Jack unlocked the door to the Great Chamber and he slowly walked in and quietly closed the door. He tiptoed up the stairs into the living area hoping the family wouldn't be awake. Just his not-so-fortunate luck, the family was indeed awake. More than awake.

The living room and kitchen was filled with pirates, all his family that lived in the home, and some extended family that came to visit. The place was filled with chaos! Tankards and knives flying everywhere and fists were being thrown. Jack groaned as he surveyed the room. In one corner, the little cousins had a drunk "Ace" Brannigan pinned to the floor beating him up. In the middle of the room was Grandmama and "Quick Draw" McFlemming going at it. McFlemming swung her tankard and Grandmama threw knives. One of the knives came towards Jack. He ducked and the knife flew over his head.

"Oh right, it's Saturday night," Jack sighed.

He tried to make his way through the chaos. He spotted Uncle Jack on the couch with a bottle of rum in hand.

"Ey Jacky-boy! Do ye want to hear a joke?" Uncle Jack slurred.

"Is it about the skeleton again?" Jack asked.

"AYE! So a skeleton walks into a ba—"

"Nope! Don't wanna hear it!" Jack cut him off and waved as he walked away. He didn't get two steps in before he had another encounter.

"EN GARDE!" Valerie popped up in front of him, dagger in hand.

"Um, no. Could you wait until the morning to beat your little cousin up?" Jack suggested, yawning and stretching his arms.

"Right here, right now! Face me like a man you coward!" Valerie provoked.

"If you're going to keep telling me that, how about you grow a pair and be one yourself!" Jack snarled. He tried to side-step her, but she did the same, blocking his path.

"YOU'RE A DISGRACE AND A DISAPPOINTMENT TO THE FAMILY! YOU'LL NEVER BE A MAN! YOU'LL NEVER BE MORE THAN TEAGUE'S BLOODY WHELP!" Valerie shouted as she began to throw knives at Jack.

Jack ducked and dodged as he slipped past her. He then felt something pull his arm into the kitchen.

"WHELP OF TEAGUE! I HAVE YET ANOTHER VISION FOR YOU!" It was Mabeltrude the Visionary.

"Does that involve when I get to finally go to bed?" Jack guessed.

Mabeltrude dragged Jack to her little table in the back of the kitchen and sat him down. She laid his hands down on the table facing up. She then sat down, put her hands on top of his, and closed her eyes.

"I see...I see..." Mabeltrude trailed off. She stopped for a long moment as she kept her eyes closed.

"OH, COME ON, OUT WITH IT ALREADY!" Jack cried out, finally losing all patience with his family.

"Flames!...I see flames everywhere!...And also...rum," Mabeltrude predicted.

"That's it?" Jack questioned.

Jack thought this woman was absolutely mad. He remembered when he was eight, Mabeltrude predicted he would nearly burn Grandmama's ship down, consequently forcing her and Teague to lock him in the brig. Mabeltrude's eyes shot open, staring intently into Jack's.

"Also, Teague lied to you," she stated.

"Oh, well that's nothing new! Teague has even lied about my own existence!" Jack snorted.

"Jack."

"What?"

Mabeltrude kept her eyes locked into his. Something about the way she said his name threw him off, knowing everybody in the family has only ever called him "Jackie" or "Teague's whelp". He still didn't know where she was getting at. Mabeltrude looked up at the wall where the clock was, reached under her table, and placed a "closed" sign on the table.

"Time's up!" She got up and walked away, leaving Jack by himself.

"Oh great! Glad to know my whole family can ruin my entire night within just a few short minutes," Jack complained to himself, throwing his arms up in frustration.

Jack stood up and walked by the living room towards the stairs. Finally! To bed! At least there was one person in this family I haven't—

"Jacky-boy! You're home!"

Oh great...

All the chaos stopped and everyone looked at Teague, who came in nearby Jack out of nowhere.

"The boy finally had his first night out with friends!" Teague grinned as he put an arm around Jack.

The room was silent, with some murmurs here and there amongst the family.

"Are you sure those aren't pity friends?" Valerie called out from the crowd.

"You're not really fun to hang out with either, you know!" Jack hissed.

Teague didn't say anything. He looked down at Jack like there was something wrong. He pulled his arm off of him, turned Jack to face him, and put both of his hands on his shoulders as he looked at him up and down.

"Boy,"

"What?"

"You're wet. Why are you wet?"

Jack's eyes went big and his mouth opened a little. He had forgotten he was still cold and damp from the beach earlier. He hesitated for a moment as he struggled to come up with a proper response.

"About that...me and the boys—the boys and I were by the docks earlier rough-housing. You know, like boys do? Things got a bit rough and I...fell off the docks. But I'm fine! Really!" Jack cautiously explained.

Teague laughed as he turned Jack facing back to the crowd and put his arm around him again.

"Da', are you drunk right now?" Jack asked.

"Possibly yes," Teague shrugged. He then turned to the crowd. "You know, when Jackie here was really little, he used to be afraid of water," Teague shared to the family.

"Could you not do baby stories right now?" Jack grumbled irritably.

Teague didn't listen and continued. "Every time I would bring him to the beach and carry him into the water, oh he would kick, scream, and cry! When he started to walk, the little bugger would just run everywhere. When I would bring him on the Troubadour, I would have a bucket of water and pour water on the ground around him like a circle so he wouldn't it step on or over it and he wouldn't get into anything."

Some of the people in the crowd cackled a little. Valerie burst out into laughter the loudest.

"Okay, end of story! Could you stop now?!" Jack said impatiently. It was clear the embarrassment was appearing throughout Jack's face.

"Oh no, there's more!" Teague went on ignoring Jack. "There was a point where I've had it with this boy and his stupid fear of water. So one day while out at sea, I pretty much grabbed him and threw the boy off the ship!"

"Did he drown?" Valerie spoke up from the crowd again.

"Actually no," Teague answered. "I was expecting to send someone out to rescue him, or I would have to myself, but he ended up being a really good swimmer, I'll give him that. I regretted it soon after when he would constantly jump off the ship or the dock and I would always have to go and rescue him. I didn't let him go out on the deck for quite awhile because he would always try to escape."

Jack huffed at Teague's story as he rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"I remember one of the stories the crew used to tell me was when that old pirate asked little five-year-old Jackie how he could swim and dive so well. The boy responded with, 'The mermaids taught me!'" Teague made his voice high pitched on the last part.

Jack fumed as the whole room erupted into screams of laughter.

"OH, COME ON! YOU'RE EMBARRASSING ME IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!" Jack blew up at Teague. The family laughed even harder and Teague chuckled at his own story. Jack's face turned even redder, just about as red as his bandana.

He turned to the rest of the family and screamed. "I HATE YOU!"

He pushed Teague off of him, stormed upstairs to his room, and slammed the door.