Chapter Two

The Good and the Bad

I wrote this whole chapter today while I was home sick. Thank you for the reviews! They make me very happy.

That night, Melissa was home alone. Her parents left this morning for a trip and were out east in New York with Mr. and Mrs. Sims, Kate's parents. The four parents had been friends since college, where they met on the Yale campus in 1984. Both pairs of parents had gotten married while in college. Melissa's parents were the first to marry, during the summer before their junior year. Kate's parents had gotten married a year later.

Both couples had moved to Minnesota, unknowingly that the other one did. The first time that Melissa had met Kate was when they were in first grade. Kate had pushed Melissa out of the swing that she was in. Melissa ultimately ended up having only a scrapped knee and shedding a few childish tears. Oddly, the next day at recess, the two girls were playing together the next day in the sandbox like Kate had never shoved her out of the swing.

Melissa smiled at how easy and childish things were in first grade. Kate had grown up to be that way when she was older. Only she didn't do things like shove people off of swings anymore. Now she was independent and knew how to get what she wanted. She was very ambitious and didn't much care what people thought about her.

Melissa, on the other hand, wished she could be as half as strong as Kate. Even though Kate was her best friend, she was jealous of her. What didn't that girl have? She had the body, every single guy wrapped too tightly around her finger it was probably turning purple, plus she had a fire that would never seem to die out in her soul.

Now, really, it just wasn't fair! Melissa gave into people too easily. She was too nice, and, Kate had told her, "That's how people are going to walk all over you! You can't go through life being so lenient!"

But Melissa was sort of content with how her life was going. She didn't like getting in trouble. She was proud to say that she had never gotten grounded, she had passed her drivers test for her license on the first try, she hadn't gotten anything below a B+.

People often labeled her as too much of a good girl, though, like she was afraid to let her hair down once in a while and have fun. As much as Melissa hated to say this, she had never sworn in her life. But she had never admitted it to anyone, only to herself.

"I'm lonely," Kate whined on the other line of the telephone. "I hate being home alone."

"I don't. I sort of like the silence. I actually get to think."

"Your house is always quiet, though."

Melissa was an only child, just like Kate. Only Melissa didn't act like one, like Kate sometimes did.

"I guess." She stood up from her bed and straightened her short red nightgown that Kate and a few friends bought her as a gag gift for her eighteenth birthday in April, joking that she was finally legal. Melissa didn't dare to wear it except when people weren't around. It gave her a sort of independence that she liked to think she could someday have.

Melissa walked to the computer in the downstairs living room and turned it on.

"Have you wrote in your blog yet?" she asked Kate.

"No, I haven't. You?"

Both girls had kept a private blog. They agreed that those were the only things that would be kept secret between the two of them, and they never had to tell what went in it, something that came in handy when they got in fights.

"I'm going to soon."

"Oh." Melissa heard the clink of the medallion. "Hey, I think there's paint on mine, or something," Kate said. "It's red in some parts..."

Melissa pulled her's out of the bag. She noticed that much of it was covered in paint, too. "I should wash it."

"No, that's what keeps the antique-ness of it all," Kate said.

Melissa touched the medallion. "Kate, I'm not so sure that's paint. I think it might be blood."

"Hmm," she said, like it was an everyday thing to buy a blood-covered medallion. "Still don't think it's cursed."

Nor would I expect you to, Melissa thought.

"I'm going to wear it," Kate said decisively.

"Um...Kate, that's not such a good idea. Remember what the woman at the antique store said? About how these are cursed?"

"I'll believe it's cursed when I see a pig fly, alright, Melissa?" Her tone wasn't angry, it was calm, like she was talking to a child. "And don't try and talk me out of it. I don't believe in curses."

"But you hav--"

"I already did. I put it on."

Melissa felt her stomach drop. Something bad was going to happen. Maybe it was superstition or her gullible nature, but she had a bad feeling about it.

"Don't get all worked up over it," Kate said. "It's nothing. Trust me. Put your's on."

"P-Put mine on?" Melissa sounded like she was just asked to kill a person.

"Stop being a baby and put it on," Kate egged. "Really, what's the worst that could happen? Do you think it's going to be like one of those middle-school chain letters that threaten death if you wear it?"

"No, I just...Kate--"

Kate's voice didn't make her stop. Instead it was the silence that made her stop talking. If Kate really believed the medallion wasn't cursed, she would have let Melissa keep going, which was what she did.

"You know what? Fine. I'm putting it on." She walked to her mirror and clasped it around her neck.

If it was cursed, why didn't she feel any different? She didn't feel like she was choking or seeing her arm rot in front of her, like she often would happen with curses.

"You're still alive, right?" Kate asked jokingly.

"Yeah," Melissa said. She laughed nervously. "Who believes in curses? Ha!"

"I think you still do, Melissa."

Silence.

"Okay, whatever, fine. Yes, I do. But I am going to bed now. Goodnight."

Kate started cracking up on the other line. "Goodnight."

Melissa's Blog Entry

So, Kate and I went shopping today. We bought these really cool necklaces, actually, Kate found these. They have blood on them – I think. It might be paint. It's red, so it's probably either of the two. They have this pirate skull on it...they're so neat! The woman that sold us to them said that they're cursed. Kate, of course, didn't believe her. I did. They look they're cursed! Really! They have this creepy look about them. Maybe that's why I like them. Signing off now. I'm going to go fall asleep to a movie.

Love,

Melissa Rose

Kate's Blog Entry

Melissa and I went shopping today. By the way, the first day after graduating is priceless! You feel so free and happy! I still do, actually. Anyway, getting back on topic. This woman at the antique store sold us these golden medallions – I swear they belonged to a pirate or something. It even has a pirate skull on the pendant. And I didn't realize it when I bought it, otherwise I probably would have kept it there, but there's, like, paint on it or something. At least that's what I think it is. Melissa thinks it's blood. It's probably red permanent marker that some kid drew on and it's been sitting in a basement for a few years...It's such a cool necklace! Bed time. I'm tired.

XOXO Kate

If possible, Jack hated Elizabeth more than he hated Barbossa.

That girl was too smart. And a little too evil. But he had satisfied his desires. She had kissed him when he had wanted to ever since they met a year ago. But she was also a bad person, too. First, she kisses someone while she's about to marry The Whelp finally, which Will probably saw. That sabotaged any chance of a future that Will and Lizzie had together. Even though Will would probably be weak. That was why he named him The Whelp in the first.

Secondly, and most importantly, Jack hated her because she had given him the kiss of death – literally. She had kissed him and then handcuffed him to a mast! And she wasn't even sorry! He cursed her.

Pirate, indeed.

Oh, bugger. He saw the Kraken coming closer. That couldn't be good.

And Lizzie called him a coward. Now who was the coward, going away in a lifeboat, with her fiancé that might not be her fiancé by morning. Or maybe even by nightfall tonight.

Jack finally got out of the handcuffs and saw the Kraken opening it's mouth, ready to finally devour the man worth a hundred souls. The last thing he remembered was pulling out his sword and seeing the Kraken's teeth.

Will remembered the first time he felt betrayed. It was when his father had missed his sixth birthday because he was out on a "merchant mission," as his mother referred to it as. He remembered how sad he was that his father couldn't be there for him.

But now, fourteen years later, he realized that betrayal felt worse than when someone misses your birthday. No, when it's with your fiancee, it feels like someone stabbed you in your heart and left the knife in there.

The sadness and anger he felt towards Elizabeth right now was worse than the fear when she had been kidnaped a year ago. Back then, he would have done anything to make sure she was safe. He would have died for her, unknowing if she even felt the same way about him. But a year later, he would do anything to get away from her. Maybe Jack deserved her more. He actually died for her.

Was this a ritual of Elizabeth's? Right before she's about to marry a man, she backs out and leaves him for another person?

Who was this pirate sleeping in front of her that went and kissed other people? This was not the loving Elizabeth he had bet nine years ago on the crossing from England.

No wonder he stayed behind, he thought bitterly.