Seven-year-old Jack Sparrow spent much of his time in his home above the Great Chamber. As much as he was encouraged to go out and play with other kids around his age, Jack mainly preferred to play on his own. He wasn't well liked amongst most of the younger pirates in Shipwreck City, but he was never aware of it or saw it as an issue. Even Cousin Valerie, the only one in his family who was the closest to Jack's age, looked down upon him.

Jack mainly did chores when he was at home or on a ship. One of them was to feed the prison dog Teague employed no longer than a year or two ago to hold the keys to the Pirata Codex and all the dungeons in Shipwreck Cove. That was after the incident when the key ring was stolen from the spot it was hidden at, though it didn't take very long for Teague to catch the thief. That dog sure did have a taste for rum though! During the times when he wasn't doing chores, little Jack played games by himself or he'd read books.

Eventually when he got too cooped up or tired of his family, he would sneak outside when no one was looking and explore the island. Each time he went out, it was like a new adventure. He would find secret little inlets and beaches to explore and play in. Sometimes when it was a hot day at those beaches, Jack would shuck off his clothes, jump in the water, and went swimming for a good hour or so. After every new adventure, Jack always made sure to be home before sunset so nobody would notice he was gone.

Two or three times a week, Teague would bring Jack to his favorite brothel for what he told Jack, "for business". Teague walked through the front door with Jack and was immediately greeted by the brothel girls. Teague excused himself to go freshen up and the girls turned to Jack and cooed how adorable he was. The main girl with the red hair, Madam Lavina knelt down to Jack. She held up her hand to reveal a nice, big, tasty looking chocolate square.

"Hi Jack! Would you like a chocolate?" Lavina offered in a nice, happy tone, enunciating very vowel.

Jack scrunched up his nose. He hated it when grown ups talked to him in that sing-songy happy tone with a stupid fake smile on their face, trying to pronounce every syllable clearly as if they think he is unable to understand them. Jack's mouth turned up into the most fake looking smile he could possibly pull off.

"Oh my! A whole piece of chocolate! Just for me? Oh, you shouldn't have!" Jack replied, mocking the very tone she was speaking to him in. Jack took the chocolate and popped it in his mouth just in time for Teague to step back into the room barely dressed, mainly only his shirt and breeches.

"Alright, Jacky-boy. Go out and play with the other kids for a couple hours while I'm doing business," Teague ordered.

"But I don't want to play with the other kids!" Jack whined.

Teague grabbed the boy and pushed him outside, but not without a struggle, and slammed the door behind him. Feeling defeated, young Jack walked down the street to where the younger pirates usually were. All the boys usually played bat-and-ball games and the very few girls that were there played hoops-and-stick or tabletop games on the ground.

Jack walked over to the group of boys playing trapball. All the boys varied in age, some were around his age or younger but most of them were older than Jack, twelve being the oldest.

The boy at the bat spun around as Jack approached him. "Hey! Look who it is! It's Teague's whelp!" All the other boys then laughed along. Jack frowned.

"Hey! It's Jack I'll have you know! Even Jackie is more acceptable than that," Jack snapped. "Although—um...please don't call me Jackie," Jack let out a nervous giggle. All the boys blankly stared at each other.

Another boy went up to Jack and sniffed him. "Eww! He smells like rum!"

Jack took a whiff of himself. He didn't smell too much like rum.

"Wait until you lot start drinking that stuff someday!" Jack fumed as the boys walked away laughing.

Jack searched around for somebody else to play with. He found two girls around his age at the side of the road playing mancala. Jack licked his hands to smooth out his hair and straightened his back. He approached the girls and cleared his throat.

"Hello, ladies, err girls," Jack tried flirt. "Looking beautiful today!"

The girls gawped at him. They looked at each other, then back at him.

"Ew! It's Jack Sparrow!" one of the girls cried out breaking the awkward silence. Both of the girls giggled. Jack's jaw went agape unsure of what to say, and then turned into an evil smirk.

"WHO WANTS A KISS?"

The girls shrieked! One of them closed their mancala board and they both ran off screaming as Jack went after them. Jack chased the screaming girls down the streets toward the bottom of the shipwrecks. He then slammed into something hard. He was thrown back and landed on his rear. He looked up to see a large, burly pirate. One who was several feet taller than him with muscles and a giant gut. The pirate pulled the boy up by the hair with his enormous hands to where their faces were only a few inches away from each other. Jack could not only get an exclusive close up of the pirate's disgusting face, he could also smell his putrid breath.

"Um, excuse me, sir. As much as I'd love to have a staring contest with you, I'd advise that you brush your teeth next time, mate. It smells like something died inside you!" Jack requested politely, trying not to cough. The pirate growled. Jack nervously laughed and gulped.

"Let's get this straight boy, you'd better wise up and not bother my daughters again. I swear, if you EVER talk to them again, YOU WILL BE KEEL HAULED!" the pirate roared as he dragged little Jack by the front of his shirt to the ledge of the nearest ship hulk and threw him off.

"You okay, da? You took quite a tumble, you did!"

That voice sounded familiar. Jack opened his blurry eyes to many pirates looking down at him. His head throbbed in pain but after moving his limbs a little, it seems he was lucky to have gotten away with only a minor head injury. He rubbed the back of his head and looked down at the blood trickling down his fingers. Jack looked back up with now clearer vision and saw that one of the pirates crowded around him matched the voice he recognized. It was Borya!

Borya was the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea. A friend of Teague, Jack had met him a couple times before. Jack always thought he was weird looking. He was a small, scrawny man who wore a pair of wire-framed, thick-lensed spectacles on a ribbon around his neck. Wispy gray hair stuck straight up from his pink scalp, and his beard was equally thin and patchy. In his short coat, shapeless hat, and felt boots, as many could agree with Jack, he was a strange figure indeed.

"Aye, the boy is alright! Show is over!" another pirate announced. All the pirates in the crowd dispersed, except for Borya who offered Jack a hand helping him back up onto his feet.

Borya brought the young boy back to the docks by his ship, a sleek, powerful sloop named Koldunya. Jack waited on top of a barrel on the dock for the old pirate to come out of his ship with supplies to dress Jack's head wound.

"Bite down"

Jack looked at him in confusion and Borya shoved an orange slice into his mouth. It looked as if Jack had an orange smile. Borya tilted the boy's head down and powered salt water onto the cut on his scalp making him whine in pain through the orange slice. Borya then began to wrap a roll of linen cloth around Jack's head while Jack sat and ate at the orange slice. Between bites of the orange slice, a question popped out of Jack's mouth.

"Why don't the other kids want to play with me?"

Borya stopped wrapping as he was taken aback by his question since the boy had been nothing but quiet since he took him down to the docks. He quickly finished wrapping when he came up with a plausible answer and walked around the barrel to the front of Jack. The wrapping around his head made him look quite ridiculous with all the hair on top of his head sticking out and laid over the wrapping as if he had a bandana on.

"Jack-boy," Borya began. "there are always few good people in the world people choose to pick on for being different. You just one of the unlucky few, you happen to be."

Through the puzzled look on Jack's face, Borya felt what he said may have shattered the boy's confidence a bit. The pirate closed his eyes tightly and opened them back up.

"What I mean is...The world out there is cruel. Real cruel. This is only sneak peek of what you get to experience later on in life. But there is bright side, there is! Assuming you be out at sea when your older, being on a ship...No matter what, pirates don't discriminate. Have no hand? Here's hook! Go swab the decks! Have no leg? Here's wooden peg! Get climbin' the mast and hoist the sails! Have no eye? Here's eye patch! At least you have one eye to look through spyglass, da? As for women...well, women are bad luck on ships. Knowing you, you will make it as 'Captain' real quick when you get older, and you'll go back and tell all those fools back there you are Captain and you have your own ship."

Jack stared off into space thinking about what Borya said with a smile spreading across his face.

"I thought that would make you feel better," Borya smirked.

Borya helped Jack down off the barrel and went back to the Koldunya to put away his supplies while Jack paced up and down the dock. Borya came back up to the docks to Jack examining the stern of the sloop.

"What does...Kol-dun-ya...mean?" Jack curiously asked.

The old Pirate Lord smiled, revealing small, very white teeth, and replied. "Means 'witch' in my language. You know what 'witch' is? Woman who works magic, da?"

Little Jack nodded. "Yes, I know what that is. But aren't witches supposed to be ugly? She's a beautiful ship."

Borya smiled with pleasure at the justified compliment, and ruffled Jack's hair. "You have good eye for ships, Jack-boy. Many ships I have had since I went 'on the account,' as you English put it, and all were beautiful...and all named Koldunya. Do you know what kind of ship she is?"

Young Jack nodded. "Of course! She's a Jamaica sloop. Five gun ports to a side, shallow draft, fore and aft rigged, with raked masts."

Borya blinked, clearly impressed. Right on queue, a now fully dressed but tired looking Teague came back from his "business".

"Teague," Borya said, "this boy, he is sharp one, he is. Won't be long before he will be Pirate Lord himself, da?"

Teague, never one to praise Jack, merely grunted in reply.