(A/N – Okay, this really bites the big one! When did she even tell about this dumb test?!?!?!? Lindsay! You're smart! Help me! Oh wait… never mind… test time. Cya at the bottom after the test… wish me luck, and be quiet if you don't want Mrs. Winslow to get mad.)

Oh my gosh! Reviewers!

x) Lauren - Do not fret! But believe me when I say I had to! I'll look for you're update and I swear that you're psychic!! lol... i read the beginning of the review like 'How did she know?!' lol... Well, enjoy this one even though it's a tear-jerker as well. Thanks for reviewing!!

x) Raina and Nayana - Krispy kremes, Skittles, and M&Ms!!! Yay! But Mr. Reidman doesn't give Studay Parties... he give PARTIES!!! lol. But if the principal walks in, we must sit and pretend we are reading amongst the ballons and steamers with food smeared all over our faces! lol. Yay, dots! ... ... ... just for you! haha... thanks for reviewing and enjoy this sad but funny chapter!

.:: Somebody help me!!! My door is on fire! lol… ::.

- It is my sad duty to inform you people that I've got another disclaimer here…

- Lindsay, Jessica, Arielle Faye Turner, Rebecca Barbossa, Paige Castrella Madrine (Lillian Paige Barbossa), Thomas Pikes and the Meridian… no touchy.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: "Happy Kwanzaa!"

But no help came. Within a minute, Jack's breathing slowed, and I was no longer rising and falling with his chest. I pressed my ear against his chest and listened the moment he stopped moving – no heartbeat. I sat up.

Tears.

Pain.

Paige hugged me, and I let loose the waterworks full blown. We separated as I looked on at him lying so limp and cold there. Then the memories started to penetrate the walls of my mind slowly, mercilessly…

"Okay," Lindsay said, "tell us the truth. Who are you?"
"Captain Jack Sparrow," he said putting his foot on the coffee table beside me. He looked up, as if trying to be heroic, his arm across his chest.

…

"So, where's ye' rum?" he asked rubbing his hands together in eagerness.
"Uh, we don't have any," I said.
"What?! No rum?! "
"Nope. Orange juice," Lindsay said, slamming the glass down on the table.

…

"Don't attack the squirrel!" I said.
"Why?" he asked.
"Well, uh... he has help! See? You're outnumbered!" I said motioning to the rocky toucan and seahorse beside the squirrel. Jack's eyes widened.
"You're right, luv!" he said.

…

"Revenge!" Jack screamed as some management members came out. We held Jack closer to the wall when the manager spoke.
"Excuse me, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he said.
"Revenge!" Jack yelled at the manager.
"Please, if you'll just step outside – "
"REVENGE!!!" Jack bellowed.

…

"What did you have for breakfast, mate?" Will asked her.
"Nothing yet!" Jessica replied enthusiastically. "But I was thinking of having some Cap'n Crunch..."
"Who be this Cap'n Crunch?" Jack asked as he pinned Lindsay to the bed, and pointed his gun at her face. "Relative of Hook's? Relative of mine? Maybe all three of us are cousins..."

…

I settled everyone and explained what a pizza was to Jack, Will, and Elizabeth.
"I want rum on mine," Jack said.
"Rum isn't a pizza topping..." I said.
"Well, why not?"
"The Italians didn't want it that way!"
"Damn Italians..."

…

"You've got no sense of adventure," Elizabeth said as we left the roller coaster. "OR a strong stomach by the looks of it..."
"I'm a pirate. Perfect sense of adventure and really strong stomach, thank you," Jack said. Elizabeth smiled evilly.
"Oh really?" she asked. Elizabeth hit Jack in the stomach, and he went running for the garbage can next to the Dippin' Dots cart.
"Pirate... yeah, right..." she said.

…

"Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirate's life for me!" Jack yelled. I looked up and saw Jack jumping on the end of the bed, clashing a pair of cymbals as loud as he could.
"What are you doing?!" I screamed over the cymbals.
"Whatever I want!" Jack yelled back as he continued jumping.
"He's a dinosaur!" Will said, coming form the kitchen.
"Thank ye', Will!" Jack said. "Now, give me that rum!" Will handed Jack a bottle, and Jack began chugging it straight. As rum spilled on the blanket beside me, my friends came running up to the end of the bed and pulled the comforter out from underneath Jack. He came crashing down next to me, cymbals and all.
"You ok?" I asked him.
"More... rum!" Jack said drunkenly, shaking the bottle lightly in the air.

…

"Straighten up, Jack," I said. "This is Chester! Chester Bennington! He's great and he is so good-looking..."
"Oh, yes..." Jack said sarcastically. "Mr. Chester Norrington is so wonderful! Let's give him a bloody cookie!" Jack said.
"It's Bennington, not Norrington..." Lindsay said. Jack's eyes widened.
"NORRINGTON?!" he shouted. "Norrington is in there?!"
"No! No!" Jessica said. "It's not Norrington!" We tried to quiet Jack and calm him down. His rage about Norrington wasn't going away, though.
"I'll kill him!" Jack said.
"Jack, calm down!" Elizabeth said. Jack drew his sword.
"C'mon... I'll take him down with one hit! He's a bigger welp than Will!"

…

"Come on down!" we heard a cop yell up to us.
"We can't!" I yelled down to them. "Jack Stupid – "
"CAPTAIN," Jack said, correcting me. I sighed.
"Fine! CAPTAIN Jack Stupid got stuck, and –"
"Who ye' callin' stupid, missy?" asked Jack.

…

"And now it's my turn," Jack said, taking something from his hair. We saw him pull out what looked like a large wooden tooth. He took Will's knife and carved in it as well. We watched him fasten it onto a black string, and he gave it to me (freaking out at the moment...). I looked up, sorta speechless... ok, totally speechless.
"Why me? I don't even act like you!" I said. It made no sense...
"Because ye've earned me trust," Jack said.

…

I lay in the pile of all my stuff coughing, and a hand plunged down to me to help me up, and I took it. When I got up, I found out that that hand wasn't Lindsay's, Jessica's, or Will's, but Jack's. I smiled immediately, and I couldn't help but hug him as Jessica had Will.
"What's the occasion?" Jack said as I let go.
"You're back!"

…

Lindsay and I opened the glass door. There was a breeze blowing the drapes around us, and Lindsay and Jessica ran outside. Jack, who was carrying the bags Will had abandoned, was stuck and couldn't get through the door.
"Suck it in, Jack!" I said, pushing him.
"There's no suckin' happenin'!"

…

"That can is empty..." I said. Jessica shook it and sprayed.
"It can't be empty..." she said, hitting the bottom. With one more hit on the bottom of the can, blue silly string came flying out of the can and onto Jack. He looked at her. Jessica smiled really big.
"Hi Jack..." she said nervously.
"Hello, Mary," Jack replied
"That's a good look for you, Jack," Elizabeth said.
"Thanks, but I like me old look if ye don't mind."

…

"What did she eat that was pure sugar?"
"Captain Crunch, Will!" Jess said.
"Wait... I think I might know 'im!" Jack said. "Weren't we related?"

…

"Alright, alright... give me yer watch." Jack commanded.
"No way! It's mine!" I yelled.
"Grace, now..."
"Forget you..."
"Don't make me shoot ye..."
"I can't die..."
"Black Grace! Give me that watch!"
"No! It's mine! When you gonna understand that?!"
"You're doing so good, Jack..." Lindsay laughed.

…

"It's four to one," Rebecca said. "You're odds aren't so good."
"Four to two," a voice said from behind me. "And I can take ye all single-handedly if ye like." I spun around. Jack! Rebecca's jaw hit the sand in disbelief.
"But I sent you back to my ship!" she raged.
"That'd be my ship," Jack said. "Now let them go or die."

…

Jack hadn't told us his plan yet, probably since he was still working out those hard details while murmuring about rum in his sleep... Then he starts his singing...
"Yo ho, ho yo! Really bad eggy rum and other... good... stuff... CHEESE! Aye, cheese..."

…

"What if it goes so wrong we can't fix it?"
"Ye know," Jack said. "If ye're the same pirate I dubbed Little Sparrow a year ago, ye should be just as ye were – ye can think like me... if something happens, no matter what it is, ye'll know what to do. Always a plan ready for anything - even if the worst should happen…"

Those words rang in my head painfully.

"The worst did happen!" I bellowed aloud suddenly. "THE WORST HAPPENED!!!"

No one asked questions about my sudden outburst to yell at Jack's body, but Lindsay and Jess came over beside us and hugged me tightly, and we started crying again. I looked at Jack so torn up. I hated myself.

Then I heard something move, and we looked to see Rebecca trying to stand. Then my eyes widened, and I looked down at Jack.

Hate…

"Ye'll always be Little Sparrow…"

"I know that," I whispered. "Always…"

"Nothing can stop ye…"

"Nothing," I said, eyes widening in realization finally. Suddenly, it all registered. Everything made sense.

"Not even Barbossa's daughter…" I said.

"What?" Lindsay asked, looking up at me.

"What did you say?" Stewy sniffed.

I stood up away from my friends and bent over to pick up Jack's sword that lay a few feet from him.

BANG!!!

"JACK!!!"

He had dropped it when he pushed Lindsay out of the way. I bent over with tears still streaming from my eyes, shaking from crying so hard and full of all the rage, and I took his sword in my hands gently.

"Grace?" Paige whispered. "What are you doing?"

I just stared forward with my eyes still wide.

"Ye're pirates..."

"Aye…" I said as if I were hypnotized. "I am."

"Erica, what are you saying?" Lindsay asked.

I turned to them slowly.

"We're pirates," I said. "We're the Littles… and we've got an evil daughter of Barbossa to massacre."

Lindsay, Stewy, and Paige looked at me for a moment as if they weren't getting this at all, like they didn't get the message that I was so upset I wanted to murder that evil thing struggling to stand, but then Lindsay nodded and gave me a smile. I had reached her.

"We're pirates," she said, patting me on the back.

I gave a faint smile knowing I could always count on her. She knew what to do from there on. Then, I moved away and stepped in front of them watching Rebecca finally get her legs back as she stood tall.

"Hey Becca!" I yelled.

She looked up slowly with a look of utmost hate. I walked up to her slowly.

"You may have killed Jack and can't save your father now, but why not get your kicks and take out the Littles. I mean, you killed the best pirate there ever was; surely you could take out four twenty-first century American teenagers."

"It'd be a foolish thing to fight you," she said, throwing her long curls behind her.

"Well, what can I say? When you're right, you're right," I said. "It would be pretty dumb, stupid, pointless, and foolish - as you like to put it – to fight us."

"Big talk for a little girl," she said. "You only speak so bravely because you hold the immortality curse like the rest of your little friends."

"I could beat you with or without it," I said, scowling up at her (Man! I really need to learn to watch my mouth…).

"Could you, now?"

"Yeah! Hands down, Becky!"

Just to prove it to her (and to myself) how gutsy I was being now, I trudged right up to the chest of medallions.

"Mary! Paige! Jane! Get up here!" I yelled.

They gave each other looks of cluelessness and started towards me leaving Thomas to slip away into the shadows (just like everyone seems to love to do suddenly… where the hell was Will when we needed him?!). They walked up to me slowly.

"Uh… Erica?" Lindsay asked. "Might I ask what exactly is your warped mind thinking?!" she whispered near hysterics.

"Give me your medallions," I said. "We're lifting the curse."

"Grace, you won't make it," Paige said.

"I don't need to be immortal to get even," I said. "I really don't care what happens anymore."

I threw my medallion down and walked down off the golden treasures without looking up at my friends. I don't care anymore. Jack's gone. I meant what I said… I think…

"There," I said. "Curse gone. Now you gonna fight me?"

"You're making a big mistake," Becca told me, looking her sword over.

"Oh, my dear friend, you already made yours…" I said.

I held up Jack's sword in front of me and again seemed to fall into a state of hypnosis as the moonlight gleamed across it.

"Sorry for your loss," Rebecca said sarcastically watching me stare at the sword. I glared up at her, my entire face scrunched up in pure hatred, anger, disgust…

"Nothing can stop ye…"

"Bigger loss for you than me," I said.

"I think not," she said, pointing her sword at me. I looked at the tip of the blade and then down at my own sword. Then, back to Rebecca. I pushed her sword aside with mine.

"I do."

Suddenly, a rope came around the feet of Rebecca, it was pulled hard, and she fell flat on her face into the rocks and water. I looked up and saw Lindsay standing there coiling up the rope.

"What would you do without me?" she asked, smiling.

"I have no clue," I said, returning the smile as I stood.

Lindsay ran back into the dark rim of the cave as Rebecca got to her feet bringing her sword down on me without warning. I held both ends of the sword to shield myself, and then I kicked her in the shin. I ran for a few seconds; I ran through this one arch of rock, and I could've sworn I saw something other than gold piled up in the corner.

"Pull!"

I stopped and turned around, and there was Stewy and Paige with another rope pulled up enough to trip up Becca and send her rolling down the rocky slope after me. Then they dropped the rope and ran off.

Once Becca was up again, I squeezed myself into a small crevice in the rock until she ran pass, but when I ran out, she was on my tail again.

"Stop running and fight me!" she yelled. "Isn't that what you wanted?!"

Without thinking, I spun around so that my sword would meet her hip, but no good; she parried me and tried for my head. When I ducked it, she kneed me in the stomach so hard that I fell over, and then the sword came at my head, but I rolled out the way and kicked her in the face pushing her backwards. I had enough time to get up before we were at it again, this time in an actual duel. I was amazed… I didn't know I could fight this! I couldn't even parry Jack before…

I started looking around the cave until my eyes met movement up on the rock where we met that Shminky character, and I saw that distinct blonde ponytail, Will, and Lindsay's boyz pants. I kept fighting, trying not to look like I knew something was coming, but you know, that's me…

I finally saw what they were pulling, and I punched Rebecca in the jaw hard as I could, and I fell to the ground covering my head. Then the explosion came, and Lindsay came swinging across the cave on a rope.

"Haha! May the wrath of Bloody Jane torment your soul for eternity! Muahahahaha!"

Lindsay came sailing over us, and she snatched Rebecca's big hat right off her head that strongly resembled her father's. Then Lindsay went flying to the other side of the cave cackling like mad putting on Becca's hat, and Rebecca charged at me.

"Toro! Toro!" I said, spinning out of the way as she fell into the water. I looked down at her and laughed. "You're really not too good at the whole pirate antics, are you?"

"Those are just clever tricks! Let's see you use some real pirate antics!"

"Those are the new ones! We put them in our pirates-in-training book (haha… there isn't one, but rule numero-uno is to always confuse the enemy)!"

"God only knows what evils you have in said book," she said, getting out of the water. "Probably voodoo and such."

"Use your imagination," I said.

She wasn't too happy with that, so again with the sword fighting…

"Hey! They're stealing the Pearl!" I yelled. Rebecca fell for it and looked. I ran for my life again, and she was even madder when I pulled that, but hey, it's her stupidity… plus, running seems to help me out a lot.

I ran out of the moonlight and Becca followed flailing her arms laughing evilly. I found myself wondering my I had opened my mouth instead of lying next to Jack and waiting to die, or at least pretending, but no, I just had to get up and get into this…

Then Thomas stepped between us, blew a party horn in Rebecca face, and screamed, "Happy Kwanzaa!"

I laughed as he planted a set of Rudolph ears on her head and jumped into a small pool of water after throwing confetti in her face. I turned and ran more laughing my butt off as she ripped the antlers out of her hair and threw them into the water after Thomas starting after me again.

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- Haha…

Well, glad that's over…. To lunch! Yay!

Please review! Yes, Jack… I'll get you some cheese curls…