author's note: Here is the beginning of the story I promised with James and Kaylee's daughter as the main character. I'll put in the disclaimer that i don't own any of the PotC characters, even though they probably won't be mentioned for several chapters. Enjoy!
Grace tapped idly at the table in front of her, staring out the window at two sparrows playing in the trees, the words of her instructor going in one ear and out the other. She had long since tired of school, and of Ireland in general. The chilly, damp weather was nothing like her childhood home, and the other girls were vapid, concerned with nothing but fashion and making a good marriage. At seventeen, she should have been concerned about the same thing, but none of the local men had anything to recommend themselves, in her opinion.
"Grace Norrington!" Mrs. MacClung's grating voice brought her back to the classroom.
"Um, yes, ma'am?"
"Perhaps you would like to tell the rest of the class what you find so fascinating out that window?"
Grace turned red. "Sparrows, ma'am. Just reminded me of home."
One of the other girls giggled. "Silly, sparrows don't live in the Caribbean."
Grace thought to herself, at least one does…
"Ladies! If you aren't going to pay attention, Miss Norrington, then perhaps you should return to your room and remain there for the rest of the evening."
"Yes, Mrs. MacClung." She gathered her things and left the classroom, taking the stairs up to the dormitories. Once she had safely deposited herself behind the locked door of her room, she sprawled across her bed. If she'd been home, she knew exactly what she'd be doing. She'd be running around the docks with her best friend, Jonas, getting into all sorts of mischief.
Oh, Jonas… just thinking about him made her heart hurt. She missed him, almost more than she missed her family. They had been the best of friends nearly from the day she arrived in Tortuga with Mother and Father. Father hadn't been very happy about her associating with the son of a whore, but Mother had understood. Who else was there? Anyway, Jonas was a decent boy, unlike most of the other urchins that swarmed the docks of Tortuga, and he looked after her as if she were his own little sister. Three years older than herself, Grace looked up to Jonas as the greatest of heroes.
They had talked about everything; their hopes, their dreams. Jonas' favorite thing to talk about was who his father might be. His mother wouldn't tell him, so they would guess, watching every man who came into Tortuga for clues, someone who shared his dark brown hair, his cinnamon-colored skin, his high, angled cheekbones. As far as either of them knew, it could have been anyone. He always told Grace that his father must have been a great pirate captain, and that someday he would come back and claim him, and they'd go off and have adventures on his father's ship.
Grace believed every word, little girl that she'd been. She had dreamed of adventure on the high seas, but here she was, bound by rules and corsets, far away from the place she'd called home. She'd been gone for nearly three years, Jonas was probably off on his adventures without her. She began to cry. Nothing was going as she'd always planned.
A soft knock at the door, and then a voice. "Gracie? Its Hannah. There's a letter for you from your mum." Grace wiped her eyes and went to unlock the door. Of all the girls at school, Grace was closest with Hannah. The tiny blonde slipped in the door and closed it behind her. She looked at Grace's tear-streaked face, concerned. "Gracie? What's wrong?"
Grace hugged her friend. "Oh, nothing, Hannah, just a little homesick, that's all." She looked at the letter in Hannah's hand. "You said Mother wrote?"
Hannah handed her the letter. "Yes, here, read it."
Grace took the letter and opened it, looking over the words in her mother's spidery script. "Oh, Becca said her first sentence!"
"Becca? Oh, your youngest sister."
"Yes, she's two now." She read on, and then jumped up, squealing. "Oh, Hannah, I'm going home! Mother and Father are sending for me, I'm to go home the first of next month!" She hugged Hannah. "Oh, Hannah, I'll miss you, but I'm going home!"
Well, what do you think? Please R&R.