The Lost Girls (2018 Version)

➵ 6 - If Crazy Equals Genius

A huge gust of air was released from inside of me as desperately struggled to get air back into my lungs. When I look up to see who saved me, it's a boy about seventeen in age. And let me tell ya, he was freaking hot. Yes, I know that's not what I should be focusing on because I almost just died and I'm on a pirate ship where multiple fights are occurring but maybe he shouldn't be so distracting.

"Are you okay?" He asks, again. His clothes are soaked and his curly brown hair is in stringy loops, much like mine.

"I am now," I accidentally say aloud with a large grin. Real smooth, Amira. He chuckles and blushes a bit.

I see two pairs of legs hovering over me from the ground and when I look up, I see a know it all ten-year-old Indian girl and Libby. Libby has a sassy look on her face and Athena has an I-told-you-so look on hers. Okay, so maybe she was right.

"Oh, so you left me in a random camp in the middle of the night and thought that you would do this all by yourself," Libby says putting an emphasis on the word, 'all.' "Do you see how that turned out for you?" Saul. Tee.

She continues, not looking at me but at her surroundings, "What? Did you want to play hero all by yourself or something?" Is she kidding me right now?

"What?" I shout through the commotion. There are multiple pirates fighting each other right now. Some wear black clothing and others wear undershirts and large pants, old clothing used for fighting. That's when I realize the Rebels are here and one of them saved me. The one that I saw through the water quickly removes his sword from his belt so fast it slides across the pirate with the scratchy beard I recognize; the blow draws blood and he collapses to the ground. The brawling is like the things I saw in Ezra's Mortal Kombat video game but seeing in real life is unsettling, to say the least.

Out of my peripheral vision, I see a boy with the same physical description as the one who saved me; brown eyes and chocolate brown curls. Except he was shorter, obviously younger, about my age, and there was something about him that differed from the other. It was in his eyes, through the chaos, I can already tell he something about him is different. It's like there's a mystery behind his eyes that I'm not sure I can decipher. Not because he's just that puzzling--

--but because I'm still on a ship, in the midst of a turf war.

"There's no time for your bickering!" The taller curly-haired boy shouts, he throws two swords at us and fortunately I catch the handle! He asks, "Do either of you know anything about sword fighting?"

"Well, kind of," I say, "I mean, I use them on my brother's video games!" I exclaim over the ruckus.

"What the bloody hell is a video game?" He shouts back, causing me to laugh.

The blade of the sword drags against the floorboard of the vessel. It's heavy, extremely freaking heavy. Maybe it'll be a bit harder than I thought. Some guy lunges at me and I duck, hitting the ground. The brief view I have is of one of the crewmates steering the ship. If I can just take out the one steering. . .

I roll to the side, dodging his swing at me and he misses. He falls over on his side, head hitting the ground first as a result of being tripped by a blade. Behind him is the younger boy with the curls.

I say out of breath, getting off the floor, "Thanks, I'm Amira." He says nothing and continues walking. Well, okay.

Meanwhile, everyone else was fighting the pirates in the most brutal ways possible. Me, the boy who doesn't talk, Athena, and Libby are cornered by a whole lot of them. The Rebel who rescued me is having a hard time, and so are the rest of them.

Libby starts nagging me (again), "See, if you wouldn't have left without a plan or, you know, listened to Athena we wouldn't have this problem! But no! You're stubborn and reckless and you do stupid things and get other people into your messes!"
She says behind everyone close to the edge of the boat. Her words are kinda true but they still hurt, I don't know why.

I narrow my eyes, though I can't see her face. I and Athena are in the front. "You know why I left you behind? Because you aren't helpful at all. You don't help protect or navigate or even first aid! You're dead weight, Libs! All you're good for is nagging me and shouting at me what I'm doing wrong. It's kinda funny how you can stand up for the person who could've quite possibly have been your friend but not the people who pick on you! You've said my truth and here's yours!" I don't know why but I just got so angry. I guess I was tired of Libby only blaming the people around her for her problems.

The sound of the loud rushing of water filled my ears and apparently everyone else's as they all stand back. A wave of water about seventeen feet tall is behind Libby and she has absolutely no idea.

"Deadweight?" she scoffs, obviously hurt, "That's what you think?" The water begins rising even higher and a few drops fall on my forehead. That's when I notice something peculiar--her eyes are glowing a neon blue color. The water begins to emit a glow of the same color; she's controlling it somehow. Way to make me eat my words.

"Libby--" I try to tell her what she is inexplicably and unintentionally doing. Nevertheless, she persists. She says things I can't hear to herself and that's when I get an idea. It's going to make me feel like a terrible person though.

"You know what else?" I say with a smirk, "You're pretty sad too. A loser, in fact. You have let's see," I count on my fingers before saying, "One friend? Wait, no friends?"

"Amira, this isn't funny nor kind. Stop this at once," Athena interjects before realizing my plan. She nods and yells, lying, "Libby, look behind you!"

The wave came crashing down causing a large majority of the real crewmates to falter and even fall overboard. To finish off the job, I darted as fast as I could (which is not very fast on a slippery surface that has just been wet), grabbed Athena's bag from her shoulder and pulled out her bow and arrow. My fingers grasped the end of the arrow, pulled back against the elastic, and released. I've never shot a bow and arrow before; there's a first time for everything, I guess.

The arrow lands in the steering pirate's thigh and he screams out in pain. I feel something slide into my lower back; its small but it releases a sharp pain throughout my body. My legs wobble, causing me to collapse to the ground.

Yep, I've been stabbed in the back. (Pun intended.)

Libby passes out and I limp my way to the edge of the ship. My legs thrust themselves off the ground, throwing me overboard. Many others follow my lead, including a Latino boy holding Libby over his shoulder.

Athena pops her head up in the water, "You numbskull, you need immediate medical attention! Where in that minuscule brain of yours did you get such an absurd idea!"

My breathing is more rapid than usual as I say, "Don't...worry... it's just a flesh wound, it didn't even penetrate. Just a scratch."

Athena squints at me, her curls clinging to her tan skin, "I don't know whether to call you a genius or an idiot," she says.

"You're probably going to call me the latter sooner or later." I reply with a grin.