Chapter 3
The next morning, I woke up the sound of bells, like ones you'd hear at a cathedral. When I heard it, I realized everything that had happened must have been a dream and I had to be back in Los Angeles. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I wasn't in my bedroom in L.A. I wasn't even in my bed in Jamaica. I was still on the ship. I groaned when I realized the sun was just coming up outside of my small window, then yawned, stretched, and slid out of bed. Although I had only been on the ship less than 24 hours, I was use to the motion of the sea and ship. I stumbled over to the chest of drawers and dug out a fresh shirt and grabbed the pants I had worn the day before. By my estimation, it was about 6:45 in the morning when I walked to my door to go down to the galley. Once I reached my door, a piece of paper was sticking out between my door and the doorway. I took it and read:
Angel,
I left some oatmeal, a scrambled egg, and some coffee in the galley for your breakfast. I hope it's enough food for you. If not, please tell me and I'll fix more. Enjoy!
-Anamaria
After reading the note, I walked down to the galley. Sure enough, once I got there, a bowl of oatmeal, a scrambled egg, and black coffee awaited me on the table. I came to realize that there was no cream of any sort to be found, so I poured more than my usual amount of sugar into the coffee and tucked into the food. I sighed after the first bite of oatmeal, reminded myself to thank Anamaria when I saw her. After I finished and washed my dishes, I went up to the main deck. Once I got there, the sun had risen and the smell of the sea greeted me. I looked around and saw the crew hard at work with various chores. I saw Anamaria washing the banister on the starboard side of the ship, so I went over to her.
"Thanks for breakfast."
"Anytime. I take it there was enough food?"
"Yeah, there was plenty. What time did you eat?" I had to ask, since it seemed everyone else had eaten already.
"Around 5 this morning." she replied, still scrubbing the banister. I soon realized I was the only one not doing anything on the ship and, not liking to stand by doing nothing, I asked how I could help.
"Well, you could go wash the stairs leading to the quarterdeck." I grabbed a nearby bucket that had a hard brush and soapy water and walked over to the stairs. I started at the bottom and worked my way up, splashing clean water on the steps now and then to rinse them. I was half-way done when a shadow came over me. It wasn't a shadow caused by a cloud, but one caused by a person, so I shielded my eyes against the sun and looked up. Standing over me was none other than Jack, who was looking down at me.
"What are you doing, lass?" he asked me.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" I replied smartly.
"It looks like you're swabbin' the stairs," he responded, still looking at me with an amused look on his face.
"Well, that is what I'm doing. Now if you could move off these stairs, I still have to wash them," I said, smacking his right boot with the top of my brush. He moved up next to the helm and I finished scrubbing the stairs. When I came back with a bucket of clean water, I tossed it, just like I had every other time, to rinse the stairs. Only this time, Jack was in the way, and the water not only rinsed the stairs, but drenched the smirking pirate.
"What the hell was that for!" Jack exclaimed, clearly cold from the sea water.
"That was to rinse the stairs. You just happened to be in the way of the water. It's not my fault you were standing there," I replied, wanting nothing more to do with him. If he began yelling at me, I didn't notice. I was already almost over to Anamaria and had tuned him out completely.
"What was Jack yelling about?" Anamaria asked once I got to her.
"I threw a bucket of water to rinse the stairs and he happened to be in the way, so some of the water hit him." I replied, smiling. Anamaria laughed and I helped her finish the banister.
Author's Note: Well, that chapter was short! I wasn't expecting it to be, but I guess it's ok. Reviews are welcome – Artemis