Without further adieu...

Chapter 30: Day One

Sunlight streamed in through a tiny crack between her window and curtains, dancing playfully across Jenn's eyes in the irritating manner that woke her. The sun was just barely rising in indication of the dawn and already Jenn had the feeling that her day was going to start soon.

She threw a pillow over her head and buried herself in blankets to avoid the upcoming day but it yielded no positive results.

Jenn crawled out of bed, tossing the covers messily behind her. She went about her morning routine of showering and brushing her teeth. Then she stood in front of the closet, her hair still sopping wet, debating what to wear for the day.

She picked a hooded T-shirt with the short sleeves and hood colored a faded purple, and the body of the shirt, a dark gray.

A pair of comfortable skinny blue jeans highlighted the purple of the shirt and a new pair of white socks fit snuggly around her feet. She combed through her wild black hair and threw it back into a ponytail tucking the loose bangs behind her ears.

It wasn't until she stood in front of the mirror straightening her shirt that the events of the day before hit her like a brick. For a fleeting moment, everything that happened with the Whitebeards seemed like a long, strange dream but the cross and crescent tattoo on Jenn's shoulder said otherwise.

"Seems like my brain can switch between two different worlds just like that," Jenn muttered to herself. "I suppose seventeen years of living in one place does that to people."

There were some definite differences though.

Her skin was a sun-kissed tan and she was lean and well toned. Not to mention, it seemed her butt had gotten bigger because these jeans just didn't fit quite right. Jenn reached her arm over to touch the tattoo on her shoulder blade, almost to assure herself everything wasn't a dream.

To solidify Jenn's suspicions, it was too quiet in the morning for Jenn. The silence in the morning was unsettling.

Where was the sound of Thatch and the chefs clattering around in the kitchen, making breakfast, or Marco's angry yelling about Haruta's newest prank? There was no roar of the waves in the ocean hitting the side of the ship or the snap of the sails in the wind.

What was the date? Where was everyone?

Jenn snuck a peek into her little brother's room to find him sound asleep. No doubt her parents are still asleep as well. Next, the tactician crept downstairs where she figured she'd get answers.

Jack

The truck bumped steadily along the rough road, effectively waking Jack from his nap. Strangely enough, the truck driver from last night had offered to drive Jack back into the city, even though he was acting like a crazed maniac. The pirate had accepted the offer, seeing as how he had no idea where he was.

The truck driver was trying to be a kind soul but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out if this was all a strange dream or if the kid was actually nuts. The boy had blabbered something about Bamboo Hatted pirates, sea monsters and an old man called Whitebeard although he had a mustache. Then he fell asleep.

The driver had debated whether or not to drop the boy off at a mental asylum but figured that it wasn't really his problem.

"Hey old man, what year is it?" Jack asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and then stretched his arms, yawning loudly.

There the kid goes again. The driver thought. "Are you sure you're completely sane, kid?"

"Who are you talking to? I'm not Sain. There's a member of the Whitebeard pirates named Sain though! I bet he's sane. Or maybe not. He's got this weird addiction to eating bananas and he always talks crazy like he's Shakespeare or something." Jack blabbered, totally distracted.

This kid is definitely crazy. The driver stepped on the gas a little harder, urging the vehicle to move quicker so he could get the kid out of the car. Jack seemed to notice the increase in speed and laughed at the man's discomfort.

"You're funny, ossan!"

The truck driver just shot him as a sideways glance and then pressed on the gas a little harder.

Jenn

The Whitebeard tactician scratched her head in slight confusion. The calendar date was approximately a year behind what she had expected. And it was a Monday, ugh.

"Theoretically if I had traveled back in time, the me of this time should still be around somewhere. But I'm nowhere to be found. And now I sound crazy." Jenn muttered to herself.

The tactician sighed to herself like this was all just a big chore and then grabbed her phone and dialed Jack's number. After several rings, her friend picked up.

"Hello. Hello. Hello." Jack replied in a monotone voice, and Jenn could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"I'm waking up at the start at the end of the world. But it's feeling like every other morning before." Jenn added a bit of rhythm to her words and had a smirk of her own.

"Please don't start quoting Matchbox 20."

"You started it."

"No, I didn't. I was just answering the phone."

"No one just says hello three times successively when answering the phone."

"...Okay, fine I started it. Good to know we still think alike though."

Jenn did a little happy dance for the slight victory in that little jest. She was shuffling through the papers on the counter to see what other news she could get her hands on while still talking to Jack on the phone. She filled him in on the strange time traveling phenomenon although she didn't have much to say about it.

"So...aren't we supposed to be in school then?" Jack inquired. "We'd still be in our senior year at high school if this time traveling thing was real."

Jenn groaned. She did not want to be in high school again. Sitting in a desk was already unappealing enough as a pirate.

"Pack your bags 'cause I guess we're going to school." Jenn grumbled.

"Oh yeah, I'm sitting in a truck with this funny old guy."

The truck driver's indignant "hey" could be heard over the phone line.

"I find out more stuff before we meet up. For now just play it cool, like we were here the whole time."

Jack agreed that they could discuss more in depth when they met up and they both hung up the phone.

Marco

The Phoenix calmly folded up the papers that Jenn left and tucked them back into the envelope that they came in. He knew Jenn well enough to know that she probably left a separate letter with Oyaji and if she was meticulous enough, one with Ace.

Marco let out a sigh and figured he'd go out on deck to have a smoke before talking to Whitebeard. It wasn't often that he smoked but sometimes when he was feeling the pressures of being the first mate he'd crack open a pack of cigarettes. They didn't have much effect on him with his devil fruit ability much like alcohol didn't do much either. But at least it gave him a bit of time to himself.

He had just barely made it up to the crow's nest when he heard a commotion down below and several crewmates calling his name. With a sigh, he made his way back down from the crow's nest to see what the noise was all about.

"Marco, we're getting a call from someone. She claims to be one of the Fated Five?"

"Must be the one that Jenn was trying to contact with no luck earlier." Marco made his way to the navigation room where he knew the den den mushi would be waiting for him.

Everyone quickly filed out of the room when he arrived to give him some privacy.

"This is Marco, yoi."

"Hello Marco, my na - GRK! "

"Listen here Mr. First mate! I've been sitting around for hours waiting for you pirates to show - " An angry voice resonated from the den den mushi. The sound of shuffling around could be heard on the other side and "Koala-san give that back!" could vaguely be heard through the noise.

A crash and then silence.

"What am I even supposed to say to that, yoi?" Marco pondered to himself, realizing that he had been hung up on. He settled comfortably into a chair and checked the Moby's navigation charts as he waited.

"Puru puru puru... ka-cha."

"This is Marco, yoi."

"Ah, Marco-san. This is Lux. Sorry about that, Koala-san and Sabo-san like to butt their heads into other people's business. Jenn called me a couple of times recently but my phone has been missing until yesterday. She left me a message about the whole Earth issue so we rushed over as soon as we heard."

"Wait, you're at Silver Cay right now?" Marco grabbed a navigation chart off the desk. "We left hours ago after Jenn and Jack successfully destroyed the gate. The marines should be in havoc right now, yoi."

"I don't know what you're talking about but it sounds like there's another gate... We aren't at Silver Cay."

"...Where are you then?"

"Uhhh...Punk Hazard? Where the gate is?"

"..."

"..."

"...There's more than one gate, isn't there?"

Jack and Jenn

"Huh."

"Huh, indeed."

Jenn and Jack stood at the front entrance to their old high school, just admiring the looming building in front of them. It had been a while since they'd seen a building so sturdily built and huge that wasn't a marine fortress.

Students were steadily beginning to stream into the school doors, excitedly chatting with each other in exuberant voices. It was just their luck that Jenn and Jack had returned to school on the first day of classes after summer break.

"The more I look at it, the more it looks like a marine fortress." Jack stated.

He had somehow managed to convince the truck driver to drop him off at his house and his mom fell for the story of him going out for a midnight run and then getting lost. After only minimal scolding, he had grabbed his bag (which was luckily already packed) and headed off for school.

Jenn was swinging the keys of her brother's car around her finger. She had driven to school, something she had never dared to do back in the original timeline. Jenn had no fear of driving but she could never bring herself to drive her brother's car.

The school was swarming with students chattering with each other and for a moment, Jenn felt like she was back on the Moby Dick. There was so much noise and it was rowdy. Jenn adjusted her backpack on her shoulder and tried to act as natural as possible.

"Okay, so we've agreed to keep things low-key until we find a way back to One Piece World?"

"Yeah, sure sure." Jenn's words could almost be seen going in one of Jack's ears and coming out the other.

A freshman pushed by Jack and continued to walk without saying a word of apology.

"Damn freshmen!" A wave of conqueror's haki knocked the kid to his knees. "That'll show 'em." Jack smirked, even going as far as to stick his tongue out at the kid.

Jenn sweatdropped at her friend's actions and half-heartedly karate chopped him on the head. "That's not low-key."

They proceeded to make their way to their classes and spent the morning dodging questions from their classmates and friends about their occasional slip-ups. For the most part, things were running smoothly. Well... except a few things.

Jack would abuse his powers every time he felt like things were too boring (read: every few minutes) and haki blast people just to watch their reactions.

Jenn had to admit that it was pretty entertaining and she may have been guilty of using her own powers to haki blast a few people as well.

It wasn't until lunch break that the two pirates learned a very important fact.

The two were just making their way across the street where they had planned to buy lunch from one of the local restaurants when they heard...

"BWAHAHA! WHERE'S MY CUTE GRANDDAUGHTER?!"

Both pirates paled.

"Is that the GARP THE FIST? AS IN THE HERO OF THE MARINES?!"

"Just play it cool. Don't panic." Jenn hissed under her breath at her friend although she was sweating bullets. Both of them turned away from the sound of Garp's yelling.

"Huh, that last Conqueror's Haki blast came from over there. BWAHAHA! HERE I COME!"

"sHITSHITshit! He's coming over here!" Jack started speed walking down the street, Jenn hot on his heels. They both kept their heads down unsuspiciously and continued away from the school.

A monstrous shadow loomed over them.

"Eeep." Jenn managed to squeak. "Do I even dare to look up?"

"BWAHAHA! You two sure are easy to track down when you use haki like that!" Garp bellowed.

Both pirates looked up to the figure of Garp that towered over them.

"Ja - I mean Fooly... I'm gonna fricken murder you..."

"And why would that be?"

"I said we were supposed to keep things undercover...and you blew it with your haki."

"So...should we run?"

"Probably?"

"FIST OF LOVE!"

Jenn narrowly dodged Garp's haki infused fist that left a crater in the sidewalk and darted the hell away from the old man, screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs. Proud pirate be damned, Garp was scary as hell. Jack followed in suite, in an equal but slightly more manly? manner.

"COME BACK HERE, DAMN PIRATES!" The marine roared, giving chase.

"I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS AND NONE OF THEM ARE ANSWERED!" Jenn looked behind her only for her eyes to practically jump out of their sockets at how close Garp was and her speed instantly doubled. "AND CAN'T YOU BE ANY MORE SUBTLE, GARP?!"

"BWAHAHA! YOU SHOULD BE CALLING ME GRANDPA!"

"AND WHY THE HELL WOULD I/SHE DO THAT?!" Jenn and Jack simultaneously shrieked at the old marine.

Garp only laughed in response.

"AT LEAST WAIT TILL WE'RE NOT IN PUBLIC TO TRY AND MURDER US! CRAZY OLD MAN!"

*WHOOP WHOOP... WheeeoooooweeeeoooooWeeeeoooooWeeeeooooo.*

"IS THAT A POLICE SIREN?"

"THAT'S A POLICE SIREN!"

"BWAHAHA, WHAT'S A POLICE SIREN?"

Return to Earth, Day One: A complete and utter shitshow

A/N: (heyo Jack Jack, I know you read this...) Anyways, it's here it is. *cough* I seriously have to work on my updating skills...