As soon as she entered the house, Zelena swung her school bag off her shoulder and dumped it at the foot of the stairs before stomping upstairs to her room. Well, technically, the room wasn't hers; she shared her room with her older foster sister Leena, but Leena was out with her friends.
"Zelena, what have I told you about dropping your backpack at the bottom of the stairs? People could trip on it!" Georgina, her foster mother called from downstairs.
"Ugh," Zelena groaned before retrieving it and storming back into her bedroom. It had been a stressful day, to say the least. With finals coming up the following week, all of Zelena's teachers were cramming everything in at the last second. On top of all her studying, she had a paper to write due the next morning that she hadn't even started.
However, Zelena was the Queen of procrastination. Instead of starting her homework, she grabbed a robe, a face mask, a bath bomb, and some body lotion and headed toward the bathroom. Right now, all Zelena needed to do was do some de-stressing in the bath.
Right as she was about to reach the bathroom, she was intercepted by Mark, her foster brother.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Uh, what does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking a bath. Duh," she gestured to what she was carrying.
"It's 3:00. Why are you taking a bath now?" Mark puzzled.
"You're ten. Just wait until you get to high school. You'll see what I mean." Zelena pushed him out of the way and slammed the door shut. She turned on the tap and watched as the clear, warm water started to fill the tub as she stripped out of her clothes.
Before getting in, she placed in her favorite emerald green bath bomb and smiled at its sweet scent of apples. Gingerly, she got in the tub and took her curly, red hair from its braid.
She began to relax in the warm, soothing water of the tub and push school from her mind. Why she thought she could take Algebra II as a freshman, Zelena would never know, but she tried very hard to get it out of her head.
Zelena never liked school very well. As a foster kid, she always got clothes that were second-hand and she didn't own any makeup. That led to a lot of bullying. She didn't have many friends either. Sure, she talked to one girl in her Physics class whom she sat with at lunch, but she never hung out with her outside of school. For the most part, Zelena was a loner. All she wanted to do, more than anything, was leave this place. She wanted to leave her disgusting public school and her foster family who didn't seem to love her and leave. The only problem was, she didn't have anywhere to go.
After soaking in the tub for half an hour, her face mask already used, she reached to pull the plug from the bathtub. However, before she did this, she noticed dozens of tiny water tornadoes forming in her bathtub.
"Well, that's strange," she muttered aloud. She knew she had to start her homework, though, so she pulled the drain. Almost immediately, the tiny tornadoes formed one giant funnel over the drain. As Zelena started to get up, it sucked her leg inside.
"What the heck!?" she screamed. She tried to pull her leg free, but she lost her balance and had to hold onto the shower door to keep from falling in. However, the more she pulled back, the more the suction of the twister grew stronger and her wet fingers began slipping from the bar. By this point, the cyclone had swallowed both of her legs and was getting stronger. She gave one last attempt at pulling herself out before her hands slipped off the rail and she fell into the vortex.
Zelena opened her eyes to find she was submerged under water. She swam up to the surface, and gasped for air. Looking around, she could only see water for miles, except for one object in the distance that she couldn't quite make out. It appeared to be a ship of some sort. As it loomed closer, she began to realize that this wasn't just an ordinary ship. She spotted a dark haired man with a beard stubble holding up an eyeglass on the top deck.
"Help!" she screamed. "Somebody, help me!"
The man didn't seem to hear her, so she swam closer and tried again. This time, he looked in her direction as she called out. He turned around-he must have been talking to others aboard the ship-because a minute later, a life float was thrown overboard. Zelena quickly swam over and was pulled up by the sailors. It was only once they had pulled her up that she realized she wasn't wearing any clothes. Zelena let out an ear splitting screech and tried to cover herself up with her arms.
"Here." The man previously holding the eyeglass sighed, and threw her a blanket made from flour sacks. Why he had a flour sack blanket on his ship, Zelena wasn't sure, but she took it anyway.
Once she had covered herself, Zelena was able to get a better look at this mysterious man. He was wearing black leather boots; black leather pants; a red vest with a black leather jacket, both sporting very old-fashioned buttons; an earring in his right ear; and around his eyes, was that… eyeliner? This was certainly a strange looking man.
"Ummm, are we in Lake Michigan?" she asked him. Somehow, Zelena knew that couldn't be right, after all, there weren't many large ships like this at the docks in Chicago she would visit with her foster father.
"What the bloody hell is Lake Michigan?" the man asked in an Irish accent. Okay, maybe he wasn't from America. Maybe they were in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere.
"Um, nevermind. Where are we exactly? And who are you?" Zelena asked him.
"Oh, allow me to introduce myself. I am Captain Hook and this mighty girl we are sailing on is The Jolly Roger." As he said his name, Zelena gasped in shock. No, there must be some coincidence. There had to be tons of people with the last name of Hook who named their ship The Jolly Roger. She glanced down at his left arm, and noticed a hook where his hand should be. Okay, maybe Hook was just a nickname. Maybe he was just a huge fan of Peter Pan and enjoyed dressing in leather and wearing a hook for a hand. Zelena concluded that he was just a very strange man and left it as that.
"Where exactly are we going? New York? Maine? Great Britain?" Zelena questioned.
"Uh, I've never heard of any of those places, but I can assure you we're not traveling there. We're heading toward Longincagon, a port at the end of King Leopold and Queen Eva's land." Now, Zelena was certainly confused, but she guessed she could just find someone who knew how to get back once she got off the ship.
"And what will we be doing there?" Zelena asked curiously.
Hook gave a surprised look. "We," he gestured to the both of them, "won't be doing anything. I'm going to drop you off at the port as I go off and do my pirate business, which is none of yours."
"So you're a pirate?" Zelena questioned. "I didn't even know there were pirates anymore."
Captain Hook laughed, clearly thinking Zelena was making a joke. "Blimey, not pirates anymore? Who did you think I was? I fisherman?" his crew also joined along in laughter. Zelena had forgotten they were even standing there. Hook glanced seaward in the direction the ship was sailing.
"Ready the anchor, mates, we're almost at seaport," he called to his crew before pulling out a flask and taking a big gulp. Then, he headed toward the wheel and began to steer the ship toward shore.
When the ship had docked, the captain threw over the ladder and gestured for Zelena to get off.
"Before I go, I want to thank you for saving my life. Unfortunately, I don't really have anything to repay you," Zelena told Hook. A look of nostalgia seemed to cross his eye.
"I had a passenger once, about your age, who was like a son to me. He would have wanted me to help. No payment is necessary, but get off my ship before I change my mind."
Zelena didn't hesitate to climb down the ladder onto the dock and head toward the land. She didn't know where she was, or how she was ever going to get home, but Zelena knew before she did anything else, she had to find some clothes and shoes. The flour sack blanket she had tied around herself was a bit drafty, and she probably looked ridiculous.
She headed toward the land and immediately noticed how old-fashioned this area was. The buildings were all made of stone bricks and had thatched roofs, the streets were cobblestone, and torches lined the street. There wasn't a single car in sight! Instead, people were riding horses and rolling carts. Zelena wondered if she had traveled back in time. The clothing worn by the villagers certainly wasn't modern either. Most men were wearing cotton shirts with leather vests, pants and boots. Of the few ladies she saw, Zelena could guess that the fashions entailed corsets, and that was not something Zelena was looking forward to putting on.
Zelena wandered through the streets of Logincagon looking for some sort of sign when she came across a tavern. At least, she thought it looked like a tavern. Zelena had never actually been in a tavern before. Through the glass portion of the door, she saw a brunette woman serving drinks to a table of men. Hopefully, the woman could tell her where to find a store, or whatever stores were called in whatever time period she was in.
Zelena opened the door and tentatively made her way toward the server.
"Um, excuse me, but do you happen to know where I can find a… place where clothes are sold?" The woman eyed her strangely, and Zelena turned beet red.
"The marketplace? You go down the street and turn left. It's at the middle of town," the waitress replied.
"Thank you so much." Right as she was about to leave, a tall, thin boy, about her age approached her. Darn it, she thought to herself, he's cute, and he's going to see me looking like this. On the walk over, she had gotten cold, so she was now wearing the blanket like a shawl, which probably looked a bit better, but her feet were still unmistakably shoe-less.
"I hear you're looking for the market," he said in a British accent. "It just so happens I was heading there myself."
"I can get there without you, thanks," Zelena retorted. She begins to walk away, but he followed her.
"I'm Robin. And you are?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"I'm only trying to be nice."
"Fine. My name is Zelena. Now will you leave me alone now? You're quite pesky. Has anyone ever told you that?"
Robin ignored her and continued asking questions. "What brings you to the market? Out to find an upgrade in attire? Or are you perfectly happy with your flour shawl," he gestured to the blanket.
"Please go away."
"Have you even any money? Surely, a finely dressed lady like yourself would have some money to purchase her new garments."
Zelena stopped in her tracks. Shoot. She hadn't even thought of that. How was she supposed to get clothes if she didn't even have any money?
"Lucky for you, I can help with that." Robin continued to bother her.
"I don't want your money."
"Who said anything about money?"
"But you just said…" Robin cut her off.
"I said I could help you. I never said anything about paying for it."
Zelena could guess where this was heading and she groaned. "Oh, no. I'm not going to let you steal an outfit for me to wear."
"Any why not?"
"Because it's wrong!"
"It's not wrong if you're doing it for the greater good. Besides, do you have any other options?" Zelena sighed angrily. Why did he have to be right?
"Fine. You can get me some clothes, but if you get caught, I'm not bailing you out."
"It's a deal, milady," Robin stuck his hand out for her to shake it and she tentatively shook it. Then, he began calmly walking toward a market stall. This was when Zelena realized they had finally reached the marketplace. She was still self-conscious about her clothes, so she ran and hid behind a tree.
She couldn't see what was going on, but she heard yellings of "stop! thief!" and searched the crowd for Robin. She didn't see him at first, but she eventually spotted him crawling under the stall nearest to her, clothes and shoes for her in his hand. He ran toward the tree she was hiding behind and shoved them at her.
Zelena didn't know what she was expecting, but the clothes she got weren't bad. He handed over a pair of brown leather boots, black leather pants, a white cotton shirt, and a blue vest. Luckily, they fit her, though the vest was a little tight. Zelena was quite glad it wasn't a corset.
Once she had changed, she saw an angry market seller running towards them.
"What do we do now?" she asked.
"Now, we run."