Serah’s POV:

The room went silent for a moment.

“What sale?” Amber asked finally, breaking the silence.

“It doesn’t matter because I will be the only one going.” I snapped, glaring daggers at Elizabeth.

“It’s your birthday, though.” Tanner said, “Shouldn’t you be like, sleeping in and getting drunk?”

I frowned, “You know, I’m rarely ever very drunk, right? And getting drunk isn’t the best thing in the world, that’s why people do it mostly when they want to forget about things.”

“Have I ever been drunk?” Tanner asked, peering at his best friend.

“Yeah.” Henry replied, “Like once, and that was back in the day when you were young and stupid.”

“He’s still young and stupid.” Colten grumbled from a corner of the room.

Tanner threw a roll at him, “Older than you!” He protested.

“And dumber than me.”

“I beg to differ.” Lydia said suddenly.

“Oh, no no no no no!!” Elizabeth protested, “You can’t stand up for him just because he’s your brother!”

“I’m not!” Lydia cried, “But tell me that Colten is smarter than Tanner. Come on, tell me.”

“Yeah.” Tanner said, “I may be dumb but I’m not stupid.”

“That makes no sense.” I said, frowning.

“Point proven.” Colten said smugly.

“No!” Tanner said, “There’s no point proven! Just because Serah has no sense of humor, doesn’t mean that you’re right. She literally agrees with whatever just makes sense.”

“I’m so confused.” I said quietly, but no one was listening.

“Serah just has a dry sense of humor!” Elizabeth claimed.

“Serah has no sense of humor, and she has favorites, so therefore she cannot be in this argument right now because the same person always wins!”

“Your logic is flawless.” I noted.

“Do you have a favorite royal?” Leo asked suddenly.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The pirates went silent, then slowly turned to me as I nodded.

“Who?” Amber asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

“That never works.” Elizabeth said, “I’ve tried.”

I ignored her, “Kate.” I said simply.

“Boom!” Kate cried, holding out her hands to William, Leo and Rachel. I blinked as all three sighed reluctantly and handed over small pouches jingling with coins.

Elizabeth nearly died laughing. She choked as she gasped to breathe through her laughter. I couldn’t help but grin at Kate’s triumphant smirk.

I looked around the room at the royals, I was almost proud. In the small time that the royals had spent with us, they had already changed. They weren’t as well-held and proper as they had been; their edges had roughened a bit. But what relieved me the most, was that anytime any one of us pirates walked past now, they wouldn’t flinch. For a long time, they would wince as we spoke or duck their heads when one of us lifted an arm to point somewhere. It had bothered all of us. But now, they didn’t seem so afraid.

I stepped into the mini circle that everyone had created, snatched up a roll and made my way to the door.

As I was about to step out, Henry yelled out to me, “When will you be home?”

“I will be at my house later tonight. I’m not coming back here.”

“Glad you’re having such a good birthday,” Tanner remarked dryly, “All alone.”

“Yeah. It’s ideal.” I replied.

“How about we get lunch at Chippers, then you can go live your sad, dreary life by yourself all alone afterwards?” Elizabeth asked.

“Sounds fantastic." I grumbled as I vanished out the door.

As I stepped out of Henry’s mansion, I took a deep breath of the morning air. In the cove beneath the mansion, I could hear the waves of the ocean crashing against rocks. A part of me wanted to crawl down into the cove and look for fish and pretty shells. As I thought of it, a strong memory hit me like a wave, and suddenly, I was ten years younger.

“Father, I can’t find any!” Samantha’s voice rang through my young mind. I quickly attempted to make my way over to her, but my foot slipped on a rock. My toes slipped into the water, slamming against a sharp piece of corral, hidden by some seaweed. I frowned as blood started to escape a large cut on my foot as I drew it out of the water. I watched, fascinated, as drops of blood dripped from my foot, into the water, spreading out in the water and remaining there, suspended, until another wave washed over and washed it away. I set my mind back to the task at hand: Help my sister find some shells. As I made my way over to her, more carefully now, I wondered why I was doing this for her. My mind told me that if I hadn’t come over to Samantha in the first place, I wouldn’t now have a stinging cut on my foot, that was starting to hurt quite a bit. But then I remembered, “Oh yeah…because it makes her happy…and I want her to be happy.”

It was all I ever wanted; to make the people around me happy. First it had been mother, then father, then after mother died, it had been stepmother and all her children. But now it was Samantha. She was the center of my life, and everything I did revolved around her happiness.

She now looked up at me curiously, “Serah, are you alright?”

I finally hopped up on the rock that she was on and forced a smile, “Yes, Sammy. I just stubbed my toe a bit, and got cut. Now I’m bleeding a lot. But I’m alright.”

She laughed at my blank face and dry reply. She ruffled my neatly combed hair, “Well good job, but I found one while you were busy being injured, so now it’s time to return to shore.”

I frowned slightly as I turned back to shore, where my Father and stepmother were enjoying the view, and said, “But I don’t want to. I don’t like stepmother.” I turned back to Samantha, expecting her to agree with me. But her smile had vanished and a cold fear, that I had come to recognize, set into her eyes.

“She wants us to like her. So we pretend like we do. At least until we get out of here.” Samantha said, a wicked glint in her eye.

“When will that be?” I asked curiously as we made our way to the shore.

She looked down at me, smiling fondly, “Soon, sis. Soon.”