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Chapter 1

"It's like someone covered her head in glue and then poured a bag of pasta over it," The two girls giggled hysterically as the teacher chased the two boys who had stolen her class role. Or she did until someone stuck out their foot. Books flew everywhere as she completely took out three desks, causing the two girls to gasp, then upgrade from giggles into full hysterical laughter.

"Marty, Marty did you see that?!" Gasped Amber, elbowing the girl next to them.

"Hmm… What 'append?" Asked the girl jerking awake, she yawned and rubbed her eyes, blinking as she surveyed the damage. The teacher had picked herself up, and as the trio watched began screaming at the surrounding students.

"Who in their right mind would put a sub, fresh out of uni, on a senior class anyway?" Sighed (Just a heads up, you can either keep 'sighed' or replace it with 'questioned', either way should be fine even though it is technically a question. Albeit, rhetorical.) Marty sleepily as she dropped her head back on her desk, preparing once again for sleep. She was so tired! When was she going to learn that watching 'just one more episode' till three in the morning was a bad idea. One Piece was getting addictive.

Suddenly the door slammed open and three guys dashed into the classroom and began flinging water bombs at all people in sight. Marty was once again jolted awake when one exploded onto the back of her head, soaking her brown hair to black as she jerked upright.

"Please children! Let's all settle down, and turn to chapter three of your workbooks!" The teacher said desperately, her voice staining to be heard above the issuing chaos.

. . .

"ACE, UP," Ace flew upright, head flicking back and forth searching for the commotions source. He zeroed in on the door, from which a large banging was now coming. Groaning, he swung his legs out of bed, grabbing his hat on the way to the door. He pulled the door open to reveal Marco, whose hand was still raised to continue his assault on the door.

"Wha-…-t?" He yawned, jamming his hat on his head. Marco dropped his arm, instead raising his eyebrow.

"… It's dinner time, I thought you might want to eat today," Ace woke up fully at this.

"I slept the whole day?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yep," Marco watching watched Ace's look of disbelief as it changed into a grin.

"Oh well," He stretched, "last night was totally worth it." He said happily as he headed to the kitchen. Marco fell into step beside him.

"I hope so, you lot drunk our sake stores dry," Marco said as the entered the kitchen. Ace just grinned and began making his way towards the food, threading through members of the crew, many of whom were still supporting hangovers. Once they had collected food, they joined the other commanders. Izo, commander of the 16th division, and one of the only two female commanders, was ranting in full swing on her favourite subject.

"I'm telling you, we need to be actively attempting to recruit more female members," She said determinedly as Ace and Marco sat down.

"We do look for girls, they just never seem to want to join," Reasoned Thatch.

"They don't want to join because you spend an hour hitting (on them?) beforehand!" Izo exclaimed indignantly, "you guys have to stop seeing females as a chance to get laid!" Haruta nodded in agreement. Marco sighed; this wasn't the first time for this conversation, it wasn't the twentieth either. Most women just didn't want to join a crew dominated by 1600 men.

"We should reach the next island tomorrow, there should be some females there if you want to try recruiting them," Marco said tiredly as Ace fell asleep into his dinner.

. . .

Marty held her arms out horizontal from her body as she walked along the wall. The street was mostly empty as stragglers hurried to get home before darkness fell.

"I can't believe we were there for three hours!" Whined Amber, walking slightly ahead of Marty on the footpath, with Mia keeping pace next to her, "I mean sure, this is the first time for a class to hold a water balloon fight indoors, but, three hours! My parents are going to kill me."

"It wouldn't have been so bad if a window hadn't been broken," Said Marty, only half concentrating on the conversation.

"Oh I totally forgot about the window, ack my parents will be at (Up? Mad at? Ugh, confusion.*holds head*) me till morning and then some," Amber threw her hands up in despair wailing dramatically, "You're so lucky Marty, your parents don't care what you get up to!"

"Mmm," said Marty wobbling slightly, her parents never wanted a kid. Marty was just seen as interference in their busy lives. She hadn't seen either of her parents for months; they were in France doing some business deal. Amber flipped her black hair, annoyed by Marty's non-answer.

"Hello, can I get a little sympathy here please?" Marty glanced upwards, sensing Amber was going into a full on pity rant, and jumped down from the wall looking around for an escape.

"Uuh, this way is a short cut to my house, sorry I need to get home," Marty said angling towards a random sides street, "I'll see you on Monday okay? Bye Amber, Mia." Waving over her shoulder she took off running down the darkening side street, leaving Amber looking slightly indignant behind her.

She kept running till she was around the corner and out of sight. Marty sighed, Amber and Mia were nice, well Mia was nice, but the three of them shared little interests and extremely different personalities. Urh, God, if Amber ever discovered her near obsession for anime, she shuddered, she would never hear the end of it.

Marty reached the edge of the creepy park that was a shortcut to her house. She looked up at the sky, she could go around, but it would be dark by the time she got home. Better to leg it through the trees while twilight (The Twilight Saga really ruined the word 'twilight'. Sigh, it was a really good word too…) still lingered. Pulling the hair-tie from her wrist, she dragged her hair into a pony tail before setting off through the trees at a run.

Shadows deepened with every step she took, the only noise in the creepy silence were her feet as the slapped a steady rhythm into the ground. After a minute of running Marty saw the lights of houses breaking through the trees and sped up. Suddenly her foot caught a root, pitching her forward. Her head cracked against a tree. She slid sideways, everything turning black. Even as everything faded, Marty began to wonder why she hadn't hit the ground yet. In fact why did it feel like she was falling through the air?

. . .

Izo slammed her mug onto the table, causing the men surrounding her to wince. The last island has been a bust. They couldn't find a single female willing to join, and it had put the 16th division commander in a bad mood. Ace stretched and yawned having just awakened from his last Narcolepsy attack.

"There's nothing you could have done Izo," He said, beginning to eat again, "you can't force them to join, and if they don't want to fight or be a pirate then why would you want to anyway. Just try again at the next island." Izo turned her glare to him,

"The next island's a week from here," She said through gritted teeth.

"And you've been attempting to recruit females for over two years now," Marco said bluntly, entering the conversation. Izo huffed angrily, then grabbed her empty plate and left.

"For everyone's sanity and safety we need to find at least one girl at the next island willing to join," Moaned Thatch, "even if it means kidnapping one." (Foreshadowing? Nice.)

. . .

The sunlight seared though Marty's eyelids, rousing her from her slumber. She opened her eyes slowly, glaring at the sky as she forced them open. It took her a few second to realise that being able to see the sky meant she wasn't in her own bed. She shot up, looking around … wait. Why was she on a beach? Where did the beach come from? As far as she knew there wasn't a beach in her town. She looked behind her… last time she checked it wasn't surrounded by jungle either.

Where the hell was she?

Marty staggered to her feet. Owwwwwww, damn her head hurt. The last thing she remembered was the tree hitting her head(Yeah, blame the tree, of course it was the tree's fault for 'hitting' her.), but she had been in the park near her house. Suddenly her stomach rumbled. She groaned, she hadn't eaten since lunch… yesterday? How long had she been out? Marty shook her head, questions weren't helping, she had to find food. She looked around, scary jungle or flat beach. Then something at the jungles edge caught her eye. Was that… a giant… STRAWBERRY! Her mouth watered, she loved strawberries (Kinda reminds me of SOMEONE else. I'm actually surprised she didn't find a giant lemon.). Marty ran over to the fruit, scooping it up, and then paused. Crisscrossing over the fruits skin were strange spiralling patterns, but her hunger got the better of her and she bit into the strawberry.

She was eating so fast she bypassed the stage of chewing and tasting, it wasn't till she finished the fruit that she noticed it's horrible taste. She gagged, coughing, desperately trying to wipe the taste from her tongue.

"Urrghhhgg, yuck!" She shuddered, gross! How could a strawberry taste this bad! How dare it (Yes, how dare it! Is this that weird demon goat fruit thing the Monkey eats to make himself stretchy?)! She shuddered again before returning her attention to her surroundings. She could walk along the beach on the small chance she came across a town, or try her luck in the jungle. The sun beating down on the back of her neck made the decision for her. With one last look along the shoreline, she set off into the shady canopy of the jungle, in the hope she would find civilisation eventually.