Jacque, who was in fact a girl, to be correct, a young woman, was kneeling upon the wooden floor underneath the deck, holystoning the floor. It was her least favorite job. Her fingers would sometimes collide with the floor, peeling the skin right of her fingers.
She fell backwards on her bum, resting for a minute. She had been on this ship for two long months by now and seemed rather happy. Happier then ever.

Jacqueline, an orphan since the age of ten, grew into a young woman, only to face the cruelties of life. She soon found out where the place of a woman was in this society: married or selling her body in order to survive.
Marriage was out of the question. Jacqueline considered herself rather dull then attractive, and asides from a mere physical problem; she was a street child. She had grown up in the streets by her self, being illiterate, as most people, mostly dirty, seen as an outcast even in a town like Tortugas, the capital of outlaws and outcasts. She refused to sell her body, much like her mother did, so the only option that was open to her was becoming a criminal. It was dirty, dangerous and unpleasant but at least she kept her virtue and somewhat of her dignity. But even the outlaw way that she chose seemed difficult at first. Her main problem her being a girl. Wrapping her breasts and disguising her face in a scarf, in order to hide full and plum and rather feminine lips from a crew of lonely, desperate pirates were just one of the things she had to put up with. But she managed to do almost everything else.

Sparrow was really cruel. She had cleaned his quarters from empty rum bottles, puke, and whores, almost everything that was dirty and nasty. At the thought of that task she shuddered. She cleaned the hull, the decks, saw to the animals living upon the ship, she washed the clothing of forty sweating men, peeled potatoes, she even found herself trying to eliminate the critters living in Jacks hair. Again she shuddered and scratched her scalp as it seemed to itch at the thought of the bugs living in Jacks dread locked hair.

She had put up with everything, and nothing seemed to break her. She went merrily her way, even though it could become exhausting at times, but it was worth it, she had a home, food and some of the crew were even considering her as a friend and not a vile creature living in the dirt of the streets.

Life was actually good to her. Compared to before… Well, not counting the nasty tasks she had to do…Yeah, life was good.

Alright, it could become sickening at times. The men aboard the Pearl had a vile humor an loved dirty jokes. Not always did she understand them herself, but usually she would laugh along as of not to draw any attention to herself. "Men", she thought bitterly, "all pigs and perverts…"

She was sitting there on her bum with the holystone in her hands. Her body aching from scrubbing the floors.

"Why don't ye take a break?" she heard the slightly slurred voice of none other than the captain himself, behind her. Quickly, the cabin "boy" wrapped the scarf around her face, before he would see her face.

He walked up to her, kneeling in front of her.

"When I was a lad, your age I used to despise this chore. Ye seem pretty happy about it, though?" he grinned.

"Ye were a cabin boy?"

He laughed, "Aye, well, perhaps I was a tad younger than you."

She chuckled, "Hmm, I might not enjoy it, but it has to be done. Plus its way better than what I had to do before I came on board!"

Jack nodded, studying her, "I like year attitude. If ye keep workin' hard enough I might even release ye from some of the work as a cabin boy and ye can go about the normal chores?"

Jacqueline knew that normal chores would actually require strength, since normal ships duties were, working the ropes, sails and other very heavy things upon this ship. Right now she was a woman disguised as a boy doing woman chores.

"I mean, ye can't always go on about a wench' work, right?"

Jacqueline didn't really know what to say, she was quite happy with her chores right now. She nodded in agreement though.

"Gets boring at times, right?"

Again she nodded, "But I' m doing, well don't I? Also I don't know how a ship works, so it might even be safer for the entire crew if I stay below deck."

Jack roared with laughter, "I doubt yer that much trouble. Ye'll learn it fast."

Jacqueline just gave him a smile. Even though a disguised smile, but nonetheless a smile.
She had to admit, the captain was undeniably handsome. His mysteriously dark eyes, his exotic looks, she could list a lot of things about him that she liked. And knew that other women liked. Her captain was a true womanizer. When they went on shore leave, women would throw themselves in his way just to be picked up by the infamous pirate.

Jacqueline found herself in the galley. She was mobbing the floor, minding her own business when some of the men came into the galley,

"MORRIS! There ye are!"

She jumped at the sudden intrusion. It was Swain, a dirty blond man with a rather nasty looking scar across his face. It reached from his left eyebrow down over his nose to his right cheek. But ignoring the intimidating scar, he was a handsome fellow. His smile was friendly, his eyes blue and warm.

"Drink some ale with us, will ye, mate?"

Jacque just shook her head, "Na, thank ye, I've got works to do."

Swain frowned, while the others seated themselves at the table.

"I can bring ye some, though?"

Swain nodded and placed himself next to his fellow sailor mates and they soon irrupted in laughter and roars, rude comments about various women and jokes that yet again, Jacque didn't understand.

When Jacque returned with some ale for the thirsty men they all smiled gratefully up to her.

"Thank ye, Kid! Why don't ye join us?" Timms asked. Jacqueline once again declined, and went over to her mob in order to finish the swabbing.

"Aye... she was a lovely lady... brown curly hair, soft pale skin, a blush on her cheeks... I miss me girl."

"Yer girl if ye can pay her", Swain snorted.
Jacqueline tried to block their conversations out when the said customer started talking about their nightly encounters and activities.

She was nearly done with the mobbing when she heard Hocks loud voice.

"Oi! Cabin boy!" he laughed.

Jacques head shot up and she turned around.

"I asked ye about yer lass at home!"

She remained silent contemplating a believable answer, "Dun have a lass at home."

The sailors seemed suddenly curious, they didn't know too much about the lad. Nothing was really known about him. Other than he ate in private and he slept somewhat in private, having his hammock somewhere outside the crews quarters. Some of the rather desperate sailors would have cherished having such a young and lean boy close to them when they got lonely, but he was no where to be found. Rumors went about that he ate in private was because the sight of him eating was disturbing, having scarred his face to the unrecognizable. But then again, nobody had actually seen him without the mask. Some claimed he had lost his entire jaw, others meant that his mouth had taking a grotesque shape. At least no one wanted to see him eat, therefore leaving the poor lad alone. Also on his shore leaves he'd prefer to stay aboard and enjoy the free time sleeping, in fact the lad was caught sleeping pretty often. He seemed to be a heavy sleeper, nearly dead to the world. Other than that, he'd enjoy lonesome walks alone the shore, sometimes visiting the beach. He wouldn't even bother to follow his crewmates into a brothel, probably because his scarred face would scare the ladies away anyways. Or so the crew thought. And they felt sorry for the lad, and therefore also left him alone, not minding his own business.

When Jacque exited the galley in order to go after some other duties all the crewmembers seemed to be thinking about the same.

"It's a shame", one said, "The poor lad, scarred so young in his life."

They fell into an uncomfortable silence, each one of them picturing the difficulties of a broken face. Well, if only they knew.