Still My Best Girl

by BeautifulDreamer11

She could still feel the piercing cold of the water. She could still hear the screams of the dying. It's been six years since the Titanic's sinking, but twelve year old Cora Cartmell remembers it like it was yesterday. Falling into a life of thievery and conning, it will take a visit from her past to make her see that she's more than she's become.

1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The room was loud and impossibly rowdy, but it held a familiarity that couldn't be described. People were talking, carefree gaiety in their voices. It was immediately obvious that this bunch didn't have any significance in society, but to them this meant nothing. A white rat scurried across the floor, and all of the boys ran after it, each one vying to be its captor. In the middle of it all, sat a six year old girl and a man of about twenty. The girl had long, wavy brown hair and innocent eyes that resembled pools of chocolate. The man was exactly the opposite. His hair was an overgrown blonde, his eyes an electric blue. Struggling to impress, the child attempted to steady her hand as it awkwardly moved along the paper before her. Watching her there, it would seem as if she were trying to disable a bomb. Such a determined look seemed almost comical on a face so young.

"See? You're getting better already!" said the girl's companion.

She smiled up at him, feeling slightly more satisfied, but still set on being as good as the man sitting beside her.

"Cora dear, it's time to go. Say goodbye to Uncle Jack now," her father's voice put the girl out of her intense concentration,

"Bye Uncle Jack."

Waking with a start, twelve year old Cora Cartmell sat shaking from her dream. It was a miracle to her how she'd kept those memories from six years before, so vivid and so real, as if Jack Dawson had just been teaching her to draw. But she knew better. Everything she'd ever known was gone. Her parents were dead, her "uncle" was dead, and she should've been dead too. And it was all because of an iceberg.

The sinking of the Titanic had left Cora a starving, lonely orphan, left to fend for herself in a city she'd never seen before. However, with nowhere to go and nothing to do, she had become a streetwise girl who knew her way around. There were always times when she missed having a real childhood, but she also took pride in the fact that she could get things she needed without anyone's help at all. It was true, she had caved in to thievery years ago, though she wasn't proud of it. She had been coming to the White Star building since 1912, returning every night to sleep there and, in a sense, it was home to her.

Ready to start her day, Cora got up, dusting off her hands as she prepared to meet her next wealthy target.