Chapter one: Meet Mercedes

Our story opens on a beautiful day in Port Royal. The sun is shining, the sky is a bright

blue, and there isn't a single cloud in the sky. But of course, you'd have to actually have to be

outside, or at least looking out a window to notice this.

On a hill, over looking the bay is the Sparrow household. In one of the rooms facing the

sea, a girl of about eighteen, is going spastic because she doesn't have a single thing to wear to

an engagement party later that night. She is five foot six with waist length dark, soft, shiny

brown hair, large almond shaped brown eyes surrounded by long, dark eyelashes, and full pouty

lips. She was standing in her flowing nightdress in the middle of a pile of all her dresses, hats,

shoes, and gloves in the middle of her room. Her name is Mercedes Sparrow. She was the

youngest child of the infamous Jack Sparrow. She also has a brother whose name is Mur. He is

older than her by two years, (which for those of you who can't count would make him

nineteen...oops I can't count...twenty), he was also quite protective of his little sister. He is six

feet tall with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes with the trademark long eyelashes and dark

eyeliner. Both he and his sister are quite good looking. (Well how could they not be with Jack as

their father.)

So, Mercedes is standing in her room going through every thing she owns. She throws

open her closet, looks in, sees its empty because everything that would have been in there is

strewn about the floor around her and sighs.

"I have absolutely NOTHING to wear!!" she exclaims. "I need a...a new dress."

Just then Mercedes' handmaiden Chelsea, a freakishly skinny, blonde haired, brown-

eyed girl pulls a thick white box from a nearby closet that hasn't been ransacked by Mercedes

and says, "Your father, Mr. Sparrow, has sent this for you." Then she added, "And for the

engagement party tonight."

Mercedes slowly takes the top off the white box that Chelsea was holding.

" OH MY GAWD!" shrieked Mercedes. "It's THE dress! When my father and I were in town

last week I saw this and loved it, but we didn't get it because it was sooo expensive, I mean

c'mon, it is only a dress for goodness's sake, but oh my, oh my I can't believe he got it for me!

What I don't get is..."

Throughout all this rambling Chelsea patiently held the box and rolled her eyes.

"Did my father say how he got this? It was really expensive." She asked Chels.

" He did mention how he got it. Now, what was the phrase he used?" Chelsea put on a look of

pained concentration. "Ohh yes. He borrowed it from the shop." As Chelsea said this she nodded

her head.

Mercedes giggled. "Oh well, that's daddy for you." She pulled the dress out of the box.

It was a light pink color, made of the softest satin. It had a long flowing skirt with a slight train in

the back. The bodice was tight fitting (it was a corseted dress after all) and had a square neckline

that was low. But not so low that Mercedes spilled out of it. The front of the bodice laced in a

crisscrossing pattern from the top of Mercedes' hips to the neckline. But Mercedes soon stopped

giggling as Chelsea tightened the corset around her, making Mercedes' waist and hips as small as

possible while enhancing... uhh... upperparts. Mercedes gripped the back of her vanity chair to

keep her mind from the pain. Surely it shouldn't be this tight, thought Mercedes.

"How do women breath in these things?" asked a breathless Mercedes.

"They're not supposed to," said Chelsea under her breath.

"Sorry. What did you say."

"Um, I said I'm not sure Miss." Recovered Chelsea.

After the dress was securely fastened, Chelsea piled Mercedes' hair onto the top of her

head. A few ringlets played about Mercedes' face and neck. She looked quite pretty and was, at

last, ready for the engagement party. (Shesh girls take so long to get ready for any thing).

As Mercedes looked at her reflection in the mirror, she suddenly became aware of how

hard it truly was to breathe in a corset. She asked Chelsea to fetch her a glass of water to see if

that might help. Little did Mercedes know that Chelsea had another engagement before she got

that water.