Abgie: Thank you, thank you very much! Come backs have always been my specialty. Zandra is having mixed feelings about both boys at this point. At first she thought she loved Jim, but now she's not so sure. Keep reading and you'll figure some of it out.

Raine! It's here! You haven't read this yet!

Chapter 13:

Drake sighed and looked around his room one more time. The message had finally come. It was finally time for him to leave. He'd been waiting for this for months, but now that it was here, he didn't want to leave. He'd fallen in love with her. But he couldn't let his personal feelings interfere with the plan. The captain had been killed as they had promised him. He now owned the galleon. He would wait until Zandra and Captain Hawkins left, his crew pick him up at the docks and they'd follow Hawkins' ship the R.L.S. Alexandra. Jim had named his beautiful ship after Zandra.

He quietly stepped into the hall and moved towards Zandra's room. He gently opened her door. There she was, his angel, the early morning light illuminating her face. He gently kissed her sleeping lips and stole out of the room, leaving a piece of paper attached to her mirror.

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"So did we get everything?" Zandra asked Jim. She had gotten better the next day, as she'd foretold although Jim was still pretty skeptical. But he had agreed to let her come on his voyage. They had just gotten back from a 'shopping trip' for supplies.

"Just about. I'd still like to have a couple of things, but we won't die if I can't get them in time."

"So when do we leave?"

"Five days. Can you be ready by then?"

"I've been ready. All I need to do now is pack."

"I thought you were totally ready."

"Well I am in a sense. You really don't need that much to be an assistant cook."

"Only endurance," Jim murmured.

"What's that? Jim, really now that you're a captain, you should speak up."

"Um, just thinking out loud."

"Sure you were. I'm going to take a walk, I'll be back in a while."

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Zandra stepped outside and looked warily at the sky to see if it would start pouring on her. The sun was actually shining and for once the wind wasn't blowing. She couldn't believe it...four days. Four days until they left. Just four days! She could hardly wait. She'd been on a cruise once when she was ten, but her father hadn't been there and she had barely seen her mother. This would be her first time away from the Benbow since Jim's graduation. Jim had asked Drake to come, but he had declined, which had come as a total shock. As far as she knew Jim and Drake hated each other to the very core, which was probably why Drake had declined. Why Jim had wanted hire Drake was completely beyond her. What was wrong with him anyway?

Drake had disappeared a few days ago, only leaving a note stuck on Zandra's mirror. He had written that he wasn't coming back. That he had gotten tired of Benbow. He'd said that he'd been in one place for too long. He didn't leave any explanation, he'd only said that he'd miss her and to be careful on her trip, he'd see her soon. His letter left her feeling void. She missed their late night talks while she did the dishes. She missed the glares and rude gestures he and Jim made and gave each other when they thought she wasn't looking.

She almost wished Drake would've gone with them. She knew that Jim would be busy a good deal of the time and Drake was good company. Besides, she didn't want to spend time with the bunch of crude, hardcore men Jim had described for her. Jim had promised her a separate room from the large one the crew slept in, but what was she going to do in her spare time? She was almost positive that those men wouldn't want an eighteen year old girl hanging around and getting in the way.

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Jim stared at the fire. He had no idea that there was so much to getting a ship ready to set sail. Hiring a good crew, making sure you had enough supplies, planning to be sure that you'd getting in enough kilometers a day, keeping track of any storms that might show up, the list went on and on.

It was a good thing Zandra was there or else he might have flipped. She was like a ray of sunshine, always lighting up his day. But she had seemed distracted the last few days. Sure, she was excited about going on the trip, but ever since Drake disappeared without saying a word, he'd caught her staring out into space. She was picking at her food and he could hear her tossing and turning in the middle of the night. A pang of jealosy hit him. He knew that he loved her with all his heart, but did Zandra know? He stood and went up stairs to his room. He'd tell her on their first night aboard ship. Anything could happen when you were in etherium.

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