Chapter 4 - A Pirates Life

Chapter 4



The next day went quite differently then the first. Sanji woke everyone up at 8 o'clock in the morning. The long table was still on the deck, now covered in breakfast. Everyone came out and sat down, all still very sleepy, most of the boys with bad hangovers. While everyone, have asleep, ate the breakfast Sanji had put out for them, Luffy, the only truly awake one, stood up at the head of the table.

“Good morning, crew!” was the first thing he said with a huge grin.

“Can I go back to sleep now?” Patrick D groaned.

“You're probably wondering why you're all here so early.” Luffy continued, ignoring him.

“Why does my head hurt so much?” Zoro mumbled.

“My back hurts.” Usopp whined.

“Oi, `cause we slept on the deck.” Phillip muttered.

“It was your own fault for drinking too much.” Nami said matter-o-factually.

“I'm sleepy, and I didn't drink at all.” Katherine groaned.

“PAY ATTENTION!” Luffy shouted, making everyone jump and stare at him. “Thank you! Now, as Nami pointed out, our new crew members aren't experienced pirates.”

“Neither was Usopp when he joined.” Zoro pointed out.

“Are you kidding? I was captain to a great crew!” Usopp yelled, insulted.

“Yes. Of 10-year-olds.” Zoro replied.

“The point is, they should have training!” Luffy continued.

“Training for what?” Jasmine asked, interested.

“For… being a pirate!” Luffy replied.

“Luffy, I joined when I was a pirate hunter. I don't think pirates need special training.” Zoro sighed, standing up. “And I want to go back to bed. I'll see you at about 2 in the afternoon.” He walked back down under the deck.

Luffy had a large frown on his face. “Awww. I wanted to teach the newbies.”

“But he had a point. I don't think they need pirate lessons.” Robin said. “They'll catch on.”

Luffy's mouth eventually straightened. “Alright. I guess we'll just get on with what we were doing before they came.”

“What were you doing?” Patrick F asked.

“Figuring out where we are. We're lost.” Usopp admitted.

“How are you going to decide anything without Zoro, though?” Patrick D asked.

“The lazy jerk is always asleep anyway.” Sanji replied, sitting down.

“Hey, we never asked you how you got into such bad shape in that storm.” He asked suddenly. “What happened?”

“Well, we would have sunk anyway, but we got a hole in out ship.” Jasmine said.

“How? What happened?” Chopper asked.

“A cabbage hit Patrick in the stomach-” Katherine stopped. “Come to think of it, that was pretty weird.”

Luffy and Usopp gave each other guilty looks.

“A- A cabbage, you say?” Usopp gulped.

“That's certainly… interesting.” Luffy said slowly.

“Oh my God.” Katherine stared at them.

“You didn't.” Phillip stared at them with wide eyes.

“Why don't you five get changed back into your normal clothes? They're dry now, and we need to talk.” Nami said, glaring at Luffy and Usopp.

The five teens immediately finished eating and walked quickly back to the two sleeping corridors.

Katherine and Jasmine walked into the girls' room, and found their clothes on their beds.

“… How'd they get here?” Katherine blinked.

“Probably Robin, and her hands.” Jasmine guessed, picking up her clothes.

“Ah. Of course.” Katherine said, changing back into her clothes. “So, what d'you think of these guys?”

“Okay. They're nice.” Jasmine replied. “You?”

“I absolutely love them! Being a pirate rocks! You get to travel around, and no one can tell you what to do! Well, except the captain.” She blinked. “And man, I'm so lucky. I was saved by the hottest guy on the ship!” She said in a dreamy tone.

Jasmine couldn't help but frown, but didn't say anything. Katherine raised her eyebrows.

“Oh ho… you disagree?” She grinned, and Jasmine's frown deepened.

“You think you were saved by the hottest guy on the ship?” She asked, as Jasmine's frown got as deep as it could get. Katherine laughed. “Ah, don't be upset. He's not to bad looking, that Zoro guy. … but his hair weirds me out.”

“And Sanji's eyebrow doesn't?” Jasmine asked, smiling weakly. “But man, Usopp's right. You know you're friends too well.”

A few rooms over, the boys were having a similar conversation.

“I, for one, am following Green Hairs' lead. Goodnight to you all.” Patrick D said, falling over one of the beds.

“Dude, why go back to sleep. We just got up. And we're pirates now.” Patrick F pointed out. `We should do, like, pirate stuff.”

“… bleh. I can't sleep anyway.” Patrick D replied, sitting up.

“So, what do you guys think of being pirates?” Phillip asked.

“It'll be better when we steal some treasure.” Patrick F replied.

“And when there're more babes. I mean, one babe is like, in her 20's. And creeps me out. And the other is kinda evil.” Patrick D said.

“Yeah… she dares insult us and our piracy? She will live to regret it!” Phillip vowed.

“… but she's hot.”

`… Yeah.”

The three boys sat in silence.

“I'm gonna go catch fish.” Patrick D said, jumping off the bed.

“Knock yourself out.” Phillip said, raising his hand in a salute.

“Seriously, do. I'll laugh.” Patrick F added.

Patrick D couldn't help but laugh with them as he left the room. With his lucky fish shirt dry and ready for wearing, he was in the mood to do what he did best: fish.

Out on the deck, Patrick didn't immediately see anyone out anymore. In the short time the five teenagers left, everyone else, and the long table, had gone somewhere else. Patrick walked to the side of the boat, and cast his spear down. Only then did he look up and notice the other presence on the ship. The green haired guy… Zoro, Patrick remembered. He was at the back of the ship, and even though Patrick was currently at the front, it wasn't that far away. He was lifting a freakishly huge weight on a stick up and down, with barely any effort. Patrick couldn't help but gape at it for a while; It was probably bigger then he was.

Feeling a jerk on his spear, Patrick turned and pulled it up back up. The spear came back up, but now had three fishes stuck on it.

“Oi! Patrick!” Patrick blinked up to see Zoro yelling at him. “Can you give me a hand?”

“Um… sure.” Patrick replied, leaning his spear against the rail and walking over.

Zoro put the huge weight down. “Can you sit on that?”

“Uhhhhhh.” Patrick blinked, but slowly obeyed the command and sat on the large weight. As soon as he was, Zoro lifted it up again, and continued his workout.

“This is the biggest weight I have, so I need to add weight for a challenge.” Zoro grunted an explanation, while Patrick clung to the side of the weight for dear life.

“Don't you think you're over doing it a bit?” Patrick asked cautiously.

Zoro shook his head. “Gotta be the best. And if you want to be the best, you have to raise your limits and get stronger.”

Patrick pondered this for a moment, then slid off the weight. “You're right. Can I train with you?”

“Uh… sure, I guess.” Zoro replied, putting the weight down.

“Here, let me try.” Patrick said with a grin, grabbing the handle of the weight and pulling. It didn't budge. He tried again, and still the weight didn't even move.

“Maybe you could start with something smaller…” Zoro suggested, watching.

“No, no, I got this.” Patrick managed to say, pulling with all of his might.

Zoro sighed and shook his head, and walked away while Patrick struggled. He returned shortly after, carrying a similar weight, about a 6th of the size of his.

“Try this one.” He said, handing it to Patrick. Patrick took it, and, with some effort, lifted it up.

“Good.” Zoro said, and continued lifting his weight. Patrick couldn't help but grin.

`I'm gonna be the best! I'm gonna be so strong, no fish will escape me! All fish will fear Patrick Doogen, the greatest fisherman in the world!”



**



At this time, Patrick F and Phillip were wandering the rooms below deck. They found most rooms were empty, but found a few people hanging around. Nami was alone in one room, reading maps at her desk. They found Usopp in another room, hard at work on… something. Chopper was working on some sort of medicine in another room and Phillip, interested, stayed there, leaving Patrick to wander alone.

He found the kitchen was the busiest place at this time. Sanji was cooking lunch with Katherine and Jasmine peering over his shoulder. Robin was sitting at the table, drinking tea. And Luffy was also sitting there, shifting in his seat.

“Oh! Hello, Patrick.” Sanji smiled, looking up. Very quickly, Patrick noticed Luffy's hand shot out, grab a piece of chicken Sanji was frying, and come back into Luffy's mouth. Luffy gave Patrick a thumbs up, and Patrick couldn't help but laugh a bit.

“G-Good morning, Sanji.” Patrick said, trying to stop laughing. Sanji rose his eyebrow, and looked down at the meat,

“Luffy!” He yelled, throwing his shoe at Luffy's head, which knocked him over. “Don't eat raw meat!”

“But it's good.” Luffy complained, sitting back up.

“You'll get sick if you do.” Robin told him, as Katherine brought Sanji his shoe back.

Patrick laughed, mainly at the stupidity of the conversation. “So, we don't know where we are?” He asked, sitting at the table.

“Not a clue. But that never stopped us before.” Luffy grinned.

“So, where were you going?” Patrick asked.

“No where.” Luffy replied.

“So, you're just kinda floating around?”

“Yep.”

“Sweet.”

Katherine sat down at the table. “No use. I can barely see. Everything is colourful blurs. I can't tell if Sanji used salt or sugar.”

“Sugar on chicken?” Jasmine laughed.

“That would be interesting.” Robin smiled.

“Yeah! Sanji, try that!” Luffy cheered.

“Not in your life! I could get the girls sick.” Sanji frowned.

“Then just put it on Luffy's piece.” Katherine suggested.

“PleasepleasepleasePLEASE?” Luffy begged.

“You are, indeed, the strangest person I have ever met.” Sanji sighed, but grinned as he shook sugar over one of the pieces of chicken.

“Me too! I wanna try that.” Patrick grinned.

“Oh my god, there're two of them.” Sanji said flatly, staring at Patrick.

“Give it to him! I wanna watch this.” Katherine laughed, as Sanji put sugar on another piece of chicken.

“I like you! You have good taste!” Luffy grinned, lifting his hand, which Patrick slapped, laughing.

“One Luffy we could barely cook for. Two, and I'll go insane.” Sanji sighed, and Robin laughed.



**



The afternoon continued quite like the morning. A bit after diner (which Luffy and Patrick F especially enjoyed), while Patrick and Zoro were training with normal sized weights, Zoro suddenly fell asleep on the floor, so Patrick D went down to the kitchen, where everyone had gathered to here Nami's speech.

“Well, I know where we are now.” Nami began, and the crew cut her off, cheering.

“Are we near any islands?” Usopp asked.

“With treasure?” Phillip asked.

“And meaty animals for Sanji to cook?” Luffy asked hopefully.

“Well, we're actually pretty close to an island. There's a town on it, but I don't know much about it. But I think we should go there, to check it out. And get Katherine and Jasmine some more clothes. They've been wearing mine, which don't even fit right.” She finished, and Katherine and Jasmine nodded in agreement.

“Alright! Then we head for… for… wherever that is!” Luffy announced, jumping up. Zoros' half-asleep head suddenly popped in the doorway.

“Hey, what're we all doing?” He asked sleepily.

“Nothing that you'll care about, Cactus Hair.” Sanji sighed. “Go back to sleep.”

“'Kay.” Zoro replied, walking away.

“I'm going to bed too.” Usopp announced. “G'night.”

“Ah, me too.” Phillip said, standing up.

“I'm totally bushed from working out.” Patrick D said, standing up.

“You? Worked out?” Katherine said, disbelievingly.

“Yeah. What about it?” Patrick D asked threateningly.

“Nothing, nothing. C'mon, Doe. Let's go to bed.” She and Jasmine got up.

“Why don't we all go to bed? And tomorrow, we'll explore the island.” Robin said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Katherine and Jasmine walked back to the girls' bedroom before Nami or Robin got there.

“Man, this is cool.” Katherine grinned, getting into bed not bothering to change. “Out first day as a pirate!”

“Yeah.” Jasmine agreed, lying down. But something else had just struck her. Being on a small ship all the time, surrounded by people, would make it a lot more difficult for her to hide her secret.

She shut her eyes tightly, trying to get rid of the thought. She'll just have to try harder. A bit calmer, she quickly fell asleep.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment