by Brian James
Chapter 4
Tangled Up Forever!
“Arrr! This Sheepshank Man-o’-War knot is impossible!” I said to my friends.
We were all able to finish the first two knots, even Gary. But none of us was able to do the last one. There were too many loops and twists.
I tried it a thousand times. I wasn’t sure it was exactly a thousand. I lost count, but one thousand sounded about right.
“Aye, we’re never going to finish,” Gary said.
“Quit bellyaching!” Aaron said. “It’s not that hard. I could do it with my eyes closed.”
“Then how come you haven’t done it yet?” Vicky asked him. She didn’t like it one bit when Aaron bragged. And Aaron always bragged!
“Because I didn’t want to,” Aaron answered.
“You mean because you couldn’t,” Vicky corrected him.
“I could if I wanted to,” Aaron said.
“Fibber!” Vicky said. “Prove it!”
“Fine! Gangway!” Aaron said, and grabbed the rope. He squinted his eyes and stuck out his tongue. That meant he was trying really hard. It sure was one silly face. I started laughing my head off. “What’s so funny?” Aaron asked.
“It looks like you’re trying to go to the bathroom.” I giggled. Soon the rest of my friends were laughing, too. But not Aaron. He got a little mad. His face turned red, and he squinted even more. That made us giggle louder. Then he made the last loop and pulled both ends of the rope.
“Ta-da!” he said proudly, and lifted the rope to show us.
Only it wasn’t really a ta-da, because both of his hands were caught in the rope. That’s when we all fell to the deck from laughing so hard.
“Ahoy! You little shipmates seem to be having fun!” a voice boomed behind us. It was Captain Stinky Beard, and he had a big smile on his face.
“Ahoy right back!” I said, and gave him a pirate salute.
Captain Stinky Beard saluted back. Then he took a look at the knots in our practice rope and the ones in Inna’s ribbon. He nodded his head and said, “Ye sailors have been working hard at these. It looks to me like you’ve done a fine job.”
“Aye?” we asked.
“Aye!” Captain Stinky Beard said.
“But Cap’n? Shouldn’t we be helping the rest of crew get ready in case we’re attacked?” Vicky asked.
“Aye!” Aaron said. “All this knot tying is a waste of time!”
“Arrr! Knot tying is very, very important,” Captain Stinky Beard told us.
I smiled. “That’s what I said,” I whispered to my friends.
“Besides,” the captain added, “there’s been no sign of the Filthy Sails all day! They must’ve heard about our brave little pirates.”
“Aye!” we said proudly. We were all smiling, too, because as much as pirates like adventure, no pirate likes to be attacked. But our smiles disappeared when Captain Stinky Beard looked at our practice ropes again and frowned.
“Are these supposed to be Sheepshank Man-o’-War knots?” he asked.
We put our heads down and nodded. They didn’t look much like knots. They looked more like messes. We thought the captain would be disappointed. But when I peeked up, he didn’t look disappointed.
“Hmm, not bad,” he said. “Rotten Tooth must have a lot of faith in ye mates to teach you such a hard knot.”
“Aye, Cap’n!” Rotten Tooth bellowed. It was the end of the day, and he was coming back to check on us. He put one of his big hands on my shoulder and the other on Inna’s. Then he smiled real wide. “I got a whole ocean of faith in ’em!” he said.
I looked over at Aaron and rolled my eyes.
Aaron rolled his, too.
Rotten Tooth was always pretending he liked us in front of the captain. But as soon as Captain Stinky Beard left, so did Rotten Tooth’s smile. He leaned in real close to us. We had to hold our noses because of his stinky breath. “Arrr! I got faith that ye will never, ever figure it out!”
I folded my arms and stomped my foot. “Arrr! We’ll figure it out,” I told him.
Rotten Tooth roared with laughter. “Mayhaps, me little buckoes. But it took me two years to learn how to tie and untie that knot,” he said, holding up five fingers.
“TWO YEARS!” we all yelled at once.
Two years was forever. I was already nine and three-quarters years old. In two years, I’d be way into my tens! I couldn’t waste all that time learning one knot.
“How are we ever supposed to learn anything new?” I asked.
Rotten Tooth scratched the two pointy ends of his beard. “Arrr, I suppose ye better keep practicing for homework.”
We all groaned as Rotten Tooth cut each of us a small piece of rope to take belowdecks. But I wasn’t going to let Rotten Head stop me from being a real pirate. I’d show him! Even if it took all night, I was going to learn the Sheepshank Man-o’-War!
Chapter 5
Ships Ahoy!
The next morning, I was sitting on my bunk as the sun was waking up. The ship was quiet except for Inna’s snoring and Gary’s sleepy sniffling. Aaron and Vicky were asleep in their bunks, too.
They were all tuckered out from doing homework the night before. We had practiced and practiced until our fingers were sore. But still, not even one of us had been able to get that knot to tie the right way.
I didn’t want to spend another day working on it. So I reached under my pillow and took out my practice rope. I made four loops like Rotten Tooth had shown us. That was the easy part. Then came the hard part. I had to pull the center loops back through the other loops and turn them from front to back. It made my brain dizzy just thinking about it. And when I was done, my finger was caught in one of the loops. I had to start all over again.
I made a growly noise.
“Knots are not fun,” I mumbled.
I made four more loops and was about to try the twisty-turning thing when I saw something out of the porthole. It looked like it might be another ship. Maybe the Filthy Sails was coming for us after all.
I pressed my face up to the glass and took a longer peek. I didn’t see anything.
I peeked to the front side.
Then I peeked to the back side.
I only saw waves. It must have been my imagination.
When I peeked at my lap side, I couldn’t believe what I saw! While I was doing all that peeking, I’d tied a perfect Sheepshank Man-o’-War knot! I forgot all about the ship I thought I saw.
“Avast! I did it! I did it!” I shouted.
Vicky woke up first. She sat up on her bunk and rubbed her eyes. I held up my rope for her to see. Then Vicky started clapping and shouting, too. “Pete did it! He did it!” she yelled and banged on the bunk above her where Aaron was still sleeping.
Aaron sat up. “Arrr! I told you it wasn’t impossible,” he said.
Vicky didn’t answer him. She just stuck her tongue out instead. Then she got up and raced over to my bunk. Gary’s bunk was under mine. Vicky had to step on his to climb up. By accident, she stepped on his hand. Gary woke up.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Vicky said.
“Aye-aye-AH-CHOO!” Gary said back.
I poked my head over the side and showed him my knot.
“Blimey!” he said. “Good job, Pete!”
“Thanks, matey!” I said.
Finally, Inna pulled back the pink curtain around her bed. “What’s all the racket? I’m trying to get my beauty sleep,” she said.
But when I told her what I’d done, she wasn’t grumpy anymore.
She gave me a thumbs-up. “Maybe now you can show all of us?” she asked.
“Aye! Rotten Tooth showed us too fast. You could show us in slower motion,” Vicky said.
I made my face into a pout. Then I scratched my head. “Aye. I wish I could. But I was looking out the window when I tied it,” I told them. “I’m not sure I could show myself.”
“Why in the name of the Sea Rat would you be looking out the window?” Vicky asked.<
br />
“Aye. You’re the one who says we need to pay attention when it comes to important stuff like homework,” Inna said.
“Aye aye. But my brain was all dizzy, and I thought I saw a ship,” I said.
“Arrr! You mean like that ship?” Gary said, pointing out to sea.
I spun around. Outside the porthole was a ship. And not just any ship, it was another pirate ship. “Sink me!” I said. “It’s the Filthy Sails!”
My friends all made a really loud triple gulp!
“We need to get on deck and help the crew!” I shouted.
“Aye!” Aaron agreed. “We’ll teach Fish Face not to attack our ship.”
“Aye aye!” Inna, Vicky, and Gary said.
We were just about to run out of our room when Rotten Tooth came in. “Arrr! Where do ye pollywogs think you’re going?” he asked.
“To show those mean pirates who the boss of the sea is, that’s where!” Aaron answered.
“Arrr! A high seas attack is no place for kiddies,” Rotten Tooth growled. “Ye’ll weigh anchor here and work on your lesson.”
“But Pete already did,” Inna said. She held up my rope and waved it in front of Rotten Tooth.
“ARRR! Then practice untying it and re-tying it! And that’s an order!” he yelled, and slammed the door.
We all moaned and grumbled. But orders were orders even if they weren’t fair! It was the first battle since we’d come to Pirate School, and we were all marooned in our quarters.
Chapter 6
Attack!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The cannons shook the whole entire ship. It was scarier than the worst storm I ever sailed through. Inna and Gary were hiding under a blanket. And after another BOOM went off, I quickly climbed under the blanket with them.
“I’m right behind you,” Vicky yelled, and dove headfirst next to me under the blanket.
“Arrr! You guys are a bunch of scallywags!” Aaron bellowed. He still had his face pressed up to the window. “If Rotten Tooth had taught us how to swashbuckle, I’d be up there right now.”
I peeked my head out. Aaron started jumping from bunk to bunk, swinging a rope around in the air. But then a giant blast rocked the Sea Rat so hard that it knocked Aaron to the floor.
In a flash, he was right next to Vicky, hiding with the rest of us.
“I thought you said we were scallywags?” Vicky asked.
Aaron shrugged his shoulders. “So, maybe I was wrong,” he said. Even though Aaron liked to be a show-off, most of the time he admitted when he was wrong. This was definitely one of those times.
We could see the smoke outside our window.
We could hear the rival pirates board our ship.
We knew our ship was losing the fight.
“What are we going to do?” Vicky asked. “The crew of the Filthy Sails is going to take all of our treasure!”
“Arrr! They won’t take my necklace,” Inna said, covering it with both hands.
“Even worse, they’ll sink our ship! We can’t let that happen,” I said. Even though we were afraid, our ship was in danger. “We have to pull together and save the day.”
“Aye aye!” Vicky said. “But what can we do?”
“We need a plan,” Inna said.
“Aye, that’s a good plan,” Gary told her.
“Aye,” Vicky agreed. “But what is the plan going to be?”
We all shrugged.
Then we thought as hard as we could.
I reached my hand under my pirate hat and scratched my head. Then I rolled my eyes back to search for a plan in my brain. That’s when I remembered a story a pirate from the last ship I lived on had told me. It was about how he’d helped save that ship.
“ARRR! That’s it!” I said. Then I told my friends the story about that ship being attacked. “Some of the pirates hid belowdecks in case the ship was overtaken. And then they snuck around and freed the crew. After that, WHAM! A surprise attack!”
“Arrr! Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go, buckoes!” Aaron said.
We threw the blanket off our heads and snuck toward the door. It was up to us to save the Sea Rat once again.
Chapter 7
Sneaky Sea Dogs
The door creaked open. I looked around to make sure the coast was clear.
“C’mon, mates, let’s go,” I whispered to my friends. Then we tippy-toed through the hallway. We knew a secret way to get on deck. Down the hall was a hatch with a ladder that went up to the back of the ship. That’s where we were headed.
When we got to the door, I heard a loud rumble.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“What was that?” I whispered.
Gary looked down and put both hands on his stomach. “That was my tummy,” he whispered back. “I’m starving.”
“Aye, me too,” Inna whispered.
“Me three,” Vicky said.
Then my tummy rumbled, too.
“Lucky for you mates, I’ve got some sea slugs in my pocket,” Aaron said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of slimy slugs.
Gary’s face turned greenish. Inna held her nose. I did the same. Suddenly, we weren’t so hungry anymore.
“Maybe later,” we said.
“Suit yourself,” Aaron said. Then he and Vicky gobbled up the creepy critters.
Once we snuck our way to the hatch, there was one little problem. The ladder wasn’t there and none of us could reach the handle. “I can reach it if I climb on your shoulders,” Vicky told me.
“Good idea,” I said. Then Aaron helped Vicky climb on my shoulders. But we still couldn’t reach. “We need someone to climb on Vicky’s shoulders, too,” I said.
“I vote for Gary,” Inna said. Inna didn’t like climbing.
“Aye!” Aaron agreed. “And we can help him.”
Gary wasn’t so sure. I could tell he was afraid he’d fall. “You can do it, Gary! The ship needs you,” I told him.
“Aye?” Gary asked.
“AYE!” we all said.
“Then I’ll try my best,” he said. He took a deep breath and almost sneezed. But he pinched his nose just in time. After all, we were supposed to be sneaky.
With Aaron and Inna’s help, Gary climbed on Vicky’s shoulders. I felt my legs starting to shake. It was hard work holding them both.
“I got it!” Gary said when he grabbed the hatch handle. He was so excited that he lost his balance!
I wibbled and wobbled.
Then . . . CRASH!
I fell to the floor. Then Vicky fell on top of me. I waited for Gary to fall, but he didn’t. I looked up and he was still holding onto the handle. Then the hatch started to slide open.
Gary was hanging in the air. We could see the sky above him. “Arrr! What should I do?” he asked.
“Pull yourself up. Then lower a rope for us to climb,” I said.
“Aye aye!” Gary said. We watched him disappear. When he came back, he was holding a rope.
“Use one of the knots Rotten Tooth showed us to tie the rope to the ship’s railing,” Inna whispered.
“Aye aye!” Gary said. The next thing we knew, he was lowering the rope down. We all took turns climbing up on deck and telling Gary what a good job he had done. Gary smiled really proudly. “I guess I’m not that clumsy when it counts,” he said.
“Aye,” I said, and gave him a pat on the back.
Then I looked around. We were all the way at the back of the ship, behind the main cabin. There were never any pirates here except Clegg. He was the oldest pirate on the ship, and he liked to fish back here. But I didn’t even see him.
When I poked my head around the side of the cabin, I found the crew. They were tied to the masts, and the crew of the Filthy Sails was guarding them!
I took a deep breath. I knew I had to come up with a really good plan if we were going save the day once again!
Chapter 8
Rotten Luck!
I watched Captain Fish Face pace the deck. “Arr
r! Tell me where be the rest of the treasure or I’ll sink this Rat to the bottom of the sea!” he demanded. His voice was even scarier than his face. It gave me the shivers just hearing him.
We had snuck over to the far side of the ship and were hiding behind a tall stack of barrels. “We need to do something quick!” I said, peeking through the tiny space between the barrels. “Or Fish Face is going to make the crew walk the plank.”
“Arrr! I say we run out there and toss Cap’n Fish Guts back into the sea,” Aaron said. He stood up and was about to run out. I had to grab his sleeve to hold him back.
“There’s too many of them,” I said. I tried counting the pirates from the Filthy Sails. There were lots. I’m not sure exactly how many because I lost count at eleven. But I knew it was lots. “We need to set our shipmates free first.”
“But how are we going to get to them?” Vicky asked. “They’re surrounded.”
Vicky was right. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come up with a plan.
“Avast! I’ve got an idea,” Inna said. “First, we need a distraction. Someone has to get those stinky pirates’ attention so the rest of us can untie the crew.”
Aaron jumped up. “I’ll do it,” he said. Then he started to swing his arms around like he was swashbuckling.
“Maybe someone else should do it,” Inna said.
“Aye! Someone who isn’t addled in the head,” Vicky agreed.
Aaron crossed his arms. “I can do it. I’ll prove it,” he said.
I held up my hands. I had to stop him. They’d turn him into shark bait for sure. “Um . . . we need you to help untie the crew. You’re the best at untying knots,” I fibbed.
“Aye? I am, aren’t I?” Aaron said. He held his chin up high. “Okay, I’ll help.”
I wiped my forehead. That was a close one. And for once, I didn’t mind Aaron thinking he was the best at everything.
Gary tapped me on the shoulder. “Pete, I’m not very good at untying knots. But I’m very, very good at distractions,” he said.
