"Jackie!" Teague called out, swinging Jack's door open to his bedchamber.

"Ahh!" Jack sat up on his bed, startled at Teague barging into his personal space.

"You've got to get ready! We have an important meeting at the Great Chamber at noon," Teague said.

"I'm not going." Jack quickly laid back down.

"You are not missing this one, boy. You cut way too many times and you act like a dimwit during the meetings. Get yourself together!" Teague lectured.

"Yes, fine. I'll go," Jack said. "I'm probably going to be late."

"You're not fooling me this time, mate," Teague said. "Most of the time you tell me that, you sneak out of the window and go to the brothel instead. This is a very important meeting and I will make sure you attend. You will only be allowed up to fifteen minutes to be late and I will be saving you a seat right next to me. Savvy?"

"I promise I will not cut the meeting," Jack said flatly.

Teague huffed and slammed the door shut.

"Ugh! I hate going to these blasted meetings!" Jack complained, pulling the blanket over himself.

"Unless..." Jack threw the blanket off and stood up, marching over to his desk. He opened one of the drawers and grabbed the stick of kohl Anne had given him days before. He held up the stick staring at it. Jack hadn't dared to put it back on in fear of Teague yelling at him again, although he really liked how it looked. "What if I'm so bad, I embarrass Teague in front of all the important faces of Shipwreck Cove and the Brethren Court and Teague won't allow me to come to these meetings anymore?" Jack wondered aloud, his eyes lighting up at the idea.

Jack dropped the kohl stick and ran to a dresser, searching and throwing clothes out of the drawers. He found an old shirt with holes and a pair of old breeches. He threw the clothes on the bed and grabbed a knife from the dresser. He then went and started to cut more holes into the shirt and ripped it apart, and he cut and ripped slits across the legs of breeches. He stripped off his clothes and swapped them out for his ripped up set.

Jack examined his work in the mirror. "Hm...I think more needs to be done."

He took the knife and ripped a tiny slit at the bottom of the v-neck of his shirt. He grabbed both sides and ripped it nearly all the way down, showing more of his chest. Now, much more of his skin showed rather than clothing. Many holes ripped cleanly down the front of his breeches and the sleeves of his shirt were torn up, leaving nothing more than strips of fabric hanging off his arms.

Jack tied his sash around, securing it with a belt. Then he took a brush (which he rarely used) and began to tease his hair. It didn't take much effort to make his hair look like a rat's nest since his hair was already unkept. He tied his bandana in his tangled hair and looked into the mirror. For the final touches, he grabbed the stick of kohl and rubbed it on his eyes, smearing it with his fingers. He then took his fingers on his other hand and pinched the side of the neck. He pinched hard, making himself wince in pain. He released his neck and what was left was a bluish, purplish, reddish bruise that resembled a hickey. He stared at himself in the mirror once more.

"Good, good," Jack said with satisfaction. He looked around in thought. He needed one more thing. Just one more thing...

Jack knelt down by his bed and searched under it for his last thing. He pulled out a bottle of rum he hid for several months. He had stolen it from the cellar where Teague kept all the finest rum in the Caribbean. Jack uncorked the bottle and took a few healthy swigs. He gagged and cleared his throat once finished, and he corked and hid the bottle back under the bed.

"I'm ready!" Jack said with hoarseness in his voice.

Teague stood at the end of the long table in the Great Chamber, every seat along the table was filled with important figures and a few of the lords of the Brethren Court. One of the attendees included Grandmama. The only seat that wasn't filled was the one right next to Teague. Two pirates carried the great book, the Pirata Codex, and heavily placed it on the table in front of Teague.

He pulled out a pocket watch from inside his red coat and kept watch on the time. It had been fourteen minutes since the meeting was supposed to start and his son still hadn't showed. He had only one minute until the allowed fifteen minutes was up. Teague watched as the hands of the watch ticked. Thirty seconds... twenty seconds... fifteen seconds... ten seconds... five... four... three... two...

THUMP!

The hall went silent and heads turned to the staircase, where a disheveled, hot mess, and somewhat tipsy Jack Sparrow stood at the bottom with an evil smirk. Torn clothing, skin showing, matted hair, hickeys, kohl, and all. To top it all, an odor of alcohol reeked from him and throughout the whole chamber.

"Oh, great! I made it with only a second to spare!" Jack said with slightly drunken glee.

Instead of going straight to his seat, Jack took the long way around the table, slowly and purposely making sure every single person in the room, even Grandmama who had a look of shock on her face, saw every detail he worked on for his look. He had even taken the liberty of ripping more holes into his pants, slicing holes in the back all the way up to the butt, and he wasn't wearing underwear. On the front end, any wrong move he'd make would have shown bits no one would want to see. He swayed his hips as he strutted around the table, making sure people would notice his rear.

As Jack made almost the whole way around, he saw Teague at the end of the table bug-eyed, jaw-gaped, and horrified.

"Hi, Teague! I see you kept your word on saving me a seat, ey!" Jack grinned, waving at Teague.

Teague didn't say a word as Jack skipped over to Teague and took a seat right next to him, ready for the meeting to commence. Everyone in the room was still shocked and silent while Jack sat there smiling as if what he was wearing wasn't out of the norm.

Teague's shock and horror turned into anger. He grabbed Jack by the ear and pulled him up onto his feet.

"Go back to your room and take that off right now! You are never coming with me to these meetings ever again!" Teague growled into Jack's ear in a volume just low enough for only Jack to hear.

Jack only smirked and responded, "Good. That's what I wanted to hear!" He proceeded to strut to the stairs the same way he did walking around the table and ran back up the steps, celebrating once he got to the top.

Jack stood in his bedchamber admiring himself in the mirror and proud of his successes.

"Ah! Can't believe I did it! Even the old bat was in shock!" Jack pridefully said to himself.

He then heard a cheer from downstairs that caught him off guard. Jack groaned and went out to investigate. He got to the bottom of the stairs and found Valerie dancing around the living chamber in happiness.

"What?" Jack huffed irritably.

Valerie noticed Jack's appearance. "What in the bloody hell are ye wearin'?" she asked in disgust.

"Never mind that," Jack said. "What's going on?"

"I have once again been invited to this year's end of the summer bonfire at Rumrunners!" Valerie announced, waving a paper in Jack's face.

The bonfire at Rumrunners was sort of a festival many pirates in Shipwreck Cove took part of, where they danced and drank in front of a giant fire all weekend long. Many of the most memorable stories Jack heard from family and family friends came from this event. However, Jack was never invited. Teague always told Jack it was because he wasn't a good enough pirate to be invited, but Jack wouldn't believe that was the case.

"Oh great, good for you—notthatIcare—but great—eventhoughIamneverinvited—but still good!" Jack said, hiding a little bit of jealousy.

"Oh, you're just jealous because yer not a good enough pirate to ever be invited!" Valerie said with scorn.

"What?! No, I don't care about that dumb party at all! Who cares? I don't care!"

Jack suddenly felt something fly towards him and he instinctively ducked. A dagger flew just a few inches shy from his head and hit the wall behind him. Jack stood up and looked around, expecting to see Grandmama or "Quick Draw" or someone. Upon glancing around the room, there was no one in the room except for him and Valerie, and he didn't see Valerie throw any knives at him. He turned to the wall behind him where the dagger stuck. A small scroll was tied to the hilt of the dagger.

Jack untied the scroll from the weapon and unrolled it, holding it up in front of his face. He quickly skimmed it through and immediately stopped when he hit a particular spot, "Rumrunners Island."

"YES!" Jack cheered.

"What?" Valerie asked.

Jack shoved the paper in her face. "In your face! In your face!" He then ran down the stairs through the now empty Great Chamber and out of the large shack.

Jack furiously banged on the door in excitement. "ANNE! ANNE! ANNE!"

Anne swung the door open. Jack pulled himself back as he almost hit her in the face.

"What is it? What's going on, Jack?" Anne asked. She looked at his clothes and added, "What are you wearing?"

Out of breath, Jack looked down, just now realizing he hadn't taken off his masterpiece. He was too excited about what he received. Although, Anne did find him attractive in the state he was in.

"Forget that! That was for a thing," Jack panted. "Look here!" He handed the paper to Anne who skimmed through it.

"That's great!" she said. "What's the event about?"

"It's a festival of some sort for pirates in Shipwreck Cove! It's happening in four weeks time," Jack replied. "I would like you to come as my plus one."

Anne gasped, taken aback by his invitation. "Oh! Um—I don't know! Err... I'm not really a pirate. I don't even know what to wear! I also don't know what your family would think since you've told me a lot about them."

"Oh, come on! It'll be fun!" Jack said. "Don't worry about all of that. I think I have a plan..."

(A/N: Sorry mates, this is the chapter I stopped at before I put this story on hiatus. I'll get back to it when I have the inspiration to or I'll rewrite it as a completely different story under a different title.)