"Daddy, wake up!"

Jack was in his parent's room trying to get his father to get up. He was jumping up and down on the bed ready for a new day. The only problem was that his father refused to greet it. Jack pouted and screamed louder.

"Wake up!"

Instead his mother woke up.

"Jackie, what are you doing," Salina asked tiredly.

"Daddy promised to take on the Misty Lady today but he won't wake up," Jack wailed.

Salina looked down at Teague. Even though half his face was buried in his pillow she could clearly see him smirking. She sighed and motioned her son to come closer.

"Jackie, maybe he's not waking up because you're too far away. Try getting closer," she whispered with a smirk of her own.

Jack grinned and crawled over until he was right next to his father's head. Then he screamed as loud as he could, "WAKE UP!"

Teague immediately shot out of bed, almost knocked his son over, and cursed loudly.

"It worked," he reported happily to Salina, "Thanks Mommy."

"Yeah, thanks Mommy," Teague said sarcastically. He could hear ringing in his ears.

"Daddy let's go," Jack said impatiently.

"You have to have breakfast and let Daddy fix your clothes first," Salina said. Then she laid back down in bed and pulled the covers over her head hoping to get some more sleep.

Jack looked down at himself. 'I don't think I look that bad…,' he thought. His pants were on correctly but his shirt was backwards and he had tried to tie on his bandana himself but it was too hard for him so he just laid it on top of his head.

Teague got out from his warm, comfortable bed and took off the bandana lying on Jackie's head. Then he took off Jackie's shirt and turned it around. Lastly he tied on the bandana the correct way.

"Go wait kitchen while I get dressed," Teague said while trying to suppress a yawn. Jackie must've woke up as soon as the sun rose… When Teague finished getting dressed he opened the door to see Jack standing there.

"Still afraid," Teague asked even though he already knew the answer.

Jackie held up his arms in answer.

The boy insisted that a monster lived behind the door closest to the stairs. He was traumatized when he had snuck out of his room to get a glass of water during the middle of the night. As he was coming toward the stairs a horrible monster burst out of the door and had a dagger in its hands ready to attack. Jack screamed and ran into Teague's and Salina's bedroom terrified.

It was actually Jack's grandmama. She had heard someone walking in the hall and went to investigate. Jack's been afraid to go near the door ever since. They tried explaining it to him but he wouldn't listen.

Teague picked Jack up and carried him all the way into the kitchen. They only had a few pieces of bread for breakfast since they wanted to leave for the ship as soon as possible. Salina would never approve but what she doesn't know won't hurt her. While they were eating Brannigan came through the back door with Valerie. She had begun sword fighting lessons with real swords a year ago and was declared a prodigy.

"Why are you practicing so early?" Teague asked.

"She wanted to practice before school," Brannigan said.

"Well I can't practice after! I'm going over a friend's house," the eight year old replied.

Just then David, not the lemur, walked into the kitchen rubbing his eyes. He took one look at his sister and father and exclaimed, "Did you practice without me?" He was six years old now and in school along with his sister.

"No, we just took our swords out for a walk," Valerie said sarcastically.

"Well we better get going," Teague said as he rushed Jack out the backdoor. He sensed a fight coming on.

"Where are you going," David asked curiously.

"We're going on a ship," Jack said in a sing-song voice before Teague could stop him.

David turned to glare at his father as soon as they closed the door. "Valerie got to practice fighting with you; Jackie is going on a ship with Uncle Teague, how come I'm always the one left out?" David always complained how Brannigan always spent his time with Valerie and not him. In a way he was the middle child of the family since Jack was more of a little brother to him and Valerie than a cousin. He and Jack argued a lot and often tried to outdo the other at random things like who could run the fastest.

"Uhh, how about we do something after school," 'Ace' Brannigan said. He felt really bad that he didn't spend as much time with his son as he should.

"You have to bring me to my friend's house after school," Valerie exclaimed.

David was just about to scream at Valerie when Brannigan said, "All right stop! Now David I'll drop off Valerie and then we can…I'll show you how to shoot a gun."

"WHAT! You said that you won't teach me how to shoot a gun until I'm thirteen. He's only SIX! Why are you teaching him?"

"Umm… because he's a boy," Brannigan said. He couldn't think of any other excuse but he immediately realized his excuse was a big mistake.

"WHAT?" Valerie screamed.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Everyone turned to see Hazel and she did not look happy. All of their yelling must've woke her up.

"He's going to teach David how to shoot before me just because he's a boy!" Valerie screamed pointing at her dad.

Hazel turned to glare at her son. Being a female pirate…well retired female pirate she knew how hard it was to gain respect and be taken seriously. She would not tolerate this! Soon she was screaming at her son about raising him better. Then Brannigan starting yelling about how she was a horrible mother and he had to take care of his siblings.

David yelled at Valerie, "Now he's never going to teach me how to shoot!"

"He shouldn't have said he would in the first place!" Just then David, the lemur, hopped on Valerie shoulder and screeched loudly. "And David agrees with me!"

"No I don't!"

"I was talking about my lemur you idiot!"

"You're the idiot! Why did you have to name him after me? IT'S SO CONFUSING!"

Salina was going to go into the kitchen to get something to eat but as soon as she got into the hallway and viewed the screaming contest going on inside the kitchen she quietly walked toward the children. Grabbing Valerie and David by their wrists she dragged them into the hallway.

"Go get ready for school. I'll walk you there… and stop arguing," she whispered. Salina didn't want Hazel or Brannigan to see her because once you got sucked into a family fight it was hard to get out…unharmed…

'Thank goodness Jackie isn't in the house,' Salina thought.

"Jack get down from there!"

Jack let go of the rope he was holding and landed on the deck. 'It's not like I was that high up…,' he thought. Teague had already given him his fourth tour of the ship. Jack had told him that but Teague said it's never too earlier to learn the making of the ship and repeating it over and over again will get it stuck in his head. So at the end of the tour Jack decided he wanted to go up to the crow's nest. Unfortunately his dad caught him climbing up there.

"If your mom found out I let you do that she'd kill me!"

"She's right behind you," Jack lied.

While Teague spun around looking for Salina Jack ran over to the bowsprit. He climbed to the very end and looked around. There wasn't much to see since they were in a cave but Jack just wanted to go somewhere he wasn't allowed.

"JACK GET BACK HERE!"

Jack rolled his eyes and came back down.

"You just love getting in trouble don't you?"

Jack shrugged. "Can I steer the ship?"

"We're tied to the dock so you can't really steer it anywhere…you can spin the wheel."

Jack ran to the wheel. Just like Teague suspected he immediately spun the wheel as hard as he could to the left.

"So Jackie do you want to be a captain like me when you grow up?" Teague asked.

"No…I'm going to be better than you! And my ship will be better than the Misty Lady! It'll be…faster…and bigger…and…BETTER!" Jack shouted gleefully.

"Really?" Teague asked skeptically. "Well what's this amazing ship going to be called?"

"Umm, the Mist-…no… the Mighty…"

"You can come up with the name later. So are you ready to go back yet?"

"NO!"

"Well what do you want to do? Do you want another tour," Teague asked evilly knowing Jackie hated those tours.

"No. Wanna play pirate?" Jack asked while giving him the puppy dog look. It was his favorite game in the entire world…unless he wasn't the captain.

Teague sighed. He hated that game but if it made his son happy… "Sure."

"Okay, I'm Captain and you're…you swab the deck."

"What? You'd make your own father swab the deck!"

Jack grinned evilly. "Yes. We're on our way to… Austria!"

"Jackie, Austria is landlocked."

"So?"

"Good point... but why Austria?"

"Because that's where the treasure is," Jack said like it was obvious.

"Oh."

They played like that for hours. Teague always had to do some lowly job much to the joy of his son who was in charge. Finally the sun was setting and they had to go back.

"Ready Jackie?"

"Nooo!" Jack clung tightly to the helm.

"Come on Jackie we have to go," Teague said. He tried to pull his son from the wheel but he wouldn't budge. Then he tickled Jack on his sides and while he was laughing Teague picked him up and carried him off the Misty Lady.

When they finally got to the house they went through the backdoor and were greeted by Salina.

"Don't go into the living room. Brannigan and Hazel are fighting again," she whispered.

"How long has it been going on," Teague asked as they walked through the kitchen and into the hall.

"On and off the entire day! Anyways, did you have fun on Daddy's ship Jackie?"

"Yeah, but then we left!"

Salina laughed. "Well it's already past your bedtime so go get on your pajama's," she said when they reached the door to Jack's room, which was right next to his parents room. It was smaller than his parent's room and very messy since Jack refused to clean up.

Jack went into his room. Carefully stepping over toys, pillows, clothes, books, and unknown objects that somehow moved on their own he reached his dresser and pulled out his shirt and pants which served as his pajamas. They were a little big but they were very comfortable. Once he was dressed he walked out of his room and into his parents.

"Can you tell me a bedtime story," he asked with pleading eyes.

"Sure sweetie," Salina said.

They walked back to Jack's room. While Jack laid on his bed Salina's eyes scanned the floor looking for a good, short, book. She finally settled on one about a mischievous monkey who always got into trouble.

"Like you," Salina joked.

Fifteen minutes later Teague came in complaining about how long they were taking.

"Then you tell him story," Salina huffed.

"Fine I will." Teague found a chair and dragged it over to the side of the bed. "I'm going to tell you the story about how me and your mother met. I was in Tortuga and when I-"

"TEAGUE THAT IS NOT HOW WE MET!"

The Keeper of the Code thought fast. "I know! I was just trying to make the story more interesting for Jackie."

"Liar."

Jack silently got out of bed and crept out the door and strolled into his parent's room. He locked the door and instantly ran over the huge bed which must've been about three times larger than his. He jumped up and down and tried to touch the ceiling. Jack even tried to do a flip but it ended up with him crashing onto the floor. He rubbed his head and then went back to jumping on the bed. It was going to take more than a bump on the head to ruin this once in a lifetime opportunity. If his Daddy ever saw him doing this he would be in for it for sure. After he wore himself out after half an hour he laid down and tried to go to sleep.

He wasn't worried about his parents. They always argue how Teague forgets how they met but in the end they always make up. Jack grinned at the thought of his Mommy and Daddy trying to get inside their room to find out it's locked. As he drifted off to sleep he wondered, 'How did Mommy and Daddy meet?' He'd have to ask Mommy since Daddy could never get the story right…

The End