Free Port of Spies by Brian James Page A

want there,” Vicky said.
    â€œAye!” Gary said. “I heard they have stores that sell fresh-baked cookies!”
    Since the ship was low on supplies, we’d been eating seaweed slop for days. Thinking about cookies made my stomach grumble and my mouth a little drooly.
    â€œArrr! I heard there’s a store that sells shiny jewelry,” Inna said.
    â€œOh, barnacles! Who cares about that stuff?” Aaron said. “The best sword-maker in all the seas lives there! I can’t wait to get my hands on one of those!” he shouted.
    Vicky crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. That’s the face she made when Aaron acted like a show-off. And Aaron always acted like a show-off. So Vicky made that face a lot.
    â€œI just hope Rotten Tooth doesn’t make us stay aboard and scrub dishes,” I said.
    â€œAYE!” everyone agreed.
    Rotten Tooth was our teacher at Pirate School. He was also the first mate. That meant he was the double boss of us and could give us stinky orders, like making us scrub things.
    If it were up to him, we’d never learn any pirate stuff. Good thing Captain Stinky Beard was the boss of him. Pirate School was all the captain’s idea, and he made sure ol’ Rotten Guts taught us more than just how to be deckhands.
    â€œArrr! I hope he gives us the day off,” Gary said.
    â€œAye, me too!” Aaron agreed.
    â€œAye, me three,” Inna said.
    Vicky hoped so, too. But she didn’t want it to look like she was agreeing with Aaron, so she didn’t say so. She just nodded her head instead.
    Soon our ship sailed closer to the harbor. The harbor was crowded with a whole fleet of ships.
    â€œAvast! There are no other pirate ships,” Vicky said.
    I took a look around. She was right.
    â€œArrr! I’m glad!” Inna said. “I don’t want any rival pirates messing up my day.”
    â€œBut sometimes, it’s bad luck to be the only pirate ship,” Gary told us. “I heard that in a pirate tale once on my old ship.”
    â€œArrr! We don’t know for sure if we’ll be the only pirates. There might be others on the island in disguise,” I said. “Most towns don’t really like pirates. So sometimes pirates need to be real sneaky. It’s in the pirate code.”
    â€œAye?” my friends asked.
    â€œAye!” I answered.
    I knew all about the pirate code. I had learned the whole thing before I ever even came to Pirate School.
    â€œAye!” a voice boomed over my shoulder. It was Captain Stinky Beard. “Being sneaky is a smart idea,” he said. Then he turned to the crew. “Lower the flag!” he bellowed.
    I smiled proudly.
    My mates were pretty proud of me, too.
    â€œGood work, me lil’ shipmate,” Captain Stinky Beard said to me. “It be better to stay out of trouble. We’ll get our supplies and then get sailing!”
    â€œAye aye!” we said.
    I leaned forward and took another long look at King’s Island. Even if we weren’t going to do any piratey stuff like search for treasure, it sure was going to be a fun place to explore once we weighed anchor.

Chapter 2
    Part of the Crew
    The whole crew headed ashore. Just as we were about to step off the ship, Rotten Tooth stepped in front of us.
    Our path was completely blocked.
    That’s because Rotten Tooth wasn’t only the ugliest pirate on the Sea Rat , he was also the biggest.
    He leaned in so close that his pointy green beard almost poked me. “Arrr! Where do ye mangy sea pups think ye be going?” he growled.
    Inna stepped right up to him. She was afraid of lots of stuff, like snakes, and getting dirty. But for some reason, she wasn’t at all afraid of Rotten Tooth.
    â€œArrr! We’re going into town with the rest of the crew,” she told him.
    â€œAye? Is that a fact?” Rotten Tooth said.
    â€œAye! It’s a true fact!” Inna said, folding her arms.