I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean, or Jack Sparrow. . .it's pissing me off. . .

GoldenHorizon: Okay, in this story, he's not 40. I don't think he's 40 in the movie, either, but whatever. In this story he's 28.

Chapter Thirteen

"We have to wear dresses?" Kelsey asked shrilly, sounding shocked, as if she had never worn a dress in her life. (And she hadn't since her senior prom; the only time she ever dressed up was for formal occasions, and even then she tried to wear something other than a dress).
"Yeah. Look, I don't want to either, trust me, I really don't want to, but we have to. We have to go up to where Will and Elizabeth live and our clothes aren't exactly normal around here," Ariana told her. She knew it was going go be difficult to make Kelsey see the point and reason as to why she had to wear a dress of all things; she hated them as much as Ariana did, but she was far more stubborn. She wasn't willing to do it unless she truly had to and something that was important to her was at stake, and Ariana didn't know if she could convince her or not. She was hoping she would be able to; she didn't want it to be just her and Julie, not only because of her own reasons, but also because then Kelsey would be in more danger on the ship if The Fearless attacked while they were at the governor's house.
"I don't care! I'm not wearing a dress!" There was no way she was going to get into one of those; no way anyone could get her into one. She would stand here and argue all day if she had to. It really didn't matter to her as long as she didn't have to wear the thing. Ariana, even Jack, could get down on their hands and knees and beg and she still wouldn't She couldn't stand dresses. Besides, this town needed to liven up a bit; maybe wearing her normal clothes would help! The women didn't need to wear those damned constricting corsets and ugly dresses just to impress the men around them!
"You have to! Okay? You have to! You have no choice! You think I want to wear one? No! But I have to!" Maybe if Kelsey knew that Ariana was willing to wear it, she might changer her mind. After all, Ariana loathed them as well, and it would take something of great importance to get her into one.
"Why can't we just borrow some clothes from Jack?" If they wouldn't listen to her say "no" repeatedly, then she would just try some other way to get out of it. She would much rather wear pirate clothes – wear almost any clothes – than wear a dress.
"Because then we would look like pirates, and they would hang us the second they saw us. So unless you would like to die, get into the damn dress!" She was ready to smack the girl over the head if she didn't agree to it soon.
"No! How do you know they'll hang us? We're girls, maybe they don't hang women or something!" Kelsey wasn't even entirely sure that was true, but she decided to say it anyway. After all, she had never seen any movies or shows or read any books where women were hung, and if she had, it hadn't been for being pirates.
"Oh, trust me, they do! They don't give a shit if you're a girl or not, they'll friggin hang you if you're a pirate!" She hated arguing with Kelsey; both of them were never going to quit until they won, so it was like a never-ending battle that she detested fighting in.
"Then I just won't go! Who says all three of us need to be there? You and Julie can go!"
"No, because if you stay on the ship you'll be in more danger than if you come with us. If The Fearless attacks before we get back, then you'll most likely either be taken again or killed! No way! You're coming with us!"
"I don't want to, dammit!" Why couldn't she just stay on the damned ship? She highly doubted that The Fearless would assail The Black Pearl while Ariana and Julie were gone. And it didn't take three people to deliver one message. Besides, on the ship, she'd have Jack to look at. . .
"Too bad! Come on, Kelsey, please? I'm saying please! Come on!" She practically never said please to anyone, so on the rare occasion that she did, it showed that she wanted what she was after badly.
Her friend rolled her eyes and put a hand on her hip. She knew that Julie would wear a dress – hell, she would wear a miniskirt and a tube top – but Ariana never would, ever. So this must have been serious for her to actually be willing to put one on. She gave a loud, exaggerated sigh and said, "Fine."
"Really? Yay!" Ariana jumped up and down, smiling like a five-year- old who had just received a bucket of candy before rushing out of the cabin to get Jack.
"Ya know, dresses aren't all that bad," Julie told Kelsey.
"Yeah, for you maybe, but not for me! I hate them!"
"I don't."
"Good for you. I do." She wasn't happy about this decision, and she was going to show it.
Moments later Jack entered with Ariana at his side and walked to the wall behind his table.
"Uh, Jack, there's nothing over there," Ariana told him.
He turned to look at her. "Oh yes there is, love." Then he turned back, leaving her with a confused expression on her face. Has he been drinking? she thought. Probably, she answered herself. Some secret stash of rum on the ship. She tried not to laugh at the thought of Jack acting as he had when he and Elizabeth had been stranded on the island.
Kelsey and Julie had the same looks of perplexity until he opened the wall up. There was a door he had opened, but it matched the wall perfectly, making it look like magic to be opening it. Ariana couldn't help the small grin that crept onto her face at the sight of about four dresses hanging in the space there that she assumed was a closet.
One was green and poofed out very much from the waist down, looking as if it were made of cotton, one was blue and slightly smaller, one was red, even smaller than that, and silky, and one was a light blue and roughly the same size as the deeper blue one. They all appeared similar to the dress that Elizabeth had been given from her father the day that Captain Jack Sparrow arrived in Port Royal. Ariana searched with her eyes for the corsets that went with them, but could find none.
"And where did you get these, Jack?" she asked him, grinning with amusement.
He smirked back. "Sometimes people can be forgetful as to where they leave their clothing."
Julie slightly giggled at this, then became somewhat serious.
"All right, let's go choose," Ariana said, walking over to the closet and taking out the blue dress.
"I call red," Kelsey said, walking over to join Ariana and removing the red dress, the smallest and silkiest of the four. Of course she would wear that one, she was the skinniest person Ariana and Julie had ever met.
"I want the green one," Julie said, pulling it out and looking it over.
Ariana turned hers around and looked at the back. There was just a zipper to close it up.
The three girls shooed him out of the room so that they could change.
Once they had removed their clothing and put the dresses on, they zipped up the backs of one another's and then looked at each other to see how ridiculous they looked.
Julie was by far the funniest, at least in Ariana and Kelsey's opinions. The way the dress poofed out all around at the bottom was just hilarious, the way it looked on her. Kelsey's dress didn't poof much; in fact, it barely did at all. It was the same with Ariana's dress. The two were glad that the dresses' necklines weren't too far down; otherwise they might've had second thought about wearing them.
"God, and to think that they had to wear these every day with the damn corsets, I would've shot myself," Ariana said, looking down at herself.
"Me too," Kelsey agreed, nodding.
"I don't think I would've minded too much. . ." Julie said. After all, it couldn't have been that bad, could it? Sure, they had to wear corsets and dresses, but at least they looked better that way. They were just dresses. . .
"Yeah, of course you wouldn't have," Ariana replied. "You're just plain weird."
"So are you."
"I know." She grinned, obviously taking it as some sort of compliment. She always did; people called her weird all the time. Mainly her friends, and they knew that it did nothing but make her happy. Better than being called normal.
They started towards the door when Ariana stopped abruptly, remembering something. She looked down at her feet.
"What are we going to do for shoes?" she asked.
Her friends exchanged "I don't know" looks and then looked back at Ariana.
Problem," she said, then headed back over to the closet. She didn't have to search; there were three pairs of showed right in front of her. She didn't wonder much about where the fourth pair was as she picked them up and brought them over to the other two girls, setting them down on the floor. "Solution." She picked up one pair and put them on, and Kelsey and Julie followed suite.
"I wonder what other women's clothes he has on here," Julie said as Kelsey opened the door.
"Don't want to know," Ariana replied.
They made their way to the deck and they could see Jack leaning back casually against the side of the ship, looking immensely pleased. They noticed that after glancing at Kelsey and Julie, his eyes became focused on Ariana. She could feel her cheeks growing hot and she looked down at the deck, then out across the water, determined not to look at him while he was taking her in eagerly. She could see land in the distance, and she knew that it was Port Royal. She couldn't wait to meet Will and Elizabeth; she wished that she could ask them questions about their adventure, but she knew that if she did, it would more than likely cause trouble, which she didn't want. Unless, of course, Jack informed them that she, Kelsey, and Julie knew somehow. . .he could think of something, she knew he could. After all, he was Captain Jack Sparrow. He was known for thinking things up off the top of his head to make others believe him. That was one of the things that made him brilliant, at least in her opinion.
They came over to him and she could see that his eyes were still traveling up and down her body with great interest. As soon as they got close enough, however, he raised his eyes to her face.
"We're almost there," he told them, stealing glances down at her dress as he spoke. "We're going to drop anchor a ways from the town, somewhere where we won't be seen. That way nobody blows our heads off when they see the ship. And, also so Shallows won't see the ship, of course."
"And when do you think he'll be getting here?" Ariana asked, attempting to keep her eyes away from his shirt, which was being blown by the wind and revealing nearly half of his tanned chest. She instead tried to focus her gaze on his eyes, which she also enjoyed very much.
She suspected that he noticed her looking, because she thought she detected a hint of a grin playing on his face as he replied, "Oh, later on, either while you're up at the govana's house or afta."
"Okay." She nodded, as did her friends.
"By the way, I must say that you look positively stunning in that dress." He again roamed her body with his eyes, though not as hungrily this time, since they were right there in front of him and could clearly see what he was doing. "You look lovely as well." He turned to Kelsey and Julie.
They all said thank you, and Ariana couldn't keep the smile off her face. You don't look too bad yourself had been right on the tip of her tongue, but she had stopped herself from saying it. She didn't know the reaction she would get from him, or what thoughts it might plant in his head.
"So, just so I'm clear on everything here, we go up to the governor's house. We ask for Will. Then we tell him to order the British Navy to be ready for a pirate ship called The Fearless that'll be coming within the hour," Kelsey said to Jack.
"Yes, that's about it."
Something that Ariana hadn't thought of before suddenly struck her. "What if he doesn't believe that we're friends of yours?" That could be a serious problem if they didn't have any plans in case that happened. If he didn't believe them, they would have no luck capturing Shallows and his crew. The British Navy wouldn't know about it in advance and therefore wouldn't be prepared. Numerous amounts of horrible scenarios were suddenly swirling around in Ariana's head as she waited for Jack to reply.
He said nothing for a few moments; he hadn't thought of that. His brow furrowed. What if Will didn't believe them? Jack couldn't just march in there and tell him, unless he wanted to be caught and hung. But he could have the three girls tell Will about the adventure. . .
"All right, here's what you do in case that should happen. You just tell him everything that happened – Barbossa an' his cursed crew, tell him all about that. If you're really from another wo'ld like you say you are, you'll be able to tell him everything that happened, am I right?"
"Yeah," Ariana responded. "Trust me, we know everything that happened."
"Good." He looked away from them to see that they had reached the spot to drop anchor. He shouted the order, and a few crewmembers moved to do so, the anchor making a large splash as it hit the water below.
Ariana had looked around when he had called the command, and just now realized that everyone that was on deck – it wasn't the whole crew, but it was a good amount – had been staring at the three of them. She didn't know it, but behind her, when she had turned, Jack had looked at all of them and pointed to her, then him, with a deadly serious look in his eyes, letting them know that she was his. Kelsey and Julie had not seen him since they had spun as well. When they saw the grins they had quickly whipped back with expressions of disgust, along with Ariana.
"We're here," Jack announced, and he strode over to one of the rowboats. "Hop in."
The three girls all climbed in and Jack gave them instructions. "Just go around there, you'll come out on the beach. Row up to it, pull the boat up on the sand so it doesn't float away, then go up to the town. Act as lady-like as you can; stand straight when you walk, maybe even have your hands clasped in front of you. And when you sit down, which you most likely will to talk to Will, put both your hands on your lap, one on top of the otha. Savvy?"
"Yeah, we know, we've only seen the movie like a hundred time, probably more," Ariana blurted out without thinking. Dammit, I am SUCH an idiot, she thought. Now he's going to want to know what a movie is, and I don't have time to explain it to him, it's not like I could anyway, he'd never understand. . .
But to her relief his reaction wasn't what she had expected. He gave them a very strange look, as if they had sprouted extra heads, but he said nothing. She was glad.
They were lowered down into the water and began rowing their way around to the beach of Port Royal.