A/N: This is onf of the firststories that I've published, so I appreciate feedback. Constructive critisism is fine, but please word it nicely. Also, English is not my first language so I'm sorry if I make mistakes.

Chapter 1: Odd Timing

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock ringing. I turned it off and glanced at the time. The digital clock read 6:30. I tried to get up, but only managed to lift my head for a few seconds and fall asleep again.

My alarm clock rang again. I groggily checked the time. 6:30. I turned off the alarm and sat up in bed. I swung my legs around and stood up sleepily. I walked towards the bathroom. By the time I opened the door, I realized something I hadn’t noticed before. I raced back to my nightstand, upon which sat my digital alarm clock. Didn’t I already wake up and turn off the alarm? I stared hard at the numbers, but nothing strange happened again, so I shrugged it off. I guess I was dreaming.

---

I reached school at 7:30, half an hour before classes started. I went to my locker and grabbed the necessary things for my first two classes. I was about to shut my locker when I caught sight of my history textbook. Oh no! I didn’t do the homework! I checked my watch. I only had ten minutes to do it before school. I took my textbook and ran to the library. I sat down at the last empty table and began working.

The warning bell rang on time, at 7:55. I kept working for a few moments and then gathered my things. I continued doing my assignment as I walked, bumping into a few people. I got to class just as the bell rang.

But there was no one there. Well, except for the teacher. She looked at me and smiled.

“Sandie, I didn’t expect you’d come early to class. You’re normally late.”

“Early? Didn’t the bell just ring?”

“Yes, the warning bell just rang.”

“What?!”

I must be losing my mind, I thought, shaking my head to clear it. I decided to just wait there, but I managed to finish my history homework while the other students entered the room one by one.

---

I was walking along the empty corridor at school. My gym class had let out earlier than usual and no one else was out for lunch yet, so I was alone. I walked up the stairs and down the corridor to my locker in the junior hall. While I was switching my books with the ones I would need after lunch, I was joined by my best friend, Jenna Danes. She was also in my gym class.

“So, Sandrine Weston, how’s life?”

“I thought I told you to never, ever call me by my real name, Jen.” I slammed my locker, muttering about stupid best friends.

“Well, yes, you did-”

“Ha! So there!”

“-but I never actually agreed to it,” she concluded. I shoved her into a locker, and then sprinted down the hall. She ran after me. I started going down the stairs two at a time, when I noticed that fellow junior Christian Peters, who happened to be my latest crush, was right in front of me. I stopped in time, but Jen wasn’t so lucky. She didn’t see him, and so she barreled into us both, causing us all to tumble down the stairs.

---

Instead of hitting the floor, we hit sand. I opened my eyes to find myself on a beach. My backpack was nowhere to be seen. Jen and Christian were just getting up. Their bags had also disappeared without a trace.

So, it was just us three there on a deserted beach without anything except jeans and T-shirts…Wait! We weren’t even in jeans and T-shirts! I saw Christian wearing old-fashioned black trousers, a white shirt, and a formal vest. He was also wearing black boots and a funny-looking hat. Jen had on a painful-looking corset, over which was a light blue dress, matching perfectly with her sky blue eyes. Her blond hair was pinned up in an elegant bun. I, on the other hand, felt that I wasn’t looking as beautiful. My dark green dress (corset and all) fit perfectly, but I thought it made me look ridiculous. My long light brown hair was also pinned back, but there were a few loose strands.

I got up and joined them both in trying to figure out where we were. “Where are we?” I asked, still staring at their clothing.

“As if I know,” replied Jen.

“Well, wherever we are,” said Christian, “it’s your fault for bringing me here too.” I shot him a glare.

“I have an idea of where we are,” said Jen.

“Yes?” I asked, curious.

“We are in a dream, a very strange dream. And if we go to sleep on this beach, then we’ll wake up at the bottom of the stairs back at school,” she said happily.

“Jen, you’re insane, you know that?” I said.

“You know, Sandie, I think she might be right. Maybe we’re all unconscious right now and someone’s going to wake us up any minute,” suggested Christian.

I glared at both of them. “Right. And while we’re unconscious, we’re all just chatting to each other on a deserted beach,” I said, the sarcasm obvious.

“Well, do you have any other ideas as to where we are?” asked Jen.

I was silent.

“I thought so,” she said, triumphantly. Then, turning to Christian, she asked, “Would you like to follow my advice and sleep?”

“I’m willing to try anything,” he replied. And so, the two of them found a spot on the beach not littered with random driftwood and, laying a good ten feet away from each other, fell asleep. I, on the other hand, stayed where I was, watching the ocean. I was trying to push myself enough so that I might comprehend this. In the end, I just started getting a headache.

When I was certain that both of my friends were asleep, I walked down the beach. I wanted to explore a bit. After about half an hour of walking along the beach, I came to a harbor, which actually consisted of a few docks. I hid behind a rock to stay out of sight. It was very uncomfortable to squat down in a corset. I tried to loosen the ties, but as they were in the back and I couldn’t reach them, I quickly gave up and decided to simply deal with the pain.

I looked out at the ships, trying to place them. Suddenly a picture of Captain Jack Sparrow aboard the Black Pearl came unbidden into my mind. Oh God, no. It can’t be. This is my imagination. You know, I suddenly agree with Jen and Christian. This is a dream that I’m going to wake up from.

I started to run. I didn’t know where I was really going. I just started running towards the spot where Jen and Christian were, sleeping. I ran and ran and then tripped on the hem of my dress. I lay there on the ground, wondering what I did to deserve such a frightening nightmare. I mean, it had to be a nightmare. It couldn’t have been real. I looked up from my position on the ground and saw Jen and Christian waking up. I heard their voices as they sat up.

“Where did Sandie go?” asked Jen.

“I don’t know. But look, Jen, we’re still on the beach. Looks like we were wrong. This isn’t a dream and we’re not going to wake up from it,” answered Christian.

I forced myself to get up, wincing at the pain in my waist where the corset was extremely tight. I walked over to them as they waved to me.

“Jen, Christian, in what time period did The Pirates of the Caribbean take place?” I asked, afraid of hearing the answer. I knew that Jen would give me the answer. She was absolutely obsessed.

“The eighteenth century,” supplied Jen. Then, in an afterthought, she asked, “Why?”

“Because I think that’s where we are. Or, shall I say, when we are.”

“That’s ridiculous. It’s impossible,” Jen said.

“I know I denied it earlier, but this makes sense. I mean, just look at our clothes.” Christian put in.

“Not you too!”

“Look, Jen, I saw ships at the harbor that looked like they were out of that movie or that time period,” I explained. Jen still didn’t believe me. I could tell.

“It doesn’t matter when or where we are. We just have to find a way home,” said Christian. He always was the rational one.

“I don’t think we’ll be going home for a while. At least not until God decides that we’re not needed in whatever time we’re in,” I said.

“That doesn’t make any sense. How could God have sent us here?” Jen asked.

“I don’t know. You’re the religious person here, Jen.”

“This is your fault!”

“How is it my fault?”

“If you hadn’t shoved me into a locker-”

“You provoked me! And crashed into me!”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault?”

“STOP! Both of you!” Christian shouted. “Now, listen to me. It doesn’t matter whose fault it was. We’re all responsible. Jen crashed into Sandie. Sandie stopped suddenly. I was in the way. Okay? We’re all at fault. Besides, it’s not like we actually caused this to happen. Something must be wrong with the – the time-space continuum thing.”

“You mean like in Back to the Future ? Yeah, weird things have been happening today that concern time. But anyway, you’re right, Christian. We have to figure out how to survive here,” I said.

“Then, Sandie, show us that harbor.” That was Jen’s suggestion. We agreed.

I took them to the same bunch of rocks that I had hidden behind earlier. We each ducked behind a boulder. This time I really took the time to look at the people, too, now that my initial shock had sort of worn off. I saw people moving back and forth between the ship docked there and the forest. They were soldiers, escorting…

“Are those prisoners?” I asked in a whisper.

“Looks like it,” Jen replied.

“Let’s go. I don’t want to watch this anymore,” I said when I saw a guard start whipping a man for walking too slowly.

“Yes, please.” We walked back to where we’d first appeared in a much less adventurous mood.

“It’s a prison, isn’t it?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“It sure looks like it,” commented Christian. “Maybe we should go talk to the people in charge here. We might be able to find a way to get home.”

“Well, alright Christian. I’m just worried. I mean, we can’t exactly tell them our names, can we?”

“Why not?” asked Jen.

“Because we’re in the past. We’ll be real people in history. What if one of our friends just decides to randomly put our names in on Google, and finds real people who had the same names and looked exactly like us?” I demanded.

“Okay, you may have a point.”

“Well, let’s think of names then. We can keep our first names, right? So, I’ll be Christian…Parker. That’s close enough to Peters. I’ll be able to remember it.”

“And me?” Jen asked.

“Well, your last name can be…I don’t know.” I gave up.

“We have to have some kind of explanation as to why we’re here together,” Christian observed.

“We need an explanation as to why we’re here in the first place.”

“Good point, but let’s just deal with names right now. Jen, you can pretend to be my wife and Sandie, you look enough like Jen. Why don’t you say that you’re Jen’s sister?”

“Okay.” I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to pretend to be Christian’s wife, but I couldn’t protest, or else he would know how I felt.

“What about why we’re here?” asked Jen.

“Well, I don’t know. You guys figure it out,” Christian answered.

After a moment of thought, Jen said, “We were shipwrecked.”

“Good idea, Jen. I knew you were good for something,” I said, smirking. And thus began our habitual taunting and teasing. We even started to chase each other, until I tripped over my hem again while trying to catch Jen. It felt good to have friends, even in a situation as ridiculous as this. I don’t know what I would have done if I were alone in this strange world. I probably would have gone mad. I felt happier than I had felt all day as I walked with Jen and Christian towards the main road near the harbor.

A/N: Did you like it? Did you hate it? Let me know! Review!