Treasure Trouble (6 page)

“Aye,” Captain Stinky Beard said. “As a reward, ye each may take one piece of treasure from the ship’s treasure room.”

“Hooray!” we shouted. Then we danced around a little bit. It was the most special reward a pirate could get. Every pirate on the
Sea Rat
gave us three cheers. Every pirate but Rotten Tooth, that is. It made him grumpy whenever we were right and he was wrong.

“I know what I’m going to pick,” Inna said. “A shiny pin to wear on my best dress.”

“I’m going to pick a golden spyglass,” I said. I couldn’t wait to climb up the crow’s nest and peek through it.

Gary said he was going to pick a book of pirate legends. “They might come in handy one day.”

“Aye,” Vicky agreed. She said that she and Aaron were going to pick matching swords.

“Aye,” Aaron said, pretending to swing around an invisible sword. “And then I’m
going to use it when Rotten Head teaches us how to swashbuckle!”

We all giggled watching Aaron jump around.

That’s when Rotten Tooth leaned over and growled in Aaron’s ear. “Aye? Well, matey, ye’ll
never
get to use it, then,” he said. “Because ye pollywogs won’t be learning to swashbuckle for a very long time! Our deal is off! Today’s school lesson is for ye lot to clean that stinky mess hall.”

Inna, Gary, and I moaned and groaned as Rotten Tooth stumbled away. Aaron and Vicky were giggling, though.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

“What’s so funny, mates?” I asked.

Vicky uncovered her mouth and whispered to us, “We only took four sets of boot buckles before Rotten Tooth woke up,” she said.

“Aye,” Aaron said. “So Rotten Guts over there is going to be a little icky sicky until we tell him.”

“Mayhaps we’ll let him know once we get ashore.” I giggled.

“Aye!” My friends giggled back.

It was a little mean, but it only seemed fair. After all, Rotten Tooth had sort of stolen the boot buckles from us, and stealing is against the pirate code. That was a Pirate School lesson that Rotten Tooth still needed to learn.