Read Online Always Neverland by Zoe Barton - Free Book Online Page A

“Boo!”
    The Never bird cocked its head toward me and stared at me with one black beady eye, clucking in a disapproving way. If it could talk, I’m sure that it would’ve said, You didn’t really think that would work, did you?
    â€œNo, like this.” Prank burst through the leaves, just a couple feet from the Never bird, yelling and waving his arms. With a squawk, the bird launched itself into the air toward him, but as soon as Prank retreated, it sailed right back to its nest and settled back over its eggs possessively.
    Prank scratched his head sheepishly. “I guess they still remember us trying that before.”
    â€œWhy don’t we just tap it on the shoulder and see if it’ll give us a ride somewhere?” I said.
    I meant it as a joke, but Kyle said, “Good idea.”
    He flew up really close to the Never bird we couldn’t scare.
    Then, grinning, he jumped on the Never bird’s back. The bird didn’t like it one bit. It squawked and screeched furiously while Kyle clung to its neck like a cowboy at a rodeo.
    I’ll tell you one thing: Kyle was pretty gutsy. The bird was bigger than he was.
    â€œNow, why didn’t I think of that?” Prank said, sounding faintly jealous as the bird flew jerkily, trying to knock the littlest Lost Boy off its back.
    â€œThe nest! The nest!” Kyle’s voice was muffled against the feathers.
    I took one side of the nest, and Prank took the other. We flew it to the neighboring tree, and just as we settled it safely on a new branch, the bird finally succeeded in bucking Kyle off. At first, the Never bird didn’t seem happy to find its nest in the new location. Then it landed over the eggs, folding its wings prissily, as if to tell us that this was the tree it really wanted to be in the whole time.
    â€œThat worked well,” I said, pleased.
    â€œThat was awesome !” said Kyle, still laughing. He had feathers in his hair.
    â€œMy turn!” Dibs cried, leaping from the grass and zooming into the Tree Home toward the next nest. Button followed close behind. Peter zipped up beside me and grinned, the feather on Hook’s hat blowing in the breeze.
    It didn’t surprise me much that everyone wanted to help with the Never birds now that it wasn’t boring.
    What surprised me was that suddenly, I was the only one who had to take charge. Being naturally bossy turned out to be kind of helpful.
    â€œWait, let’s do this right and have a real contest,” Prank said as I flew around the Tree Home, counting nests. “One at a time. I’ll go last.” Peter gave him a look, and Prank added hastily, “I mean, second to last. Peter goes last, of course.”
    â€œOkay, there are twenty-one nests,” I said, expecting the Lost Boys to rally to attention.
    That definitely didn’t happen.
    â€œMe first!” Dibs cried, zooming toward the closest Never bird.
    â€œWait a sec!” I cried. “Button, help me with the nest.”
    Button looked disappointed, but he came with me anyway. Dibs pounced on the Never bird, holding on behind the wings instead of around the neck. As soon as the bird started flying, Button and I grabbed the nest, and Peter and the Lost Boys started chanting, “One, two, three . . .”
    We settled the nest quickly on the other tree. You could actually hear the bird pecking Dibs. Mainly because he shouted, “Ouchies! Ouchies! ”
    At the count of fifteen, Dibs let go, sliding off the bird’s back and rubbing the peck marks on his arms.
    â€œMy turn!” Button said, rushing forward, which meant that I had to grab Kyle to help me with the next nest.
    It was like that the whole time. Mom would’ve been proud of how responsible I was.
    I moved every single nest, but I had to keep recruiting a new Lost Boy to help me every time I did it. Like Button, they kept getting distracted by the contest and leaving as soon as we relocated a