"Jess? Jessica? You okay? Wake up!" Jessica moaned, then sat up, muttering curses under her breath.
"Geez, mom. I'm up, I'm up!" She rubbed her eyes and glanced around. Whoah. definitely not her room. She was in what appeared to be some sort of prison on board a ship. Not a modern ship, but one of the kinds back in the 1800s. She looked at the person who had woken her up.
"Heidi? What are you doing here? And-" she cut off as she saw the three boys standing behind her. "Ryan? Timmy? Trevor?" She looked from Heidi to Ryan to Trevor to Timmy, then back to Heidi. "Is this some kind of prank?" she demanded. Heidi snorted.
"I wish," she muttered. Jessica got up, a little unsure of how to move what with the ship rocking back and forth. She staggered over to the door, which had a grating on it. She spotted a man standing right outside it. Long black hair, pulled back into a ponytail. Weird. Didn't see that happen every day. And what was he wearing? Definitely not modern clothes.
"Um, excuse me?" she said. The man turned around, and gasped, then started spurting out a long string of words.
"Que faites-vous dedans là ? Comment l'enfer êtes-vous entré là ? Qui êtes-vous ? Je dois aller obtiens le capitaine..." with that, he turned and ran off.
Jessica blinked, a bit taken aback. "Uh, sorry, I don't really speak french," she muttered. She turned to her friends. "Well, now what?" Heidi shrugged.
"Take a shot with the next guy that comes along. Hopefully he won't run off." Jessica rolled her eyes, then turned to the guys.
"Why don't you try"
Ryan shrugged. "I guess I could try. I know a little bit of French." Jessica grinned.
"Alright, then. Ryan is hereby promoted to the rank of Translator." Trevor snorted.
"And what was he before"
Jessica grinned sheepishly. "Umm... I don't know." Timmy rolled his eyes.
"Whatever"
"Hey! He's coming back, with another guy... a Captain, maybe," Heidi reported. The others immediately crowded around the door, Ryan making his way to the front. The man who had run away earlier looked nervous, the captain looked somewhat ticked.
"Good luck, dude," Timmy whispered. Ryan snorted.
"Thanks..." he muttered. "Le capitaine?" he ventured.
The man slowed down as he reached the door. "Oui"
"Uh..." ryan hesitated. "What excactly am I supposed to say?" he whispered.
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Find out where the heck we are, the time period, and what we're doing on this ancient boat," she snapped.
"Geez..." he muttered. He turned to the Captain. "Uh... Nous voudrions savoir ce que nous faisons ici, et , la date, aussi bien. Et pourriez-vous également nous faire le service de nous dire le nom de ce bateau ?" He fell silent, waiting for the captain to reply.
"Je voudrais savoir les mêmes que vous. Comment avez-vous obtenu à bord ? Il n'y a aucune manière que nous pourrions vous avoir pris, nous ont été dehors à la mer pendant des jours. Et," he paused at seeing the question on Ryan's face," vous êtes à bord du Peridot. Quant à la date, c'est avril 3, 1805. Et nous sommes dans l'Océan Atlantique, outre de la côte du Brésil." He eyed Ryan. "Est-ce que cela convient à vos besoins "
Ryan nodded, and muttered 'Oui', then turned to his friends. "Um, we're in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Brazil. It's April 3, 1805. And we're aboard the Peridot. French of course"
Jessica snorted. "The Peridot? Isn't that some kind of jewel?" Ryan glared.
"I wouldn't make fun of it if I were you." Jessica rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. Anyways, ask him if he can drop us off somewhere." Ryan rolled his eyes and turned back to the Captain, and asked him the question. The captain said something, shaking his head. Ryan sighed, frustrated.
"He says he can't. Apparently there's a ship chasing them and they can't take the chance to slow down and drop us off. Besides," he paused. "I get the feeling he thinks we might be spies." Timmy laughed.
"Spies? For who? And what for? We're just a bunch of kids"
Trevor fidgeted. "I don't think so. In case you haven't noticed, we look a little older." The others turned to him.
"What do you mean?" Timmy asked.
"Well, um, for one thing, Ryan is a LOT taller than he used to be, even though he was tall before. We're all taller and more, um, developed." He glanced away. "There's no way we're 15 anymore," he muttered.
Heidi eyed Trevor. "So you're saying that we've been whisked back in time to some boat, but we're older? And how old?" She sighed in frustaration, then sank against the wall, muttering curses.
Jessica rolled her eyes, then turned to Timmy. "Look, you're the history buff of the group, what do you think is going on"
"Uh..." he hesitated, mentally going back in time with a mental timeline. "It's 1805, right? And this is a french ship. The Napoleonic wars went on around that time... This ship, the Peridot, is probably running from some British ship"
Ryan turned and spoke to the Captain, who had been quietly conversing with the sailor. "Est-ce que, vous m'excusez pourriez nous dire dont votre fonctionnement "
The Captain glared, then let out a series of phrases that Jessie knew weren't friendly answers. She tapped Ryan on the shoulder. "Dude, whatever you said, I think you worded it wrong," she whispered.
"Like if I haven't noticed?" He paused, then said, "Correct, correct, geez! Vous ne devez pas jurer"
The captain fell silent, then hissed something to the sailor, then turned and stalked off.
"Correct? That's what you said to shut him up?" Ryan grinned sheepishly.
"Uh, yeah..." Jessie sighed, then turned to the others. "Well, we might as well bed down, it's gonna be night soon." She motioned out the grating window, in which they could see outside. "I claim that bale of straw." She pointed, then walked over to a mound in the corner of the cell. The guys looked at each other, then turned and picked out spots for themselves. They all soon fell deep asleep.