It was a week before Christmas and all throughout the world, families began to gather together to decorate their homes and trees, shop for gifts, happily sing carols, and await the arrival of Father Christmas. Everybody went about spreading cheer...except for the pirates of the Caribbean. The pirates simply continued to pillage and plunder, and spent their earnings at pirate havens where they drank at pubs, gambled at gaming houses, and did whatever they pleased at the brothels. One of the more notable pirate havens was Shipwreck Cove. An island that towered hundreds of ship hulks. And within it was Shipwreck City, which was where meetings of the Brethren Court were held.

One of the brothels in Shipwreck City, like many others, was filled with life as everyone partied throughout the night. All kinds of sailors and strumpets drinking, gambling, dancing, and some even went up stairs to some of the rooms for private time. Amongst them all was a young man who stood out a bit in the room full of partiers. He seemed to be the youngest. A bit shorter than the rest, lanky, with unkept clothing and dark ragged hair over his red bandana. He was somewhere in his teens, but most people didn't need to know. The only people who knew were the madams who worked in the brothel, and who also hosted the party. They didn't care really since his father was a regular at the brothel and he grew up learning tips and tricks from the girls there.

The boy, Jack Sparrow, knew fully well he wasn't allowed to be at the party, but he didn't care. He needed to get away from his cutthroat pirate family for once and have a nice time during the holiday week. As long as he would get home by the time his family would be passed out from the drink around the living chamber and kitchen, no one would know. With one of the madams at his side and a group of pirates he'd cliqued with, he lifted his tankard for a toast, and everyone else in the group did the same with theirs.

"Here's to new friends, partying, and being away from the family for the holiday!" Jack declared, slurring a bit as he was already clearly buzzed.

"The holiday?" one of the pirates asked, interrupting the toast.

"Well, yes. That's this week ye know," Jack said. He'd forgotten nobody celebrated Christmas in Shipwreck Cove.

Another pirate interrupted again. "And to getting really drunk?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes. And to getting really drunk," he stated.

The group all clanked their tankards of rum together and took a large swig. The drink burned going down his throat and all his limbs grew warm, and Jack loved every bit of it.

A half a tankard down, the door began to loudly bang.

BANG BANG BANG!

Jack looked around the room. Everyone was either too occupied or too incoherent to notice the door banging. He shrugged it off and took another swig of rum as the door kept banging again. Again, no one noticed.

Jack groaned and rolled his eyes as he excused his joking drunk friends and slowly walked to the door with his tankard still in hand, careful not to trip over anyone already passed out.

He turned the handle and cracked the door open. Just open enough to see who was behind the door. Jack looked up through the crack and to see the pirate standing before him, looking down at him in disapproval. He had dreadlocks adorned in trinkets and a green bandana, a long red coat, and a large bicorne with a feather sticking through.

Jack's heart dropped as he quickly went from drunk and incoherent to sober and alert. It was Captain Teague! The Keeper of the Pirate Code, and the man who Jack suspected to be his father!

Adrenaline rushed through as he immediately slammed the door, grabbed a nearby chair a pirate had fallen out of, and shoved it under the doorknob at an angle. He ran to the other side of the room to the back window as he dodged drunken bodies.

He thought about jumping out through the window, but the door was already starting to open and he had to think fast. He quickly opened the window and threw what was left of his drink out. He knew he would already be in trouble for being at the party in the first place, there was no way his father could know he had been drinking. As the door opened all the way, Jack tossed his now empty tankard aside and turned to see a very angry Captain Teague standing just inside the open door. The whole party went dead silent as they all stared at the fuming captain.

"Jackie," the pirate began. "What are you doing here, boy? I thought I told you you weren't allowed to go to these parties."

Jack felt all the eyes in the room on him and his face turned hot in embarrassment.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?!" Jack retorted. "Do you have to do this in front of everyone?!"

"Look at all these people! They're too old for you, boy!" Teague said.

Jack was about to protest when Teague spoke again. "Don't they all know you're only fifteen?!"

Aside from a few small gasps from the crowd, the whole room suddenly felt even more cold and silent than it already just was before, and Jack's mouth hung open in shock.

From her room, Valerie, Jack's older cousin who often took joy in beating him up, heard the shouting and cursing from outside. She smiled an evil grin, knowing things were about to go down.

Jack stormed angrily through the door of the Great Chamber, the room where the Brethren Court meetings were held, and Teague followed behind.

"I can't believe you got me kicked out of the party!" Jack yelled angrily, waving his arms excitedly. "I won't ever be invited back at all because you revealed my age to the entire bloody world!" He knew he would probably be invited back to some of those parties at some point soon, but he wanted to make a point.

"Not of them lot care about your age, boy," Teague replied in a bit calmer tone than Jack.

"Well, the madams don't, but everyone else does!" Jack hissed. "You humiliated me in front of the whole party!"

"That's what happens when you go against my rules," Teague huffed. "I'd have Grandmama give you a floggin', but putting you through all that shame was enough punishment for you right now."

"Go fuck yourself and shove your stupid rules up yer arse!" Jack screamed.

Teague responded with a heavy slap across Jack's face that nearly knocked him to the ground. Jack face felt numb and tingly as he blinked away the tears he avoided showing to his father.

A slow clapping came down the stairs. Valerie had watched the whole thing. "Well, well. Looks like Christmas came early tonight, eh?" she said with a smug.

"Why does she always got to insert herself into every blasted argument we have?!" Jack snapped.

"Valerie, go back upstairs," Teague ordered.

Valerie ignored Teague as she strode up to Jack. "It was absolutely wonderful seeing the preview of what we're going to get on Christmas Day!"

"For all that is blessed and blasted, mind your own business! You always make everything worse!" Jack exclaimed.

"I don't make things worse, you always start everything!" Valerie snarled.

"BLOODY IDIOT!"

"TEAGUE'S WHELP!

"BLASTED SEA COW!"

"UGLY SQUID FACE!"

"STUPID BITCH!"

"SHUT IT! THE BOTH OF YOU!" Teague roared. His voice boomed through the room. The two cousins immediately stopped and looked at Teague.

"You two are no better than the rest of the family!" Teague reprimanded. "Both of you are almost adults and you act like bloody children. Go upstairs right now or I'll be changing me mind about Grandmama!"

"Sorry..." they both mumbled quickly, and they went up the stairs into the living chamber and up another flight of stairs to their rooms, cursing under their breath all the way up.