The game is coming to an end. The boys on both sides are visibly tired. Peter’s attention is also waning, shaken by the recent incident with Rob. He stumbles towards the edge of the field, sees Rob still crying, leaning against Wendy she puts her arm around him, stroking his shoulder comfortingly.
The opponents have taken possession: Hank sets Grant off, who dribbles across the field, he is clearly not tired yet, and there is no one to stop him. Peter finally gets there, tries to trick it, but fails: Grant sends a masterful curled ball towards the top left corner. Peter looks on resignedly, watching Jacob with bated breath as he hurls himself in the right direction, but can’t seem to catch the ball…
Or can he! He has saved it! He falls to the ground with the ball, while Peter and the boys cheer. What a masterful save! Grant could not believe his eyes.
Five minutes left to play. Peter clenches every muscle, trying to get the others to move faster. Nibs loses the ball, Colin runs towards goal with it, shoots… Hits the post!” “From a catch, John sets Lachlan off, who passes to Tootles, on to Michael, who is surrounded, and so passes back to Tootles. Tootles runs forward, but Hank stands in his way. Tootles pauses for a moment dodging Hank.
“That’s it!” Peter exclaims happily.
The whole field is heading for the Pirates’ goal with renewed vigour.
“Let’s score from this play,” Peter begs himself, “they’re about to call full time!”
The air is getting thicker around Tootles, he’s surrounded on every side. Suddenly he stops, as if he has run enough, his eyes searching for Peter, who is almost at the goal. A well-directed pass arrives from Tootles, Peter takes it over and then shoots between Dylan’s legs, scoring a goal.
Cheering erupts, many people jump up from the benches, and the referee blows the final whistle. Two-one! They won! The boys ambush Peter and Tootles, knocking them both to the ground and pile on top of them! Wendy, Teacher Tinkerbell and the other children all rush onto the field. ” “Peter was beside himself with joy. It had been like professional footballers playing a professional match. But it was them, he and his friends, the Lost Boys. Though now, he did not feel lost at all.
“Will the team’s name have to be changed?” He laughed to himself for a moment.
What a great match this had been! And the end, when Tootles emerged as a dark horse! Peter still couldn’t believe that it had really ended two-one. How happy the boys were, too! Peter had never been so proud to be team captain. Once he was finally free of the boys’ embraces, he gladly received congratulations. Teachers and counsellors also came to shake his hand. The younger children were jumping around, asking questions, and some brought their own little ball and asked Peter to sign it. Suddenly he caught the smiling gaze of Wendy, who was standing nearby. He was overwhelmed with gratitude, not caring what any of the others, the teachers or even Wendy would say, he ran up and hugged her.” “Teacher Tinkerbell came over and ruffled Peter’s head.
“I am so proud of you,” she said, and Peter felt that this praise was not primarily for his performance in the match, but for the way he had behaved with the others. The teacher smiled when she saw that Peter understood this, then nodded towards the bench, where Rob sat with his head bowed, still unable to get up. Peter nodded and ran to the bench.
“Congratulations!” Rob looked up at him.
Peter said nothing, but offered his right hand for a handshake. Rob accepted. Peter sat down next to him. He noticed Rob’s eyes searching through the gym, but he couldn’t find what he was looking for. He closed his eyes again, looking at the ground. Peter knew he was looking for his teammates, but there was no sign of the Pirates or their coach.
“They left you behind, that’s so unfair,” he said sympathetically.
Rob didn’t say anything, just nodded.
“Does it hurt a lot?” Asked Peter, glancing at Rob’s ankle.
“I might not even be able to play football with it anymore. But I have no team to play for anyway”.
He suddenly turned his head away, but Peter knew well that he was fighting back the tears.
“You can join our team”. ” “Rob was happy to play football with them as soon as he could get on his feet. The boys even showed him the playground.
“This zipline is really cool!” – Rob couldn’t get enough of it. He slid down it at least thirty times.
“You’ll let me slide too, won’t you? Hopefully today”.
Rob’s injury wasn’t as serious as they thought while on the field. And now it felt really good that Peter and he were friends again. They even vowed to train together from now on. And the playground no longer had to be accessed by sliding under the fence – the teachers soon realised that Peter and his friends were sneaking through and had it repaired – but Teacher Tinkerbell regularly came over to play with them. They were all there that time as well. The teacher talking to Wendy and the boys playing catch with Nana.
John and Michael arrived back from school; Peter waved to them with a smile. Then he got onto the swing and watched Rob slide down the zipline for the fiftieth time, screaming.
Peter looked at his sweater. The number twelve was a little worn out, especially the bottom part of the number two. He would ask the Teacher or Wendy to sew it back on later. Or sew him a new one. Only a week to go until his birthday. Number thirteen. But he was no longer afraid of it.