Chapter 2: First Day of School
A/N: savvy0234, thank you very much for reviewing!
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"So how do I look?"
I glanced up when Will walked in the room and almost busted a rib from laughing so hard. Will had raided Carrie's brother's closet for more appropriate clothes to wear. His choice? A crisp white dress shirt with a wild, neon-orange vest, red pants, one red tennis shoe, and one green tennis shoe. Upon his head he had placed a pair of striped boxers.
"What? Is this wrong?" Will asked, looking so cute and confused, I just had to laugh harder.
"Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Will, come on, let me help you. Is Jack still looking for clothes?" I asked.
Will hesitated. "Um. . . you could say that. . ."
Dragging Will by the hand, I went into Carrie's brother's room. Jack was standing in the middle of the room in his skivvies, arms folded across his chest, and a look of impudence upon his face.
"Jack, you're supposed to be dressed! We have to leave for school in ten minutes! You don't want to be late on your first day, do you?" I asked.
"I'm sorry, lass, but I jus' can't wear any o' this. Do I look like an aristocrat to ye?" Jack asked, his eyes daring me to give the wrong answer.
"Jack, these aren't aristocrat clothes. These are. . . middle-class, you could say. It's what everyone wears around here. Here, let me pick some stuff out for you." I went into the closet and handed Jack and Will each a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I got them shoes that actually matched (luckily, their shoe sizes were nearly the same as Carrie's brother.)
"There, now, don't we look nice?" I said in a sarcastically sweet voice. I patted them each on the cheek before dragging them into the bathroom. "All right, now we have to do your hair. Jack. . . oh, man, I have no idea what we can do with that mess. Let me do Will first."
"Now yer gonna mess with me hair? I'm not sure I can take this, love," Jack complained.
"Oh, pipe down, ya big baby," I scolded. Jack looked flabbergasted that anyone had dared insult The Famous Captain Jack Sparrow. I ignored him and pulled Will to the sink. "First of all, you need to shave. You're supposed to look 16, or at least close to it. Please hurry, Will, we don't have a lot of time. Jack, you stay here. I'm gonna go check on Carrie and Elizabeth."
When I entered Carrie's room, it looked like I had just missed Hurricane Swann. Elizabeth was standing in the middle of a pile of clothes, looking at least halfway normal with some cute low rise jeans and a peasant-style shirt on.
"Here, try these on, Liz," Carrie's voice called from somewhere in the closet. She threw out a pair of flip-flops, which nearly hit me in the head.
"Whoa, watch it, Carrie!" I laughed. Carrie's head emerged from the closet and she grinned.
"So whaddya think? Can Elizabeth pass for a high school student?" Carrie asked. I looked at Elizabeth appraisingly.
"Hmm. . . well, she's doing much better than Jack and Will, but I still say we're crazy for trying to pull this off. Oh, crap, we only have five minutes. I'll go get our backpacks, you check on Will and Jack."
Carrie and I ran around the house, trying to get everyone ready. Will and Elizabeth did end up looking pretty normal, although they were quite obviously too old for high school. Jack, on the other hand, was hopeless. Finally we gave up on trying to get him to shave and allowed him to wear his normal red bandana.
We made it out the door right on time and caught the bus. We sat all the way in the back and avoided eye contact with everyone, although they were all staring at us.
When we got to school, Carrie and I took our three "foreign exchange students" to the office for registration.
"Ahem," I coughed. The registrar glanced up at me with a bored expression. "Ah, hi there. I, um, actually, well, my friend. . ."
"What do you need?" the registrar asked impatiently.
"I have three foreign exchange students staying with me and I need to register them and make sure they're in all my classes because they're very nervous and they need a friend to guide them through an American high school," Carrie said quickly.
"Names, please."
"Wha? Ye mean to say ye've never heard of Captain Jack Sparrow?" Jack asked incredulously. The registrar gave him a funny look.
"He's a famous rock star where he comes from," I explained.
"And where, exactly, are you from, Mr. Sparrow?" the registrar asked, peering over the tops of her spectacles.
"First off, lass, the name is Captain Sparrow. Secondly, England," Jack replied, giving her a charming smile and a wink.
"And your names?" She peered at Will and Elizabeth.
"Will and Elizabeth Turner," Will responded.
"Siblings, I presume?"
"No, we're mar-" Elizabeth began.
"Cousins, actually. They're cousins through their fathers," I cut her off.
"And your name?" She looked at Carrie.
"Carrie Clevingar," Carrie replied. The registrar poked a few buttons of her keyboard, stared at the screen for an insane amount of time, hemmed and hawed a bit, and finally printed out schedules for Will, Jack, and Elizabeth.
It was that easy. We waltzed from the office with confident strides. By some stroke of luck (mainly the powers of the author), I was in every one of their classes as well. We barely had enough time to find our lockers before the first bell rang. Our first class was on the top floor, and our lockers were on the bottom, so we had to scurry to make it to class on time. There were four seats available up front, and one all the way in the back. Will, Elizabeth, Carrie, and I took the front seats, so Jack had to go to the back of the class.
"Good morning class, and welcome to your first day as juniors at Morris High School," Mr. Winters wheezed in his dry, creaky voice. "This is U.S. History, so naturally, we will be discussing the history of the United States." Mr. Winters laughed as if he had cracked a brilliant joke. A wadded-up piece of paper zoomed from the back of the room and hit him in the middle of the forehead. The class cracked up.
Glancing back, I saw that Jack was quickly making friends with the troublemakers of my year. I laughed, shaking my head, and hoped the school would still be standing by the time Jack got through with it.
"Now who threw that?" Mr. Winters demanded. "Come on now, you are juniors now. Leave the childishness to the freshmen."
This time, a paper airplane hit him in the forehead. I had to admit, Jack had pretty good aim, especially considering I had caught him sneaking sips of rum from a hip flask that morning.
"Class, I must insist, someone please tell me who is doing this!" Mr. Winters pleaded. The class just laughed harder.
Mr. Winters continued to be pelted with projectiles from the back of the room until the bell rang and we jetted from the room as fast as we could, hurrying to second period.
"Jack, you better behave yourself in this class. Ms. Pearle is known for giving Saturday schools if a student breathes too loudly," I warned.
"Ah, don't worry bout me, love. I think I can handle one grumpy old hag," Jack replied with a wink. We entered the classroom, where Ms. Pearle was leaning against her desk, surveying the class with a careful eye.
Jack stopped in his tracks. Carrie and I giggled, recognizing the look in his eye. Many a first-time student in Ms. Pearle's class had looked at her with the same expression.
The fact was, Ms. Pearle was drop-dead gorgeous. She was 20-something and fresh out of college. Her previous jobs included modeling for Victoria's Secret and working at Hooter's. A few too many old fat guys pinching her butt had turned her bitter at a young age, and what better way to channel that bitterness than to become a teacher?
As Carrie, Will, Elizabeth, and I took our seats, Jack sauntered up to Ms. Pearle, twirling his moustache and smoothing his goatee. Carrie and I shared smug smiles, looking forward to the meeting between a modern-day Barbossa and Captain Jack Sparrow.
"Good morning, Ms. Pearle. I jus' wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jack Sparrow. But, I suppose ye knew that already. Ye look like a smart lass," Jack said, giving her a once-over.
"Mr. Sparrow, kindly take a seat," Ms. Pearle ordered, her voice like ice. It was clear to everyone that she wasn't willing to give Jack the time of day, but a small fact like that wouldn't deter him. Jack sat on her desk, smiling innocently. (As innocently as someone like Jack Sparrow could, at least)
"It's Captain Sparrow, savvy?" he corrected.
"Well then, Captain Sparrow, let me tell you a little something. I know you are a foreign exchange student, so I will cut you a little slack. But do not get used to any sort of special treatment in this classroom. When I say take a seat, I do not mean you may defile my personal property by placing your butt upon it. Now, Captain Sparrow, I want you to take a look at the class. Do you see those chairs out there? They belong to the public school system, and I do not care about their well-being at all. So do feel free to place your butt upon one of the empty ones. And when the bell rings and the class stampedes out like a herd of mindless cows, you will not be among them. You will be sitting right thee, in that chair, writing out the words 'I will never sit on Ms. Pearle's desk again' exactly 100 times." Ms. Pearle narrowed her eyes, giving him a glare that was known to make varsity all-star football players tremble. "Savvy?"
Jack cleared his throat nervously and quickly sat down between Will and me. He turned to me and whispered, "Quite the saucy one, innit she?"
"Just how you like 'em, eh?" I guessed.
Jack just winked at me.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
A/N: R/R!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you very much. Hope you're enjoying yourselves so far.
Once more, let me remind you to R/R!
Thanks,
-Stacy
