The surprise:

“The swords slashed together, what a fight this was going to be. Sir John was nearly on top of Mr. Ransom, although Mr. Ransom quickly pulled himself together and pushed Sir John off. The swords meet again close to their profiles and the two men met eyes. When looking into Sir John’s dark, mysterious eyes you can see the pain; the pain he has gone through and the pain he wanted to cause. With Mr. Ransom on the other hand you could see fear, fear of what this former pirate could do and fear for his poor family…”

“I don’t think I like it,” Riley said, as she placed her pen down and turned to her best friend waiting for her opinion.

“If you don’t like that you’re mad… that was incredible! How do you write like that?” Amy asked with her usual crooked smile.

Riley smiled back. “Thanks! I am not sure about this part though, I think it needs more details.”

“If you say so…” Amy replied and laughed at her perfectionist friend. Both girls found themselves hysterically laughing on Riley’s bed.

“Ah, pirates are so hot!” Amy sighed and laughed again.

“What?” Riley exclaimed confused and sat up giving her friend a look that showed just how confused she really was. In her head all that she could think of was a harsh, mean old guy.

“Duh, Johnny Depp,” she replied and the girls started to laugh again.

“If it makes you happy I may just put a hot pirate in this story. The only thing is this story is almost done I mean I am at the very last fight scene,” Riley said.

“Well, that’s okay! It would make a great ending. Could I be this pirate’s girlfriend?!” Riley laughed at her friend and simply said, “Possibly.”

“Okay, but he has to have dark brown, medium length hair, be tall, and dark features, we’ll just make him incredibly hot!” she added as Riley laughed at her boy crazy friend.

“Or, I could always keep him for myself.” Riley said trying to annoy her friend.

“Hey! You wouldn’t! Get your own pirate!” she exclaimed and the girls just laughed some more at how completely crazy this sounded.

“What day is this?” Riley asked hoping her friend remembered her birthday or she would have to kill her.

“Um, I don’t know, what day is it?” Amy asked sarcastically.

“June the fourteenth!” Riley exclaimed.

“Oh it is, isn’t it, by the way happy birthday!” Amy replied airily.

“Hey, don’t act like you forgot.” Riley said and giggled.

“Hey, I have to go home… but whatcha doing later, Ry?” Amy asked.

“I don’t think I am doing anything…Oh wait, I have to go and visit my grandparents, but I should be back around six. That’s when we are having our little family birthday thing, just me, my mom, and my dad. I suppose you could come if you really wanted to. ” she teased.

Amy hit her friend at her pathetic attempt to be mean. “Oh alright then, see you later, and I’ll give you your gift then too.” Amy said as the two girls parted.

Riley Simmons could not have asked for a better life. She had great loving parents, a cool best friend and amazing grandparents, and she always had her writing, the same writing that she often got lost in. That’s exactly what she was doing when her mom called her down for them to leave for her grandparents place…

John was not always a bad pirate, once he was a normal man, no less normal than me and you. He was a man who loved and got his heart broken. He was not like other pirates, he had a heart and that’s why at that moment he dropped his sword and looked at Mr. Ransom.

“You don’t deserve to die, I do, so, strike true, fair man, fast and true,” Mr. Ransom had him stop talking and also dropped his sword.

“Look, neither of us deserve to die lets just call this a truce.” At that moment the men herd a thump behind them and turned to see…

“Riley! Riley! Come on we gotta go if we want to beat the traffic.” Riley sighed and thought about writing a few more words then heard a screech “Riley!” She sighed again, put her pen down and headed for the stairs calling “coming!”

Riley stepped into her families van, she adored car rides. Most kids her age are dying to learn to drive themselves but not Riley, no way. She loved the time she had to just look out of the windows and daydream. Her father was always scolding her saying “Your mind is always somewhere else I swear!” This was not far from the truth but she would never admit it.

“You should really start paying more attention you know, it will only be two years until you start driving.” Her father scolded as usual, looking at her from the rear view mirror. She did not say anything back to him and just thought about it. I am NEVER driving she thought. If I did it would not surprise me if the first day on the road I got into an accident. I would be way too busy daydreaming. I will simply have to ride in a taxi forever or even better I can get my own personal limo driver.

It was not a long ride to her grandparent’s house so before long the van pulled up onto a steep hill with the long rocky road way up to her grandparent’s house. The three of them stepped out of the car to hear Riley’s grandmother’s voice.

“Well, it took ya’ll long enough I want to see my granddaughter!” Riley ran up to her grandparents and gave each a great big hug. Her grandmother held her out and took a good look at her, “Wow, look at you fourteen already!” and Riley flashed them a big grin as her grandpa added, “Quite the young lady indeed.”

Riley’s mom rolled her eyes at her father, she was always saying that Riley and her dad were like ‘two peas in a pod’ an old expression that means, they are almost exactly alike. She said they were both over dramatic, and they only had one reply to that, “well us writers must be dramatic, how else do you expect us to come up with characters.” That’s all we ever had to say she would always stop us and tell us to stop with the ten year long explanations. Every time we had this conversation different memories sparked for me. One time my mom wrote a story in about sixth grade but it made no sense. It told how she found a lost puppy and I think that she found the owner in the end but you cant be sure, just trust me it was bad.

“Hey Mom, Dad.” Mrs. Simmons said as she hugged her parents and Mr. Simmons shook his father in laws hand and hugged his mother in law without saying a word.

“Well, Mom we have to go to a meeting, we’ll be back to pick up Riley at about 5:30, have fun, just not too much!” Mrs. Simmons said teasingly as she and her husband got back into the van and drove off.

Her grandmother put a hand on Riley’s back and led her into the big Victorian house. It was big white house, with red shutters; it was a bit ancient looking. Everything was definitely out-of-date. Her grandparents had an old fashioned telephone and refused to get a microwave, they thought they did not need it. She did not seem to mind that the house was older looking; in fact that’s what she really liked about the house. Riley really enjoyed the time that she spent at the old house.

“So, how is summer going?” Her granddad asked, attempting to strike up some kind of conversation. Her grandma walked off apparently going to fix dinner or something.

“Good, better then school for sure.” Riley replied, she thought school was okay, but certainty not all it was cracked up to be, she was just glad it was all over for about two and a half glorious more months.

“Oh, that is good, any plans on what you want to do here today?” He asked.

“How about a game of chess?”

“That’s fine,” He started “although you do realize that you can never win…”

“Oh really, you think so?” She said giggling.

The day quickly went by, Riley had a wonderful time. She had played games with her grandfather and she learned some tips on how to make apple and pecan pie from her grandmother. Right as she was ready to go wait outside for her parents, her grandparents nodded to each other and told her to follow them. They had never done this before but Riley was sure that it was nothing and that they simply forgot something.

She turned down the hall of the big house and she saw a room that she never knew was there until now.

“Riley, dear,” Her grandmother started, as she leaned in closer to soak up every word. Riley had so many questions, ‘what was this room? How come I did not know about this? Why were they taking me here?’ “We were waiting for the perfect moment to show you this, and your grandfather and I believe now is just the right time.” She did not ask any questions, just watched.

Her grandfather walked to the opposite side of the room. It was quite small, hardly big enough to fit the three of them comfortably. It was dim and dusty too. Her grandmother opened a curtain and made the room bright. However it caused dust to fly all over and her grandma waved her hands in front of her face and coughed at the large amount of dust everywhere.

Her grandfather opened a small safe in the corner of the room. Once the safe was unlocked he gently took out a wooden box. He made a little “ah-ha” sound and opened the box. Her tension was growing, ‘what was going on? What was in that box?’ He peered inside and then gently took something out and handed it to Riley while whispering happy birthday. She looked down at her hand and she held a quill. A quill is an old type of pen made of a feather, which usually requires you to dip it in ink before you use it.

“A quill?” Riley asked not sure why he gave this to her.

He gave a slight chuckle, “Ah, deary this is not just any quill pen, as you will soon find out.”

“What?” She asked with confusion and interest.

“We want you to write a story with that quill of yours, just one thing deary, once you start a story with it, do finish it.” Her grandmother informed.

“A-alright” She started and then thought about it “wont I need ink?”

“No, no ink is necessary.” They answered.

“But…” Riley started to ask more questions but then they heard a honk from outside her parents were there.

“Better go.” Her grandfather said putting a hand on her back and leading her out of the room.

“But, you’re not listening, I don’t understand.” She complained

“What don’t you understand? Oh, don’t tell me you’re still fussy over that little game of chess. I’m sure you’ll do better next time.” Her grandfather commented as if nothing had happened.