Second Star to the Fright

by Vera Strange

  “Don’t you dare touch anything in my car,” she hissed under her breath. “Or, I’ll make you walk the plank.”

  “Aye, aye, matey,” Barrie said, promising himself that he’d smear boogers on the door handle just to teach her a lesson. She obviously deserved it.

  “Lemme see your hands, Goobers,” Rita said, passing out sanitizer wipes to Barrie, Michael, and John. She narrowed her eyes. “Drop the cheese puffs, Michael.”

  She was supposed to be picking them up after school, but she stood blocking the door to her sky-blue electric car. Their parents had bought it used for her sixteenth birthday with the promise that she’d take over driving the school carpool. The car was her most prized possession—the ticket to her freedom and nights out with her friends.

  And lately, Barrie had noticed that impressing her friends was all Rita seemed to care about. She spent hours primping in the bathroom, curling her hair, and applying endless layers of makeup. If she wasn’t doing that, she was texting them on her phone and trying to make them laugh. She constantly worried about what they thought—yet another reason being a teenager seemed like no fun.

  Barrie loved his two best friends. He didn’t have to worry about impressing them, or what outfit he wore to school, or if his naturally curly hair was frizzing out. They’d known each other since they’d been assigned to the same table in kindergarten, and he knew that they’d be best friends forever. They called themselves the Lost Boys, after their favorite band, of course. They even had a secret handshake and a special knock that they used to sneak through each other’s windows after curfew so they could play video games. Their families even lived on the same cul-de-sac, which made the covert activity that much easier.

  Michael, who was the shorter and stockier of Barrie’s two friends, clutched the bag of cheese puffs protectively, but Rita yanked them out of his florescent-orange fingers.

  “Hey, I was still eating those!” Michael yelped. She ignored him and tossed the bag in the trash.

  “My carpool, my rules,” Rita said, leveling them each with a penetrating stare. “I know that Mom was lax and let you do whatever the heck you wanted to her car, but there’s a new captain in town. You do what I say—or else.”

  “Dude, your sister is mucho scary,” John whispered to Barrie and Michael, as he wiped his long fingers with one of her wipes. John was tall and reed-thin. He and Michael used to joke that when they stood next to each other, they resembled the number ten.

  “Seriously,” Michael said, glancing mournfully at his discarded cheese puff bag.

  Each of them dutifully finished wiping their hands under Rita’s close watch, then piled into her back seat. Barrie didn’t dare try to ride shotgun. The last thing his sister wanted was to be seen sitting with her little brother. Plus, he wanted to sit next to his friends.

  They pulled away from the school. Barrie watched the building fade away in the rearview mirror. He’d had a terrible day that started with him getting busted by Mr. Bates for not completing his math homework, so he had to stay inside during recess to catch up, and it ended with even more math homework getting piled on top of his desk.

  It was his birthday weekend. The last thing he wanted to do was homework.

  And he knew it would only get worse as he got older. Next Friday, he’d graduate and officially be in junior high. His eyes fell on Rita’s overflowing backpack in the front passenger seat.

  It could be worse, he thought. I could be in high school.

  Rita followed the familiar route home through their quaint town of New London. The road snaked past the ocean, where steep cliffs plunged down to the rocky beach. Waves lapped up at the rocks, eroding them slowly.

  In the distance, Barrie could just make out the marina by the masts of the many ships and boats docked there. Clouds hung in the sky, occasionally spattering the windows with raindrops.

  As the car came to a stop at a red light, Barrie reached for the window button, but Rita clicked the child safety lock before he could hit it.

  “What did I say, Goober?” she said, catching his eye. “Repeat it back to me.”

  “Uh, your carpool…your rules?” Barrie stammered back.

  “Yup, that’s right. Don’t touch anything back there,” Rita said, turning around to glare at them. “Or you will each die horrible, painful, excruciating deaths. Got it?”

  “Dude, your sister’s not kidding. She might actually kill us,” John whispered. “She should keep her eyes on the road at all times. Hands at ten and two. That’s a thing, right?”

  “Hey, what if she tries to text while driving?” Michael whispered, nervously eying her phone in the center console. “Do we call the cops on her?”

  “Trust me, she does not want to get grounded and lose her car privileges,” Barrie whispered. “All she cares about is hanging out with her cool friends.”

  The light turned green, and Rita had no choice but to focus on the road. Barrie relaxed slightly. At least carpool with his sister was less boring than carpool with his mom. And Rita was a decent driver…not that he was surprised. His sister was usually pretty responsible.

  Well…for a teenager, to quote his parents.

  Rita switched on the radio. A familiar song blared out of the speakers. It was the Lost Boys’ new hit single, “Never Land.”

  “Your birthday is almost here,” Michael said to Barrie, punching his arm playfully. “Lost Boys concert, here we come!” He broke into an air guitar jam as the song hit the upbeat pop chorus.

  “Second star to the right and straight on till morning,” the three of them sang along. Even Rita bopped her head along to the catchy tune. Nobody could resist it.

  “Yeah, can’t wait. It’s gonna rock,” Barrie said with a grin. “But first, I have to go to the maritime museum with my family this weekend.” He rolled his eyes at the thought.

  “The maritime museum?” John said. “What’s that?”

  “Uh, like some kind of stupid boat museum,” Barrie said. “We’re going on Sunday. My dad loves that history stuff. But it looks pretty boring if you ask me.”

  “Nah, it’s dope,” Michael said, perking up. “My family went last year when my cousins visited from Maine. The pirate stuff is the best part!”

  “Oh, right,” Barrie said, remembering the picture on the website that morning. “Wasn’t there, like, some famous pirate captain?”

  “Yup,” Michael said. “Apparently, he was the most dangerous and bloodthirsty pirate on the high seas! There are all kinds of sick stories about his misadventures.”

  “Like what?” Barrie asked.

  “Well, I don’t remember,” Michael admitted. “I wasn’t paying that much attention on the tour. But there’s a real pirate ship you get to go inside. And instead of a hand, he has a hook.”

  “A hook?” John said nervously.

  “I know! I saw the picture,” Barrie said. “Do they really not know how he lost his hand?”

  “Nope. Nobody knows,” Michael said. “It’s like some kind of mega mystery. Even the tour guide didn’t know.”

  “A real-life mystery,” Barrie said quietly, intrigued. He’d always wanted to solve a real-life mystery, like the boys in his books. “I wonder what happened to it. Do you think someone chopped it off with a sword? Or maybe it got caught up in the ropes on the ship during a storm and just, like, popped off.”

  “Ew!” John cried.

  “And why does he wear a hook?” Barrie wondered.

  “Argh, matey!” Michael growled, slashing at them both with his index finger curled into a hook.

  Barrie and John both flinched back, but then they all burst out laughing.

  “Lost Boys forever,” Michael said, reaching out his hand.

  They executed their secret group handshake, gripping each other’s wrists, then sliding their hands apart and shimmying their shoulders.

  “Never grow up,” John added.

  “Never,” Barrie agreed. “Kids forever.” But the second the words left his lips, he fel
t a thump of foreboding. “Look…I know we’re graduating on Friday. But we’re gonna stay friends, right? Even in junior high?”

  “Like major duh,” Michael said. “Changing schools won’t change us.”

  “Yeah, and we’re gonna have a blast this summer,” John added.

  They all grinned at each other. Barrie felt relieved. The stress of that morning and his terrible day at school began to melt away. He had the best friends in the whole entire world.

  Just then, they stopped at another stoplight, and a cherry-red convertible pulled up next to them.

  Rita turned around in a panic. “Hide, you goobers! I mean it! Ugh, if Todd sees me driving little kids around, I’m gonna actually die of embarrassment.”

  “That’s the famous Todd?” Barrie asked, straining to see the driver of the convertible.

  Todd was Rita’s major crush. He’d overheard his sister talking to her best friend, Brooke, about the guy. Not just talking—but endless, nonstop analyzing of Todd’s every word and action from the school day for hours at a time.

  Barrie had no idea how they could devote so much attention to the dude. Nothing they said made him seem even the least bit interesting or worthy of that much attention. But he did drive a cool car. Barrie could at least give him that.

  “Get down!” Rita demanded.

  John scooched as low as he could in his seat. “You can’t die of embarrassment,” he pointed out in his usual logical way. “That’s physically impossible.”

  “Unless you’re a teenager,” Michael added with a shake of his head, tilting sideways below the window. “My older sisters are the exact same way.”

  “It must be like their Achilles’ heel,” Barrie said. “Like their biggest weakness—”

  “Duck. Down. Now.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain!” Barrie said before diving as best he could on top of Michael. Once Rita was sure they were hidden, she rolled her window down. Barrie felt fresh air fill the car and heard the loud purring of the convertible’s powerful engine.

  “Uh…hey there, Todd.” Rita giggled. “Nice ride.”

  Why did his sister—who was really smart—always sound so ditzy when she talked to her friends?

  “Hey, Rita, what’s up?” Todd said. His car rumbled with raw power. “You should come for a ride sometime. Maybe tomorrow night?”

  “Interesting,” Rita said, trying not to sound too excited. “Uh, lemme check my calendar.”

  Barrie rolled his eyes. He knew that she was just playing hard to get and trying to act busy to make Todd more interested. He’d heard her discuss her Todd strategy with Brooke endlessly.

  “Okay, ready?” Barrie whispered to Michael and John, who both nodded.

  “On the count of three,” Barrie continued. “One…two…three!”

  They all popped up from the back seat. “Boo!”

  Rita jumped, dropping her phone.

  Barrie pressed his face to the window and made kissing noises. “Oh, Todd…kiss me!” he cooed, smooching the glass.

  Michael and John did the same, grabbing at each other playfully and pretending to kiss. “Oh, Todd…please be my boyfriend,” they teased, giggling.

  Todd cracked up. “Oh, no wonder you’re so busy. Have fun babysitting!” Then he gunned the gas as the light turned green, and he took off.

  Before the dust could even settle, Rita glared at Barrie.

  “Goober, you’re gonna pay for this!” she seethed. “You’d better sleep with one eye open from now on.”

  Then she drove on without saying another word. Her yelling was one thing, but the silent treatment was much scarier. Barrie had one thought as they closed in on their cul-de-sac.

  Pirates are scary—but older sisters are worse.

  “Watch your step on the gangplank!” the tour guide called from the front of the group. “It’s a wee bit slippery.”

  Barrie stepped onto the gangplank, following Rita and his parents and the rest of their group—a mix of families and tourists. Waves sloshed under the unstable planks beneath his feet, and he fought to keep his balance, licking his lips. They tasted cold and briny. He felt like the ocean was surrounding him. It smelled…well…like something that was alive.

  The pirate ship had its own special entrance separate from the main museum, which stood behind them. Barrie scanned the marina, taking in the rows upon rows of boats docked with their colorful assortment of names painted across their hulls. Mermaid Lagoon. Skull Rock. Pirate’s Booty. Seagulls swooped overhead, peppering the clear skies and occasionally plunging into the water in search of a meal, while a few ducks bobbed on the whitecaps. Barrie eyed the dark, frothy water nervously.

  What swims beneath those waves? he wondered.

  Barrie wasn’t afraid of much, but the open sea had always terrified him for some reason. Rita was scared of spiders, snakes, boogers, farts…and, well, just about anything she deemed gross.

  But Barrie didn’t mind any of that stuff. Spiders were pretty rad with all their eyes and legs and how they spun intricate webs out of nothing. He even thought that snakes were kind of adorable, much to his sister’s abject horror.

  And everyone knew farts and boogers were hilarious.

  So, why did the ocean scare him so much?

  Maybe it had something to do with that scary, old shark movie that Rita let him watch when he was way too young. He could still remember the creepy monotone music (da-num, da-num, da-num), the giant, slightly fake-looking shark cutting through the waves, and the tourists’ feet dangling underwater, begging for the shark to chomp them off.

  Maybe that’s what happened to the pirate captain’s hand, Barrie thought, staring at the water. Maybe it was a shark’s lunch. He shuddered at the thought.

  Anything could be lurking beneath that impenetrable surface, waiting for a chance to sink its teeth into him.

  “What’s up, Goober?” his sister asked, giving him a little push from behind.

  It was only then that Barrie realized he’d stopped walking, frozen by his dire thoughts. Rita shoved past him, and Barrie took a breath, looking around. At the far end of the gangplank loomed the pirate ship. The words Jolly Roger were painted onto the side in ornate, cursive script, just like in the pictures online. The massive ship bobbed up and down on the unquiet sea. It looked even larger in real life.

  A skull and crossbones flag flew across the bow, battered by the wind. The ship didn’t appear friendly, but Barrie supposed that was the point. It was a pirate ship, after all. That flag had one clear message for any trespassers.

  Stay away, matey—or else!

  Distracted by the flag and its eerie skull symbol, Barrie felt his feet slip on the gangplank. Panicked, he wheeled his arms and grasped at the rope railing for support. The scratchy cord bit into his palms, burning them. The thin rope was the only thing keeping him from plunging overboard into the ocean.

  Suddenly, a dark shadow in the water darted under the gangplank and came out the other side.

  Faintly, he heard a strange ticking. He strained his ears, struggling to hear it over the waves.

  Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

  Was there a clock somewhere nearby? If so, where?

  The shadow returned, slipping back toward the gangplank. Barrie’s pulse began to thrum. Suddenly, a big wave sloshed up, spraying his face and stinging his eyes. He blinked hard to clear them, and when he looked back, the shadow was gone, along with the strange noise. He squinted at the murky water, trying to see beneath it, and listened harder.

  Nothing.

  Before he could ponder the mystery further, the tour guide’s voice broke his concentration.

  “Hurry up, mateys,” the guy said, slipping into an awful cockney accent, like something out of a bad pirate movie. “No lollygagging on me ship—or I’ll make ye swab the decks.”

  Barrie eyed their guide, a chipper local college student. And also, clearly, kind of a dork, Barrie thought, taking in his thick, unstylish glasses and stiff plaid shirt tucked into his high-waist
ed jeans. Who tucked their shirt into their jeans?

  “Nerd,” Barrie muttered under his breath. He hurried the rest of the way up the gangplank, joining the rest of the group on the ship’s deck.

  Rita caught his eye and snort-laughed. “Major nerd,” she whispered, making him giggle.

  “Hey, be respectful,” Dad said, shooting them both a chastising look. “And Rita, I expect you to set a better example for your little brother.”

  Barrie tried to stifle his giggles, but one glance at his sister sent them both into another laughing fit.

  They didn’t always agree, but at times like these, Barrie was reminded that they had way more in common than he liked to admit—especially when his sister was being annoying, which happened on a daily basis. Or more like an every-minute basis.

  And nothing could bond them together like a dull history tour that their dad had foisted upon them. This wasn’t the first time a perfectly great Sunday had been ruined this way. And it won’t be the last, Barrie thought glumly as the guide launched into his boring spiel.

  “Circle up and listen closely,” the guide said. “You’re standing on the deck of an actual pirate ship. We don’t know how this ship survived—and in such great condition. Or where it came from. It simply showed up in the marina one day as if it appeared out of nowhere. But wow, aren’t we the lucky ones!”

  Or unlucky, Barrie thought, rolling his eyes at the guide’s hokey theatrics. He knew they always embellished the stories on these tours. They had to, or nobody would ever sign up for them.

  His father, of course, looked riveted, while his mother did her best to humor him and pay attention. Rita snapped her gum and fidgeted, clearly wanting to text Todd or Brooke.

  “We’re the only maritime museum in this area to have such a pristine pirate ship,” the guide said, gesturing upward toward the masts. “And this one was captained by one of the most famous…or should I say infamous…pirates in history!” He let out a laugh. “Let’s just say, you are in for a real treat! Now follow me.”

  Barrie followed the group as they descended the stairs to the interior deck. They stepped into a narrow, dark hallway, gathering around an oil painting that hung on the wall.