoughts turned to the book she had read that very night and imagined Wendy and her brothers standing on the big hands of the clock. She could almost touch them, but she didn't dare to let go of Peter.
Suddenly, Peter turned and threw her high into the air. Avery screamed as gravity tugged at her falling body. It was only a few metres until Peter caught her again and she looked at him angrily. 'Why did you do that? I could have fallen.'
'No, you wouldn't have. I would have caught you.' He looked at her. 'I will never let you fall.' Peter flew her to the Thames, where the reflection of the starry sky on the still water drowned out her anger. She let go of Peter's neck and reached out, to feel the ice-cold water slip between her fingers. She looked up at the boy and splashed the drops on her fingers in his face. Peter shook his head as the drops stuck to his eyelashes. A malicious grin crept across his face before he threw her up above the water and caught her again so that she landed on his back. Avery cursed and Peter laughed. 'Cut that out! That's terrifying.'
He chuckled softly. Her angry looks did not seem to bother him much.
He flew higher and higher, until London itself looked like the starry sky they were flying towards. Avery turned her gaze upwards, to the clouds behind which the sky was getting colder and behind which a few special stars were hidden. 'The Second star to the right...' She didn't even finish her sentence. Words failed her because she was so stunned by the view, the flying and everything that had happened in the last couple of minutes. This went against all the rules. She expected to run out of oxygen any moment now, to suffocate like an astronaut without a helmet, but it didn't happen. Stubbornly ignoring those thoughts of reality, she closed her eyes and let her thoughts drown in only fiction. Euphoria flooded her mind and for a moment she felt like a child again; uninhibited, shameless, free and, above all, happy.
Peter's hands moved to her waist. He turned his head and looked at her. 'Hold on tight.'
Avery pressed herself closely unto Peters body, clasping her arms so tightly around his shoulders that she was afraid she might hurt him. They flew higher and higher, towards the Second star to the right, until the star suddenly transformed before her eyes in an explosion of colours. She dared not reach out her hand to it, though she was tempted. The bright colours swirled and swirled, until it coalesced into such a bright, white light that Avery had to squeeze her eyes shut, and when she opened them again..
Her mouth fell open. She saw the clear sea stretching to the horizon and the lagoon where she knew the mermaids bathed under the rays of the flowing waterfall. She saw the rock with the Indian camp, Captain Hook's ship and the Deathman's Cave.
Neverland.
The island was even more beautiful than in her childhood dreams. The forests were so green and dense she could hardly see through them, everything was so colourful it looked like a colouring page. But it was real. It was real!
'Do you like it?'
Avery searched for words, but couldn't find them no matter how hard she tried. Tears of happiness and nostalgia pricked her eyes. 'It's everything I ever dreamed of.'
She felt Peter chuckle. 'Excellent, then it's time for a tour now. Hold on tight!'
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