Pirate Girl
"That stain on the deck is still there, darling," my step – mother, Elizabeth, forced through pursed lips.
"But I've been scrubbing it for the past hour," I replied, wiping my red hands on my tattered dress.
"Well, scrub harder," she ordered before walking her pampered self back to her cabin.
"I'M GOING TO THE MARKET! IF ANY OF YOU EVEN CARE!" I screamed at her back.
I finished my shopping and was walking back to the docks when my best friend, Will Turner, took my basket from me.
"Give it back!" I giggled at him.
"Not unless you run away with me!" he stared longingly at the sea.
"I can't" I stared disgustedly at my step – mother's ship.
"Miss Davi, you were the one who told me to never give up my dreams. And my dream is to be a pirate, and sail the seas forever. I thought you would want to get away from that wench – of – a – step – mother of yours," he handed me my basket back and took a Captain's stance.
"If your going to be a pirate, then where, exactly, is your ship?" I asked skeptically.
"It's…um…there!" he pointed to a ship with black sails and a blacked hull.
"Are you going to commandeer it?"
"No! I'm going to join its crew 'til I can get a ship of my own!
"For me to get on that ship, I'd have to be dressed as a boy," I realized, sadly.
"You can borrow my clothes."
"What about my hair?"
"Tuck it into a hat."
"When are we leaving?"
"We'll go see Captain Jack tonight."
"I'll meet you back here at eight, okay?"
"Great," he said as he dropped into a low bow, taking my hand in both his and kissing it lightly.
"Don't forget to bring me clothes!" I yelled as he ran off. Then I muttered to myself, "I'll wear my father's hat."
"Where have you been?" Elizabeth demanded.
"I went to the market," I replied, walking towards the kitchen as fast as I could. That was my one safe place.
"But that was two hours ago!"
"And I'm sure my life is just supposed to be so perfect that I can't run into any trouble at all!" I screamed as I slammed the door in her face.
At 7:45 that night, I heard soft taps on my door. "Who is it?" I tried to sound like I had been asleep.
"It's me, Will," was the answer, but as soon as I heard his voice I pulled open my door and shoved him into the room.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded.
"I came early so you could change. I didn't mean to make you angry," he said sincerely.
"I'm not angry, but if my step – mom catches you here, I will be in SO much trouble," I apologized, taking the clothes he offered me and going into the next room.
"How do they fit?" Will asked after a few minutes.
"They're a little baggy, but that's good," I replied.
I came back into my room, grabbed my father's hat and tucked my hair into it.
"Okay, Captain Jack is the one wearing a hat and drinking rum," Will told me outside the doors to the bar.
We walked in the there were about 20 people wearing hats and drinking rum. "This might be more difficult than we thought!" I tried to yell above the noise.
"Well, he also has a compass at his belt."
More people than were wearing hats had compasses. "Anything else?"
"Well, he has a piece of eight in his hair."
There was only one person who fit that description. "There he is!" I pointed at a man with a beard in two braids, dread locks, a scarf, a piece of eight hanging from a dread lock, a hat, and a compass in his hand.
We walked over to him. He was shaking the compass and whispering, "Isla de Muerta." He would look at the compass and it would only spin. "Bugger, I know what I want."
This time, the compass pointed at the bottle of rum in his hand. "Excuse me, Captain Jack Sparrow?" Will asked tentatively.
"The Captain won't be disturbed right now," a tall man with only one eye informed us.
"What happened to your eye?" I couldn't help asking.
"The monkey took it!" just as he said this, a wooden eye rolled between his feet. He snatched it up, spit on it, then stuck it back in the socket. He blinked a couple of times then looked at us.
"We want to join his crew," Will stated flatly.
"Did I hear something about new crew members?" Jack snapped up from his compass.
"We'd like to join your crew," I explained in a voice much deeper than my own.
"What can you do?"
"Well, I'm an apprentice blacksmith," Will answered.
"And I'm a pretty good pick – pocket," I said nervously.
"Excellent! We need a pick – pocket! How good are you?" Jack beamed.
"Well," I said with a small smile spreading across my face. I walked past Jack. It didn't seem like I had done anything. Then I handed him back his compass.
"Wow! That was great! By the way, I'm Ragetti," the tall man congratulated me.
"I'm Pintel," a short bald man introduced himself.
"I'm Marty," a midget stuck his hand out.
I shook it as another man said, "I'm Mr. Gibbs, and this is Cotton…" he pointed to a man with a parrot on his shoulder.
"Any port in a storm!" the parrot squawked.
"And Cotton's parrot."
"What did he say, exactly?" I looked sideways at Cotton's parrot.
"We think that means he's content with your work. You see, Cotton's a mute, so the parrot talks for him. If you stay with us long enough, you'll be able to figure out what he says," Mr. Gibbs explained.
"I'm Hector Barbossa," a man with knee – high boots and big hat with a long white feather on it introduced himself.
"And I'm Sara and this is Jack," a girl about my age introduced herself, then pointed to the monkey on her shoulder.
After all introductions were made, Will asked, "So what's the Isla de Muerta?"
"How much do you know of Cortez?" Sara asked.
"I always tell the stories!" Jack pouted.
"Well, that's how you always start your stories!" Sara said sassily, giving Jack to Barbossa.
"I'm telling the story!" Jack exclaimed.
"Then start telling!" Sara turned away from him.
"Can you really talk to the Captain like that?" I asked, petting Jack, who had come back to her.
"Well, I can, but no one else in the crew can," she answered calmly.
"Why?"
"I'm his daughter."
"Okay, on to the story of the Isla de Muerta. How much do you know of Cortez?" Jack asked Will.
"I told you that's how you'd start your story!" Sara threw her hands up in the air, exasperated.
"OH SHUT IT!" Jack yelled and the whole bar got quiet.
"I don't know anything about Cortez," Will butted in.
"Well, there's a rumor that he hid all his treasure on the Isla de Muerta. We're going there to find out," Jack finished, looking at Will.
"Do you know exactly where the Isla de Muerta is?" Will inquired.
"No, but that's what my compass is for," Jack held it protectively, looking directly at me.
"I'm not going to steal it!" I held up my hands in surrender.
"If you don't know where the Isla de Muerta is, then how is your compass going to help us find it?"
"My compass is…unique," Jack explained.
"Yeah, unique here having the meaning broken," a drunk guy that just happened to be walking by, butted in.
"What?" Jack looked surprised.
"What does he really mean by unique?" I asked Sara.
"That compass," she pointed at her father's, "doesn't point north. It points to what you want most," she whispered so only I could hear.
"So, is that why it pointed at his rum, earlier?" I asked.
"Yeah. Speaking of rum, do you want some?" Sara grabbed the nearest bottle of rum.
I'd never had a drink in my life. The first taste was bitter and I wanted to spit it out, but I forced myself to swallow it. It burned my throat. I took a few more drinks and decided I liked it. It was sort of sweet, but bitter at the same time.
On the way back to the Black Pearl later that night, I tried to sneak back to my step – mother's ship, but Sara caught me. She grabbed onto my arm and whispered, "What are you doing? You're part of the crew now, you can't go anywhere without telling the Captain."
"I have to go back to my step – mother's ship. I left some stuff on it that I refuse to let her get a hold of. I'll only be a couple of minutes," I pleaded.
"Let me come with you, then you won't get in trouble," she followed me onto the ship.
I ran into my room, grabbed all of my father's stuff from under my bed, grabbed his portrait off my wall, and ran to catch up to the rest of the crew, who had already made it back to the Pearl.
"Sara Sparrow! If you are in my cabin with that…man!…I swear!" Jack yelled below deck.
"Actually, I wasn't even with the one you're talking about," Sara said, coming up behind him.
"Then who were you with?"
"Davy wanted to show me his old home. Please don't be mad at him," Sara pleaded.
"I'm just glad you weren't in my cabin with…him!" Jack hugged her and went to bed.
"Um…Sara? I need to talk to you," I tapped her shoulder, my head down.
"What?" she looked concerned.
"What would Captain Jack say if he knew he hired a girl, but didn't know she was a girl when he hired her?"
"I don't think he'd mind, if she was still a good crewmember. Why do you ask?"
"I'm gonna tell you my secret. I've been working as, pretty much, a slave for my step – mom for the last nine years. I wanted to get away from her, so I borrowed Will's clothes and snuck onto this ship. Do you think he'll kick me off the ship?"
"I'll talk to him. Right now, you should get some sleep.
"WHAT?" Jack yelled so loudly the crew on deck stopped what they were doing.
"Yeah…um…the Davi you hired wasn't Davy with a 'y' like a boy, but Davi with an 'i' like a girl. But you saw her, she's the best pick – pocket you've ever seen and besides, I need someone to talk to, now that Emily won't talk to us anymore. Please?" Sara pleaded with Jack.
"She can stay, but, she has to tell the crew or I will," Jack compromised.
"Can I have your attention!" Jack yelled during dinner.
Nobody was listening, so Sara took out her pistol and shot out the window.
When everyone was looking at her, she said, "Now that I have your attention, there's something that I need to tell you. The Davi you know isn't Davy with a 'y' like a boy, but Davi with an 'i' like a girl."
When she finished, I stood up and took my hat off, letting my hair fall down around my shoulders. I swear Ragetti's eye almost fell out, his eyes were so wide.
The next day, the whole crew was acting differently. Mr. Gibbs would open doors for me, Barbossa tipped his hat once, and Ragetti screwed up anything he was doing when I was around.
My 5th day on the ship, we arrived at Tortuga.
Everyone went off on their own. Jack found some "pleasurable company," Barbossa and Sara went off together, Mr. Gibbs, Cotton, Marty, and Pintel went into the nearest bar, and Will stayed on the ship with Emily.
As I was standing on the deck of the Pearl, Ragetti walked by, "Do you want to get a drink?"
"Sure," we linked arms and walked into a random bar.
After four lifeless months aboard the Pearl, Jack ran to the starboard side and pointed to a tiny speck in the distance. "That, mates, is the Isla de Muerta."
"Where? I don't see it," Will was leaning over the railing, looking straight at the Isla de Muerta.
"It's right there!" I pointed at it.
"Where?" he repeated.
Sara grabbed him by the ankles and threw him overboard. "If you swim that way, you'll see it!" she yelled.
"Are you serious?" he asked, trying to keep his head above the water.
"Do we look serious?" we turned around and walked off.
He yelled some things I won't care to repeat, then started swimming. When he was about 40 feet away, we threw him a line. "Did you see it?" I asked.
"Yeah, I did!" he answered cheekily.
When Sara and I woke up the next day, we went looking for Jack.
"Miss Sara, Captain Jack is on that island we stopped at yesterday," Ragetti informed us, regretfully.
"Who is the new Captain?" I asked.
"Captain Barbossa has named himself."
"Where is he?" Sara growled.
"Probably in your father's cabin."
She stormed off to find him.
Later that afternoon, Sara and Barbossa stood on either side of Cotton at the helm. Sara shot two quick shots in the air.
"We're going to be taking votes for Captain. All in favor of Barbossa," Emily raised her hand, so Will did.
"All in favor of me," everyone else, including Jack the Monkey, raised their hands.
"What do we do now, Captain?" Mr. Gibbs asked.
"We will head for the Isla de Muerta, take the treasure, then come back to this island to rescue my father. Hector, you will receive only 1/4 of what you share would be. Likewise, everyone but you will get a day off when we reach Tortuga in about four months.
Five days after we found out Jack was marooned, we landed at the Isla de Muerta. We left Barbossa on the ship and took three long boats to the cave.
We walked into a huge cave and Ragetti's eye really did fall out. As soon as you walk in, the first step is onto piles of gold.
We grabbed a chest full of Aztec gold coins, and anything else we could fit into the long boats.
Six days later, we found the island Jack was marooned on, but we couldn't find Jack. We searched the island for three days before setting off to go to Tortuga and Port Royal.
Four months and six days later, we made it to Tortuga.
We spent the night drinking and spending most of the Aztec gold.
The next day, I went to talk to Sara about when we reached Port Royal.
"I have a favor to ask," I said while we were in our cabin.
"Sure, anything," she replied.
"I want to get my father's ship. If you help me, I'll make the ship part of your fleet," I proposed.
"Okay, where will it be?"
"It'll still be in the same place it was last time. She never sails it."
"If she never sails it, how will you keep it afloat?"
"I would always make sure it was water – ready, just in case she ever left the ship without me and I had the guts to steal it."
"Alright, we'll talk to the crew tonight. We should reach Port Royal be tomorrow."
"CREW!" Sara yelled that night at dinner.
Nobody was paying any attention, so I tried to help. I stood up and yelled, "SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOUR CAPTAIN!"
"Alright boys, tomorrow we're going to have some fun. We're going to steal a ship. There are three women aboard. Do as you wish with them, but don't harm the ship in any way. Is that clear?"
"Aye, Cap'n!" the crew answered.
As we docked in Port Royal the next night, I pointed straight behind us at the only ship with no sails. "That, boys, is our ship."
The first ones to sneak on were Sara, Marty, Ragetti, and i. we checked to see that the coast was clear, then signaled everyone else onboard.
When we were all gathered on deck, Sara gave one final order," You are not to harm the youngest one. She's only four, so with any luck, she won't remember any of this. Pintel, Ragetti, you are to go to the room of the middle daughter. Marty, Gibbs and Barbossa, go to the room of the oldest daughter. Davi and I will go to Elizabeth's room. Cotton, and Cotton's parrot, you will stand guard."
Cotton's parrot squawked, "Aye!" in agreement.
Pintel and Ragetti went into the 2nd room, Marty, Gibbs, and Barbossa went into the 3rd. they burst through the doors and I heard my sister's scream.
We heard Pintel's signature, "'Ello, poppet," then all we hear was Joie screaming, "DAVI!"
She ran to me and I picked her up. When I straightened up, I was looked right into Elizabeth's tear – filled eyes. "What are they doing to them?"
"Whatever they want, which, seeing as they're pirates, is probably something your daughters have never heard of."
"Sound's like they're enjoying it to me," Sara interrupted.
We listened and they were all laughing in the other rooms.
"If you leave the ship now, without any problems, I can guarantee no harm will come to them, unless they want it to," I explained.
"Come on, Josephene, we have to go. GIRLS!" Elizabeth ordered.
"NO! I want Davi!" Joie screamed, clinging to my neck.
"If you stay with me, you'll never be able to see your mommy again," I explained softly.
"I DON'T CARE! I WANT DAVI!" she screamed again.
"Looks like she's staying with us," I said as I pushed Elizabeth towards the deck and Sara yelled at the others to stop what they were doing.
The next day, we split up the crew of the Pearl so we could get the Amethyst to Tortuga.
I took Barbossa, Cotton, and Ragetti. Sara kept Gibbs, Marty, and Pintel.
We had Mr. Gibbs set up a table in front of us to get people for my crew.
"How many have we gotten?" Sara asked after awhile.
"Including those four, that gives us…four," he answered.
As we were walking back to our ships, Ragetti came up to me. "Miss Davi, I talked to Miss Sara, and she said she'd take one of your crew members if you'd let me onto your crew."
"She can have the first man that signed my roster," I asked Mr. Gibbs to give it to me.
The first man was James Norrington.
I sent him to Sara.
"Sara Sparrow," Norrington said slowly.
"James Norrington," Sara said, just as slowly.
Suddenly, Norrington turned, pulled his gun, and shot Sara square in the chest.
Nobody but my new crew moved to help Sara. "Why isn't anyone helping her?" my crew member, Tori, asked.
"Because nobody can help her. Not until we get back every piece of Aztec gold," I explained.
"What are you talking about? She just got shot!" Tori looked scared.
"The moonlight shows us for what we really are," Barbossa said, stepping out of the shadows and into the moonlight.
We all looked at him. His clothes suddenly became tattered and most of him was exposed. Under his clothes, he was all bone.
Tori screamed, hyperventilated, then passed out, falling into the water. Marty did an arching dive off the docks in after her. He struggled to pull her up, but ended up getting pulled under with her. Ragetti jumped in after them both.
On the Amethyst, when Tori and Marty came to, she demanded to see her rescuer.
Marty and Ragetti met her on the deck.
"Are you both my rescuers?" she asked, confused.
"Marty jumped in first, but I had to help him," Ragetti explained, blushing.
"Then I shall thank you both," and she kissed them both on the cheek and walked gracefully back to her cabin, despite the day's drama.
I had been watching all this from the shelter of my cabin, and when she kissed Ragetti, a wave of anger and jealousy swept over me, for reasons I didn't know yet. I went to talk to him immediately after.
Six years later, after earning the reputation of the scariest pirate fleet in the Caribbean, we went back to Port Royal. We pillaged the town to find the last piece of Aztec gold.
We blew a hole in the wall of the prison, which freed all but one prisoner. Sara and I went to see who it was.
"Is that you, Sara?" the man in the shadows asked.
"Jack?" she answered.
"Where have you been all these years?"
"Well, my fleet is the most notorious pirate fleet in the Caribbean. We've been pillaging every town from here to the Isla de Muerta looking for all the gold we stole," Sara and I explained.
"Why were you trying to get the gold back?"
Sara and I stepped out of the shadow, into the moonlight, at the same time. Jack gasped and took a step back from us.
"You were lucky you were marooned. How did you get back, anyway?" I asked.
"Get me out of here and I'll tell you all back at the ship."
Back on the Pearl, after finding the last piece of gold in the Govner's house, Sara shot into the air to get everyone's attention. "Jack has a story to tell," I yelled when the noise had died down.
"As most of you know, Barbossa there," he pointed into the sea of faces below him, "marooned on that god – forsaken spit – of – land with no food, no water, and only one shot, no sword. I stood knee – deep in the ocean water for three days, until all the little creepy crawly things got used to me. On the fourth day, two sea turtles came along…"
"Sea turtles?" Barbossa questioned.
"Yes, you stinking son – of – a -"Sara's and I's shots cut him off.
"Sorry. As I was saying, on day four, two sea turtles came along. I tied them together with rope and rode them like two wenches all the way back to Port Royal. Any questions?" Jack finished.
"How did you get the rope, Captain?" Mr. Gibbs asked.
"Braided back hair," the entire crew flinched.
"I think you should go below decks now, Jack," Sara ordered.
"I hope you kept my cabin nice -"
"It's not your cabin anymore, Jack. You are no longer Captain of the Black Pearl. She's mine now," Sara tried to explain gently.
Jack did not take it kindly.
"I call for a vote! All in favor of me," only Jack and Jack raised their hands.
"All in favor of Sara," he grumbled. Everyone else raised their hands.
"Fine," Jack said before sulking to his hammock.
Back on the Amethyst a few days later, Ragetti found me sulking on deck.
"What's the matter, Miss, I mean, Captain Davi?" he asked softly.
"It's not fair!" I stormed. "The only reason I became a pirate was to be able to feel the wind on my face, in my hair! To be able to smell the salt in the water all around me! It's been nearly seven years since I made my decision. I only had four months before I became this, whatever it is you would call us," I explained, calming down in the end.
Ragetti awkwardly put his arms around my shoulders. I pulled them down and interlaced our fingers.
Three months later, we arrived back at the Isla de Muerta. I hadn't talked to Sara in all that time and I was eager to get off the ship and find her.
I found her in the cave, slowly empting all 882 pieces of Aztec gold, counting each one of them, back into the chest, which we had also recovered.
"Hello, Sara!" I greeted her, my excitement coming through to the surface.
"We're missing a piece," she whispered.
"But it's been with you the whole time!"
"I know! The only other crewmember whose been around it was Jack the Monkey…wait! The monkey must have taken it! He's sneaky like that!"
"Can I kill the monkey when it gets back to normal?"
"No, he's a good monkey. He just likes shiny things."
"Is that why he always tries to take Jack's piece of eight? I just thought he like to bug him!" I tried to joke as we both started running as fast as you can in a floor – length skirt.
On the Pearl, Sara assembled all her crew members.
"We have one piece of gold missing. I and Jack the Monkey were the only ones who knew where it was. Barbossa and Jack, please step forward," Sara ordered.
Barbossa, Jack, and Jack the Monkey all stepped forward.
"Jackie, I didn't mean you!" Sara scolded.
"What's going on?" Ragetti whispered to me.
"There was one piece of gold missing. Jack the Monkey and Sara were the only people, and…um…animal, who knew where it was. Jack could've showed Barbossa where it was. We're trying to find out where it went," I explained.
"Barbossa, the rest of the crew will search your quarters and anywhere else they can think of, while you and Jack the Monkey stay here with me, unless you want to tell us where it is. Davi, I want your ship searched as well, just in case. Barbossa, if you have it I swear," Sara stormed. To make it even more menacing, she was the only one with the moonlight shining on her.
Before any of my crew could make it over to the Amethyst, Marty came above deck waving the gold coin in the air. "I found it under Jack Sparrow's pillow!" he claimed.
"So now I have, for sure, two suspects. Barbossa and Jack," Sara seemed disappointed.
"But I didn't steal it!" Jack protested.
"I MEANT JACK THE MONKEY!" Sara exploded.
"You could always just maroon them," I suggested.
"But Barbossa would be the only one who could get into it. Jack the Monkey," she emphasized 'the Monkey', "Doesn't know how to use a key."
"Well, you have to do something. You didn't really punish him for marooning Jack," I urged.
"I'll think about it," she said as she sauntered off the ship to return the gold.
After Sara came back, my crew and I went back over to the Amethyst for the night. On the way there, Ragetti stepped into a beam of moonlight. He didn't change.
"IT WORKED!" I screamed at the sky.
Two months later, we found a desolate island that we thought was off the coast of Japan.
Sara let Jack have the honors of emptying Barbossa's pistol, then escorting him to the island.
Ragetti, Tori, Joie, and I were watching all this from the deck of the Amethyst. "Why did Jack empty Barbossa's pistol?" I asked Ragetti, never taking my eyes off of Jack and Barbossa.
"Well, the Pirate Code says, 'Anyone who fails to follow the Code shall be marooned on a desert island, and left ashore with a loaf of bread or hardtack, a bottle of water, if any exists, and a pistol with one load,'" he explained.
"WOW. You memorized the Code?" I asked.
"Just the condensed version Mr. Gibbs wrote," he blushed.
"I should probable read that, seeing as I'm a captain," I thought out loud.
"I have a copy," Ragetti told me as he went below deck to get it.
About a year later, as Sara, Tori, and I were browsing a shop in the South Caribbean, Sara called us both over to look at something.
"I found a map. I want it, but I can't afford it. There are three different pieces, so we can each smuggle one piece out," she explained, slipping one piece of the map up her sleeve.
"Don't go out all at once and don't stay hanging around this area," Tori warned.
"Why?" I asked. I was a pick – pocket, not a shoplifter.
"It will look suspicious. Trust me, I used to do this for a living," she assured us.
I started to lift the second piece off the table, but Tori stopped me with a quick hand. "Not yet. When you're going to leave, come get it while you're pretending to look at something else. When you walk out, don't look suspicious."
"This would be a lot easier if I were stealing it from someone," I thought to myself.
We both walked away to look at other things. Ten minutes later, I left with the second piece of the map.
Five minutes after I left, Tori left with the third piece of the map. She almost got caught, but the man lost her in the midday crowds.
That night, we sent everybody who wasn't involved over to the Pearl, and Sara, Tori, and I spent the night on the Amethyst so we could look over the map, without interruptions.
We unrolled Sara's part of the map and figured out is was a map of the rivers and canals in the Gulf of Mexico. There was a circle around one leading into Florida.
We unrolled my part of the map and found it was just a map that could tell you how to get anywhere you wanted to go from anywhere else in the world.
Tori's map was a land map. We found we could hook it up to Sara's part and that it might lead to a treasure of some sort. Hopefully un – cursed.