The Curse of Snake Island Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1 - Slippery Stink

  Chapter 2 - Here a Mess, There a Mess

  Chapter 3 - Top-Sneaky Mission

  Chapter 4 - Puzzling Puzzle

  Chapter 5 - Snake Eyes

  Chapter 6 - Heads Up

  Chapter 7 - Deep in the Jungle

  Chapter 8 - X Marks the Spot

  Chapter 9 - Aye! Eye-to-Eye!

  For all my friends from Fleetwood!—B J

  To Mom & Dad, Katie, Steven, and my

  husband Romeo—for all your

  encouragement and support.—JZ

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Text copyright © 2007 by Brian James. Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Jennifer Zivoin. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc. S.A.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2006033100

  eISBN : 978-1-101-50036-1

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  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.

  “Sink 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!

  “Aye! 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!

  “Pete’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.

  “Did our captains send us here to be deckhands or pirates?” I asked my friends.

  “Aye, pirates! But how is crossing that stink pit going to change Rotten Tooth’s mind?” Vicky asked.

  “Yeah, 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.

  “Because 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.

  “If someone wanted to become a pirate, first they had to walk across this plank,” I explained.

  “Aye?” Inna asked, peeking back into the tank and making a face.

  “Aye!” 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.

  “I guess it’s worth a try,” Vicky finally agreed.

  “Aye!” I said. “We’ll show Rotten Tooth that we’re ready for pirating.”

  I stared at the slimy plank. It looked very slippery.

  “Stop 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.

  “Maybe we should wait until the sea is steady,” I said.

  “Gangway, scallywags! I’ll go first,” Aaron said.

  “You’re going to get a face full of fish stink!” Vicky warned.

  “Arrr! I can do it easy,” Aaron told her. “In fact, I could do it blindfolded,” he added.

  “Could not!” Vicky shouted.

  “Could too!” Aaron shouted back.

  “Prove it, then!” Vicky said.

  “Fine! I will!” he said.

  I shook my head. Aaron was always showing off.

  Aaron marched over to the tank and climbed up the side.

  “Inna, can I borrow your bandana to use as a blindfold?” he asked.

  “No way!” Inna shouted. Then she covered it with both hands. “I’m not letting you get fish guts on my pretty bandana.”

  “I won’t. I promise,” Aaron begged.

  “You absolutely promise?” she asked.

  Vicky grabbed the blindfold out of Inna’s hands before Aaron had a chance to answer. “Enough stalling!” Vicky said, handing the bandana to her brother.

  Aaron tied the blindfold over his eyes.

  “This looks like a bad idea,” Gary said.

  “Blimey! You think everything’s a bad idea!” Vicky snapped.

  “Not everything,” he said. “Just the ideas that can get us into trouble.”

  “We won’t get in trouble, because I’m not going to fall!”
Aaron shouted as he got ready to take his first step.

  “Be careful!” I warned. “The first step is the slipperiest!”

  Sure enough, Aaron slipped as soon as he stepped on the board. Inna covered her eyes. She didn’t want to see her bandana get ruined.

  But Aaron waved his arms around and caught his balance. “See . . .”

  Just then a big hand came down on Aaron’s shoulder.

  “Uh-oh,” I mumbled.

  It was Rotten Tooth!

  Rotten Tooth was the meanest, ugliestlooking pirate on the ship! His hair was green and looked like seaweed. His beard was parted in the middle and pointed out like two furry tusks. And then there were his teeth! They were just as green as his hair and sharper than a shark’s.

  “ARRRRR!” Rotten Tooth growled.

  Aaron was so startled that he lost his balance. His feet slipped out from under him and he slid right into Rotten Tooth.

  CRASH!

  They fell into the tank in one stinky second!

  “We’re in really big serious trouble now,” Gary said.

  When Rotten Tooth poked his head up, I thought I could see steam coming out of his ears.

  He lifted Aaron up in the air and put him on the deck. Aaron was dripping with gross, yucky gook.

  We all held our noses. Then Rotten Tooth climbed out. He smelled even more rotten than usual.

  “We’re sorry,” I mumbled. “It was a test to show you that we’re ready to be pirates.”

  “AYE! AND YOU ALL FAILED!” Rotten Tooth shouted.

  “We didn’t mean to cause any trouble,” Inna whispered.

  “QUIET!” Rotten Tooth roared. “One more word and I toss you all overboard! I’ve heard enough from you pollywogs today.”

  He wiped the muck off his face. Then he told us to follow him. “Arrr! I’m putting you somewhere where the punishment will fit the crime.”

  As he led us below deck, we ran into Captain Stinky Beard.

  “Ahoy! Taking the little shipmates below deck for a lesson?” he asked Rotten Tooth.

  “Aye! I’m going to teach them a lesson all right,” he said.

  I had a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach—and it wasn’t just because of the stink coming from Aaron as he walked in front of me.

  Chapter 2

  Here a Mess, There a Mess

  “Scrub! Scrub! Scrub!” Aaron mumbled as he knelt on the kitchen floor. “This stinks!”

  “I think it’s you that stinks,” Vicky said, holding her nose with one hand and scrubbing the floor with her other hand.

  Aaron made a face at her. Then he sniffed. He really did stink!

  “I could’ve made it,” he said. “If Rotten Tooth hadn’t shown up and startled me, I mean.”

  Inna poked her head out from behind the stack of messy dishes that she was washing. She gave Aaron a dirty look. She still hadn’t forgiven him about her bandana, or for getting us put on the filthiest job on the ship . . . kitchen duty.

  “Look at the mess you got us in,” Vicky said to her brother. “We’ll be washing dishes for the rest of the day!”

  “Arrr, don’t blame me!” Aaron shouted.

  “It was Pete’s silly test that got us into this mess.”

  I put my head down. “I was just trying to prove to Rotten Tooth that we were ready to learn real pirate stuff,” I said. “Boy, did that backfire.”

  “Aye, you can say that again!” Aaron sneered with a face full of soap bubbles. “This is going to take forever to clean up.”

  Vicky held her nose again and looked at Aaron. “You’re going to take forever to clean up!”

  I looked around. Aaron was right.

  The kitchen and dining area were a disaster. There were piles of dirty dishes stacked up everywhere. Some of the piles were taller than me! Plus, there was slop spilled all over the floor and against the walls. Pirates aren’t known for their table manners.

  “I really sunk our ship, huh?” I asked my friends. “Rotten Tooth will never teach us now. We’d be better off back on our old ships.”

  “Not true, matey!” Gary said. “On my old ship, I’d be cleaning this kitchen all by myself.”

  “Aye!” Vicky said. “On our last ship, Aaron caused so much trouble, the captain was ready to make fish food of us. The day before we shipped out, Aaron ripped the sail right in half!”

  “Aye?” I asked.

  “Aye!” Aaron answered with a little smile.

  Inna looked up from the grimy food gunk in the sink and nodded her head. “And besides, Pete, you were only trying to help,” she said. “I guess Rotten Breath never heard of that test. I’m sure you’ll come up with another plan. A better plan.”

  “Really? You think so?” I asked.

  “Aye!” all of my friends answered.

  I felt a little better already. I knew I could think of something. After all, we were the brightest pirate kids on the sea. Captain Stinky Beard said so himself the day we got here.

  “There’s got to be a way to show Rotten Tooth that we would make tip-top pirates,” I said.

  “But how?” Vicky asked.

  Suddenly, Gary raised his hand up in the air.

  “I know!” he shouted. “We could hypnotize Rotten Tooth.”

  I scratched my head and thought about it. “But how do you hypnotize someone?” I asked.

  “Easy!” Gary said. Then he turned to Inna. “Can I borrow your necklace?”

  Inna’s necklace was silvery and shiny. I could even see my reflection in it.

  “Nobody’s borrowing anything of mine ever again!” She covered up her necklace with both of her hands.

  “Fine,” Gary said. “I’ll just pretend, then.” He mimicked holding the shiny necklace in front of his eyes and let it sway back and forth.

  “That doesn’t do anything,” Aaron said doubtfully.

  “Does too,” Gary said. “On the last ship I was on, they had a book of old pirate tales. One of them was about a captain that got hypnotized.”

  “Hogwash,” Aaron said.

  “Arrr, if it’s in a book, it’s got to be true!” Vicky said.

  “Aye!” Gary agreed. “And after he got hypnotized, the captain’s eyes went all crossed and he stumbled around like this.” As Gary showed us, he stumbled right into a stack of dishes! Luckily I was there to catch the dishes before they fell.

  “Maybe we need a different plan,” I said.

  “We could lock him in a room with Aaron until the stink drives him crazy!” Vicky said. We all laughed.

  Aaron picked up a mop and held it like a sword. “If there was only some way we could get ol’ Rotten Face to bring us ashore when we got to Snake Island,” he said. “Then he’d see what we could do!”

  Aaron began jumping around the room. He swung the mop, pretending to fight off the giant snake that was rumored to live on Snake Island.

  Legend had it that the giant snake was guarding a treasure. And Captain Stinky Beard just happened to have a map that led to the snake’s secret cave.

  “I would do anything to be able to help find that treasure!” Aaron said.

  Find the treasure?

  “AVAST! THAT’S IT!” I shouted and threw my arms up in the air. I would’ve danced around, too, except it’s not very piratey.

  “What’s it?” Aaron asked.

  “We find the treasure first, that’s it!” I said. “If we find it before the rest of the crew, then it would prove that we’re good pirates. It won’t be easy, but it could work. As long as we work as a team,” I told them. “So, is everyone onboard?”

  Aaron put the mop to his side and saluted. “Aye aye!”

  “Aye! That’s good thinking, Pete!” Vicky said.

  “Aye, but will it be dangerous?” Gary asked.

  I shrugged. “We won’t know until we try. Besides, pirates are supposed to be brave,” I reminded Gary.

  “Well, I guess I’m in,” he said.

  We all turned to Inna.

  “Can I cover my e
yes if we see any snakes?” Inna asked. Then she made a face like she was seasick. “Snakes are even ickier than fish guts.”

  “You can cover your eyes if you want to,” I told her. And finally she agreed to come along.

  I smiled real wide.

  Everything was coming together.

  “One question?” Vicky asked. “How are we ever going to pull this off?”

  “Leave that to me,” I said. “I’ll come up with something.” And as we all went back to our chores, I tried to think up a plan.

  Chapter 3

  Top-Sneaky Mission

  The next morning, we were all up early.

  We raced up to the main deck to report for school.

  “Maybe Rotten Head won’t be mad anymore,” Aaron said.

  But as soon as I saw Rotten Tooth’s face, I knew we were still on his bad side. There was one good thing. Captain Stinky Beard was with him. Rotten Tooth never yelled at us too much when the captain was around.

  “Fall in!” he roared, and we all formed a straight line.

  He paced back and forth. I had to hold my breath every time he passed. He still hadn’t taken a bath. In fact, I don’t think he’d ever taken a bath!

  “Listen up, ye sea dogs!” he growled. “I got a mighty smart lesson for you today.”

  I started to smile. Maybe we were finally going to learn something.

  “Are we going to swashbuckle?” Aaron asked excitedly.

  “Aye!” Rotten Tooth said, and we all cheered.

  “Such fine little buckoes!” Captain Stinky Beard said. “Always wanting to learn.” Then he wished us luck and went off.

  “I can’t believe it,” I said. “We’re really going to learn how to swashbuckle!”

  “Aye,” Rotten Tooth said again. Then he reached behind him and grabbed five mops. “And here be ye swords!”

  Our hearts sank. We weren’t going to be learning anything after all.

  “I want this deck spotless,” Rotten Tooth said. “I don’t want to be seeing a speck of dirt, ye savvy?”