The Curse of Snake Island by Brian James

Chapter 1
    Slippery Stink
    I covered my nose as I looked into the tank on the main deck of our ship, the Sea Rat . It was filled with stinky fish guts.
    Inna took a peek, too, then covered her eyes. She was the only pirate kid in the whole world who was afraid of everything gross and dirty. You could tell that from looking at her, too. She always wore fancy dresses and stuff.
    â€œSink me! We’re not really going to walk across that, are we, Pete?” Vicky asked me in surprise.
    I looked at the skinny plank that lay across the fish tank. It was only the tiniest bit wider than my feet. One slip meant smelling like rotten fish for a month!
    â€œAye! We have to,” I said. “Rotten Tooth is never going to teach us any real pirate stuff. Not unless we prove that we’re brave enough.”
    Rotten Tooth was supposed to be our teacher here at Pirate School. But so far, we hadn’t learned a thing!
    â€œPete’s right!” Aaron said, his dark eyes flashing. As Vicky’s twin brother, he never missed a chance to disagree with her. Vicky and Aaron look just alike. Except Aaron’s brown hair is shorter than Vicky’s. “We’ve been here at Pirate School for two whole months, and all Rotten Tooth has taught us is how to swab the deck!”
    Rotten Tooth is the first mate on our ship. Captain Stinky Beard made him our teacher on the first day of Pirate School. He said the best pirate would make the best teacher.
    Rotten Tooth didn’t like that one bit. He didn’t like the whole idea of Pirate School. It was the captain’s idea to invite us here and start the school. “Training mangy kids is a waste of me time,” Rotten Tooth told us when the captain wasn’t around. “Ye ain’t fit for pirating, so I’ll be teaching you cleaning instead.”
    We wanted to tell the captain. But we knew if we did, Rotten Tooth would turn us into shark bait in the blink of an eye. So none of us were any closer to being real pirates than we were the day we got there. And Pirate School was the only reason we left our old ships to join up on the Sea Rat .
    â€œDid our captains send us here to be deckhands or pirates?” I asked my friends.
    â€œAye, pirates! But how is crossing that stink pit going to change Rotten Tooth’s mind?” Vicky asked.
    â€œYeah, how?” Gary wondered. Gary was the youngest kid at Pirate School. Even though he was only nine, his parents thought he was ready to become a pirate. So they sent him to live on the Sea Rat —just like the rest of our parents did.
    â€œBecause it’s an old pirate test,” I replied. I’d lived on a pirate ship my whole life. All ten years. Well, nine and three-quarters, to be exact. That’s longer than anyone else. So I knew lots of pirate stuff that they didn’t.
    â€œIf someone wanted to become a pirate, first they had to walk across this plank,” I explained.
    â€œAye?” Inna asked, peeking back into the tank and making a face.
    â€œAye!” I said. “It proves you can keep your balance. Plus, anyone brave enough to risk smelling like that stuff is brave enough to face any danger on the sea!” I pointed to the fish guts down below.
    â€œI guess it’s worth a try,” Vicky finally agreed.
    â€œAye!” I said. “We’ll show Rotten Tooth that we’re ready for pirating.”
    I stared at the slimy plank. It looked very slippery.
    â€œStop being such a scallywag and go already!” Aaron shouted. Scallywag was pirate speak for calling me a scaredy-cat.

    But I was no scallywag!
    I was a pirate. One day, I might even be the captain of my very own ship. Captain Pete the pirate.
    Just then, a wave shook the Sea Rat.
    Inna gulped.
    â€œMaybe we should wait until the sea is steady,” I said.
    â€œGangway, scallywags! I’ll go first,” Aaron said.
    â€œYou’re going to get a face full of fish stink!” Vicky