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Even as a child Julius Burns had had trouble standing on his own to feet. Sometimes he would stumble over nothing. So she told him, he wasn’t her father his feet almost gave out right then and there. It was only by sheer will power that he managed to stay ion his own two feet. How ever when she whipped the towel out of his arms he lost all balance and fell into the ocean once again. His last image for her was one of the doors slamming violently and she stormed off crying.

“Yup”, He thought to himself on the way down, “typical dad thing to do…”

So he was up towards the surface. But a large part of him didn’t even want to he just wanted to sit there on the ocean floor and die. A pitiful lonely death only a theatric man could appreciate. But he didn’t. He swam towards shore. Crying all way. And he began to walk home, alone, crying, until he realized something. Work is the greatest distraction. But Since Julius was on vacation he had none to do. That was the point of a vacation, unless he was gravely mistaken. But he realized, there was someone who had work to do.

Jay sat terrified in her bunk on The Burning Allegiance for quite some time pondering her charred history book that was sitting on the deck of the boat. How had she caught the book on fire? How THE HELL had she caught that book on fire? How was she going to explain the char of twenty pages to her history teacher? Perhaps she should pray that the teacher didn't discover the char until she had her accountability slip back.... Or she could carefully cut the pages out so that when the teacher flipped thorugh the pages for substantial damages she wouldn't see it.... and then be done with it? Or she could somehow bribe the teacher with her bounteous plunder? That was a laugh... Jay hadn't gone to plunder anything in almost a year, she had nothing to bribe with....

But then again, it was the summer.... And she would have ample time to go plundering without much to bother her. Her parents would be busy working during the day, and she could easily take her girl the Burning Alleigance out for a sail...and burn... Those sea-side clam shacks across the harbor were a prime target in the summer with their flock of tourists paying too much for cheap seafood.... That would get her some nice booty.

Maybe if she was lucky she could catch that a*****e that tried to make her believe he was her father. The stupid *****, thought he could get away with an act like that. It was so sensational it had to be fake. When she returned to the boat she heard him turn to walk away and then splash. I hope he fell in the shallow water and broke his skinny gross ***** neck and drowned... Jay was feeling particularly nasty at the remebrance of that particular part of the day. The catching of the book on fire, while disturbing when one thought about the physics or probability of such a thing happen, had been pretty cool. It was the consequences that didn't make much sense.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could find a way to replicate that? Create fire with my mind? Why-that could have all sorts of practical pirating applications! A sly smile graced Jay's face... She stood up from the dark of her bunk and wandered back into the sun. Her book was exactly where she had left it, and she could hear her parents arguing in the houseboat. Why can't they just stop arguing and be happy with the lives they chose? It's a pitty that they don't know that I can hear them... It annoyed her that the parents that didn't love her didn't even love each other. Though it may have been more of a sad feeling than a sense of annoyance.

Jay's history book was right where she had left it when she fled into the cabin, open to one of the charred pages down on the deck. She glared at the book, trying to will it to catch on fire again. Come on, you stupid book! Light on fire! Jay thought impatiently. After a few moments of holding the pages of the book in an angry glare she sighed frustrated and closed the book; leaving it on the seat. She frowned deeply and stormed back into Neptune's Lie, where her parents immediately stopped fighting and pretended nothing was wrong. This simply proved to infuriate her more.

As Jay's mom walked over to her, oblivious of the stress on Jay's face, she asked "Hello sweetie, how was your day? Did anything interesting happen?"

The normalcy was the last straw. Jay was furious. It wasn't neccesarily her mother that made her angry, but everything else that had been going on that day. It just happened that her mother was there just before Jay exploded.

"Well, mother, if you must know, my day was absolutely terrible. Some asswipe came up to me on the docks and tried to convince me that he was my real father and that you two adopted me. And you know what? I wanted to believe him. It would be like heaven to know that you two, who have been arguing all day, were not my parents. And then guess what? I caught my history book on fire. Yes, that's right, i caught it on fire. But you know what? I left my lighter in here, and there was no visible source of flame or heat other than the sun, so it beats the hell out of me why my book is suddenly charred across twenty pages! Yeah, that was my day, Gee, thanks for asking mom!"

Jay stormed away from her parents, climbed the stairs, and locked herself in a room for the second time that day. It was all she could do to keep breathing, not break anything, and wonder what her mother and father thought of that.

"Wake up, sweetie, we have something we have to talk to you about," Were the words that woke Jay from her otherwise peaceful sleep. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Jay sat up and tried to get her eyes to adjust to the light that had suddenly become a very obtrusive element in an already awkward moment. This mostly had to do with the fact that Jay was completely naked and her parents were in the room. She lazily pulled her blanket up to cover herself, and leaned over the endge of the bed to pick of a stray t-shirt, which she slid over her head. She was too tired to remember that she was angry with her parents.

"Well..." Jay's mother started off, "We have been talking about that man who came to see you today... The one who claimed to be your real dad."

Jay's thoughts were suddenly plunged somewhere between and "uh oh" and and "ugh.." Her mother was uneasy, and that was not a good sign. They had either come to tell her that he was right, or that of course he was wrong, he was just a creepy man, and she was going to spend the rest of the summer locked in the boat because Delmor was becoming too dangerous. She decided to try and play it cool.

"Yeah?" Jay's voice cracked, "what about him?"

"Well, we've decided that you are becoming a big girl and should-"
"What your mother is trying to say," Jay's father interjected, "Is that we think you are old enough now to know the truth."

A book dropped inside Jay. A chapter of her life had been slammed shut, and everything was about to change. She was furious.

"you're father is right... We thought you should know...Well, you know, this doesn't come either to your father and I, but-"

"But what?" Jay butted in. She crossed her arms and glared out at her parents.

"Now Jay, this isn't easy for your mother and I... What we are trying to say is...is that you are, in fact, adopted... and that that man was very likely correct in claiming you as his daughter, though we have no idea how he found you."

"It's important to remember, sweeite, that this doesn't mean we love you any less that we would if you were actually our child.."

"You have been lying to me? My entire life? Why couldn't you have been honest with me like every other parent who adopted their children? How could you lie to someone you supposedly 'loved'? Didn't I have a right to the truth before?"

"We felt it was best to keep the truth from you until you were old enough... We didn't want you to feel like a freak..."

"I only would have felt like a freak if you treated me like one! And now I'm a freak anyway!"

"Calm down Jay, stop shouting! The neighbors will hear you fighting..."

"Oh, like they don't hear you fighting all the time, and whisper when you aren't around?"

"Now that's not fa-"

"No, I don't want to hear it, Get out of my room!" The tears burned down Jay's face as she stood up from her bed, pushing her parents away and closing the door in their faces; slamming it like the cover of that great book inside her. She exhaled and leaned against her door, sobbing quietly to herself as she heard her parents walk down the steps from the second floor where Jay's bedroom was.

She needed to gather her thoughts.

No...She needed to get out of that boat.

Jay grabbed a duffel bag and tossed it on her bed, quickly packing her most important belongings and some clothing tightly inside. She didn't care where she was going. She just wanted to go. She dressed in a few layers, so that she could carry more in her duffel. Finally, she went to her bedside drawer, and grabbed her new lighter. Jay flicked it once, letting it burn for a moment. Finally, she closed it and silently put it in her pocket.

Knowing that her parents would have gone right to bed, or at least would be closed in their bedroom talking quietly about what had just happened, maybe crying too. As she left the boat she picked up her backpack of school supplies and her boat keys, saying nothing and leaving no clue as to where she would go for her parents. They'd find out in the morning. She'd have to give them a call so they didn't send the cops after her. But she needed a place to stay before she could tell them anything.


On the way towards downtown, Jay thought about where she might be going. The only person she really knew at all on the island was a girl named Cait Kassidy, some girl in her BTY classes. Cait was the closest thing Jay had to a real friend, and the only person that Jay knew the house of. That was where she would head off, hoping with all her heart that Cait would be understanding of the situation, and that Cait was in fact her friend.