Make Believe

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The next morning I was woken up from an almost restless sleep from the sound of a loud bell ringing.

"Wake up men! We've got a long day ahead of us!" Archer yelled from the top of the stairs that led down to the sleeping quarters of the men.

Sleeping down there wasn't so bad. I mean, I was put in the bed in the farthest corner of the room thanks to James. He seemed to have the most manners out of everyone. But of course, there had to be something that made up for it.

"Here you can take this bed. No one really uses it because who wants to sleep in the corner? Don't do anything stupid. I'm surprised that Archer even lets a lady sleep down here. She should be in the kitchen." He said plainly before dropping a pillow on top of the flat mattress that rested on the ground.

What is this one thing? He is insufferably sexist.

But then again, most of them were sexist. I didn't really expect much more from pirates. Although these guys were the worst excuses for pirates I've ever seen.

They all were clean cut and handsome in someway. They also didn't seem like the raping and pillaging types.

The night before, Peter was on his knees praying in a hushed whisper before he went to bed while James tucked Mark into bed.

I was confused, to say the least.

It was early in the morning when Archer woke us up. There was still fog on the water and the sun was barely over the tree line in the distance.

Everyone was yawning and stretching as they came up the stairs to the main deck. Archer was behind the mass, looking almost noble.

I decided to go up next to him and take a look at the ocean or river or whatever before us. As I got up next to him, he looked over at me, rolled his eyes and then looked away. I looked over to him with darting eyes.

"What is it?"
"What kind of lady are you? You smell like a dog!" He shouted as he covered his nose with his one hand, keeping the other on the giant wheel.

"Oh well you don't smell like roses either, princess." I said sarcastically.

"Aren't girls supposed to naturally smell good?" He asked, brushing his blond hair out of his eyes with the hand that was previously on his nose.

"Well excuse me. I've been trapped in this place for two days and I haven't gotten a chance to shower or anything like that." I walked away in a huff and sat on a barrel that was on the lower main deck with all the other men around me talking and trying to wake up.

Archer sighed and handed the wheel over to Richard before coming down the stairs and leaning against the side of the boat next to me.

"I didn't mean it in any offense, gosh." He mumbled, making it so I was the only one that could hear him... sort of apologize.

"Yeah but I took it as one, stinky." I looked up at him and stuck my tongue out. He smiled. This was the first time I had seen Archer really smile. It was beautiful. The picture perfect smile.

Maybe Archer is the raping kind. He's defiantly got the charm for it.

All the men assembled around him, still yawning and stretching. Mark was the only awake one out of all of us, aside from Archer of course. He was darting around the ship, saying good morning to everyone. I was the last one to get the warm hello.

"Good morning Gale! I'm really happy you're with us now! This is going to be awesome!" He cried out with a huge smile on his face.

I realized then that for a story book, these guys spoke pretty normal slang.

As all the men assembled around, Archer stood up straight and cleared his voice.

"Good morning everyone-"
"Good morning Archer!" Mark yelled with the same excited smile on.

"Uh, good morning Mark." Archer said, smiling down at the boy. "Today we have a big job to do. We're going to need everyone's skills today. Roger, get your arrows, James, your hand knives and Peter, bring your healing potions just in case something goes wrong."

Thanks to this little speech I could establish some things in my mind but me being me, I wouldn't let them stay in my mind.

"So wait, Roger is an Archer?" I said, letting out a small giggle. "I would have assumed you to be, Archer." The crew rolled their eyes. Obviously, they have heard this joke before.

"I specialize in sneaking around, hand to hand combat and swords. Roger is a specialist at archery and James is good with smaller knives. Can we please stop with the interruptions-"

"Well wait, what does that make Peter? A wizard or something?"

Archer sighed and pressed his hand to his forehead.

"Gale, this really isn't important right now-"

"I'm a wizard in training! I'm only really good for poisons though..." The shy Peter said enthusiastically before trailing off from Archer's harsh stair.

"As I was saying," Archer shouted loudly, "There's a small tax collector up the river. Gale and Mark will distract him with our whole orphan gag. The only change is, Gale is the sexiest orphan around-"

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold it. What exactly am I doing?!" I said, shooting up from the barrel I was sitting on.

Archer looked confused. He obviously wasn't used to people questioning him or anything he said. He might be a leader but I sure as hell am not a follower. Especially when it comes to me acting sexy!

"We need you to distract him. What do men like? Sexy women. So what are you going to pretend to be? A sexy woman... with a starving, sick younger brother." Archer said. The men around him chuckled at the idea of me trying to be sexy. I, on the other hand, didn't find it funny at all.

"I still don't understand exactly what we're doing." I said, crossing my arms across my chest and sitting back down on the barrel.

"How would I put this without sounded extremely lame..." He trailed off.

"We steal from the rich and give to the poor!" Mark yelled out with wide, adorable smile on his face.

"Thank you Mark but that was sort of my definition of lame. You get the basic idea right?"

"You guys are like Robin Hood."

"We are not like Robin Hood!" He shouted loudly. "He is a 4 foot tall man that runs around in his underwear claiming that he's doing good when all he is really doing is flashing people."

Obviously, I offended him somehow.

"Okay, okay, sorry!" I said defensively. He sighed before turning back to the crew.

"Does everyone understand the plan? Mark and Gale keep him busy at the door while we sneak in and take only four bags of gold-"

"Only four?" I cut in. Archer was obviously getting annoyed with the constant interruptions.

"We don't want to take more then that because we can't let the poor man starve to death! Sure, he may not be the nicest person in the world but he's still a person. Do you understand now, Gale dear?" He said, turning to me with a sort of cocky smile on his face. He was assuming that he was smarter then me. Oh, hell no.

"Yes, I understood it before, Archer baby." I said with a sly smile creeping onto my face. The men around me let out a small laugh before Archer's angry eyes silenced them all.

"Gale, we take this job seriously so either you take it seriously or you get off the ship now and walk to your oh-so important wizard! Everyone be ready by total sunrise." and with that Archer dashed away in a huff of annoyance.

The men watched him as he slammed the door behind him in his captain's quarters and then all turned to me, a few with smiles on their faces.

"Damn, you showed him." Roger shouted happily, letting out a laugh.

"Ha! When was the last time Archer got that kind of talk?" Richard said, his cheeks turning red from his great smile. Mark and Peter both joined in the laughter.

"Well, he sure as hell deserved it by the attitude he's been having lately. Always so seriously these days. Remember when we used to have... oh gosh, what's that word? Oh yeah, fun?" Roger laughed before he turned around and began heading down the stairs to the lower part of the boat.

James was the only one not laughing or smiling. His face was always so cold. I mean, in the two days I've known him, I haven't seen him smile once. Always the same serious look. I wonder how a happy kid like Mark is related to someone like James?

Everyone was beginning to get ready but I just stayed on the main deck, thinking.

How the hell was I supposed to act sexy? Oh, this was going to be interesting.