I knocked on my brother's bedroom door where Anna had been hiding out all morning, then let myself in. She sat on the floor with two things in front of her. Alicia's Arwen necklace (it was identical to the one in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and my Aztec medallion necklace that my friend, Kassie, had gotten me for my birthday that year. She had nearly ten pages of notes spread around her and she studied the necklaces furiously, not even glancing up when I entered the room.

"Anna?" I said. She didn't move."Anna?" still nothing. "Anna!" I exclaimed. She looked at me finally.

"Oh, Keira, good. Jack woke you up I take it?"

"Yeah. He woke me up for sure. He said you needed to talk to me?"

"I do." she said, picking up my necklace. She fingered the coin thoughtfully. "Were you wearing this when they appeared?" she asked, holding it up. I nodded, reaching to take it.

"Of course I was. I never take it off. Where was it anyway?"

"It fell off of you when you were out on the lake with Jack. He found it in the boat while he was fixing it last night and gave it to me at supper. It was pretty funny to see his reaction when he saw it...anyway, I have this theory."

"Oh really?" I asked, taking a seat next to her on the carpet.

"Yeah...see, I asked Alicia, and she said she was wearing her Arwen necklace when the Lord of the Rings characters appeared in the shower at her house that time. She and Chelsea had fallen asleep with the movie on, she was wearing this, they had been reciting lines before they fell asleep and Chelsea had knocked over a can of Mountain Dew right before the characters showed up. It's too coincidental. All of the above happened before these guys showed up too." Anna explained.

"I think you may be onto something here." I said, getting excited.

"I think we have the power to call the characters into our world."

"That's great. But how do we put them back when we're finished with them?" I asked.

"I've got a few ideas about that. But first we need to hold a group meeting. We'll discuss this over breakfast. Liz is making french toast." She said.

I reconciled with everyone before we sat down to eat. I apologized to Chelsea for the day before, and she accepted my apology. Alicia insisted she hadn't been angry in the first place, and Anna, though she was now talking to me, was still a little diasappointed.

"I think I've found a way to get you guys home." Anna anounced suddenly as we ate. The clank of forks on plates filled the room as Jack, Elizabeth and the others, including Chelsea and Alicia looked up at Anna from their food.

"Oh, did you?" Norrington asked.

"That's interesting." Will commented.

"That's very interesting." Jack added.

"How?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, we'll just have to try doing everything that happened last Monday backwards. Chelsea will spill her Mountain Dew while we play the movie and say the lines. Keira already has her necklace back on--" Anna gestured to where my medallion hung. The characters jumped as they saw it. My hand went to my neck and I laughed.

"It's not real." I said. "I mean, it's real gold, but it's not one of Cortez's. They mass produce these things now." They all breathed a sigh of relief and went back to their food.

"So, are you guys ready to go home?" Anna asked. An assortment of answers came from the five of them, mostly yes, but there were two who said no. One from Norrington and one from Elizabeth. Their faces had been cheerful all week, but now they were staring with depressed looks at their plates. I suppose Norrington had been enjoying the 21st century for several reasons. The first being that piracy was nearly extinct, and the second was Chelsea. Elizabeth, however, hadn't fallen in love with anyone, but she truly was a girl of our generation trapped in a different world, and the thought of returning to a stuffy world of corsets, fancy dinners and arranged marriages, a world where women were meant to do nothing but get married, have children and look pretty, depressed her so greatly that she would have done anything not to have to go back. Unfortunately for her, we couldn't let her stay.

As we all returned to our breakfast conversation, the doorbell rang and I rushed to answer it, telling everyone to stay put. At the door was a boy from school. A boy who I'd had a crush on since junior high. A boy who, while he wasn't mean to me and didn't completely ignore me, wasn't neccesarily my best friend either. He was in two of my classes the year before, and also in drama and speech with me. His name was Erik. And he was a tall basketball player and track runner with brown hair and green eyes and enough admirers (male and female) for his own fan club. He was a genuinely nice guy, but in my wildest dreams, I'd never imagined he'd be here, at my door, looking like a nervous, love-struck puppy dog. And I had something he wanted.

"Is--umm...is Elizabeth here?" Erik asked, nervously shifting from foot to foot and wringing his hands.

"Um--yes she--"I started to reply before catching myself. "Wait--how do you know Elizabeth?" I asked.

"I met her at the mall. She was there with your friend, Anna. She snuck away for awhile and told me I could find her at your place." surprised that he even knew where I lived, and still in shock that he was at my house in the first place, and even more surprised that he had met Elizabeth and come to find her, I didn't know how to respond. So, naturally, I did what any person would do when put into a once-in-a-lifetime situation with the love of one's life. I panicked.

"There's no Elizabeth here." I said, trying to cover up my earlier mistake.

"But you just said that--"

"Nope. No Elizabeth, sorry." I started to shut the door but he blocked it with his arm.

"Okay, okay you caught me." he said. "I'm not here to see Liz, but it gave me an excuse to come over."

"Wh--what?" I asked.

"I was hoping you'd be here. I wanted to see you." Now I was surprised. Erik? At my house? Wanting to see...me?

"Are you serious?" I asked, awe-struck.

"Yeah, I mean...I always tried to talk to you and get to know you in school, but you always ignore me or act all weird like you'd rather be anywhere else in the world but in the same room as me. You're a great girl and after getting to know you in band and choir and drama this year, I wanted to get to know you better. And then I met Liz at the mall and told her how much I liked you and she told me I should come over sometime and tell you the truth. So, here I am. Telling you the truth. You can thank your cousin for making me look like a fool." Now I was really confused.

"Wait, my--my cousin?" I said.

"Yeah, Liz? Your cousin from England? The one who's staying with you for a wedding?" he said.

"Oh, right...my cousin, Elizabeth. Right." I said, playing it off.

"Are you okay?" Erik asked.

"Yeah, great, fine...perfect. Will you excuse me for a sec? Thanks." I tried to escape again, but Jack appeared behind me.

"Keira, Love, who's this strapping young gentleman?"

"Jack!" I exclaimed, shoving him back into the kitchen. "No!"

"I'm Erik." Erik said. "Who's this?"

"No one, I'm no one, really. Just a relative." Jack said. "I'm her--" Jack began.

"Uncle!" I exclaimed. "Uncle! He's my uncle. Elizabeth's dad."

"Aye, that's the one." Jack said. "Her uncle!" he threw his arm around me. "I swear she looks just like me." Erik nodded, skeptically and looked from Jack to me and back again. "Elizabeth's fiance is in the kitchen as well. Although it does seem 'e's set 'is 'eart on another."

"Yes, James. That's why they're all here, you see." I tried to explain. "The wedding."

"A wedding?" asked Erik. "I love weddings."

"Aye, plenty of rum at a wedding." Jack said. "Drinks all around!" he added. There was one thing I definitely hadn't planned on; the fact that Erik was apparently just as huge a Pirates of the Caribbean fan as I was.