Space Pirates 3: Russel's Revenge, Amber Riel [nonfiction book recommendations .txt] 📗

any rum.

          “I know.  She’s been acting weird lately if you notice.”

          They heard something moving behind the boxes.

          “What was that?”

          “I don’t know, man.  Maybe it’s just rats, or maybe Max and Donny are down here playing around.”

          “Good point.”

          They heard the noise again.

          “It’s probably rats.  Let’s just get the rum.”

          “Yea.”

          They grabbed the rum and left.

          After the door closed, Larry climbed out from behind the boxes.  He looked around.  “There’s rats down here?”

 

          Zelda and Ben walked over to John and Olivia.

          “I heard that I’m going to be an uncle.”

          “Olivia told you, didn’t she?” Zelda asked.

          John gave Zelda a hug.  “Yep.”

          “John, when we go to battle against the bounty hunters again, and if I’m not around for some reason, can you make sure that Zelda doesn’t fight?”

          “Ok-ay.”

          “You’re asking him to babysit me?”  Zelda couldn’t believe that Ben didn’t take her word.

          “No.”  Ben smiled.  “I’m asking him to make sure you won’t fight.”

          “I already told you that I wasn’t going to fight.  For you and the baby.”

          “I know.  That’s why he’s going to watch you.”

          Zelda dropped her mouth in disbelief.  “I love you, Ben.”  She smiled.

          Ben had to smile again.  “I love you too, Zelda.”  He knew what she was trying to do.  “But like it or not, he’s still going to keep an eye on you.”

          “Crap.”  Zelda lost her smile.

          Ben noticed Paul and Scott walk onto the deck.  They were carrying rum bottles.  “Here comes Paul and Scott with the rum.  I’ll go get it from them.  I’ll be back.”  He kissed Zelda’s forehead, then walked away.

          “You’d fight behind Ben’s back, wouldn’t you?” John asked.

          Zelda smiled at John’s question.  It was as if he knew her so well.  “Yea.  I would.  Ben knows me so well.”

          Zelda, John, and Olivia laughed.

          “He’s coming back.”  Olivia pointed to Ben.

          Zelda’s smile grew.  “I can see that.”

           Ben walked over to them.  “Here you go, man.”  He handed John a bottle of rum.

          “Thanks, dude.  So, Zelda, are you giving up rum for the baby?”

          “Pretty much.  At least, until after it’s born.”  Zelda had to think about her answer.  “I’m going to be a bad mother.”

          “Then,” Olivia jumped in, “don’t drink any rum until it’s about ten.”

          “Is that ten months or ten years?”

          Olivia shook her head.  “What do you think?”

          “Ten years?”

          “Yes.”

          “Do you guys want to hang out in the office?” Ben asked.

          “Yea,” John answered.

John Confronts Olivia

          Saphire and Daniel were in the throne room.  Saphire was looking out the window of the palace.  “I think that Magma is going to help the bounty hunters.”

          “Well, of course, they work for her.”  Daniel walked over to her and wrapped his arm around her.  “You know Will is a pirate now.”

          Saphire looked at Daniel, confused.  She had never thought in a million years that the prince of fire would ever consider to become a pirate.  It seemed wrong to her.  “Will?  Magma’s brother?”

          “Yep.”

          She was really confused.  “The same Will that hates pirates?”

          “Yep.”

          “How?”  She couldn’t have been any more confused.  “What made him change his mind?”

          “I don’t know, but I do know that he’s on Olivia’s crew,” her handsome husband had replied.

          “Really?”

          “Yep.”

 

          Zelda and Ben were sitting in the captain’s office of the White Rose with Olivia and John.  Olivia was sitting in the chair behind Zelda’s desk, while John was leaning on a wall.

          “You know,” Zelda began to speak, “Will’s a weird guy.  I mean, first, he hates pirates, now, he is one.”

          “I know,” Olivia agreed, “and he likes me too.”

          John was kind of ticked off as the subject of his newly found shipmate had a raised.  “Can we please not talk about him?” The last thing he wanted to do was talk about the man he was jealous of.

          “Why not?” Olivia asked.  She could by the irritation in John’s that the jealousy was starting to take control.

          “Because you know that I hate him.”

          “John, can we please not talk about this here?” Olivia didn’t want to fight with John in front of Ben and Zelda.  The situation wasn’t something that she felt too comfortable arguing about in front of people.  She didn’t want to cause a scene.

          “Why not, Olivia?” John asked.  He was clearly ticked off and didn’t care if Ben and Zelda were there or not.

          Olivia was now starting to grow angry.  “Because this isn’t a good time.”

          “Why?” John asked.  “Do you want to tell Zelda,” he asked, pointing to her, “how much you love him?”

          Zelda and Ben didn’t want to jump into a fight that was in between John and Olivia.  Zelda felt awkward that John had placed her in the middle of the fight.  She had no idea if she should speak or not.

          Olivia dropped her mouth.  She couldn’t believe that John had thought something that horrible.  “How can you say that?  I don’t love him.”

          “Yea right.”  John was extremely ticked off that he didn’t believe that Olivia was being truthful.  “You can run into your boyfriend’s arms now,” he said as he walked to the door, “because we’re through.”  He opened the door and was about to leave.  “Oh yea.  I know that you almost kissed him.”  He left without another word.

          There was a long and awkward pause.

          “How did….”  Olivia didn’t know how John could have possibly know that, then she remembered that she had told Zelda.  “Zelda,” she said, turning to face Zelda and Ben, “I can’t believe that you told him, after, you told me not to tell him.”

          “Hey, don’t look at me, I didn’t tell him….” Zelda remembered that she had told Ben.  “Ben,” she said, looking at him, “I told you not to tell.”

          “It slipped,” was all that Ben could say.

          Zelda took a deep breath.  She knew that she had to solve this problem.  “Here, I’ll go and fix this.”  She left the room.

          “So she told you?”

          “Yep.”

          “And you told him?”

          “Yep.”

          Olivia started break down into tears.  Her heart felt torn, it was a feeling she had felt once before when she was younger, although, the difference was that she was angry with herself.  “And now, he broke up with me.  I didn’t want this to happen.”

          Ben felt bad for Olivia, but he had no idea how to console her.

 

          John was headed toward the deck of the Black Velvet, when he ran into Will, Shawn, and Austin.  He was alright with Shawn and Austin, but he didn’t want to deal with Will.

          “Oh,” Will said, “hey, John.”  He was acting cool.

          John gave him an icy, cold look.

          “What’s your problem?”

          John didn’t answer.

          “What did the cat get your tongue?” Will was acting mocking John.

          John was so ticked off that he started to make a fist.

          “I know, you finally figured out that Olivia likes me.”

          Austin and Shawn looked at each other then to Will and John.  They knew that something bad was about to happen.  Will had ticked John off so much that John punched the prince in the nose, and then, he hurried to the Black Velvet.

 

          A few minutes later, Zelda showed up.  “Hey, guys.  Have any of you seen John?” she asked.  “I have to talk to him.”

          “Actually,” Austin told her, “you just missed him.”

          “Yea.  He went to the Black Velvet, after punching Will in the nose,” Shawn said.

          Zelda noticed Will’s bloody nose.  “Ow.  He did that?  In one punch?  You need to get some tissues for that bloody nose.”  She head toward the Black Velvet.

 

          John sat by himself on the deck.  He sat there alone and thought about everything.  He felt regret, hurting because he broke up with the girl of his dreams.  He didn’t want to hurt so bad but he did.

          Zelda walked over to him.  “Hey, man.”

          “Hey, Zelda.”

          Zelda sat next to him.  “I seen Will’s nose.”  She started laughing at the thought.  “It’s pretty funny.”

          John didn’t laugh.  “Why didn’t she tell me?”

          “I told her not to because you’ll kill Will.”

          “Wait a minute.”  He looked at Zelda.  “You knew and you didn’t tell me?”

          Zelda didn’t want to answer that question.  She knew she was in trouble by his tone.  “Knew what?” she asked, playing dumb.  She didn’t want John to yell at her or punch her in the nose.

          “Spot playing dumb.”  John wasn’t amused.

          “Okay.  Yes I knew.  I told Ben not to tell you.”  She had to pause.  “But they almost kissed.”

          John didn’t respond to Zelda’s statement.

          “Look, man.  They almost kissed.  Will had her in a daze, but she snapped out of it, when she thought about you.  She remembered that she doesn’t love Will.  She loves you.  And you had to break up with her.”

          John was almost about to cry.  “I love her more than anything,” he admitted.  “I didn’t want to break up with her.”

          Zelda smacked his shoulder.  “Then, why did you?”  She shook her head.  “That was a real smart move, genius, because now Will has a chance with her.”

          John realized that she was right.  “Oh man.”  He knew that he made things worse for himself.  “You’re right.  What am I going to do now?”

          “Oh, I don’t know, maybe you can start by going in there, and looking her in the eyes, and telling her how much you love her, how much you miss her already, and asking her if she’ll take you back.”

          “You’re right.”

          “But first, you might want to clean off those tears for two reasons, one is because you’re a pirate, and pirates don’t cry over things like this, and second you’re a guy, and guys don’t cry at all.”

          John had to smile at Zelda’s remark.  “Okay.”

          “Now go.  And remember, I got my eyes on you, so you better ask her to take you back.”

          “Come on, Zelda.”

          They walked back to the White Rose.

 

          Zelda and John walked into the captain’s office.  “Olivia, John has something he wants you to ask.”  She thought about what she said and realized that it was backwards.  “I mean, he wants to ask you something.”

          “What?”

          John walked over to Olivia and took her hand.  “Olivia, first, can you forgive me for earlier?” he paused.  “I acted like a jerk,” he admitted.

          Olivia smiled.  “I forgive you.”

          “Will you take me back?”

          “Yes.”

          Zelda smiled.  “Now we can talk about how, I mean, who’s going to talk to the ice princesses and the cops.”

          “You.”

          “Why?”

          “Because you can get them to agree with you better, than anyone else.”

          “True, but I can’t do it.”

          “And why not?”

          “Because the head of the police hates me, if you didn’t notice.”

          Ben stood up and walked over to Zelda.  He wrapped an arm around her.  “She does have a point.  Honey, why does my brother hate you so much anyways?”