Ch.3- The Punishment for House Calling
"Dried blood? What the hell is some kid's paper doing covered in dried blood?" Ben asked.
That was actually a very good question. Kids normally didn't bleed unless they actually got hurt by falling into something or somebody hit them. Had Elie been getting hit? If so, then by who? Had the other kids been getting hit, too? Shanks had to find out. If he was going to be hanging around these kids for the rest of the time he'd be in this town, then it was his duty to know.
"Any of you guys got a map of this place? I want to have a word with the parents of those kids and have my gun returned from that little bitch, Elie." Shanks asked his crew.
He lucked out. Wataru, since he happened to be a navigator, made a copy of a city map...or at least he said he did. He actually took a free map that was being given by the library that sat down the street from the marina. Thankfully, this town was small so the map was also small, thus making it easier for the captain to read it.
"Men, wish me luck." The captain told his crew before leaving the ship with Wataru's map and the paper with the student's homes on it. The trip itself sounded like a life or death journey. Nothing could be expected when he visited with the families of his new students.
Elie's house was first, not because Shanks needed his gun back, but because she lived in a tiny apartment complex close to the marina.
Crescent Hill Apartment Complex, the complex was sorry looking place. The buildings were pained a dull cream color with the paint chipping away. Over-grown bushes surrounding the place were decorated with beer cans and bottles, cigarette butts, and even a used condom.
Apartment number 3 was on the bottom of the complex. A small pile of empty beer bottles sat outside the door. Something inside the captain told him that this was not a safe place for anybody, but he went ahead and knocked on the door anyway.
Elie didn't answer the door like Shanks had expected. Instead a man about his height with a beer belly and a five-o'clock shadow answered the door. The man's dull yet harsh green eyes stared at Shanks as he asked in a sharp voice, "Yeah?"
"Are you Nick Morrow?" Shanks asked the man.
"Yeah, who are you?" the man asked.
"My name is Shanks. I'm your daughter's new teacher and I want to talk to you about her." The captain admitted.
The other man, Nick, let out a sigh and asked, "What has Jill done this time?"
Now Shanks was confused. "Jill? I thought your daughter's name was Elin."
Nick paused for a moment, as if something caught him by surprise. Carefully, the man reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a folded piece of paper. A birth certificate. On the name, in delicate black ink was the name "Elin Carra Morrow." The red haired man was right. Nick ran a hand through his short brown hair and said unemotionally, "Right...Elin. So, you wanna come in or something?"
Shanks took up the offer and walked inside the apartment's living room. The inside wasn't any better than the outside. Beer cans, cigarette butts, and a very worn couch was seated in the living room. "So, what did Elin do this time? Teachers don't come here unless she did something. So, what did she do?" Nick asked him.
"Well, she stole a gun from me during class today and she almost got me with a dagger." Shanks explained.
Nick let out a sigh before asking, "Anything else?"
Well, he seems like an understanding guy. I wonder where Elie gets her violence from. Shanks thought before deciding to bring up Elie's paper. "Yeah. I read Elie's paper today and it's covered in dried blood."
Now Nick was not looking emotionless like he had before. In fact, the look on his face was a mix of surprise and anger, as if a deep secret that nobody else knew was revealed. His body stiffened up. "She must have gotten into another fight. I'll go get your gun. Wait here please." Without saying anything else or waiting for Shanks to answer him, Nick left the room and headed down the hallway. The door to the room at the end of the hallway opened then closed. Muffled yelling that Shanks could not make out came from the room followed by a dull thump. The door reopened and Nick stepped out holding Shanks' gun in his hand. "Is this your gun?" he asked the captain.
Shanks nodded and took the gun from the other man. "Everything okay?" he asked suspiciously.
Nick nodded and answered calmly, "Yeah. I'll have a talk with her about the fighting and the stealing. She may not listen to the teachers, but she'll damn well listen to me."
Shanks nodded and turned to leave the house. He knew that there was something that Nick was not telling him, but the important thing was that he got his gun back. Besides, if something was going on, he'd find out eventually and whatever happened to Elie, she likely deserved it. No noise was heard from the apartment as he left.
Elie's house was finished. Now it was time to go to the closest house to Elie's. That one was Larry's apartment. Thankfully this one was not all that far away from Elie's house.
Applewood Apartment Complex was about two blocks away from Elie's apartment and was considerably cleaner than Crescent Hill. The bushes here were only slightly over-grown and were not decorated like Crescent Hill's were. Apartment number 2 was on the top of another apartment. The top was the one that Larry was supposed to have lived in. The inside was dark and the door was locked. Nobody was home. It was no use coming here. Next stop: Johnny's house.
Johnny lived in a rather large house in the middle of town, about a mile and a half away from Larry's apartment. The house was two stories and painted a sea green color. The grassy yard was cleanly cut and even had some statues sitting within the flower beds. So far, this looked like the best home of the three he had visited today. Perhaps this one would not be so bad.
Shanks walked up to the white door of the sea-green house and knocked on the door with his one hand. The door opened and a small, elderly woman answered the door. A confused look appeared on her wrinkled up face as she asked, "Sì? Posso aiutarlo?"
Okay, a new language was being spoken. One like what Johnny spoke during class. "Ummm...do you speak English?" the captain asked the old lady.
The woman stared at him for a while as if she could not understand what he was saying. "Non posso capirlo. Che cosa desiderate?" she asked the taller man.
Okay, so the answer to his question was no. She did not speak his language. "Are the parents of Johnny Lexis home?" he asked impatiently.
The old woman raised her voice, thinking that he would be able to understand what she was saying to her. "Che cosa voi desiderano da me!"
Shanks did not get the chance to answer back in English like he had planned. A deeper voice shouted at the old woman, "Non viviamo in Italia, donna anziana. Parli Inglese." From behind the woman stood Johnny with a bored yet annoyed look on his face. His face turned to Shanks as he spoke for the first time in English, "What do you want?"
A breath of relief left the teacher's mouth. So the boy really could speak English. He didn't only speak whatever language he was speaking before to the old woman and in class. There was still some hope for him being able to communicate with the boy since the boy did speak English. "Are your parents home?"
"They're out. What did Johnny do this time?" A snobby-ish voice asked from behind Johnny. The owner of the voice calmly walked around Johnny and stood in front of Shanks. A rather tall girl just entering her teens with long black hair and soft brown eyes. "Let me guess. You're his new teacher and he spoke to your class in a language you never heard of and to top it all off, you got a paper from him written in that language that you don't know, right."
She was right. Whoever that girl was, whether it was Johnny's sister or somebody else, she was correct. It must have happened before, but it was not really any of Shanks' business to ask if it had happened before or if it had, then what could be done to stop it. Well, in a way, it actually was but he didn't exactly want to get involved. He wanted to find a way to stop whatever the boy was doing his own way.
Even though she hadn't seen the taller man nod or do anything, the girl knew she was right. She let out a sigh and said, "I'll tell Mom and Dad when they get back."
The red-haired captain nodded and left the house. After the door closed behind him and the man was standing on the sidewalk, he had a feeling that he knew where Johnny got the idea of speaking another language in class. He seemed to be speaking it a lot to the old woman that answered the door, so that probably explained where he got the idea for the language in class. Before going in any direction, Shanks took a look at the map and the paper and picked out his destination. Next stop: Kyler's house.
The house that belonged to Kyler's family was two miles away from Johnny's house. Normally, the captain would probably be walking around for a few hours, but he quickly got the hang of the "bus schedule" as the islanders called it. Basically, to his knowledge, he got onto this big cart with the words Island Transit written on it in aqua green paint, and rode around for free until he got to his desired destination. At least that's what this old man sitting at the bus stop told him and since the ride seemed extremely convenient, the chance was taken...especially since it was free.
Kyler's house was about the height of Johnny's house with a green lawn. The only things that were different was that the two story house was painted a tan color and rather than statues being in the yard, there were soccer balls and a baseball bat leaning close to the door. Sitting in the driveway of the house were two carts: the cherry red one that Shanks had seen Kyler driving around with Maura and a silver one about twice the size of Kyler's cart.
Like he had done with the other houses, Shanks walked up to the white door of the house and knocked. The door opened and instead of either Kyler or another adult answering the door, a small boy with the same blonde hair and brown eyes as Kyler opened the door. "Yes?" the boy asked.
The boy didn't look a whole lot younger than Kyler, probably not more than a few years younger, and he looked so much like Kyler so it was safe for the teacher to assume that the boy was Kyler's brother. "I'm your brother's new teacher. Is he or your parents home? I need to talk to your parents." Shanks asked.
The boy stepped out of the way, allowing Shanks to enter the home like Elie's father had done when he visited the apartment. Thankfully the inside wasn't really very messy. "Kyler's up in his room with the girl from next door, but don't tell Mom or Dad that. They don't like her very much. If you wait on the couch, I'll go get Mom." The boy said before heading to another room.
The offer for sitting upon the couch was taken. Shanks sat upon a very comfortable brown couch in the same room as he waited for Kyler's mother to come by so he could talk to her about what to do about Kyler. The second he sat down, a dog with gold fur walked over to him. Shanks could just vaguely remember the breed of the dog, a golden retriever, but that was only because he had the exact breed of dog when he was a kid. A loud sound, like that of a guitar with somebody running their fingers running down all six of the strings, came from upstairs and caused Shanks to jump in surprise.
A woman in brown hair and matching eyes found her way into the room. "So, you're Kyler's new teacher? Is there something I can help you with?" the woman asked.
Shanks stood up from his spot on the couch. "Yes, I'm having a little problem with the way Kyler's acting in class. He seems to love to spend some...close time to another of my student, Maura Anders." Shanks explained.
The woman clenched her teeth and fists, making her look like somewhat of a beautiful monster in a simple blue dress. Something was really ticking her off. Shanks could tell. However, rather than ask her what was going on with what he said, he backed away from the woman...mostly because he was unsure of what the woman would do. He didn't know if she would blow her top and grow crazy or just shake off the thought and he didn't want to know either.
Mrs. Hooker said simply, "I'll have a talk with him about that. I'll try and make sure that it doesn't happen again."
It sounded like what Nick said about Elie, so Shanks believed it. He nodded and headed out the door, closing it behind him. He was only up to the sidewalk when he heard the shrill voice of Kyler's mother scream from the house, "YOU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!"
A red haired figure quickly jumped out of one of the second story windows and climbed down the trellis that leaned against the houses. It was Maura. Her hair and clothes were a little messy and wrinkled, which immediately got Shanks to wonder what exactly she was doing there. He quickly shook off the thought as he watched her climb over the wooden fence that separated Kyler's house from the house next door.
A laugh came from the driveway next door. Shanks walked over to the house next door and was surprised to see Larry standing next to a black cart.
"Larry? What are you doing here?" Shanks asked his eldest student.
"Helping my best friend fix his car." Larry answered. He turned his head towards the cart and said in a loud voice, "Hey, Adam. The teacher's here and I think he's got something to say about Maura."
A man about Larry's age emerged from under the car. Some grease was on his face and in his dark brown hair. He didn't look angry, but he did look displeased about what Larry had told him. The man, Adam, stood up and asked, "What has my sister done this time? Was she talking back in class again?"
Shanks nodded and added, "That and she's been getting very close to Kyler Hooker."
Adam let out a heavy sigh like the one Nick gave him earlier. He turned his head towards the blue two-story house that was his and shouted, "MAURA! GET OUT HERE!"
Maura did not come out of the house, but somebody else did. A thin young woman dressed in blue jeans and a red shirt that went well with her light brown curls came out of the house. Obviously this was not Maura. She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off when Mrs. Hooker came stomping up to the group outside.
Mrs. Hooker pointed a finger at Adam and the other woman and shouted, "You two! Keep your tramp of a sister away from my son! I'm tired of seeing her destroying my son's future!"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Hooker. We'll talk to her about that." Adam answered. Kyler's mother grunted then headed back to her own home.
The young woman that came out of Maura's house turned her head towards the house and yelled in a screechy voice, "MAURA!"
The door opened and out walked Maura, swaying her hips a little as she walked with a cigarette in between the pointer and middle fingers of her left hand. A cool look was on her face. She looked like she didn't believe that she was in trouble or if she did realize it, then she didn't care. She stopped in front of Shanks and the woman and asked in a snotty voice, "What the hell do you want?"
"Maura Beth!" Adam yelled at his sister.
Shanks, feeling that Maura had been talking to him despite the fact that he had no proof that she was since she had not looked at either him or the other woman, decided to speak up against the girl. "Hey, that's not a nice thing to say to your teacher."
Maura turned her head sharply towards Shanks and said in the same snotty voice, "I wasn't talking to you, bastard. I was talking to the Witch of Starlight Island."
"Why you little..." the other woman started.
Adam slapped his forehead with his greasy right hand and groaned, "Oh no. Not this again." He looked at Maura and said in a tired voice, "Maura, apologize to your teacher and your sister."
Maura put a smirk on her face and said to Shanks, "Fine. I'm sorry for calling you a bastard and being a smart-ass in class." She then turned to the other woman and replaced her smirk with an angry look, "Alice, you may have married my brother, but you are not my sister and I'm sorry that you are the island's witch and that I swore at you."
It was clear that there was a bad connection between Maura and her brother's wife, Alice. The connection became even clearer when Alice ordered the girl to put out the cigarette and was rewarded with a smart-mouthed comment. The connection between Adam and Maura was better than the last one. An order from him to put out her cigarette and to head off to her room was immediately followed. An apology from Adam was given to Shanks and the teacher headed on his way to the next of his student's houses.
Kurt only lived a block away from Maura. A small one-story house with chipped white paint and cracked windows was what Kurt lived in. The small yard was covered in dead grass and a wilting cherry tree. When he knocked on the door, a woman that looked very similar to Elie's father answered the door with the same emotionless look that Nick gave him. "What do you want?" the woman asked.
"Miss uhhh...Morrow. I want to talk to you about your son, Kurt." Shanks said as he looked up from his paper. Her last name was Morrow. Nick's last name was Morrow. So Elie and Kurt were related somehow. Cousins most likely. He got an answer that was different than the other student's families had given him.
"Look, I'll tell you what I tell all the goddamn teachers that come here wasting my fucking time bothering me with the problems my son is having. Whatever he does at school is your own damn problem. If he hits you or tries to kill you or something, it's your own damn problem. I can't watch the little bastard every second. Now go away." The woman shouted before slamming the door shut. It was clear that Kurt's mother did not want to talk to Shanks about anything involving her son.
Well, there was nothing that the captain could do except for head for the last two houses on his list: Lynn's and Victoria's. Lynn's house was closer to Kurt's and was probably about the biggest house he had seen on this little island. In fact, it looked like a mansion of some sort. A large gate was surrounding the three-story mansion and it's healthy green, clean-cut lawn. With his one hand, Shanks opened the gate and walked down the white stone walkway to the front door of the mansion and knocked on the wooden door.
An aging man in a white suit answered the door and led the captain into the mansion after Shanks explained his purpose of coming. After walking down the long, elaborate hallways of the mansion, he was led to a very large parlor. Exquisite, multi-colored rugs covered the floor. The one couch and three chairs in the room were colored green and were extremely comfortable. A piano was also in the room, in front of shelves full of books, but the lid was closed.
"You're here to see us about Lynn?" A blonde woman asked from the doorway of the parlor. A dark-haired man stood behind her with a snooty look on his face as he stared at the captain.
"Yeah. I wanted to know if she was okay after giving birth to her baby and I also wanted to talk about the way she's acting in class." Shanks answered.
The woman let out a laugh that sounded melodic, yet creepy. Sure the laugh was nice to hear since his visits to the other houses were full of emotionless sighs and yelling, but something about it just didn't sound right. Perhaps it was the timing of the laugh or that she even laughed at all. Shanks didn't know. "Lynn and the baby are fine. Oh, and don't worry about her behavior. My husband and I are going to get her out of that class." The woman answered.
Shanks was a little confused. He looked at Lynn's papers and she wasn't doing at all good in her classes. Her work was horrible and looked like she wasn't anywhere near leaving the class, so how would she be getting out. He must have said that last part out loud because his question was answered by the man, "That's nothing money won't fix."
"You think you can pay Manson to get her out of the class?" Shanks asked.
Mrs. Perry nodded and ran her fingers down her delicate white dress, "We own half of the places here on Starlight Island. I'm sure Manson will be very ecstatic to get our offer. Trust me. Just put up with her for another week and she'll be out of your hair."
Something about these people told Shanks that this might be the start of Lynn's problems. Her parents were rich and got her out of everything, so that probably lead to why she was in his class in the first place. He was happy that he didn't say that last part out loud. If he had, her parents would have gotten extra-pissed with him and God only knew what would happen next. The only thing he could do was leave the mansion. Besides, it was time to go to the eighth and final house: Victoria's.
He had to take the bus over to Victoria's house. The girl lived all the way out in the country, four miles away from Lynn. She didn't live in a big house like Lynn, but the yard was really big. A red barn stood at the edge of the yard, in front of a large field that had horses running across it. The two-story brown house was complete with a large brown deck and four different carts in the rocky driveway. Two boys and a girl played a game of tag in the yard. They stopped as soon as Shanks walked up to them. "Is Victoria here?" he asked, kneeling down to the kids' height.
The youngest, a little boy with messy brown hair pointed at a person on the deck. "Toria's drawin'." The little boy said in a chipper voice.
After saying a "thank-you", Shanks headed for the deck and walked behind Victoria. Sitting on her lap was a notebook she was using to draw the field with colored pencils. The picture on the notebook was only half-done, but already looked so magical, so realistic that the picture almost seemed to come to life. "Hey, that's really good." he told Victoria.
Without turning her head, Victoria answered in a soft voice, "Thanks."
"So, are your parents home?" her teacher asked.
Victoria put down her notebook before standing up. "I'll go get them." Victoria told him. She placed her notebook on the chair she sat in and headed into the house.
The notebook just sat there open to the page with the half-finished field drawing, taunting the captain, begging him to take a look at the inside...at the other drawings. Perhaps some secrets were in there. Secrets about Victoria or the other students that he could use to his advantage to win them over for the time being. Victoria was not back yet, so Shanks chose to take this chance and take a look at the inside.
He flipped back a few pages and saw a drawing of a blonde boy with a soccer ball under his left arm. His right arm was draped over the shoulder's of a shorter, red-haired girl. It was Kyler and Maura. Both had happy smiles on their faces, not smirks or fake smiles, real ones. In place of Maura's cigarette was a microphone.
Another page was flipped back. This one was the picture of a man sitting on a bench. A large, loving smile was on his face. Sitting on his lap were two children: a little girl and a little boy. The two children were also smiling and laughing. The man was Larry, but who were the two children?
Yet another page was flipped back. A girl kneeled before another boy. She was bandaging his leg. It was Elie. Her face and arms weren't bruised, her shoulder-length brown hair was held back with hair clips, and a calm smile was on her face. What did this picture mean?
The pictures began to confuse Shanks. They all seemed to be something that he'd never really seen in his students. The drawings of Kyler and Maura looked like something they did on their free time. Larry's drawing looked like he had something he loved. Elie's looked like something she wanted in the future. Maybe these drawings would help him get through to the students. Sports, entertainment, and health seemed to be what some of them were into. If he taught his students these, would he be able to get through to them? There was only one way to find out, but it would have to wait.
The notebook was ripped out of his hands by an angry Victoria. Without saying another word, she stomped back into the house passed her parents.
"Is there something you wanted to ask us about Victoria?" her mother asked.
"Well, the thing she's been doing is translating for one of our other students, Johnny Lexis. I was wondering if there was something I could do to get her to listen to me." Shanks explained. So far, he knew that Victoria liked art. Well, she didn't tell him that, but he could tell by her drawings and the fact that she was always drawing in class.
"She doesn't listen? Doesn't surprise me. She's the only one here in the family here that doesn't have any special qualities so it's just typical that she tries to stand out by not listening to you." Victoria's mother stated.
"No special qualities? She's one hell of a good artist. Haven't you seen her work?" Shanks asked the girl's parents in confusion.
"Look, everyone in our family can draw as can everyone else here on this island. Her drawings are just nothing special. If she could write like a journalist or novelist or if she could sew or cook or is athletic, then she would be something special. She would even be something special if she could sing or dance like her friend, Maura, but she can't so she's not really anything special." Victoria's mother explained.
"Besides, you're the teacher. I'm sure that you'll find something to make her listen to you sooner or later. Otherwise, I'm afraid we can't help you with Victoria's problem." Victoria's father added on.
That was a horrible thing for somebody to say about their child. Victoria could draw very well, probably better than some of the artists back in the many blues he'd visited, but it seemed that her parents didn't see it. Well, it didn't really matter. They didn't want to talk about it and he didn't really want to argue with them. At least they were probably the nicest parents he'd come across even if they didn't acknowledge their daughter's talents.
The bus took Shanks back to the marina. He almost missed the bus, too. If he had gone to the bus stop a minute later, he would have missed his ride and would be forced to walk the ten miles back to his ship while the sun was starting to set. On the bumpy ride, he thought long and hard about the little mini-trips he had and the people he visited.
Johnny's language seemed to be due to the fact that he lived with people that didn't even speak the language everyone else spoke. Elie's father looked like he was hiding something from everyone else, something that was being inherited to his daughter. The same was for Kurt's mother. Lynn and Victoria's parents seemed normal enough, but they were also ignoring the fact that their daughters most likely both had something special inside, that probably lead to them being in the class. Maura seemed to have a deep hatred for her sister and Kyler's mother was more worried about keeping the girl next door away from Kyler than she was about what he really wanted. The only thing that Shanks knew about Larry was that he was the best friend of Maura's brother.
It was completely dark outside save for the light poles along the streets by the time Shanks got back to his ship. He explained his trip to his crew when he got back and, like they did when Shanks explained his day, the whole crew began to laugh hysterically. His little "house-calling" trip was almost as hilarious as his first day on the job. Well, he had to admit that it was a little funny, but in a way, it wasn't really as funny as it sounded. All the kids had problems and he felt sorry for them...or most of them at least.
He felt sorry for Kurt and Elie because he had a feeling that their parents were doing something to them that nobody else saw. He felt sorry for Johnny because he was stuck trying to remember two different languages that were spoken in his house. He felt sorry for Kyler because his parents seemed to care more about Maura staying away from his house than they did about him. He felt sorry for Maura because she did not have a good relationship with a woman that married her brother and was trying to gain the attention of somebody that didn't pay much attention to her in the beginning. He felt sorry for Lynn because her parents spoiled her rotten, giving her no responsibilities or punishments at all. He felt sorry for Victoria because her family refused to believe that she had artistic skills or was anything special.
The only person he didn't feel sorry for was Larry. The reason for this was that the man didn't really have any family he could talk to. Well, he did feel a little sorry for the oldest student. He was twenty-five and in a classroom, supposedly learning with a group of a bunch of misfit teenagers.
Shanks took all the papers his students originally wrote and looked over all of them. He borrowed a pen from Wataru and began to write upon the papers his students turned in. Basically, he put down Ds and Fs on the papers along with little comments on what he wanted fixed although it was likely that the students wouldn't follow them.
Like he had done the night before, Shanks sat at the table with the rest of his crew, eating what Saiyoru served to eat and thought about how the next day was going to be. He already had a bad feeling about them since he just met them all, but he didn't know if they were going to be any worse the next day. As he ate, he thought about Victoria's drawings. Something about them told the captain that they had something to do with what the students liked or wanted.
Kyler looked like he liked to play sports, so maybe he could help with that by getting the class involved in games. Maura sang and danced, he knew that not because of the drawing but because of what Victoria's parents told him so he could probably use that to his advantage. Larry, Lynn, and Johnny he wasn't positive about. Victoria drew; that was a no-brainer. From what he understood from the picture about Elie was that she either liked to heal or she wanted something to do with healing, so he could probably teach the class about health. Kurt, having partnering with Elie, would probably get involved even if the man didn't know what the boy liked.
The Red Hair Pirates had a doctor on board named Kaito. He was more of the quiet reserved members of the crew, but he most likely wouldn't mind if Shanks borrowed some bandages and other medical equipment from him to use to teach health for Elie. Besides, this island seemed to be a quiet one with nobody in their crew getting seriously injured anytime soon. Unfortunately, the rest of the students were on their own. There weren't any soccer balls for Kyler to play with and the only songs Shanks knew were old sea songs about getting drunk and sailing the open seas and it was likely that Maura wouldn't want to go around singing those types of songs.
Like he predicted, Kaito did not mind lending Shanks some bandages, medicines, and splints to use at the next day's health class. The captain stuffed the items in a bag the crew had along with the papers that were given to him. As he fell asleep in his bunk later on that night, he dreamt about what would happen the next day in class. He dreamt that Elie was smiling as she demonstrated how to bandage a wound and Kurt smiling as he helped her. He dreamt that he was outside with the class, watching them play a little game of soccer in the school field with all the students smiling. He dreamt that rather than the cigarette in Maura's hands, she was holding a pen or microphone, singing a song he'd never heard before and dancing with a smile on her face. He dreamt that Larry wasn't drinking, Lynn wasn't whining, Johnny was speaking English, and Victoria was sharing her drawings with the rest of the class and helping those that weren't quite as good at drawing. Would the next day be like he dreamt? He would have to find out tomorrow for himself.
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Shanks awoke the next morning, strangely energized and ready for his next day of being the teacher for the class of hellraisers. A cup of coffee and plate of ham and eggs got him even more ready. He was actually smiling as he left the ship with the bag over his shoulder and walked down to the school.
Morning Glory High had students of all grades sitting amongst each other, laughing and giggling whenever somebody said something funny. Not one of those students were Shanks'. He walked into the principal's office at the school to confirm that he came in to work that day much to the staff's surprise. It was rare for a teacher for his class to come in for a second day.
Manson walked up to Shanks and said with a smile, "You came back? That's great! Maybe you're the teacher those kids need! Hey, when you're done with class, come by here. You forgot to pick up yesterday's pay."
Shanks nodded, "Gotcha. Oh, I have a question to ask. Do you have any soccer balls that my class can use? I want to get my class to play a game of soccer since we have a student that likes soccer."
"Kyler Hooker? Yeah, he used to be on the school's soccer team. We had to kick him off, though because of his grades. It's a shame. The boy is probably one of the best soccer players in the school." Manson answered, "The soccer balls are in the PE room. Whenever you're ready to play, just take a ball and go to an empty part of the field."
Shanks nodded and headed towards the classroom that held the students he was to be teaching. As he put his hand on the door, he readied himself for what would happen if he entered too quickly. He still remembered what happened the day before when the alcohol bottle, thrown possibly by Elie, was hurled at him. He did not want the same thing to happen.
Slowly, he opened up the door and unlike yesterday, an alcohol bottle was not thrown at his head. The only thing that was staring at him were six angry sets of eyes. One of his students was not there and Lynn didn't look as if she cared if the rest of the class was pissed. "Uhhh...morning. So, guys...where's Larry?" Shanks asked nervously.
"He had to work today and couldn't make it, Bastard." Maura answered angrily. Bastard, so that was her nickname for him.
The six sets of eyes glared at Shanks, sending shivers down the man's spine. Even the deadliest enemy he faced didn't glare at him like these kids did and it was seriously making him feel uncomfortable. "Okay, what's the matter with you guys?" he asked his class.
This time, rather than Maura answering with a smart-ass comment like she would have done, Kurt answered hatefully, "Thanks to you and your goddamn house calling, we got punished."
"And now, since we were punished, it's time for you go get your own punishment." Elie finished for Kurt.
Without saying anything else Johnny, Victoria, Elie, Kurt, Maura, and Kyler opened up their desks and each pulled out an item. Johnny held a concrete block. Victoria held a smaller, red brick. Elie held a glass bottle full of liquid. Kurt held a dagger similar to the one thrown in the Harry Potter book the day before. Maura had a metal pipe. Kyler held a soccer ball in his hands.
"Guys...what are you doing with those?" Shanks asked the students as they began to advance on him. Nobody answered him and before he knew it, the bag was taken off his shoulder and held in Elie's hands.
Elie dug through the bag and pulled out the medical items. She pulled out some of the medicines Kaito gave him. She smirked as she read the labels, "Iodine and ammonia...excellent. This will be excellent for the pain."
At first Shanks assumed that that was a good thing, but hearing it come so cruelly from Elie, his assumption was taken away. She knew how bad the stuff would hurt even if he didn't.
As the six students that held weapons of pain got closer to him, he took a good look at the students. So far Victoria, Maura, Kyler, and Johnny looked like they got a simple punishment like something taken away from them or them being grounded. Kurt and Elie didn't look so lucky. Elie, though her face was already bruised like hell, had an even bigger bruise on her left cheek and some cuts on her throat. Kurt had some burns on his neck and arms. Burns that looked like they came from a cigarette. For a split second, the man thought that Maura was the one that burned him with the cigarette because of her smoking habits, but she didn't seem to have any beef with Kurt. If she would hurt somebody with her cigarette, it would be Alice. Besides, Kurt was taller and stronger than Maura. There'd be no way that she would be able to burn him unless he didn't fight back. If Maura didn't burn him with the cigarette, then who did? And who gave Elie the bruise and cuts on her throat?
He wanted to ask them, but right now, he was more worried about trying to get away from the six that tried to hurt him. He turned to Lynn, who was seated in her seat comfortably with a communicator up to her face. "Uhhh...Lynn...little help here..." he started.
Lynn didn't even look at him. All she did was speak into her communicator, "She actually wore that ugly pink skirt last night...ugh, how stupid is she? I can't believe we allowed that fashion disaster into our club. Yeah, I know...NO! She didn't!...oh my God. I can't believe it...that hoe..." She wasn't going to be helping him. She made it clear when she didn't even look at him.
He had six students that were going after him with weapons. There were six of them with both arms and only one of him with only one arm. "Guys...come on..." he tried reasoning with the students.
"Oui femm byo vun fryd oui ryja tuha du ic." Johnny told Shanks as he raised his block.
"What...did he say?" Shanks asked.
"He said 'you will pay for what you have done to us.'" Victoria translated. She raised her brick.
"Definitely. We got our punishment, so you will get yours." Maura said. She raised her pole at the same time Kyler prepared himself to throw the soccer ball.
"Guys...come on...please." Shanks pleaded. He was ashamed for what he was doing, apologizing to a couple of kids. Pirates didn't do that and because of what he started, his pride was starting to get mashed into the ground.
"Get him!" Kyler shouted. Elie uncapped the bottle of iodine and stood next to Kurt.
Kyler hurled his soccer ball at Shanks. The ball was thrown so strong, so quickly, that the teacher fell to the ground on his behind. In unison Johnny, Victoria, and Maura hit Shanks with their items, dazing him a little bit before holding him down. It was now Kurt's turn for the punishment.
Kurt and Elie walked up to Shanks, who was weakly struggling to escape the clutches of the ones that held him down. Kurt's dagger was raised, and a few little cuts were made into the captain's skin. The little cuts didn't hurt that much. They were small, nothing big like some of the wounds he got from some of the enemies he fought on the seas, but they were big enough to bleed. "Elie, he's bleeding..." Kurt told Elie.
With a smirk on her face, Elie leaned in towards the captain and said, "Well, we can't have that. If we have some open cuts, we have to clean them to avoid infection and what better medicine than iodine." She leaned over Shanks and poured the iodine over the bleeding wounds.
Pain overtook Shanks' body. Sure he had had iodine used in wounds before, but Kaito only used a little bit. Elie was pouring almost the whole bottle over his wounds and it was aching like hell. It hurt so badly and when Elie was finished with the iodine, she began to uncap another bottle of medicine. A few more hits from Maura, Victoria, Kyler, and Johnny came before Kurt gave a few more little cuts and Elie poured the next liquid over the wounds. It was like fire on his body. It hurt so badly and he couldn't move. He did the only thing he could do that could get him some help. He screamed, praying to whatever god this place had, that somebody would help him.
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Ah, they're so mean aren't they? Well, that's chapter 3 for you guys. If you guys have any suggestions, then I'll be happy to listen to them. Oh, and the language Johnny was speaking at home was Italian. Here are the translations:
Sì? Posso aiutarlo? - Yes? Can I help you?
Non posso capirlo. Che cosa desiderate? - I can't understand you. What do you want?
Che cosa voi desiderano da me! - What do you want from me!
Non viviamo in Italia, donna anziana. Parli Inglese. - We don't live in Italy, old woman. Speak English.
The language Johnny speaks in school is not Italian, though. Can any of you guys guess what it is?
Oh, and I know that I might have had Shanks seem like a wuss, but he's being attacked by six kids and held down to the ground. He also only has one arm, so it would be pretty hard for him to release himself from the grasp of six weapon-wielding kids.