Disclaimer: Okay, some of these characters/places etc are not mine, but are in my original story with my original plot. :D If you are reading this and have not read my other story yet, you should do it right away. It is so important that you do!! Just read my bio for more info. Another thanks to Serpentfairy, for her excellent work on posting these stories! all right, go ahead and read and review!

... Amy was startled. She hadn't expected the luck that she had now, being able to go on watch with one of the only people who had even seemed moderately friendly to her. Jake smiled and said in a quiet manner, "Don't actually go on watch all the way out on the bowsprit. It's aye a little joke on the ship to make a new mate climb all the way out to the tip, especially if they've not much experience on ships like these, and watch me get dipped in the water a few times. It does make a man laugh though, watching a new crew mate go under and come up spluttering." With that he gave a little chuckle, as if remembering some previous experience, before going on. "Where he be really wanting ye to go, is just right here, on the Forecastle Deck."

Amy was confused, she hadn't been on the ship more than a day and already the men were throwing out pirate terms left and right. "Where is the bowsprit anyway? And what's the Forecastle Deck?" she asked, genuinely puzzled.

Jake gave her a quizzical look, "You mean you've no experience on a ship like this?" In a way he seemed almost offended when Amy shook her head no. "Okay," he replied, exasperated, "Here's what you've got to remember. The long piece of wood sticking out on the front is the bowsprit. It holds out the farthest sail the Flying Jib, then next the Jib, and finally the Fore Stay Sail. Above those sails is the Fore Topsail on the Fore Topmast. Under that would be the Fore Mast, on which hangs the Fore Sail-"

"Okay! Okay! Just stop!" Amy cried, with a hint of humor, but thoroughly frustrated. "This is my first day on the ship, don't kill me with terms! I changed my mind, I don't want to do this right now. I'll learn, just not at the moment. You pirates always have to complicate things!"

Jake grinned, 'Aye, we have lots of names for things. But it weren't as if it was different from the slang names you landlubbers have!"

Amy grinned back she was thrilled. She had found one of the only civil people on the Black Pearl and had already made him a friend. They were joking, talking, and laughing like they had known each other for years. Their conversation did remind Amy though, that there was a constant danger of being overheard. Every few sentences, Jake would look around him, paranoid now of his fellow crewmates. Their conversation lasted long into the night, for they were on watch for five hours and it had been about ten when they had come on deck. Amy had told her story and asked Jake about how he came to be on the Black Pearl with such a rough crew. Jake grimaced and started his story...

"I'd been a good kid. I had listened to my parents and been a good little boy. But when I started getting into the teenage years, I had started to rebel. Everything my parents said seemed out of date and old fashioned. I thought that they hadn't lived in my era, and the rules they had when they were teens didn't apply to me. I thought that they hadn't understood what I was going through and that they didn't care. So I ran away when I was sixteen. And I've been on the Black Pearl ever since." Jake shrugged and looked away. Amy studied him for a moment, and started to use her ability to read people. She knew he wasn't telling her the whole truth, and that he had something to hide from her, or something he didn't want to talk about. You don't just get on to the infamous Black Pearl by accident. There had to be something else going on. Jake looked back at her and asked what was the matter.

"Oh nothing. It's just that you're not telling me the whole truth here, and while I've been completely honest with you, you haven't been with me. That story is full of holes and has about thirty missing pieces in it. You're hiding something, and I don't think that's a wise choice for you. Especially when dealing with me." Amy had known what kind of a reaction this threat would command from Jake. He bristled and went into defense mode.

"My mom and dad were pirates, okay! That's not something I want to admit! They weren't the best people in the world, and it's not good to tell every person about the things they've done! They had connections and knew Captain Sparrow and I've been a pirate all my life!! There is no story to tell, and I'm not hiding anything," he snarled, inching closer to her face.

Amy was quick with her retort, "Well, if your story is true, then why have you slipped back into normal speech? And if you've been a pirate all your life, then already you admit lying to me because your original story said that you had run away. Your pirate accident has vanished as we've been talking. If you've been a pirate all your life then your accent wouldn't have changed a bit!" She smiled at his silence and his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"Aargh! You know what!? Fine! You can have your little victory here. I'm done." and with that, he walked away. Amy felt a little saddened by this. Now, she had no friends and at least one enemy. She knew that he would have defended his story, but not ended the conversation like he had. He had been much too sensitive, and that was a major sign that he was lying. But if he was hiding things from her and not being honest then he wasn't much of a friend to begin with. But, her mind argued, you had just met! There are things you haven't told him either. Yeah, she argued back, but they weren't major things, like how he came to be on the ship. Just give him another chance; maybe you got off on the wrong foot... No, she thought, I can't risk that here. But he might prove to be a valuable ally, and a good strong friend when you need one. You aren't totally self-dependent from people. No, she thought, definitely no second chances.

Amy still had decided to not give him another chance, but with this little argue in her head going on, she was less firm in her resolve. She decided to drop the issue for now and think about what to do later. As for the time, it was time to go to her bunk now and get some sleep for the next day. A big man with a stump of an arm came to relieve her and she gladly went below deck to sleep. She arrived at her hammock and closed her curtain. She had made a little room for herself when she first came on the ship. The captain had given her a standard issue blanket and hammock, and she strung the piece of rope she had asked for between two nails and hung an extra blanket over the rope to make a private area for her when she dressed and slept. As the hammock swung slowly with the movement of the ship, Amy thought back to the argument between her and Jake. She could have been nicer to him, but it couldn't be helped now. Maybe he knew something she hadn't about why they were on the ship. It was obvious that he hadn't been a sailor for long, and that she herself was a girl. They were both about in their teens and came from a place where no family even existed or would look for them. These coincidences troubled Amy, as her intuition said that something felt wrong about that situation. Her logical mind then lulled her into a sense of security with the comfort that she could handle anything the pirates threw her way, and that if they had wanted to kill her or something, they already would have done it. She fell asleep to the swaying of the seas, on her way to an unknown destination...