Sneak Preview Part 1

So, my story is based upon Peter Pan - childish I know, but I just love the story so much. However, I was thinking one day and decided I wanted to know more about how Peter Pan came to be. Ideas turned into a short story, which in turn started to span several chapters, and lo and behold - I had a book! This is my favourite part from Chapter 1. Enjoy!

They had other names as well, but they all agreed that their real names, which were names like Bartholomew and Charles, were far too boring to remember. This was a good stroke of luck for Peter, as he did not always remember things well. They were all named such silly names because of certain traits that they carried with them – Slightly was so named because he was small and fast, Tootles because of a small whistle he would always keep in his pocket, a whistle, so he said, that he stole from a policeman on patrol. The Twins were named for obvious reasons, and as they always did things together the others did not see a reason to call them by separate names, instead preferring to call them both by one name, for they would both answer.

Nibs had an odd reason for being called Nibs – his father was fiendishly fond of fountain pens, and often Nibs would admire them in order to please him. He nearly always turned up with ink-stained fingers, particularly on Thursdays, as this was the day that poor Nibs was made to clean and polish every single pen, including the inky nibs.

Curly, as you might expect, was named for his curly hair, although he had a dreadful reputation amongst his parents and their friends for lying, and quite often he would boast to the other boys what skill he had as a liar. Peter did not encourage this, although it is said that he had asked Curly how to lie as brilliantly as he did.

His friends, after meeting Peter, became addicted to his childish ways, and thereafter always carried a sense of being young with them.  Peter didn’t realise that his childish ways were infectious but they were.   Peter’s friends never forgot how to have fun, and carried this special talent with them throughout the whole of their lives.