Chapter 3 - Zack's Arrival

Ann, Kim, Michael, and Vince stared out the window. "When is Zack gonna come?" asked Ann. "He's usually late to things so I guess in a few hours." said Jack. "HOURS?!?! I hate waiting." said Kim. "I still can't believe our uncle is a pirate." said Michael. "I just hope he isn't a scarry pirate." said Vince. "Dude you gotta toughen up." said Ann. "You can't go through life being scared of your own shadow." said Michael. "Your right." said Kim starting to hide behind Vince. "You don't know when someone is gonna come up behind you and scare you." she said as she put her hands on his shoulders, making Vince jump. "MOM!!!" yelled Vince. "Kim please stop scarring your brother." said Sally as she walked in from the kitchen. "I'm bored." said Ann as she started to walk up the stairs. "I'm gonna go practice my drums." she continued. "Yea I'm gonna go practice my guitar solo." said Michael following Ann. "Gracie, will you please tell me why did you and your friends give them instruments for Christmas?" asked Jack. "We already told you." said Gracie walking in from Jack's study. Following her was Melissa, Deseree, and Kelsey "In the song we're using for Halloween it contains some instruments that the street band don't have." said Kelsey. "It was a great decision to use the song Haunted from Evanescence's CD." said Deseree. "It really sets the mood for Halloween." said Melissa. "Its also great to dance to." said Gracie starting to dance. "Hey. I think I see him." said Kim. Jack ran to the window. "I think your right. Well, lets go greet him." said Jack. "I'll get Ann and Michael." said Kelsey as she started to walk up the stairs.
Upstairs, Kelsey heard blasts of drums and guitars from Ann's room and Michael's room. She went into Ann's room where she saw Ann hitting at the cymbols(SP). Kelsey walked up to Ann and took the drumsticks out of her hands. "Hey!" said Ann. "Zack's here." said Kelsey. "Oh." said Ann as she walked out of her room. Then Kelsey walked to Michael's room. Inside Michael was playing his guitar. Even though it was child-sized it sounded like a real guitar. Kelsey walked up and unplugged it. "Hey!" said Michael. "Zack's here." said Kelsey. Then they both left the room and went downstairs.
When Kelsey, Ann, and Michael got downstairs everyone went outside, Jack, Sally, and the kids went down the long stairs and Gracie and her friends waited at the top of the stairs. "I just hope Zack likes humans." said Gracie petting Abby.
"Ah home sweet home." thought Zack. He looked around and saw Jack waving. "I see my dear twin got the letter." he thought. "Ahoy." said Zack. "Nice to see you again." said Jack as he and Zack shook hands. "Same here." said Zack. "Hi." said Sally very quietly. "Why hello there Sally." said Zack as he kissed Sally's hand. "Hi Uncle Zack!" said Ann and Kim in unison. "Wow an actual pirate." said Michael. "Are you a mean pirate?" asked Vince. "Oh, Zack let me introduce you to Ann, Kim, Michael, and Vince." said Jack as he pointed to each child as he said their name. "So these little buckaneers(SP) must be yours." said Zack pointing to Jack and Sally.
"Barbosa!" said Gracie still sitting on top of the stairs. "Huh?" asked Melissa. "Zack looks like Jack in a Captain Barbosa costume." said Gracie. "You mean Captain Barbosa from Pirates of the Caribbean?" asked Deseree. "Yes" said Gracie. "Oh my gosh I just noticed that." said Kelsey. Then all of a sudden Abby broke free from Gracie's grip and ran down the stairs barking. She then ran up to Zack and bit him in the leg. Gracie and her friends ran down the stairs to where Jack and Zack were. Gracie grabbed Abby, pulled out a mussle from her red purse, and attached it on Abby. "TIME!" yelled Gracie. "1.33 seconds. New record!" said Melissa stopping her stopwatch. "Uh Gracie." said Deseree. "Oh. Zack I'm so sorry. Abby's not normally like that." said Gracie walking up to Zack. "Boy I can't believe I'm meeting an actual pirate." said Melissa. "Jack told us so much about you." said Deseree. "Well he told us everything about you yesterday." said Kelsey. "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE!?!?!" yelled Zack. "Oh my god, where are my manners? My name is Gracie." said Gracie. "My name is Melissa." said Melissa. "The name's Deseree." said Deseree. And I'm Kelsey." said Kelsey. "Your humans aren't you?" asked Zack. "Yes. We are living breathing humans." said Gracie. "Humans!!! In Halloween Town!! How did you all get here?" asked Zack. "Its a long story." said Jack. "And I'll be happy to tell it to you." said Gracie. Then Gracie and her friends took turns telling the story on how they met and how they get to Halloween Town. "So...in the year 1993 my brother Jack 'took over' a holiday called Christmas and because of his horrible gifts he was shot down. But you 4 liked the gifts and went to a graveyard that was the same one that Jack fell in. You 4 made 'friendship bracelets' out of scraps of cloth that Jack left behind. Then 5 years later you all put the bracelets together and you ended up here. So now you are friends with my brother and you plan the yearly Halloween celebration." said Zack. "Yup thats it." said Melissa. "Wow. I always knew that Jack would change Halloween Town but never like this!! Are there any more humans here?" asked Zack. "Nope. Jack told us to keep this town and the others a secret." said Deseree. "If we don't someone imoprtant will probably find out and a war would probably start and this burtonesque town will be destroyed." said Gracie. "Burtonesque?" asked Zack. "Don't ask." said Jack. "Hey speaking of Halloween we better start working!!" said Melissa. "Bye Zack!! C'ya in an hour." said Gracie. Then they left.
One hour later Gracie and her friends walked inside Jack's house. "You'd think these people would know how to rise up from graves." said Gracie as her friends and herself walked inside the kitchen. For the beggining of her Halloween the citizens were going to rise up from the ground and, using stunt ropes, the citizens were to levitate until the words 'I know your still there' then the ropes would be cut and they would start dancing. "Oh well they have 5 months to get this down." said Deseree. "Hey girls." said Jack and Sally in unison. Abby ran to the girls. She had the look of mercy in her eyes because she still had the mussle on her mouth. "No girl I can't take off the mussle because you may bite Zack again." said Gracie as she petted Abby. "Why do you think Abby bit Zack?" asked Melissa. "Maybe she thought he was the UPS dude." said Kelsey. "UPS?" asked Jack. "United Parsal Service. They are the people who deliver my dad's golf clubs. And Abby hates them." said Gracie. "Speaking of Zack, where is he?" asked Melissa. "Oh he's in the study telling the kids pirate storys." said Sally. "He started telling storys without us!!" said Deseree. "Oh my!" said Kelsey sarcastly. "Hey I wanna know some of his storys too." said Melissa. "How about we all go into the study and listen to them." said Gracie. "Besides I need to get my Order of the Phoneix book out of there." said Gracie. "Didn't you already read that book?" asked Deseree. "Yes, but the new book is comin out soon and I just wanna review." said Gracie. Then they all went into the study. Melissa, Kelsey, and Deseree sat on the floor with Ann, Kim, Michael, and Vince. Gracie grabbed her book and sat on the couch half reading, half listening to Zack's story.
"So there we were under the ocean, with no food, water, or air for 1 month. I was in my study, sleeping on my desk, when a centipede, now this isn't your everyday centipede he was as tall as your human friend Gracie (And Gracie was the tallest of her friends). Anyway he comes up to me and steals me compass. I get up and grab him by the overalls he was wearing, he tries to run away but me skellington crew stops him. So after we's caught him we's started to streetch him out. But little did we's know he'd had friends on the surface. A little boy and his spider, and this wasn't your everyday spider, she'd be as tall as Sally. They free the centipede and they fought me crew to the death. Then they start to leave, but I wouldn't let them get away that easily, so I climbed up to the very top of my ship and grabbed the centipede by the leg and brought him back down to the ship. We fight face to face, he throws a punch at me's and I get knocked out. When I's woke up he was gone with me compass and me hat. So, crewless, I swam away from the ruins and up to the surface where I comendered (SP) a new ship and gots meself a new crew." said Zack. "Wow." said Ann. "Interesting." said Kim. "That was the best story ever!" said Michael. "Is...is...it...it...oo...over?" asked Vince nerviously peaking out from behind Melissa. "That was a great story." said Melissa. "Yea." said Kelsey. "You should write a book." said Deseree. "Yup and I know just the title. Zack's Book of Pirate Lies." said Gracie looking up from her book. "What do you mean by Pirate Lies?" asked Zack. "Oh please. That story sounds like it came out of Edward Bloom's mouth. It pure fiction." said Gracie. "How is this story fiction? Humor me." said Zack. "Well...ok. Question 1: How can you all survive 1 month underwater when the average person can survive only 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food?" asked Gracie. "Well I am a skellin..." started Zack. "Question 2: Bugs as tall as Sally and me? Thats impossible. The biggest bugs known to man are about 6 inches long." said Gracie. "Well the water does magnify." said Zack. "And question 3: Why didn't you and your crew just swim away in the first place? You know what? Before you go and make-up some amazing story I suggest you check your facts." said Gracie. "Well, it looks like you know alot." said Zack. "Why thank you." said Gracie. "For a human that is." said Zack. "Whats that supposed to mean?" asked Melissa. "Yea. We're not stupid." said Deseree. "Well I don't know about you, Zack but I'm not stupid." said Kelsey. "You know what it was nice meeting you Zack, but look at the time we gotta go. We'll see you tomorrow." said Gracie as she look at her watch. They quickly called Abby and they all left.
"Did we miss something?" asked Jack and Sally as they walked into the room. "Oh your human friends just left." said Zack. "Thats weird. Its 9:00pm where they are." said Jack. "They usually stay untill 11:00pm Earth time." said Sally. "Huh? I thought it was 3:00 pm." asked Zack. "Oh, there's a 6 hour time zone difference between Earth and Halloween Town." said Jack. "Oh Ann would you please show Zack to his room?" asked Sally. "No prob Mom." said Ann as she took Zack's bags and they both went upstairs. "What happened?" asked Jack. "What do you mean?" asked Michael. "Well, its not normal for Gracie and her friends to leave early. Did Zack say something?" asked Sally. "Well, Zack was telling us this completely deadly-vu pirate story." said Kim. "And when he was done Gracie started to ask him some questions. Zack said Gracie was very smart...for a human." said Vince. "Thats just like Zack. Speaking his mind before his mind can think it over." said Jack. "I hope the girls wern't too offended to not come back tomorrow morning for the town meeting." said Sally.
"That jerk!" said Melissa. "How dare he question our intelligence!" said Deseree. "Who does he think he his?" asked Kelsey. "I don't know but he really..." said Gracie. "Gracie keep it PG." said Melissa. "Sorry. He just makes me so mad!" said Gracie shaking her fists. Then they entered a clearing where they were at the trees that had paintings on them. They entered a portal and found themselves home and in their normal clothes.
"And this is your room." said Ann when they arrived at the guest room. "Thank you...ummm Kim right?" asked Zack as they walked inside. "No, silly I'm Ann. Kim has black hair, mine is red-orange" said Ann. "Oh sorry. Well tell your parents that I'll be down in a few hours for dinner." said Zack. "K." said Ann as she left the room. "Humans. My mortal foe. And my little brother is letting them run around this town like they own it. Jack is too blind to see that they are destroying this town little by little. Oh well my little plan of hostile takeover will have Halloween Town in the palm of my hand. I'll crown myself Pumpkin King, get that wretched Sally to love me, and I'll get rid of those blasted humans. The best part is that Jack can't do anything about it because he will be me." said Zack to himself.
"Kim please call Zack down for dinner." said Sally. "Sure." said Kim as she walked up the stairs. Sally put the vulture on the dining room table and sat down next to Jack. She looked at the clock and it said 6:00pm. "Hello eveyone." said Zack as he walked in. "Zack please take a seat." said Jack. Zack sat at the head of the table across from Jack. Sally then put some of the food on everyone's plate and they started eating. Durring dinner Zack amazed everyone (especailly the kids) with more pirate storys. When dinner was over Sally took the plates. "Why Sally that was the best meal I'd had in years." said Zack as Sally took away his plate. "Why thank you." said Sally in amazement. "Yup it looks like yous arent that much of a worthless ragdoll after all." said Zack. "Zack can I please talk to you in the study?" asked Jack as he got up from his chair. "Sure." said Zack following him.
"Zack you can't just go mouthing off the first thing that comes to your mind." said Jack when they entered the study. "And why not?" asked Zack. "Because its rude and offencive. You realize now that Sally is my wife and you can't treat her the way you did when we were in college." said Jack. "She's just a useless ragdoll." said Zack. "That 'useless ragdoll' has made me the happiest skellington in Halloween Town. The next time you make fun of her or any of my other friends again you will be sorry." said Jack. "Does that mean I can't poke fun at the humans?" asked Zack. "And another thing, those humans do have names and they are, Gracie, Melissa, Deseree, and Kelsey. I'd advise that you use those names. I heard of what you said to them and they are not stupid. You better get your act under control for tomorrow's town meeting." said Jack as he left.
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