Ballerina Pirates

• Despina Stratos, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2013

Once upon a time there was a girl. Her name was Juke. She didn’t like home much and was accustomed to sailing on the high seas with her father. They went through many adventures together with their crew. One day Juke grew up. It was her thirteenth birthday when her father decided that she should be doing lady like things. He sent took her to a small town and put her in the Boarding School for Women. “The women here will teach her how to be a lady” Juke’s father thought. He left ship with his crew leaving his daughter on this island. Juke hated it there. They made her wear pink dresses and they practice ballet just like all the other girls. Out of all the girls there none of them enjoyed dressing in pink and doing ballet, even though they were forced to. After a solid five years of lady like practices, Juke and her boarder friends all knew ballet perfectly and were all acting very proper and lady like. Juke and her friends still hated being ladies but they had to…didn’t they? This is the question Juke asked herself and her friends. They all realized that they didn’t need to stay in the Boarding School for Women so one night, Juke and her friends all ran to the docks and stole a ship. They steered it away from the island out into the sea. Juke took charge as captain and her friends all pitched in with making the ship clean. Juke made their pirate flag which resembled a skull with two ballet shoes at the bottom instead of crossbones. That night, just as the sun was rising, Juke called all the girls to the deck. “We are women, and we will fight like women! What have we learned for the past five years? Ballet! So we shall use that to our advantage. We…shall fight with ballet!” she stated with authority. All the girls cheered and fell asleep on deck because they were so very tired from cleaning. They wake up around lunchtime and realize that they only have a little bit of food. They spot a ship in the distance. It’s coming towards them quite quickly. The girls don’t know what to do but Juke puts her food down. “What did I say? WE WILL FIGHT!” she punches her fist in the air just as the pirates from the other ship try to board. The girls fight with gusto and take out most of the scrawny looking pirates. The girls board the enemy pirate ship to find more bearded, skinny pirates. Juke and her crew knock them all out with simple ballet. Juke strides up to the captain and pulls him up by the scruff of his collar. “Excuse me sir!” Juke says politely. “We are just going to be taking your supplies, thank you!”. “J-j-juke?”, the bearded man answers. Juke drops him. “D-dad?” Juke stutters. They both hug and live happily ever after. The end.