Stormborn)chapter 5

Instructions

Chapter 5 Lucas I hadn't thought much about the people being hanged before; I had watched more than my fair share of hangings, mostly of pirates. And here I was, on a ship full of the people I had cheered to see die. I pushed those thoughts away. I needed to focus on this right now. “Hey, you there!” Jacqueline said snapping me back to the present. “Oh, yeah, okay.” I said, doing what she showed me to do. “No, no, no, bend your knees.” “I am,” I insisted. “No, you’re not.” She walked up in front of me and pushed my shoulders down.then she said “Okay, now I’m going to run into you again.” I think I was kind of distracted because the next thing I knew, I was hitting the deck floor again. “You have to pay attention! You were in La La Land there for a second,” she said, holding her hand out to help me up. “Okay, fine, yeah, I was in La La Land,” I said, standing up. “What were you even thinking about?” she asked, her voice was something between a smile and a laugh. “Um, I don’t know. I don’t even remember,” I said with a small laugh, rubbing the back of my neck. That was a lie, but what was I going to tell this girl I just met? That I was thinking about how pretty she was? Yeah, Sam wasn’t my brother by blood, but still, this was Charlotte’s little sister, who she hated. And yeah, Jacqueline was really cool and pretty but I didn’t want Charlotte to hate me. Plus, I didn’t even know if I had a chance with Jacqueline; I mean, she was a bad- pirate, and I was just... well, Lucas. “Okay, you ready to try again? This will probably be our last chance to practice before we get to port,” Jacqueline said, standing back to run into me again. “Okay, ready,” I said. This time I was going to get it right. I got my feet positioned and told her to come at me. I was ready and... I fell straight on my back. She started to laugh.- it I said standing up "hey it's fine You should have seen how many times I fell my first time doing this,” she said, grabbing her hat from the crate. “Wait, Jacqueline, don’t you want to try to blend in? I mean, the guards could arrest you,” I said standing up. She laughed "First, no one calls me Jacqueline, but I guess it’s fine that you do. Second, don’t worry; this is a pirate port. We’re so crazy here, no guard dares to step foot here.” “Wait, what do other people call you then?” I asked, confused. “Jackal. Get it? Jacqueline—Jackal. But it’s fine if you call me Jacqueline,” she said, as Charlotte and Sam walked out. Sam looked mad. “Sam, you’re up,” I said, walking over to hug my brother. “Yeah,” he said, sounding annoyed that he couldn’t keep us out of this situation. Maybe I could improve his mood if I told him I liked it here... probably not. “Captain Jacqueline Throne,” Jacqueline said, taking her hat off and bowing to Sam. “Me and Charlotte are going to stay on the ship,” he said to me, completely disregarding Jacqueline. “Okay, I’m going to go with Jacqueline,” I said, walking up beside her. “Your funeral,” he said, turning and walking back to our room with Charlotte. “One second,” she said, walking up to where she steered the ship. “You got the night to be back here by daybreak!” she yelled to her crew. I looked back to see her crew throwing ladders down to the dock, "ready to go Lu” Jacqueline called, walking up next to me. The only person who calls me Lu is Charlotte, but I wasn’t going to say anything. I kind of liked her calling me Lu. “Yeah, I am,” I said, walking over to the ladder and climbing down. Jacqueline followed When I got to the end of the ladder and onto the dock, I really was doing this. I was going to a pirate port with pirates... this was going to be an eventful stop.