Ch. 16- Shanks the Savior
Victoria's voice echoed throughout the cafeteria as every person in the cafeteria except herself was flung to the walls. Almost immediately, everyone shut up and stopped what they were doing. She turned to the tallest boy and actually started to cry, "What is your problem? Why do you have to do something like this to me? How is it my fault that the field is ruined?"
The tallest boy blinked at her, as if he was trying to get the message to go through his head. Truthfully, he was thinking the same thing as most of the other kids in the cafeteria: what the hell did she just do? Finally, he shrugged it off and motioned for his friends to leave. He made one final nod at Victoria before walking out himself.
Victoria dried her tears, "Alright everyone. Back to rehearsals." She sat back in her seat while the ones that were to be on the stage went on and practiced their lines.
Victoria got around to making everybody, even the understudies, practice a part of their lines so they could get the feel of being who they were supposed to be. The first rehearsal went on until four thirty, when Manson asked everyone to leave the cafeteria and go home. It was almost time for Shanks to get back to the ship…then he remembered that he had to stop by Maura's house because apparently he did promise that he would stop by to talk about costumes.
By this time, Kyler had his car back and had just enough space to fit him and Maura in the front and Johnny, Victoria, and Shanks in the back so nobody had to walk home. There was already a purple car in Maura's driveway, which the girls explained belonged to her sister-in-law.
Maura opened the front door of her house and motioned for Kyler, Johnny, Victoria, and Shanks to follow her inside. Shanks had to admit that he was surprised about what the inside of her house looked like. Maura was a smoker and he figured that her brother or sister was too and there would be many ashtrays everywhere and the place would smell strongly of smoke and tobacco, but it was the complete opposite. There wasn't a single ashtray in sight and the house smelled like flowers and freshly baked goods. It wasn't even a mess inside. The only noises inside the house were the steps of the newcomers, faint talking, and light sobbing.
"Ah dammit! She's watching the soaps again." Maura groaned as she walked to the room where the sobbing and talking came from. Sure enough, seated on the couch was the pretty brunette woman Shanks saw when he came to talk to her brother about Maura. She was seated on a blue couch with a tissue in her hands and tears rolling down her cheeks as she watched a TV.
The woman turned her head and said in a teary voice, "Hello. What's wrong? Has Maura been pulling the same stuff she always pulls?"
"Alice, we have a favor to ask you." Maura said seriously.
The woman sighed, turned off the TV with a remote, dried her eyes, and asked, "What do you want?"
"We are doing a play for school and we desperately need new costumes for the play because the school's are very worn. Would you make some for us?" Victoria asked.
"Please?" Kyler, Johnny, and Maura asked.
Alice looked between all four of them and shrugged, "Sure. However, I can't do it for free. I will need some money for materials. How many costumes do you need?"
"About twenty." Victoria answered.
"Okay. Victoria, send me a picture of what you want each costume to look like so I'll know what to measure each person for."
Victoria nodded, "Thank you Alice. I'll send you to pictures tomorrow."
Johnny turned to Maura, "That wasn't so hard Maura."
"You just caught her on a good day and technically Victoria asked her to do it." Maura explained.
Almost after that, Shanks left while Johnny, Kyler, and Victoria stayed. He didn't really have any other means to stay. He only came along so Maura could ask about the clothes and since that was over with, he could leave.
When Shanks came to his ship, it was starting to sprinkle a little and after an hour, the sprinkles turned into rain. Saiyoru was home at the time and admitted that they needed to do a little bit of food shopping and since Shanks was the only one with a butt-load of money, he would have to be the one to go…as long as he had two helpers along with him. He picked Saiyoru and Olivier and walked off to the store.
It began to pour by the time Shanks, Olivier, and Saiyoru exited the store with their hands full of bags of food and other necessities and because they had no other transportation besides walking and no umbrellas, they were forced to walk back to the marina in the weather. They were at the halfway point between the marina and the store when Shanks felt someone run into him, causing him to drop his bag and most of the items inside to fall out of the bag and roll on the soaked sidewalk.
Shanks quickly turned around and, with his hand, grabbed the person that ran into him by the shirt. "Going somewhere, Elie?"
Elie smacked at his hands and tried to escape, but was unsuccessful. "Let go of me!" she screamed. She gave an extra hard pull when she saw some headlights coming from around the street corners. The back of her shirt tore a little, but she was out of Shanks' grasp and ran down the street and around the first corner she saw into an alley.
The car with the headlights was a beat-up gray car with many dents and scratches on the sides. A few of the windows were cracked and the back of the car was letting out the most foul smell that could have come out of anything moving. It rattled as it drove down the streets and sounded like it could break down at any second.
The driver of the car stopped in front of Shanks and brought down the window on the door of the passenger's seat. There, in the driver's seat, was an enraged Nick Morrow. "Hey, you're my kid's teacher? You seen Jill?" Nick asked.
"Don't you mean Elin?" Shanks asked.
"…yeah, whatever. You seen her?" Nick asked, not really caring that he once again did not get his daughter's name right. At the same time Shanks, Olivier, and Saiyoru shook their heads. Nick grunted, rolled up his window, and drove off down the street in search of Elie.
Once the beat up car turned a far corner, Shanks ran to the alley Elie disappeared in. She was no longer there. She must have run off while Shanks was talking with her father. Shanks let out a half annoyed sigh and began to pile up the rest of the items he bought at the store in the soaked bag.
The three pirates ran into Elie again when they were about two blocks away from the marina, before they got to their ship. The rain came down slightly harder, though not as hard as the storm the week before. The sun was starting to go down, so the streetlights lit up before it got completely pitch black. Standing under a streetlight was Elie, hunched over, breathing, her face moist with a mixture of sweat, tears, and rain.
"You know he's looking for you, right?" Shanks asked as he walked up to the girl.
Elie stared at him. Her blue-green eyes were no longer filled with the usual emotionless hate but now filled with pure fear. She didn't say anything to him, but instead nodded to show that she knew that her father was looking for her.
"Come with me." Shanks told her. Elie didn't move. Shanks let out a sigh, "Okay, then you can stay out here in the rain until you get sick or your father drags you back home to beat the shit out of you."
"I don't need your help! I can get along fine on my own!" Elie said hatefully. With that, she walked away from Shanks and turned a corner.
"She's going to die someday." Shanks muttered before continuing his way back. He ran into Elie one final time when he got back to the marina. When he ran into her, she was running away from her father. Although all he saw of Elie and her father were shadows, but he knew who they were by the voices.
"Get back here, you little bitch!" The man in the shadows, Nick, shouted at the smaller figure, "I'll teach you to run away from me!" He didn't seem to be holding any weapon, but Shanks knew that the man could do damage to his daughter by his hands alone. He could probably even kill her this time and Elie seemed too afraid to fight back.
The smaller person, Elie, seemed to be doing a good job of running away but her luck began to run out after she slipped on a puddle of water and fell onto her face. She was only down for a second, but that was just enough time for her father to get within grabbing range of her. She didn't think before she made a very dangerous move. She ran to the end of the docks, jumped into the water, and didn't come back up.
"Fine. If this is how you want it to end, so be it." Nick said as soon as his daughter dove into the ocean. He didn't even wait to see if she would come back up. He just walked back to his car, which was parked nearby, and drove off.
Shanks walked to the end of the docks, where Elie dove, and shouted, "Okay, he's gone. You can come back up, Elie." Elie did not come up. All that came was a few ripples from where she jumped. "Elie?" Still nothing. "That's not funny, Elie! Get back up here!" She didn't. It was official: she was drowning.
Before Shanks knew it, his bag was on the ground and he quickly dove in after the girl. The cold water was only about seven feet tall, which was bigger than anybody in his classroom. At first, he couldn't see her through the slightly murky water, but after he dove down a few feet, he saw her. She was at the bottom of the ocean, struggling to catch some air and with a little rope around her legs. She was using her hands so she could try and swim to the surface and free her legs.
Shanks dove down to her legs and pulled the ropes. Strangely, the ropes were not holding her down. The thick mud at the bottom was what was holding her down. Shanks had to place his hand on her left leg and pull it out before moving it to the right leg and removing that one from the mud. He then placed his arm around Elie's waist and began to swim back to the surface.
As soon as Shanks and Elie got to the surface, both began coughing and gasping for air. With the help of Saiyoru and Olivier, the two were pulled onto the docks. By this time, Elie was even more soaked than she was before and she was shivering.
"T-thank y-you…" she told Shanks after coughing up a little bit of water.
"You're going home with me and my crew." he ordered.
"You're taking me to your boat?" Elie asked.
Olivier and Saiyoru glared at her in half surprise and half anger. How dare this little kid, the "thirteen-year-old" as some of the other pirates called her, insult a great ship like theirs! Olivier, being much much taller than the small Elie, stomped in front of Elie and glared down into her eyes. "Why you little…" he started.
"Leave her alone." Shanks told Olivier. He turned back to Elie, "Let's get going. It's cold and getting dark."
Like a puppy, the small girl followed the one-armed pirate back to his ship through the pouring rain. When she was pushed inside the ship, she was grateful to be out of the rain and away from her hellish father. She also noticed that there were more guys then she remembered seeing last time she came to work on the ship two weeks ago.
All of the dry men inside the ship turned their heads from their mugs and towards the doorway and just stared at what was standing in the doorway. Elie stared back at them. Nobody said anything before Shanks barked at the men inside, "Well, somebody say something!"
One of the crewmates put his mug of rum on the table and bent down to Elie's height. He looked at her face and her clothes, which stuck to her body like a second layer of skin. "Well, she's small, but I guess she can offer the entertainment we need." he said, this time sticking his eyes closer to Elie's chest.
Before anybody could say anything else, Elie clenched her right hand into a fist and gave him a swift punch in the right eye with just enough force to knock him on his behind. The other men laughed.
"Jill here really knows how to throw a good punch." Saiyoru said laughing.
"My name's Elie. Not Jill. Elie." Elie explained in an emotionless voice.
"So captain. Why did you bring the nurse back here?" Kaito asked.
"She was having too many problems back home so she's staying with us for the night. Just don't get any ideas about doing anything to her." Shanks explained. "Pour her a mug." he ordered.
"Thirteen-year-olds can drink here?" Ben asked.
"I'm fifteen, not thirteen." Elie said simply.
"Really? Well, Elie the fifteen-year-old, before you sit and join us for a drink, we should probably get you some dry clothes." Kaito said.
"Good idea. Get her the smallest thing we got." Shanks ordered.
Five of the pirates left and the ship was filled with the sounds of drawers being opened and rummaged through. It took a while since most of the clothes around were still pretty dirty and most of the clean clothes were extremely big, too big to fit on Elie without showing…things. By the time they returned to the main room, only one outfit, a T-shirt, pair of shorts, and socks were in their hands.
Elie grabbed the clothes and walked into an unoccupied bedroom to remove most of her clothes and put on the new, dry ones. She was in the room for almost fifteen minutes before she walked out with a hand holding up the shorts on her body from the shirt and the other holding her soaked clothes.
The pirates took one look at Elie and went into hysterics. The smallest, cleanest shirt they had was still too big for her. The white shirt given to her looked like some sort of nightdress. It went down to her thighs and because it was so wide, it showed a few straps of her bra. The shorts almost couldn't be seen, but they must have been too big for her, too if she was trying to hold them up. The socks she was wearing went up to her knees. Her own original features made her look even more hilarious. Her shoulder-length brown hair was soaked and a little messy. Her eyebrows were raised into a position to make her look worried/embarrassed and her mouth was in a small frown. She looked like some sort of little kid that was forced into something they didn't want to wear.
"Do you have something smaller than this?" Elie asked.
"Sorry, Shrimpo. You got the smallest thing we got."
"Do you at least have a belt or something?"
"Yeah, we got some belts, but judging by how thin your body is, we doubt the belts would even fit." Lucky answered.
Ben left the room and when he came back, he had a small length of rope in his hands. He placed in Elie's free hand. "Use this. It's the only thing we got that can even be used as a belt.
Elie didn't say anything before leaving the room and tightening the rope around her shorts to use as a makeshift belt. It was now tight enough so she didn't have to hold up the shorts she wore. She still looked funny with her hair and the little frown on her face and the clothes that were still too big for her, but at least now she didn't have to old anything up. She walked back into the main room. That's when one of the pirates, one she didn't know or didn't really care the name of, asked her how it looked. She didn't think as she lifted the large shirt until just a little above her stomach.
All of the pirates gaped at her, even Shanks. Sure he knew that she was being beaten like a dog at home, but he didn't really think it would be this bad. She looked almost anorexic. It was almost impossible to see any muscles on her body and the parts that showed even a little bit of muscle were black and blue with bruises. The shorts fit, but it looked so wrong, mixing with the bruises all over her body. There were even a few scars from what looked like cigarette burns and knife cuts around her ribs.
"Damn Elie. What the hell happened to you?" Shanks asked.
"You know what happened." Elie answered in an emotionless voice.
"Ah, because your old man beats you, right?" Yasopp asked.
Elie made a quick look at Shanks and gave him a hateful look that sent shivers down his spine. "You just had to tell everyone, didn't you?"
Shanks shook his head. "I didn't tell them anything. We kind of already figured out about what happened after I got your paper on the Harry Potter book when it had blood stains on it." He half lied.
Elie didn't say anything to him, but hopped down on top of an unoccupied barrel with her hands in front of her, motioning for a mug to be placed in her hands. Amazingly the other pirates got her message and handed her a mug full of the alcohol everyone else was drinking. She began to drink it down like she hadn't drank anything in a week.
"Hey Elie. There's something I want to ask you…" Shanks started.
Elie gulped down what was in her mouth and said, "If it's why everyone in the class thinks you're gay, then you know why."
"No, but I am trying to get them to stop."
"Don't ever sing again."
"You guys are horrible, you know that?" Shanks asked. Elie nodded. "My question is, why does your dad call you 'Jill'? Who is Jill? Is she that woman from Victoria's story?"
"The Jill from Victoria's story is a made up character. The Jill that man calls me is actually my mother and the man is often too drunk to notice that she's gone and my name is Elie." Elie took another gulp of her drink.
"Kurt's not going to go crazy when he finds out that you weren't home last night is he?" Shanks asked.
Elie shook her head and swallowed. "Kurt and I meet up at school. My dad and his mom don't get along." she explained. "What's in this anyway? I can taste strawberries, cherries, and lime but I can't tell what everything else is."
"We usually don't worry about what's in our drinks. As long as it's alcohol, we'll drink it."
Elie nodded, indicating that she understood what he was saying, and continued taking more sips out of her drink without saying anything hateful to anyone or sending any glares.
Shanks was starting to get surprised with Elie. She was starting to open up a little. It almost seemed like she was no longer the bad girl he had known her to be, but now more like a more damaged Victoria. However, when she was around Kurt, she went back to her normal bad girl personality. Kurt hadn't opened up yet except for around Elie. If Elie was calm, he was too. If she played a game, he often joined her. If she wanted something, he either wanted it too or he would give her what she wanted.
"Hey Elie?"
"Yeah?"
"I keep seeing you and Kurt working on a paper that you won't let anyone else see and you both talked about some sort of plan earlier today when you were interviewed for the vandalism of the field. What exactly is your plan?"
"None of your business." Elie said simply, "and I'm not telling you anything else."
Well, so much for getting some information about what she and Kurt had planned. She wasn't going to tell him anything else for her own reasons. It could have been because Kurt had told her not to tell anyone or that she didn't want somebody to snitch on her if she was doing something that could get her in trouble or even that she just couldn't tell anyone anything about her plans.
Elie continued with the alcohol in her hands without saying anything. She sat on the barrel silently drinking her alcohol, trying to figure out the other tastes she could not figure out earlier and listening to the different conversations between the pirates going on.
A few simple questions like "What do you think?", "Why are you so short?", "Are you really fifteen?", and "Do you do things like that on this island?" were asked at her. The height and age questions really annoyed her and Shanks could tell that it did by the way her eyebrows began to twitch.
"I'm guessing my height came from my mother's side of the family, but I don't really know. Yes, I really am fifteen. My birthday was February 1st." Elie answered through clenched teeth. She calmly answered the other questions she felt were interesting, but mostly through one or two word sentences. Aside from those answers, she hadn't said anything. She didn't even ask questions.
The sky became pitch black and the rain finally stopped coming down after a few hours. By that time, most of the pirates had gotten tired and went to their beds. At that time only Elie, Shanks, and three of the other pirates that she couldn't remember the names of were awake, but Elie wasn't going to stay up very much longer. Her eyes were growing tired and she let out a small yawn.
Being the only girl, Elie had the privilege of sleeping on the couch in the lounge away from the men in their rooms in case they happened to get any ideas. The couch was very worn and lumpy, almost like the beds in the other rooms, but it was still sleepable and since there were only a few in the lounge at the moment, the room was practically quiet and she managed to fall asleep quickly.
Shanks couldn't help but to look at the girl as she slept. Like before, when he caught her sleeping at the school after he choked her, she was looking a little uneasy. Her eyebrows were twitching, a few little fearful murmurs were coming from her closed mouth, and her body was turning around a little, but he didn't wake her up. He just left her there so turn and twitch through her nightmares before he went to his own bed to fall asleep with the sounds of Elie's murmurs repeating in his head and the ocean's nightly waves hitting the ship.
THE NEXT DAY
When Shanks woke up the next morning, Elie was already awake. In fact, she was already in the same clothes she wore yesterday. The clothes were already dry even though they were dirty and smelled like the ocean. She didn't look upset about the way her own clothes looked. At least she had clothing that was actually fitting her.
Breakfast was being cooked and one-by-one, the pirates took seats on empty chairs and barrels. Although Elie was offered some bacon, pancakes, and eggs, she turned them all down, but she did drink some of the orange juice that was offered. Shanks ordered her to eat, but she still refused to eat. The other pirates took this as an opportunity to take what she didn't want for themselves.
Elie and Shanks left for school at the same time and by the time they got to their class, everyone, even Lynn, was there.
Lynn wrinkled her nose as she walked up to Elie and said, "Eew! You stink! Why don't you wear any other clothes?"
Maura was nearby, talking to Kyler, and, like Lynn, wrinkled her nose. However, unlike the rude girl, she reached into her bag and pulled out a thin green shirt and some shorts and handed them to Elie. "Change into these." she told Elie, "They should fit you."
Elie took the shorts, stared at Maura, and headed out the classroom for the bathrooms. While she was gone, Shanks turned to Maura and asked, "Why does she listen to you?"
"Secret." Maura said. "So, why are her clothes all muddy and why does she smell like the ocean?"
"She jumped off the docks and sunk to the bottom."
"She what?!" Kurt shouted. Before any answer could be made, the door reopened and Elie walked inside the classroom. She looked better in these clothes than she did in the ones that Shanks' crew gave her the night before while her clothes were wet. These new clothes were still a little loose, but hid the fact that she was practically anorexic.
Kurt walked up to Elie and placed a hand on her bare arm. He leaned his head in towards Elie's ear and whispered something. She nodded and whispered something back. After a minute, Kurt nodded and walked over to Shanks. "You helped her from that bastard?"
Shanks nodded and made a brief explanation of what happened the night before then, unexpectedly, he actually got a "thank you" from Kurt. He knew that it wasn't going to come back again, or at least not any time soon.
The bell rang and slowly, the students headed for their seats. The voice of the Vice Principal came through the intercom, asking everyone to stand and say "The Pledge of Allegiance." Again, nobody stood up and Shanks didn't make them. After the pledge, the actual announcement came:
Welcome students of Morning Glory High School. Today is March 13, 2007. The weather is sunny. We still have yet to find the culprits who have burned the Anti-Bush messages in the field, so until we find them, the field is off-limits. Also, due to the little confrontation between the play members and the track team, so until further notice, if any students that have no affiliation with the play interrupt, punishment shall be taken.
This afternoon, at 12:30, we will be having a special assembly and I expect everyone, even the students in room 314, to attend. We all need to talk about the seriousness of the field vandalism.
On a happier note, Happy Birthday to James Wilkins and Xavier Samson.
This concludes the announcements for today.
All of the students in room 314 groaned. When asked why they were so upset, almost all of them answered at the same time, "We have to go to a damn assembly."
"So, what are assemblies anyway?" Shanks asked.
"They're a complete waste of time…just like the ITED that all the ninth graders are forced to take." Johnny answered, "Everyone in the school crams themselves into the gym and has to listen to a big lecture. That, or they have to watch a bunch of cheerleaders dancing around, cheering about absolutely nothing."
"Hey, we cheerleaders do a lot for this school, so you better show us more respect!" Lynn shouted at Johnny. She turned to Shanks and said sweetly, "I was a cheerleader for this school."
"What happened to make you stop?" Shanks asked.
"I got pregnant." Lynn answered in a depressed tone. "But they told me I could go back on the team as soon as I could. Maybe next year when this play we're doing is over with and after the rejects confess to what they did."
"Okay, well. Sorry guys, but our fighting lesson will have to be put off again since the field is still off limits. If you want it to be okay, then one of you will have to just say 'Ah, screw it.' and just say that you know who did it and say that the rejects did it." Shanks said.
Nobody wanted to and by the way their bodies stiffened, they showed that they had no intention of telling who did it no matter how much they wanted or didn't want to continue with their fighting lessons.
"Okay, fine. Be that way, since I don't feel like doing any math or science in the morning, today your assignment is to draw a memory you have and I want a real memory, not something you saw on TV and I want you to explain what the memory is. Now, get your supplies."
Everyone but Kurt and Elie stood up and headed for the cabinet that held the art supplies. They grabbed papers and a box of colored pencils each before returning to their desks and sitting down.
Shanks turned to Kurt and Elie and said, "Didn't you guys hear me? Get your supplies." The two didn't move. Shanks turned to Elie, "You better do as I say, Elie. I saved you last night and you might not get off easy next time."
Elie glared at him and he glared right back at her. Finally, she gave in, knowing that he was right and if he had not come along when he did the night before, she would have been dead. Reluctantly, she headed for the art cabinet and grabbed two pieces of paper and a box of colored pencils. However, rather than heading for her own desk, she went to a different one with an empty seat next to it. Kurt sat in the empty seat. Elie gave him a paper and split the pencils with Kurt and they both began drawing with everyone else.
Soon, the only sound heard was the "hmmm…"s of a few random students as they thought of what to draw or what to add to their pictures and the scratching of colored pencils on the papers.
Shanks told them to stop drawing about an hour and a half later, long after most of the students finished their pictures. As he told them to stop, Victoria was putting a few little final touches on her drawing, but then stopped what she was doing and placed her pencils on top of the desk, following everyone else's example. "Good. Now, I want you to show me your pictures and tell me what they mean and, like before, we're going alphabetically." he announced.
Maura let out a soft groan before muttering, "I'm changing my last name." She held up her picture and showed it to her teacher. Her picture was rather badly drawn and it was pretty obvious that she was not an artist, or if she was one, she was not a good one. On her paper, it looked like a huge tree with a wooden slide going right through the middle, swings on the branches, and many red fruits on the free branches. "We once had a tree like this in Middleview Park. About forty-five years ago, when my dad was a teen, the people of this town took the largest tree, sawed a big hole through the middle and, with some lumber and metal poles, made a slide going through it. They also put swings on the branches, so when kids swung, the apples from the trees would drop. I used to play down there a lot when I was a kid. It was destroyed about ten years ago due to arson. The culprit was never caught." When she stopped her explanation, she put the picture down.
Larry held up his picture. It was about as badly drawn as Maura's was, but his actually had people in it. Two young men were in front of Morning Glory High with cans in their hands, painting something on the walls. "Yesterday, during the interrogation, I said that I vandalized the school one year back with Maura's brother, Adam. Around ten years ago, Adam and I got a detention for a lunch fight we didn't think we deserved, so the day after the detention, we grabbed cans of spray paint and sprayed messages on the side of the school. Unfortunately, Manson was around and caught us. We were suspended for a week. Our parents were pissed." Larry explained. He put his picture down.
Kyler then held up his picture. It was also about as badly drawn as Maura and Larry's pictures. In a shaky pencil line was a picture of Kyler dressed in a brown trench coat with three other guys also in trench coats and a girl dressed in a shirt and jeans. Kyler was holding a small tube at the girl. "Last year I was with three other guys and we were going to moon this president. I took some girl's lipstick to write 'I hate the fuzz' on my ass and in this picture I'm handing the lipstick back to the girl." Kyler explained.
"…Kyler, that was last week's episode of That 70's show." Johnny told him.
"…I didn't think you watched that show." Kyler said.
Johnny held up his picture. It was a little better drawn than Maura and Larry's pictures and was honestly, a bit more interesting. There was a bed with three people sitting on it: a large person on the far left side and two smaller people on the far right side. The far left side was close to the ground while the far right was up in the air. There was a fourth person sitting on a nearby chair.
"Somehow, I'm afraid to ask." Shanks said.
Kyler, Victoria, Larry, and Maura walked up and looked at the picture. Almost immediately, Maura and Kyler started laughing.
"What's so funny?" Shanks asked.
"Two years ago, Kyler's cousin Lisa came to visit and she was huge. The next day Maura and I were over at Kyler's house. Maura and Kyler were sitting on the far left side of the bed while I sat on a chair. Both were watching as Kyler played Final Fantasy IX. Then Lisa came in and asked what we were doing. When we told her what we were doing, she came in and sat on the opposite side of the bed. Her side went down, the other side went up and she broke the bed. It was funny." Johnny explained.
Victoria gladly held up her picture. On it were about four people on a stage: a blonde man, a green-haired girl, a curly blonde girl, and a black-haired man. The green-haired girl was laying on the ground with a sword in her chest while the other three surrounded her. "A few years ago, a drama class in middle school performed The Saviour in Blue. This was one of their favorite scenes." Victoria explained.
It was now Elie's turn. The smallest girl held up her picture like she didn't care what was on it. At first it was hard to see what was drawn on the picture because there were so many items were everywhere and Shanks just couldn't see what her memory could be. "My life has no meaning and no use for memories." Elie simply explained emotionlessly.
"…that's it? In this hour and a half of working, this is all you did?" Shanks asked.
Elie nodded, "I told you, I have no use for memories."
The room was silent for a few minutes before Lynn held up her picture with a smile on her face. Her picture was nicely drawn and extremely bright and pink. It had Lynn sitting on a large throne surrounded by lots of people. "Seven years ago, I became the Apple Blossom Princess here on Starlight Island. I was the star of the parade and everyone had to listen to me." Lynn explained with pride. Nobody really cared.
"Okay, Kurt. You're last. Show us what you got." Shanks told the final student.
Kurt held up his drawing. All that was on the paper was a thick, black "x". "My dreams and memories are not mine to keep." Kurt explained.
"That's all? Just one x in the hour and a half I gave for you to actually draw something? You did less than Elie did." Shanks exclaimed. Kurt didn't say anything, but Elie did.
"Hey, leave him alone!" Elie shouted.
Shanks ignored what Elie had said and chose to ignore the picture Kurt had drawn. Instead, he decided to continue on with one of the lessons he started. It had been a while since everyone was reading their book of Howl's Moving Castle, so maybe it was a good time to get started on chapter two of the book. Like before, he read the first page and a half of the second chapter before handing it down the rows while everyone reading at their own paces.
It was easy to tell that the class was growing bored of what was going on. When someone was reading, the others sat in their desks either writing, drawing, or just almost falling asleep. "Hey! You guys better start paying attention to what's going on because there is going to be a test on this book!" Shanks shouted. It was a lie. He wasn't even really paying attention to what was going on in the book, but still nobody listened to him. In fact, the only way they actually made a noise to show that they were all paying attention to something was when the bell rang for lunch. The noise was their feet hitting the ground as they jumped out of their desks and ran out of the room for lunch.
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A/N: Well, that's chapter 16. Hope you enjoyed it.