“I bet they talk back to whales, too!” Brock shouted. “Let’s get ’em!”
As Shivers’s family set to work fighting back the pirates, Margo led the people to safety. She had to gather everybody in one place, somewhere she knew she could protect them. She climbed onto the pirate-ship ride. “Everybody on board!” she commanded.
“You want us to get on a pirate ship? That’s terrifying!” someone from the crowd said skeptically.
“I thought the same thing,” said Shivers, “But believe me, pirate ships are much less scary when Margo’s the captain.”
“Now move it!” Margo added.
She was so commanding that the townspeople didn’t care that she was only a fifth grader. She was clearly braver than the whole bunch put together. They made their way onto the pirate ship.
Meanwhile, Bob and Tilda rushed over to the row of cheese-curd stands. They pelted the pirate crew with gobs of mozzarella and launched marinara sauce into their good eyes. Some of the pirates managed to get past the cheesy deluge, but Brock and Police Chief Clomps’n’Stomps were waiting for them. They grabbed the code-breaking pirates by their tattered vests and threw them onto the Ferris wheel.
Marvin sat at the control panel. As soon as the pirates were loaded in, he pulled the lever and sent the Ferris wheel spinning at super speed.
“Buckle up, and don’t enjoy the ride!” he said through a mouthful of cheese curds.
It looked like Shivers’s family was getting the upper hand—or upper hook—on Captain Crook’s crew. But then Janet the sea monster rose up from the water and let out an ear-scraping screech. She opened her giant jaws and took a big bite out of the middle of the pier. The whole town screamed in terror as the cheese-curd stands and carnival games tumbled into the sea. The bright, colorful lights that lined the pier bobbed below the surface, casting an eerie glow in the water.
Captain Crook had arrived. His ship floated next to the pier. He stepped out onto the deck and, with a smile as wide as the horizon, bellowed,
“TAKE COVER!” MARGO COMMANDED as the whole town backed into the corner of the pirate-ship ride and stared in horror at Janet.
Shivers held Albee’s bag up to his face. “Albee, what are we going to do? Blink if everything’s going to be okay.”
“I’m a fish,” said Albee. “I don’t have any eyelids.”
“WE’RE DOOMED!” Shivers screamed.
Janet took another enormous bite of the pier, sending more carnival games and fried food into the ocean. Captain Crook laughed at the destruction. But when he saw his pirate crew trapped in the spinning Ferris wheel, his expression turned from delight to disgust.
Weasel was stuck at the very top of the ride. He rattled the bars and cried, “Captain Crook! Help!”
“You make me sick!” Captain Crook frowned. “‘Send us ahead for a sneak attack,’ you said. ‘We’ll take all their money and cheese,’ you said. Some evil pirate horde you are! Beaten by a bunch of landlubbers!”
“We’re not landlubbers; we’re pirates!” Brock said, brandishing his sword.
Captain Crook looked back and forth in confusion. “Then where are all the landlubbers?”
“They’re over there on that pirate ship!” shouted Weasel.
Captain Crook scowled. “What’s going on here?! Pirates on land? Landlubbers on ships?” He started pacing back and forth. “You know what? Forget it. There’s only one true pirate in all the Seven Seas. Me!” He leaned over the edge of the deck and shouted, “Janet! Eat them all!”
Janet bared her sharp teeth, then crunched through another huge piece of the pier—this time even closer to the pirate-ship ride.
Margo had to think fast. She couldn’t just let her whole town sit there like snacks waiting to be swallowed. If only she had been on a real pirate ship, she could have sailed them to safety. That’s when she got an idea. She leaned over the side of the ship and pulled the lever, starting the ride.
“Margo! What are you doing?!” Shivers cried, as the ship swung back and forth.
“Trust me! Just hold on tight!” she shouted.
Margo raced to the front of the ship and climbed up the beam that connected the ride to the pier. Every time the ship swung up, everyone screamed because they were so high in the air. Every time the ship swung down, everyone screamed again because they were right next to the sea monster. Really, it was nonstop screaming.
As Margo reached the top of the beam, she saw the Roy Scouts below her. They were passing out pamphlets on how to stay safe inside a sea monster’s stomach. Roy strummed his guitar and sang “The Sea Monster Mash.”
“Roy!” Margo held up her hand. “Spork me!”
“Aye, aye, Captain!” said Roy. He tossed his pocket spork straight up, and Margo caught it. She reached up and pried off the heavy bolts that connected the ship to the pier.
Captain Crook’s voice cut through the chaos. “Eat them!”
Just as Janet snapped her teeth at the swaying ship, it sailed off its hinges into the air and landed with a splash in the sea. The whole town shrieked so loudly that Shivers finally felt like he had something in common with them. The end of the pier crumbled into the water, along with the last of the carnival games.
All the goldfish that were being kept as prizes swam around in their bags, which bobbed on the surface of the sea. Albee was horrified.
Captain Crook turned to Shivers and Margo. “You can run, but you can’t hide!” he shouted. He sailed toward them, and Janet followed alongside. Margo slid back down the beam to the front of the ship, but there was still no way to steer. As much as it looked like a pirate ship, it was really just a giant hunk of plastic with a couple of skulls painted on the side.
“Well, this is it,” said Margo. “As the captain, I have to go down with the ship.”
“Wow, Margo, you really are the bravest pirate I’ve ever met,” said Shivers.
She smiled at him. “I learned from the best.”
They turned to Albee. “Albee, you supervised.”
Albee was staring down at the goldfish in the ocean, trapped in their plastic bags. “Actually,” said Albee. “I’m done supervising!” And with that, he puffed up to his full blowfish size, tearing open his bag, and leaped into the water below.
Shivers and Margo watched in awe as Albee swam through the choppy waves, using his blowfish spikes to pop all the bags and free the goldfish.
Shivers marveled at Albee—his mouth closed tightly, his body puffed up with air. “So that’s how you hold your breath!”
Janet was catching up fast. As she sped through the water, Shivers spotted a glint of shiny metal near her tail. He looked closer to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Sure enough, something was wrapped around her back flipper. And then it dawned on him—which was strange because it was the middle of the night.
The key to stopping Captain Crook.
He turned to Margo. “Give me the key!”
Margo’s eyes flickered with concern, but she handed him the key from her backpack. “What are you doing?”
“I’m doing exactly what you taught me. I’m facing my fears head-on.”
Captain Crook screamed with all his might, “For the last time, eat them!”
Janet opened her mouth wide, and Shivers dove headfirst into the ocean. He hit the icy water and held his breath as tightly as his lungs would allow. He plunged deeper and deeper, forcing his eyes open through the sting of the saltwater. Then he saw it . . . a rusted chain wrapped tightly around Janet’s flipper, binding her to the side of Captain Crook’s ship. The chain was secured with a big metal lock. Shivers was running out of air, or rather, swimming out of air. He had to act fast. His best friend, his family, his first mate, his whole town were counting on him. He stretched out his arm and put the key in the lock. It fit perfectly. He turned the key, and the lock snapped open.
Shivers kicked his way to the surface and gasped for air. Albee swam up next to him. Everyone on the boat was shouting at Shivers to get out of t
he water. His family stood at the broken edge of the pier, more terrified than they’d ever been in their entire lives.
“Shivers! Albee! Swim!” Margo urged. “That evil monster is going to eat you!”
Shivers flapped his arms to keep himself afloat. “She’s not an evil monster! She’s just a big fish that got caught by an evil pirate!” He turned to Janet. “You’re free now, girl.”
Janet blinked her beady eyes at him and slapped her fins against the water happily.
Captain Crook grabbed the railing of his ship and stared down at Janet, his face red with fury. “Listen to me, or I’ll chain you to the bottom of the ocean!” He pointed at Shivers. “EAT THAT PIRATE!”
Janet opened her massive mouth and bared her razor-sharp teeth. As she brought her head down, Shivers let out one final squeak. But she didn’t eat him. She plucked a piece of seaweed off the side of the ship, slurped it up, and smiled . . . as much as a sea monster can smile.
“Awwww!” Shivers squealed. “She’s an herbivore!”
Then Janet swung around, lifted her long neck, and ate Captain Crook in one big bite, swallowing him whole.
“Never mind,” Shivers corrected. “She’s an omnivore.”
“ONE, TWO, THREE, PULL!” Margo shouted.
It was the next morning, and for the second day in a row, Shivers’s ship was connected by a mossy rope to Captain Crook’s old ship. Which was now Spitball’s new ship. Well, slightly used ship.
The Groundhog lurched forward. It was still stuck in the sand, just how Shivers liked it, but it was edging closer to the sea. As soon as the first tiny wave splashed the tip of the ship’s hull, Shivers called out, “Three, two, one, STOP!”
Now, the Groundhog had found its new home. It was perched halfway in the water and halfway out.
“Thanks for your help!” Margo unhooked the rope and tossed it back to Spitball.
“It be my salty pleasure!” Spitball replied. “Anything I can do to repay ye for rescuing me from the Cap’n.”
After Janet had slurped up Captain Crook, Shivers and Margo had freed Spitball from the storage closet.
Spitball continued, “I thought I’d be livin’ out my days on Weasel’s dried salmon skin and stale sea slugs.”
Shivers shuddered. “Gross.”
“Hey, I heard that!” said Weasel from over by the mast as he lowered the flag with the iron lock and raised a flag with a glistening glob of spit.
Some of Captain Crook’s crew had joined Spitball on the ship, vowing to always follow the Pirate Code under her leadership. Others chose to stay on land and become bankers, teachers, and popcorn-ball makers. As the crew helped remodel Spitball’s new ship, they hauled out Captain Crook’s locked chest of drawers and prepared to toss it overboard.
“Wait a minute,” Margo said. She still had one question that hadn’t been answered. “If the key from the Bermuda Triangle didn’t unlock any of those drawers, what was Captain Crook keeping in there that was so secret?”
“Clean socks!” said Spitball.
Shivers, Margo, and Albee were stunned. “Huh?” they said at the same time.
“The keys he kept around his neck unlocked all his precious sock drawers,” Spitball explained. “If yer ship is full of bloodthirsty, untrustworthy pirates, ye have to lock up yer valuables. Clean socks are hard to come by when yer drifting about in the Great Blue.”
“That’s why I love my bunny slippers,” said Shivers. “No socks required.”
Shivers and Margo watched Spitball reach into the barrel of extra-extra-large fish flakes. “Janet!” she called. “Snack time!”
Janet the sea monster’s head popped out of the water. Spitball tossed her a giant fish flake. Janet chomped it up in one bite. No longer chained to anything, she swam around in the waves, happy and free as could be.
“If you think that tastes good, try fish flakes with butter!” Albee called to Janet.
Margo and Shivers waved good-bye to Spitball and her crew as she sailed into the Eastern Seas.
Just then, Shivers’s family climbed aboard the Groundhog, along with Police Chief Clomps’n’Stomps. They were all eating ice cream.
“Shivers, you were right!
Ice cream is delicious! I’m so glad we finally get to try it!” said Tilda.
“And we don’t have to disguise ourselves anymore!” Bob added. He and Tilda were back in their fearsome pirate clothes, which the sunburned sunbathers on the beach no longer found so fearsome.
Brock was still in his Hawaiian shirt. “I’m never taking this off,” he said. “I sailed all the way to Hawaii to get it!”
“You know they sell those in New Jersey,” said Clomps’n’Stomps.
Brock scratched his head. “I thought they only sold jerseys in New Jersey.”
Shivers walked over to Great Uncle Marvin. “Why are you still covered in cheese curds?”
“That’s not cheese curds; that’s my skin!” Marvin spat, then took a big lick from his raisin-flavored ice cream.
Margo and Shivers laughed. They walked to the ship’s railing, Shivers carrying Albee in his fishbowl. They looked to the beach, and then to the ocean. People and pirates didn’t seem so different anymore.
“Well, Shivers, we did it,” said Margo. “We saved our town.”
Shivers smiled. “And I think it’s even better than before.”
As they stood half on land and half in the sea, they knew that they could belong in both places at once. And for the first time ever, Shivers wasn’t afraid of anything at all.
ANNABETH BONDOR-STONE and CONNOR WHITE are also the authors of Time Tracers: The Stolen Summers and Jaclyn Hyde. Their work has been translated into multiple languages and featured on the Chicago Public Library’s Best Fiction for Young Readers list, as well as the Huffington Post.
After graduating from Northwestern University in 2009, Annabeth and Connor moved to New York to eat huge slices of pizza, then moved to Los Angeles when they got full. Now they travel to schools across the country using comedy to inspire kids to read and write. You can follow them on Twitter @ABandConnor or follow them around in person if you live in LA. Find out more at annabethandconnor.com.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Copyright
SHIVERS!: THE PIRATE WHO’S MORE TERRIFIED THAN EVER. Text copyright © 2020 by Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White. Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Anthony Holden. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover illustration © 2020 by Anthony Holden
Cover design by Joe Merkel and Erica De Chavez
* * *
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019909720
Digital Edition APRIL 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-231394-2
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-231393-5
* * *
2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4E3
www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida
Uttar Prade
sh 201 301
www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
The Pirate Who's More Terrified than Ever Page 8
