Arguments and Inconvenient Thoughts
For the next few days Carina was unusually quiet and doing her best to avoid Jim without being obvious. Which Silver pretty much made impossible. "Mornin' Lucas." Silver greeted her on their fourth day. "You, me, and Jimbo are gonna be cooking together, and later I think I'm gonna teach you pups how to de-barnacle the bottom of the ship." Carina frowned. "What, am I going to do everything with Jim now?" Silver laughed, "It's my job to keep you both outta trouble. Got a problem with that lad?" YES, her mind shouted, but Carina dutifully shook her head and said "No sir." There ISN'T, she told herself. Silver looked at her thoughtfully. "Alright then, go wake up this Jimbo of ours while I get started on the porridge."
Carina stomped inside the sleeping quarters, earning numerous complaints and swearwords from the half-asleep crew. She ignored them and strode briskly towards Jim's hammock. "Jim." She said firmly. He didn't move. Rolling her eyes, Carina grabbed his shoulder and yelled his name. "Carina …" Jim mumbled and turned over. Said girl jumped back as though she'd been burned, then realized he was still asleep. Oh, that's it. "JIM!" Carina bellowed, turning his hammock over and flinging him onto the floor. "GET UP!" Jim woke in a thrashing, disoriented heap, yelling at Carina as he stood. "What was that for Car-Lucas!" he corrected himself. Carina felt another headache coming on as she shouted back at Jim. "It's time to get up!" "Well you didn't have to overturn my hammock!" "I already TRIED waking you up the nice way!" "Not very hard!" "Just—get to the kitchen, Silver's waiting!" Carina growled in annoyance as she turned and thundered back out of the sleeping quarters, trying not to feel panicked that Jim had said her name. Twice.
When she arrived back in the galley she informed Silver that Jim was on his way. "I figured. I could hear the two of ya having a shoutin' match from all the way in here." Silver said. The curly-haired girl flushed, "He was proving difficult to wake up the nice way, sir." Just then Jim entered the kitchen, grumbling, "Not that Lucas actually tried very hard." "How would you know?" Carina demanded, "You were asleep." Jim mumbled something and both teens turned away to peel potatoes in angry silence while Silver chuckled and stirred the porridge.
After preparing a mountain of potatoes Silver finally gave them two big bowls of porridge and left to deliver breakfast to the remaining crew, muttering much too eagerly about chisels and barnacles. Carina dug in, then noticed that Jim hadn't touched his food. "You know, Silver's going to be back soon to drag us off…I'd eat while you have the chance." "Yeah…" the cabin boy sighed, then half-heartedly took a bite of his porridge.
Carina wondered if something besides their argument was bothering Jim, and then wondered why she cared so much. Ever since his slip up about going to get her, the disguised girl had been battling with her feelings and how she interacted with the boy. She was glad to know that he hadn't forgotten about his promise, but she'd also spent the last few years pretending to not care about anyone. It was easier that way. "I'm sorry for waking you up like that." Why am I apologizing? Jim looked up. "Well, it was annoying but my mom always says I am a super heavy sleeper, so I guess it was kind of inevitable." Carina felt the tension ease, and smiled in spite of herself.
During the following week Carina found it easier to be around Jim as "Lucas", though she carefully monitored the nature of her conversations. They inevitably spent nearly all of their time together, and Carina often thought how similar those moments were to their friendship as children. Except her temper seemed much more prominent these days.
"JAMES HAWKINS! What do you think you are doing!" she shouted, making Dr. Doppler jump and Captain Amelia glance at her reproachfully. Carina barely noticed them as she marched towards the figure perched in the rigging and staring out into space. "Don't you realize that dinner finished two hours ago? Silver said to go to the crow's nest after we had finished washing the dishes, and since you weren't there, I had to wash everything! Then when you didn't show up at the crow's nest Silver sent me all the way down again just to fetch you!" Carina informed him loudly as she drew next to the boy. Jim looked at her with a calm expression, which only made Carina bristle more. "You lazy, good for nothing!" Grabbing his ear, she began pulling him across the deck. Jim's protests were almost loud enough to drown out Dr. Doppler and Captain Amelia's laughter, but not quite.
Carina continued to rant until they ended up at the base of the main mast "…and that is why no girl will ever want to go out with you!" she finished, not sure how she had come to that conclusion. The cabin boy mumbled an apology when it was evident that Carina had stopped fuming. Carina sighed, running a hand through her curls. "Apology accepted. But don't," she punched his arm "ever do that again."
They were silent for a minute before Carina realized Jim was preoccupied with something. "Are you okay?" Argh, one minute she wanted to strangle him and the next she was worried about his emotional wellbeing! She was going crazy. Why do things have to be so much harder now than when we were kids? Jim just shrugged and apologized again about the dishes as they climbed up for their knot-tying lesson with Silver. A few moments into the lesson Carina was listening intently to Silver, and it wasn't until the cyborg stopped talking that she realized Jim had already made a perfect knot and slipped back down to walk along the railing. Her throat tightened as she watched him slouch away, and in that moment she wanted nothing more than to tell him who she was.