"The Captain will see you now," the crew member said.

Tom's eyes widened. "Oh! Great! Now he's going to make us walk the plank!" he freaked out. "I thought you said we were going to get out of here!"

            Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Oh stop whining! He's not going to make us walk the plank! That's ridiculous!" she said, although she didn't completely believe it herself.

            "I bet he is! He's a pirate! Pirates do stuff like this all the time! I read in a book once that there was this guy, and he just looked at the captain wrong and the captain made him walk off the plank! They're blood thirsty animals! They'll kill us and send us down to the bottom of the ocean! I'll never see mom or dad or Uncle John or Aunt Cat or Sammy or Joe ever again! We'll starve to death! Oh, Why me? I never did anything wrong! Sure, I stole that pastry from Mr. Stewart's bakery that one time, but I paid him back! It isn't fair! Why, Why, Why?" Tom rambled in an overly-dramatic voice.

            "I have a question for you, Tom... DO YOU EVER SHUT UP?" Elizabeth snapped as they were led into the Captain's quarters. The pirate smiled. I like this kid. She's got potential. As for him, maybe he should walk the plank…or get me some ear plugs…He thought to himself. He knocked on the door.

            "Come in," called a voice from inside.

"Go on in," the pirate led them in.

            "You can go back to work now," the captain said, looking at the man. The pirate left, but first he leaned over to the captain.

"Watch out for the red-haired one. He has a problem…"

            "What kind of problem?" the captain whispered back.

"…his mouth."

***********************************

            The captain looked at the two teenagers. "Have a seat," he said to them. Without saying anything, they obeyed. The captain could tell that they were nervous, especially Tom.

            "There's no need to worry kids, I'm not going to hurt you or make you walk the plank or anything like that." He reassured them. Elizabeth shot Tom a look, as if to say, "See? I told you! You're such a baby."

            "No, nothing like that. All I want to do is ask ye a couple of questions. That's all. What are your names, if you don't mind me asking," he said.

            "What he means is, tell me your names whether you like it or not, but it's nice of him to be so kind about it," Elizabeth thought to herself. She and Tom looked at each other, not sure whether to tell him or not.

            "We'll never tell you, you evil----" Tom began to say, but Elizabeth didn't feel like hearing him talk, so she interrupted him.

            "My name is Elizabeth…uh…" not wanting to give him her real name, just in case, she decided to give him the first name that came to her mind. "….Elizabeth…Turner! Turner, yes…Elizabeth Turner. And this is Tom…Berkley. Elizabeth Turner and Tom Berkley, those are our names. We're cousins," she lied.

            "But Elizabeth, those aren't----" Elizabeth shot Tom a look. "Oh yes," he said as he looked at the floor, afraid to make eye contact with the captain. "My name is Tom Berkley and this is my cousin, Elizabeth." Elizabeth shot him another look. "I already said that, dimwit!"

            Of course the Captain knew what they were up to, but he decided to play along. He wasn't in a rush; he could just get it out of them later. Besides, this was kind of fun.

            "Thank you, Ms. Turner. Now how did you two kids end up in the middle of the ocean getting rescued by my crew?" the captain asked as he sat back in his chair.

            Elizabeth started to speak but was interrupted by her cousin. "Hey! We aren't kids! We're 15 years old!" Tom yelled. Elizabeth leaned her head in her hand and shook her head. She hated when he decided to act tough. It really got on her nerves, besides the fact that they almost always got into trouble whenever he opened his mouth.

            "I was talking to Ms. Turner, if you don't mind, Mr. Berkley," the captain said.

Tom looked down at the floor again. "Sorry," he said.

            "Go on Ms. Turner," his eyes returned to the girl.

                 "Well… two of my friends and I were out on a boat and it crashed into a reef and you saved us and here we are," She quickly spat out.

            "According to your story, Ms. Turner, there were three of you on your little cruise. Where is the third?" the Captain asked.

            "Four, actually. He wasn't supposed to be there," she pointed to Tom as she gave him a look.

                 "But then where are the other two?" he asked again.

            Elizabeth looked around the room, out the window, down at her hands, then returned to the Captain. "We're….not actually sure," she said.

            "Oh," he replied. He hadn't expected it, but he felt… sort of bad for them. "Interesting," he thought.