Snoara here! *waves shyly* My firstie, and I'd appreciate some encouragement if the story's any good and all critique is welcome. I apologize for my grammar farts if you happen to stumble on them, try to bare with me!
Gloria: she doesn't own One Piece and as far as I see it I'm my own person!
Snoara: I created you, you know... *sweatdrop*
Gloria: Oh yeah? Ya could've done better!
Snoara: S-shut up!
Kicking another pebble onwards the road, the young and fairly pissed off woman growled to the night.
"Lousy parents... won't let me free for a night... can't see I'm old enough to do whatever I want... wanna go..." and so on.
This all started when Gloria, or better known as Gen, got invited to her more wealthier friend's boat at the huge lake for a week. She promised she would call them at least once a day (oh for the love of...) and she promised not to be reckless. No parties, she didn't like them either way. Chiselle - the girl that owned the boat - had a brother with a gorgeous face. Gen's parents didn't like that one bit. They said no, if it wasn't clear to someone.
Gen was not the Kindheart's real daughter, but hell if it mattered to them. The couple had been young when they had found the infant crying loudly and miserably in an abandoned hut in the middle of a forest and searched in vain for her parents. When no one came for her despite the fliers, the officers had given the child to their care.
Now she was seventeen and pissed.
"...Stupid... won't set me free... I'mma grown woman, goddammit!" she punched a tree and for a few seconds just stood there poised, a hand on the trunk.
"Ow."
She continued her depressing journey all the way home and slammed the door open.
"I HATH RETURNETH!"
"So we heard..." her father sweatdropped to his daughter's dramatic entry.
"Where do you think you were in this time of night, young lady?" her mother asked, while preventing the youngest Kindheart's advance on the hot pan of wok veggies and fried noodles ready to be served.
"Out...?"
"Sit down and get the plates."
"That is impossible. How can I set the table if I'm sitting?" She earned a glare.
"Aw'right, cap'n Bitterwench..."
"And don't talk like that. It's not proper."
"'appy lil' fam'ly, ain't we?" Mr. Kindheart smirked and poked his wife's side, who in retaliation shrieked.
"Not you too! If you keep giving her a role model like that, she'll really become a pirate! It's bad enough that those books litter this place like the plague!"
"Hey! I have other books too, ya'know?"
"Like what?"
"Trinity blood, ½ Prince, +Anima, Bleach-"
"I meant real books." The food got served and consumed while the bicker was still on.
"They are."
"No, real books don't have more pictures than actual text and you read them from left to right."
"Nag nag nag. Hey, this is good," Gen jumped from one topic to another. Mom sighed. Another typical day for the Kindheart family.
...not likely.
Gen sat on her bed, flipping over pages of a sketchbook. They had everything from doodles to better and full colored pictures.
She stopped to linger on a particular page. It was her utmost favourite; a picture of a small beach, secured by boulders on both sides and the sea stilled to lap against the golden sand. The sky was that of a sunset's, but there was no actual sun in the picture. No clouds to litter it, no seagulls, no corny little ships sailing to the horizon.
Just that... the sea and the sand.
Dad had said that it looked bleak.
"You just see... I will get on that boat..." and she went to lie on her bed in her clothes, the black shoulder bag ready for action.
(An hour later)
Her eyes snapped open, and a drowsy smile appeared itself on her face. Getting up really carefully to not make noise, she stretched her hands up and stood on her toes. Shaking her left leg that had decided to take a nap too, she picked up her bag and her black leatherjacket. Stopping by a mirror to briefly take in her looks, she smoothed out her blonde locks. She rarely ever used any kind of make up since it was always a hassle to clean it off, but now se put on some 'alarm' red lipstick. After doing it, she slipped it into her bag.
Giving a mocking wink of her sea blue eyes and the kissy-lips, she weaseled her way out of the window and with a giddy glee she ran/skipped away.
After some time she came to the shore, where Brian's car was parked. Brian was 19, making him thee years older than his sister Chiselle, and two years older than Gen, who just had turned 17.
Brian, just like Chiselle, had brown eyes and red, untameable hair. He wasn't really that handsome in her opinion, and he wasn't the tallest of men, but dear LORD he had a dazzling smile! He could've gotten any girl in the world with it - or with money and whatnot - but she had a suspicion that he had a crush on her-
"FOOOORR THE HOOORDE!" and she was suddenly tackled by a red and gray blur. "Not enough mana..." *
"Haha, sorry! Ya tired?"
"Like a dying man."
"Mneh," and so the girl crawled off of her and helped her stand up. Now it was visible how short the girl was. Brian came out, a stark contrast to her little sister.
"Hey midgets!" he greeted.
"WHAT! You wanna piece of me?" Chiselle jumped with his hands in fists like a kick boxer.
"You going somewhere?" she asked. Indeed, unlike Chiselle, he had his light jacket on and unzipped, and he was jostling his car's keys.
"Yeah, sorry. I have to go help out a friend. Got kicked out of home and I promised I'd take him in for this night. I might not be back though."
"Awww," the girls pouted.
"But you're so fun to beat up!" Chiselle 'reasoned'. (She meant videogames.^^)
"Ah, so cold words from my own kin!" He collected himself after a short pose, waved them farewell and left. Chiselle and Gen walked to the long private dock and climbed to the boat. It was big enough to house at least ten people, and Gen gasped lightly.
"Geez, Chis, this is HUGE!"
"I know!"
Since it was really late already, they changed to their pyjamas and sat under a big blanket on a low couch, watching the moonlit sea through a window. Neither said anything, until Chiselle called her softly.
"Yeah?"
Pause.
"I... want to, no, I have to tell you something."
"Yeah?"
Another, stiff pause.
"What's wrong?"
"Hey, there's a mermaid!"
"What?" an unenthusiastic, gruff answer.
"I once saved an entire island of mermaids from a vicious herd of demon sea kings! Hahaha!"
"Whoa! You did! COOL!"
"No he didn't, you dumbass!"
BONK
The Going Merry had been eight days ago set sail for the very first time. Strawhat Luffy was sitting on the railing and nursing a lump. Zoro, the swordsman, came next to the three others and looked at the supposed mermaid.
"That's no mermaid, but should we still pick her up?"
"Yeah, we should. Before she sinks."
Zoro jumped in with a splash and paddled to the raft of floating seaweed.
The woman on it could've easily been mistaken for a mermaid. She was deeply asleep, but her white, long hair was fanned around her head. Her skin was fair but burned from the sun and next to her floated a black shoulder bag. From it's zipper hung a black and white bunny-rabbit with red bead eyes...
Usopp threw a rope and he climbed up with the girl on his shoulder and he held the bag in his teeth.
"Oh hey, it's a girl!"
"Moron! But seriously, why was she floating here, in the middle of nowhere?" Nami knelt next to her.
"So, she's a mystery mermaid!"
BONK
The next time she woke up, she felt sore. Why was she in a foreign bed? Oh yeah, she sneaked out and-
Her eyes snapped open.
Chiselle...
She felt her heart throb and eyes sting. Gen pulled the covers over her head and cocooned in it to escape the heaviness of her heart.
She heard someone knock on the door...
Huuuh?
Suddenly, she was aware of the fact that she was not where she had fallen asleep last night, on Chiselle's boat.
Gloria moved the cover and looked around the room. It was smallish and there were many cupboards and cabins. There was a table underneath that all, and a chair in front of it. She recognised her black bag hanging from the back of the chair. There was also a dried and pressed sunflower in a frame hanging on the wall.
"This is not the Trout, isn't it..." she asked from the silence. There was again a knock on the door, and an orange head popped from the crack.
"Ah, you're awake!"
"Uhmm..."
"I'm Nami, this ship's navigator. What's your story?"
Nami...
THE UNHOLY MOTHER OF EVERYTHING!
This... she... Nami! She only knew one, ONE person in the WORLD who was called 'Nami', and that, THAT...
Gloria stuttered to regain herself and answered: "Ge-Ge-Glo-Ge-Gloria! I'm Gloria! How did I end up here?"
"So you don't know?" she asked and eyed the black bag. "What's with that?"
"Um? M-my bag is here too...!"
She tried to calm down and swallowed her non-sugary-hyper-high.
After that, Nami brought her a blue T-shirt that showed her midriff and a pair of black jeans. The jeans were good but the shirt bothered her to no end. She tried to pull it down, but all it did was show her clevege.
"That shirt's a bit loose on you, but I guess it'll have to do," she looked her up and down sternly.
"Now come on. My captain wants to see you."
She found out that the room she had been was the ship's infirmary, as they walked through the ship to the deck.
The sun shone high and Gloria saw the clouds drifting in the blue sky. The wood creaked under her, the wind tried to blow her hair in her face-
"Since when was my hair white!"
"It's not supposed to be?"
"No!"
"How long were you in the water?"
"I don't- Wait, I was what?"
"We found you floating on a sea weed in the middle of nowhere, so we assumed you were in a shipwreck. Although, it's been suspiciously calm for this past week."
She opened the galley door and Gen was greeted with loud noises. Luffy, the boy in a straw hat and Usopp, the boy with an insane nose, were wrestling over a mussed sandwich. They stopped to see who came in, and Zoro, the greenhaired swordsman, had a spoon halfway to his mouth. Gloria felt really awkward and misplaced there and her face felt hot. Nami sat in her seat.
"AH! The mystery mermaid is awake! Finally!"
"If she's a mermaid, then where's her tail? Moron..." Zoro asked sarcastically from his energetic captain, who had invaded her personal space in two seconds and was now watching her like she was a very interesting insect.
"You got cool eyes!"
"Uh, thanks...?"
"What's your name?"
"Gloria. You?"
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! And guess what?"
"What?"
"I'll be the King of the Pirates one day!" he giggled and went back to his place to continue with the pigging.
"Oh... that's... good I guess." Nami pulled her a chair and she took it. Usopp got up on his chair: "I am the GREAT captain USOPP! And I have a mighty crew of 80 million men! You might've heard about me in praising songs around the world!"
"Liar," came out reflexively.
"Crap! She saw through it!"
"ANYONE COULD SEE THROUGH IT!" Nami's eyes went white and her teeth became sharper than normal human teeth.
'The wonders of anime', she sweatdropped.
Nami turned to Gloria and jerked her thumb at the kelp-head. "That's Zoro."
"Hi."
"Hmm."
"How come you were just floating in the water?" Usopp asked, once he had calmed down.
"I have no idea what you are talking about, Usopp-san... The last thing I remember was that I went to sleep on my friend's boat." 'And getting to know something like that...' She scratched her shoulder and looked out of the galley's window and whispered half in though: "I have no idea where I am."
Nami rose on her feet and left and when she came back, she had a map and a compass with her. She slapped the paper on the table after she pushed the plates aside and placed the compass next to it.
"We are here. See? The nearest island is over there... And that's four more days excluding this to reach. What was the island you were last you knew?"
Eep.
"Well, I don't see it on the map," she said shyly.
"What a shame, then. What do we do, Luffy?"
The boy held her in an intense gaze with an almost-smile so long that she begun involuntarily to fidget in her seat. All the while the other three in the room watched their captain watching her.
Then he broke into a huge smile and said in all of his wisdom: "I see! You're not a mermaid after all!"
BONK
"YOU JUST NOW REALIZED IT!"
"But seriously," Zoro picked up from where the rational conversation had jumped off the train, "should we see her off to the next island?"
"Mmmnnyeaaa I guess so... Hey, hey!" Luffy invaded her personal space again. "Are you a musician?"
"No."
"Oh, ok."
It was getting mighty late and under her gaze the four Strawhats brought in the sails, dropped the anchor and sat down next to her to watch the vast ocean.
* Yayy, World of Warcraft references. Good game, but someone hacked my account! TT^TT
Gloria: That sucked!
Snoara: Don't say that! ...okay it did.
Gloria: Why was it that short! I know you've written in stock, I saw all the 39 pages of it!
Snoara: Ehhh... *swifty eyes* Not all in one go?Anyways, I have to go now, my next class is in ten minutes. Don't want to keep the history teacher waiting ('COS HE'S SCARY~!)
EDITED