Maggie uses a magic mirror to become a teenager for a week. She goes to High School and realizes all the ways kids can be cruel. Luckily, she discovers that she has a vengeful ace up her sleeve...

Featured Song:
Baby, You're A Haunted House
by Gerard Way

Do you ever feel like something is missing in your life? Maggie Sparrow never did. Why would she? It goes without saying that Maggie was the most lovely, intelligent and superior female aboard the Black Pearl. Probably because most of the time, she was the only female aboard the Pearl... This healthy egocentric attitude was implanted within Maggie as an infant, when her Father informed her that she was 'Da cutest whittle girl in the whole wile world' his words, not hers. And since then, Maggie has done her best to uphold this title with dignity and honor.

But Maggie had recently noticed that being the Da cutest whittle girl just wasn't cutting it anymore. It all started in the Tortuga Marketplace, when she and her father were shopping for the Pearl's inventory. Maggie had spotted a friend of hers through in the crowd.

"Stevie!" Maggie ran up to him.

"Maggie!" The sixteen year old boy kneeled down to her. "I actually go by Steven now."

"I had no idea you were back in town!" Maggie hugged him. "You moved away... what was it? Two, three years ago?"

"Oh God! That's nearly ten years ago, Mags" Steven told her.

Maggie giggled. "You got so tall!" She stared up at him.

"And you..." Steven glanced at her unchanged form. "You... you look good."

"Oh, I'm immortal now" Maggie explained. "I'll never grow up and never change."

"Oh! Fun..." Steven said. "Do you like that?"

"Doesn't matter, I have to live with it" Maggie shrugged. "So the Pearl's going to be docked here for a while. Would you like to head to the beach? I've been meaning to check out the tidal pools we saw last time you were here."

"Yeah..." Steven hissed. "The thing is Maggie... I'm gonna be busy. I have exams coming up at school and my girlfriend and I are celebrating our second anniversary together this weekend."

Maggie stared blankly at him. "You have a girlfriend? Already?" She asked baffled. "But last time you were here, you said girls were walking cootie farms."

"I was only six" Steven shrugged. "I didn't know any better. Besides you'd like her, Maggie."

Maggie rolled her eyes smiling. "If you like her so much why don't you marry her" she giggled.

"I'm actually planning to..." Steven lowered his voice to a whisper. "This weekend when we go out for our anniversary dinner."

Maggie's eyes widened in shock. "Think it over!" She told him.

"I have, Mags!" Steven chuckled, toussling her hair. "I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her." He looked down at his wristwatch. "Oh God, I have to go! I still have to pick up my best suit from the laundering shop. Bye, Maggie! Nice seeing you again!"

Maggie stared at the young man as he rushed off. She didn't even recognize him anymore! Last time Steven hung out with her, he was a six year old boy who had barely caught up to her in height. He enjoyed making mudpies in his mother's garden, and whenever they'd go to the beach, he would put wet sand in his swim trucks and pretend he had diarrhea! And now he was... a man! A clean cut, lovesick man, complete with responsibilities! Maggie had never seen such a fall from grace!

Although, the more Maggie thought about it, the more she came to wonder... Steven seemed so blissfully happy with his newfound maturity. Was that even possible? Her father always told her that staying a little girl forever was a blessing, not a curse. Now, Maggie began to notice how the kids she once played with were getting older and moving on with their lives. Some were already married, others had children and families of their own. The thought of it all left an empty sad feeling in the pit of Maggie's stomach. She suddenly felt something she had never felt before. She felt... what's the word? Less than.

☠️🩸☠️

The feeling didn't subside, even after Maggie had her dinner and evening bath. Captain Jack noticed Maggie's long face as he was tucking her in.

"Something on your mind, Pet?" He asked her.

"No..." Maggie muttered.

"Yes, there is" Jack nodded. "You didn't even put up a fight when I told you it was time for bed."

Maggie sighed under her breath. "Daddy, do you ever think about me growing up? Y'know, maturing?" She asked him.

Jack stared at her blankly. "Well, the thing is, Luv" He chuckled. "I don't think we have to worry about that anymore. Thank goodness, because I had no idea how I was going to explain the in's and out's of puberty to you."

"But what if I want to grow up?" Maggie demanded.

"You would live to regret it" Jack answered honestly. "Believe me, everyone does at some point in their lives."

"But don't I have a right to grow up and experience things like puberty and dating and... I dunno, pimples?" Maggie asked. "I'm tried of being a little baby-fat caterpiller, inching my way through life, while everyone else is taking flight as beautiful butterflies. I want to know what it's like to have pimples and cover them with makeup! I want to go to high school and see what drama I can stir up there! I want... boobs!"

With each passing sentence Jack's face became more and more horrified. Maggie was a troublesome little sassy pants every day, but a teenage Maggie?! That would be enough to drive him crazy... er.

"Even so, Luv" Jack replied. "There's no way to make it happen."

"What about the Mirror of Maturitas?" Maggie asked. "Remember we knicked it from that underground island that was full of subterranean mole people? The legend of the mirror states that it can change a person's reflection to match their desires!"

"You're not touching that mirror!" Jack told her. "We still have no idea about what it's capable of."

"But Daddy!" Maggie whined. "I wanna grow up!"

"And I said no" Jack repeated.

Maggie scrunched up her nose in anger and squinted her eyes at her father.

Jack's eyes widened. "Maggie..." he said sternly. "No..."

She inhaled sharply and let out a scream of fury. She tossed the covers off of her and pounded her fists against the bed. She kicked and wailed her head off.

Jack covered his ears. "No tantrums!" He yelled over her. "You're just proving to me that you're not ready to grow up!"

Maggie turned to him snarled angrily.

"You stop that!" Jack told her. "Magnolia!Stop it! I'm going to skip tonight's bedtime story if you don't settle down." He threatened.

Maggie stopped thrashing and heaved a frustrated sigh. "Bedtime stories are for babies anyway" she told him.

"Well, you're still my baby" Jack pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Maggie groaned loudly.

☠️🩸☠️

Maggie waited until the clock struck midnight to sneak out of bed and look for the mirror of maturitas. She tried desperately to remember where her father put it. He usually tossed any new treasures they "acquired" under his mattress for safe keeping.

Maggie crawled across the floor of the captain's cabin and kneeled in front of her father's mattress. She could hear him snoring above her. She jumped as his foot popped out of the covers and swung limply beside her. Maggie held her nose and tried to breathe through her mouth, but she could taste the stink too. Suffice it to say, pirates weren't known for their pedicures...

Maggie scooted away from her father's funky foot and turned toward the mattress. She slowly slid her hand between the mattresses, careful not to rouse her father. She dug around feeling for the magical hand mirror's bronze handle. She yanked out the magic pocketwatch, the weather gauge, the top half of the Trident of Poseidon, the key to the Dead Man's Chest, the Silver Chalices of Ponce De Leon... finally she pulled out a bronze hand mirror. This was it... the Mirror of Maturitas! Her ticket to teen-dom! Or rather, teen-hood... whatever!

Maggie shoved the rest of the treasures under her father's bed and crept back to her cabin, with the mirror in hand. She grinned in excitement. Today she may have been Daddy's little baby, but tomorrow she would awaken as a beautiful, fully-fledged teenager!

☠️🩸☠️

A common rule aboard the Black Pearl was that you couldn't make any noise before ten o'clock in the morning. Captain Jack's was known for having morning hangovers and his nerves were very touchy in the morning.

But on this morning, Maggie was so excited and she just couldn't hide it.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Maggie's scream echoed from within her cabin.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Captain Jack yelled as he fell out of bed.

He got tangled up in the bed sheets as he tried to get up, they flew over his head and he struggled to find the edge of the sheet.

Scrum burst into the Captain's Cabin. "What was that scre--EEEEEE!" He jumped when he saw Jack with the bed sheet over his head. "Lord Lipton baldheaded! It's a ghost!" He shouted, pulling out his sword.

Scrum swung his sword at the "ghost" as Jack shrieked and tried to dodge each blow.

"Scrum! Scrum, stop it!" Jack told him.

"Haunt this ship no longer, spooky scary specter!" Scrum swiped his sword, narrowly missing Jack's throat as he sliced the bed sheet in half.

Jack peeked out at him sternly, through the hole in the sheet. Scrum stared back nervously.

"You owe me new sheets..." Jack told him. "Now out!"

Scrum sheathed his sword. "Aye, Cap'n" he gave a quick salute as he rushed out of the room.

"And how in the blazes are you going to kill a ghost?!" Jack shouted after him. He whipped the shredded sheet off his head and stormed over to Maggie's cabin.

"Now, Magnolia! What are you doing screaming like a banshee at this ungodly hou--" Jack stopped short when he saw a young woman standing in his daughter's room. She gripped at her bosom, whilst twirling in the and beaming excitedly at her reflection in the mirror.

"And who the devil are you?" Jack asked, his stern tone thrown off by his growing concern.

"It's me, Daddy!" The young woman giggled, her voice deep, soft and flowing. "It's Maggie!"

Jack stared at her closer. Those big, brown curious-looking eyes... he would know them anywhere! They were the only thing that hadn't changed about her.

"Maggie..." he gasped.

"Yes!" The teen Maggie nodded.

"Maggie?" He asked in a frightened tone, putting a shaking hand to his mouth.

"Yeah... still" Maggie furrowed her brows.

Jack glanced behind her and saw the Mirror of Maturitas on the bed beside her. "Maggie!" He snapped angrily.

"Yes, we've established that I am still me!" Maggie nodded, wide-eyed. "Anything else you wanna add?"

Jack's chest began to move up and down rapidly, as he began to hyperventilate. Suddenly he began to see stars and passed out.

"Ooh!" The teen Maggie hissed through her teeth.

She walked over to her father's unconscious body and gingerly reached in to pick his coin pouch out of her pocket.

"You sleep on it, Daddy. I'm going shopping for new clothes..." She strutted away.

☠️🩸☠️

When Jack came to, he was hoping the whole thing was just a bad dream. But sure enough when he opened his eyes, the teenage Maggie was seated in front of him, surrounded by shopping bags and parcels. She handed her father the receipts from her shopping venture, which caused him to pass out for the second time that morning.

When Captain Jack came to... again, Maggie was still a teenager and was now modeling her new outfits for his crew.

Jack watched her from his chair in the corner. He appeared stunned on the outside, but inside... his heart was breaking.

His Maggie, his little girl... the only person he could ever truly call his own. That angelic creature, who would crawl into bed with him when she had a bad dream and look up at him like he was the bravest protector she could have ask for. That little mouse of a girl he would carry back to the Pearl in his arms, whenever she got too tired from a full day at the beach. The crying babe he held his arms as she sucked in her first breaths on planet earth... she was gone... and in her place now stood a woman. It was like some horrid nightmare.

Jack inhaled sharply and shut his eyes tight, hoping that when he reopened them, it would all be gone. He would wake up in his bed and go to Maggie's cabin and she would be lying there, sleeping like a soft, sweet angel.

Jack opened his eyes, but the scene hadn't changed. Maggie was still a teenager...

Shaking his head in exasperation, Jack got up out of his chair and ordered the crew to leave the room. Maggie tried to follow them.

"Not you!" Jack commanded.

Maggie sighed heavily and turned toward him. "What?" She asked, shrugging.

"What? What!" Jack snapped. "Is that all you have to say for yourself is, what?!"

Maggie pondered her next set of words briefly. "Do these trousers make my butt look big?" She asked, turning in her new outfit.

Jack moaned. "Maggie... why?!" He cried out. "Look at yourself! How could you do this?! Why would you mutilate yourself like this?!"

"I didn't mutilate anything!" Maggie argued. "I merely matured!"

"Merely matured!" Jack threw his hands up in exasperation. "There's no such thing as merely maturing, Magnolia! You don't even understand how good you had it the way you were! The day you became immortal was the happiest day of my life..."

Maggie stared at him, quirking a quizzical brow.

"...Y'know, aside from your birth..." Jack corrected himself. "Immortality meant that you could stay young and innocent and I didn't have to tell you about... life and... bodily changes. We had dodged a viciously awkward bullet! Now you've just changed overnight and I-I-I... I don't know how to prepare you for all of this!" He gestured to Maggie's entire person. "Look at ye! You're all... tall, with the curves and-and-and those..." he pointed wildly to her chest.

Maggie smirked, enjoying the show. It wasn't too often her father became speechless, but when he did, it was a hoot!

"My what, Daddy?" Maggie grinned, feigning innocence.

"You know what I mean!" Jack said through clenched teeth. "Your... dirty pillows..." he said in a hushed whisper.

"Dirty pillows!" Maggie cackled. "Oh my God, Dad! They're just breasts!"

"Shh!" Jack warned her. "Keep your voice down!"

"Breasts!" Maggie said louder cupping her hands around her mouth. "Breasts-breasts-breasts-breasts! Brrrrr-easts!"

"Stop saying that word!" Jack snapped. "The whole damn town will hear you swearing!"

Maggie scoffed. "It's not swearing if it's a part of one's own body" she told him matter-of-factly.

"It is if said body part is meant to be concealed by an undergarment!" Jack retorted.

"Whatever!" Maggie said. "I don't have time to stand here and be scolded like a child, I have class in an hour."

"Class?" Jack asked.

"That's right!" Maggie nodded. "While I was out shopping I took the liberty of registering myself at the local high school. I want the whole teen experience and apparently, that means being on my own in a building full of my peers for several hours a day."

"You can't go to high school, you're only eight years old" Jack snapped.

"Was, Daddy" Maggie smirked. "I was eight years old."

☠️🩸☠️

Apparently higher learning is a literal term... Maggie thought, panting as she made her way up the hill to the tall brick building. She rushed to the building, but before she could even touch the front door, she heard her father yelling her name.

"Magnolia!" Jack wheezed running to catch up to her. "You need to reconsider this..." he panted. "You can't go to high school. You're still mentally a little girl... you won't even understand half of what the teachers tell you."

"Well, nobody ever goes to High School to learn, Dad" Maggie informed him.

Jack opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again. "Touché" he shrugged.

Maggie skipped ahead of him and into the front door of the schools administrative office. Jack cringed seeing her... dirty pillows... bounce as she skipped along. He wouldn't be so nervous if she hadn't chosen a co-ed high school to go to. The whole place was crawling with greasy, depraved, pubescent males who were waiting for a chance to jump his little angel's bones. That's not happening! Not while Jack still had life in his body!

Jack followed Maggie into the principals office with a deliberate stride.

The bald man in a grey suit behind the desk stared up at them with a monotonous smile. "You must be our new student, Maddie" He held out his hand.

"It's Maggie" She shook his hand.

"It doesn't matter, Dear" Jack told her. "Maggie won't be attending your school after all" he told the principal.

"May I ask why?" The principal asked.

"Maggie isn't ready for high school" Jack stated.

"Yes, I am" Maggie insisted. She turned to the principal. "You'll have to excuse Grandpa, he's getting up there and his mind isn't what it used to be..."

"I'm not your grandpa!" Jack told her. "I'm your father! The only reason there's a big age gap between us is because you became immortal from a magic ring!"

Maggie glanced at the principal and swirled a finger around her temple.

The principal nodded knowingly. "Alright, grandpa..." he told Jack slowly. "You can pick up Missy and her magic ring at three. Do you know when three is...?"

"I'm not senile!" Jack snapped.

"He gets cranky when he hasn't had his nap" Maggie whispered to the principal.

"Quiet, you!" Jack told her.

"Madeline..." The principal told Maggie.

"Maggie!" She corrected.

"Yes... this is your class schedule" he handed her a slip of paper. "You should run along now if you want to make your first class in time."

"Thank you" Maggie darted out of the room before her father could stop her.

Jack huffed in protest.

"Do you need someone to come get you...?" The principal asked loudly, as if he was hard of hearing.

Jack glowered at him from across the desk. "I'll tell you what I told the principal back in the day" He said. "Kiss my--"

BRRRRRRING!

☠️🩸☠️

Maggie felt incredibly small as a crowd of hundreds clustered the halls of the building. Teenagers were pushing and shoving her every which way and it seemed like everytime she tried to step around someone she ended up bumping into someone else.

First period was Geography, a subject Maggie was thoroughly educated in, due to her years of sailing around the world. She proceeded to answer all the teacher's questions, under the impression that the teens would be in awe of her superior intelligence. That veil of superiority was snatched from her eyes, when the teacher asked to come up and the board. She was immediately tripped by a freckle-faced boy with an overbite that was not unlike that of a horse.

The next period was English, where Maggie came to the conclusion that if her peers wouldn't like her for her intelligence, would like her for her looks. After a brief bit of primping in the girls room, Maggie strutted into her next class with confidence. The class did stare at her and for a brief moment, Maggie felt like a princess. Until they added snickering to their staring and Maggie began to feel like a jester. She was under the impression that there was no such thing as too much make-up... apparently she'd been misinformed.

The English teacher was Mr. Asslain, a middle aged, pot-bellied man with the worst comb-over imaginable. Maggie suddenly felt a bit better about her makeover blunder.

Mr. Asslain collected the poems that the students had written for homework last week. He proceeded to read them out loud, some of them were terrible, some of them were worse... then he came upon a poem by a boy named Thomas, who sat just a couple of seats ahead of Maggie.

"Ah... Teenager by Thomas Katt" Mr. Asslain drawled the poems title. "I feel like neither a child nor an adult. I am a botched, failed creature, combining the worst qualities of each. All the helplessness and dependency of a child, with the cynicism and despair of an adult. My mind is stunted, malformed. My body outgrew me and now I wield it clumsily, hitting others with my overgrown arms as I stumble over my own two feet. "I am sorry" I say. "But I was treated as something less than human and that is what I've become."

Maggie stared at Thomas in admiration. She had only been a teenager for a ten hours now, but she knew he had perfectly captured how it was to be one. He was so smart... and handsome.

"Can anyone tell me where Thomas went wrong with his poem?" Mr. Asslain asked the class.

You could only hear crickets in the classroom.

"Right then" Mr. Asslain rolled his eyes. "Thomas, your poem is nothing more than a sad sack paragraph. There is no body or no musicality... nothing. Does anyone want to add anymore criticism?

"It's beautiful..." Maggie muttered before she could stop herself.

Mr. Asslain shot a judgmental gaze in her direction. "Beautiful?" He asked. "Beautiful? Oh! Beautiful!" He batted his eyelashes tauntingly. "Tell me something, Miss Sparrow, is that failed criticism directed toward the poem or Mr. Katt?"

The class erupted into snickers. Maggie felt like crawling into her desk and dying.

"I suppose you must make an effort to flirt with a beauty regimen like that" Mr. Asslain gestured to her botched makeup. "But please do so on your own time."

"You suck" Thomas mumbled.

"What was that, Mr. Katt?" Mr. Asslain demanded.

"Who, me?"

"Yes, you!"

"I said, 'aw shucks!'" Thomas fibbed.

The class chortled as the bell rang.

As Maggie collected her books, she noticed Thomas turn towards her as he left the classroom. He mouthed the words thank you as he went. Maggie smiled, maybe things were looking up.

For third period the girls and boys were divided for physical education. Maggie decided if she couldn't be the brain or the beauty, she would be the brawn! After all, she had spent most of her life sword fighting, battling giant sea beasties to the death and running for her life. She'd probably be a piller of strength compared to the rest of these bean-pole-looking girls.

Their gym teacher, Mrs. Desjardin was a muscular woman with a happy rounded face, pointed button nose and hooded olive eyes that saw everything. Her dark grown hair was tied back in a bun, while her bang hung down to frame her face.

She lead the girls outside and told them they would be playing lacrosse today. The girl each grabbed a stick and lined up to be picked into teams. Maggie smiled to each of the chosen team captain's, trying to appear friendly. But in the end, she was still picked last. Well... can you call it getting picked last, if the last team to pick had to take you?

The game got under way and Maggie found herself at a bit of an awkward disadvantage. Her breasts made it impossible to keep her balance! They jiggled back and forth as she tried to run, which distracted her. And this was her first time running since her overnight growth spurt, so she ended up tripping over her own two feet. She did no better with her upper body strength either, she wasn't used to working with such long limbs. She couldn't manage to catch the ball or serve it to the other girls properly.

The final round came up and the game was tied. The opposing team charged toward Maggie, trying to score the winning goal.

"Hit it to Maggie!" The opposing team yelled. "She'll blow it!"

"Don't blow it, Maggie!" Another girl on her team hollered. "Get it! Get it! Get it!"

The girl from the opposite team came charging towards her with the ball in her lacrosse stick. She ran towards Maggie's right side and then at the last minute swooped over to her left and chucked the ball into the net.

"AWWW!" Maggie's team bellowed annoyingly as Miss Desjardin blew the whistle.

"Maggie!"

"She blew it!"

"We almost had it!"

"Game over!" Miss Desjardin announced. "Hit the bathtubs, girls!"

The opposing team skipped ahead merrily in victory, while Maggie's team lagged behind, weighed down in defeat. But not as much as Maggie was weighed down by their shameful glares.

"I'm sor--" she stared.

"Play the game right!" One girl sneered.

"Pay attention much?"

"How are we supposed to win a game with her on the team?!"

"Look at her! Just standing there!"

The last girl simply turned to her and said "You eat excrement!" In the cruelest and most stuck up tone Maggie had ever heard.

Maggie sucked in a deep breath. She wanted to shout insults back at them. Heck, she wanted to roofi their water bottles and cut all their hair off. But she also wanted the quintessential teen experience a lot more. And who knows? Maybe she just had too much hope for her first day. She just needed more time to build herself up as these girls equal... and then in no time at all she would be their leader.

...And make them grovel for how they treated her.

☠️🩸☠️

The girl's locker room was as hot as it was misty. Everywhere you looked the girls were cloaked in towels, laughing, gossiping, combing their long beautiful hair. They reminded Maggie of mermaids, beautiful, perfect specimens of femininity. Until they opened their big mouths, then their fangs would gleaming back at you...

Maggie decided to take her bath last. But it was comforting once she sat down in steel basin of warm water. She dunked her head in and stayed there a while, running her fingers through her newly long hair and enjoying the sensation of peace and quiet. She finally surfaced and reached over to grab her bar of soap. Until she saw something that made her heart stop...

Blood. Blood was leaking from her lower body. It flowed through the water like a crimson specter of terminal warning.

Maggie stood up instantly and inspected herself for any cuts or wounds, but their weren't any! She soon discovered that the blood wasn't coming from an external wound, it was coming from her... girl haul, as her father would call it.

Maggie felt her heart palpating wildly in her chest, she panted as the steamy locker room suddenly seemed void of oxygen. Her mind went blank with fear.

What was happening to her?! Was she hemorrhaging? Did one of her organs explode within her? Maybe the Mirror of Maturita's power was clashing with her immortality? Was she going to die?!

With no other option, Maggie stumbled out of the bath tub and toward the nearest girl, naked and trembling.

"Help me!" She whimpered.

"What's with you?" The girl sneered cruelly.

"I... I th-think I'm dying!" Maggie showed them the blood on her hands.

The girls were replused at the sight. "God! That's disgusting!" One girl cried.

"Go clean yourself up, for Christ's sake!" Another one glared her down.

"Help me! Help me!" Maggie sniffled. "Help me!" She grasped the sleeve of one girls dress as they tried to walk away.

The girl, Tracy gasped as the blood on Maggie's hands stained her dressed. "Get off of me!" She shoved Maggie off, causing her to slip on the misty tiles and fall to the floor, hitting the back of her head.

Some of the other girls went to their bags and began to take out these strange white underwear with chunk of cotton pinned to the middle.

"Need a sanitary belt?" One girl named Cindy jeered sarcastically, whipping it at Maggie's face. "Cork it up!"

Tears welled in Maggie's eyes, she was so scared, sobs were the only noise she could make at this point. She crawled across the slippery wet floor of the locker room on her hands and knees, as the other girls threw and snapped those white straps at her and jeered the same chant.

"Cork it up! Cork it up! Cork it up! Cork it up!"

They cornered her and all Maggie could see was their eyes gleaming with judgmental frivolity. Their buck teeth glaring in prominent sadistic grins. They chanted like children at a party and she was their pinata.

Maggie finally came past her shock and gave way to her tears. She was bleeding to death and no one was trying to help her. Was this how she would die? Surrounded by a hunting party of hooting she-sharks who didn't seem to understand or even care for that matter?!

Miss Desjardin heard the roaring commotion and came in, the crowd parted, but didn't quiet.

"What's this?" She shouted over them. "What's going on here?!" She demanded.

"Maggie got her period" one of the girls giggled.

"Who?" Miss Desjardin asked.

"The new girl" she giggled.

"Oh my..." Miss Desjardin began shoving the girls out of the way, making her way toward the cowering and sobbing Maggie.

"That's enough of that!" The teacher scolded the other girls. "Enough!" She swatted one of the sanitary belt back at them. "Get going! Back to your next class right now or it's detention for all of you! Move!"

The girl's moaned, but dispersed from the locket room, leaving only the shivering Maggie and the stern Miss Desjardin there.

"Maggie, are you alright darling?" Miss Desjardin kneeled beside her.

"I-I-I-I..." Maggie hiccuped, hysterical.

"It's alright, you're going to be fine" Miss Desjardin stroked her wet hair. "Honey, don't you know?"

Maggie stared up at her with teary eyes. She didn't have to say a word, her confused look told Miss Desjardin everything. She had no idea what a period was...

☠️🩸☠️

Miss Desjardin brought Maggie to the principals office, she thought it best if the girl was sent home after what had occurred. The principal nervously puffed away at his pipe as Miss Desjardin recounted what had transpired in the locker room. As a man, this was not his area of expertise...

"She really knew nothing about it" Miss Desjardin said, pacing. "I explained menstruation to her and she looked at me as if I was speaking another language. Surely her parents must have explained it to her...?"

"I suppose she must be an orphan" The principal said. "She arrived today with her grandfather and he seemed to be... well, a bit senile."

"Poor dear..." Miss Desjardin shook her head. "What a terrible first day for her."

"We'll send her home for the day" The principal got up and opened the door. "Come in, Missy..."

"Maggie" Miss Desjardin corrected.

"Yes..." The principal grabbed a pad from his desk and scribbled on it. "This is a dismissal note..." he explained around his pipe. "You should go home and take the rest of the day off to take care of yourself, Modi."

Maggie stared at his pipe, annoyed. The smell of pipe tobacco clouded her senses and she didn't like it.

"It's Maggie" She glared up at him.

"Yes, yes..." The principal nodded absent-mindedly. "Would you like to go to the infirmary? Perhaps lie down for a while?"

Maggie coughed at the smell of pipe smoke.

"I think Maggie would rather just go home" Miss Desjardin answered for her.

"Do you need an escort?" The principal asked. "Perhaps one of the boy's would be so kind as to--"

"I think she'd be more comfortable walking by herself" Miss Desjardin told him. "And Maggie, you're dismissed from gym class for a the next two weeks, alright? Just take study hall instead."

"We're all very sorry about this little incident, Mary" the Principal said around his pipe.

Maggie glared up at him. "It's Maggie!" She snapped.

As she spoke the ceramic pipe end shattered in the principal's mouth, causing the burning tobacco to drop onto his crotch. The principal jumped up and shook the burning debris from his trousers.

Maggie left the office immediately, both in fear of what happened and fear of getting in trouble. She wasn't sure how that pipe broke, but she was almost certain she had something to do with it. She was glaring right at it when it broke.

Maggie had read about telekinesis before, the power to move things with one's mind. Although, it was very rare and many assumed it was fictitious. But then again, Maggie always did seem to come across the rare and fictitious... or maybe the rare and fictitious was drawn to her?

Maggie was walking through the town square, when a boy her age-- or rather, her old age-- cut her off by running across the square.

"Bosom face! Bosom face!" He cackled.

Maggie glared at him and he tumbled to the cobblestone, weeping for his mother. Maggie bit back a smirk as she hurried toward the docks.

☠️🩸☠️

Captain Jack had been trying all day to find that wretched Mirror of Maturita, but it was hopeless. If Maggie thought she was going to stay a teenager as long as she wanted, she had another thing coming!

Jack had been wrought with worry all day too. The thought of his sweet girl locked up in that school, with all those boys-- lustful, demented, perverted boys! And teenage girls could be viciously cruel! And none of them realized that Maggie was just a little girl in a teen body!

Jack had raised Maggie to be a strong, confident, motivated little pirate. And those greasy, hormonal hypocrites could unravel her with their taunting words alone!

He heard footsteps coming up the gangplank of the Pearl and walked out onto the deck.

"You're home early?" He asked Maggie. "Doesn't school let out at 3 o'clock?"

"It was only a half day today" Maggie answered, her eyes fixed on her boots.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked her. "What happened?"

"Nothing" Maggie grumbled, her long hair curtained her face. "Just leave it alone."

"No, tell me" Jack told her. "You made the decision to go to school on your own. But I still deserve to know the details! I have a right to know what's going on in my daughter's life, for God's sake!"

A sob escaped Maggie's lips, making Jack's heart crack.

"What is it, me darling?" He asked her softly. He tried to wrap his arms around her, but Maggie shoved him away.

"What's mental-struation?" She demanded.

"What?!" Jack bawked. His eyes looked like they would bulge out of his skull.

"Mental-struation!" Maggie repeated louder, making Jack cringe.

"Shh!" Jack hissed. "Not so loud! Why are you asking about that?"

"Because apparently I started it!"

"You started... oh lord..." Jack shook his head in fear.

Maggie burst into tears, falling to her knees. "Why didn't you tell me, Daddy?"

"You're a woman..." Jack looked down at her in shock. "You're a woman now..."

"I was so scared, I thought I was dying..." Maggie sobbed. "And all the girls were laughing at me and throwing things at me..."

"All those boys..." Jack was lost in fearful thought. "You could get pregnant!"

"I'm not pregnant, Daddy."

"But now you could..."

"I'm not pregnant, Daddy!"

"I need to protect you" Jack reached down and grabbed her by her underarms, pulling her into his cabin.

"Daddy! What are you doing?!" Maggie cried. "Let go!"

"You are messing with something know nothing about, Magnolia!" Jack told her, pulling her toward his cabin closet. "But one thing is still certain! I'm your father--"

"Daddy!" Maggie shouted as he shoved her into the closet.

"--and I will protect you always!" Jack slammed the closet door shut. "Even if it means protecting you from yourself! Now you're going to stay in there, until you're ready to tell me where that mirror is. So we can clean up this mess you've made!"

"DADDY!" Maggie screamed, banging her fists on the inside of the closet. "DADDY! ARE YOU CRAZY?! OPEN THE DOOR! LET ME OUT! DADDY!" She shrieked in frustration.

☠️🩸☠️

While Jack was dealing with his daughter's latest bout of puberty and Maggie was dealing with solitary confinement, Miss Desjardin had taken it upon herself to keep the whole girls gym class after school. The way they had treated Maggie today was deplorable and uncalled for. And whats worst they all just went about the rest of their day, like it what they did was totally acceptable! Not an ounce of guilt on any of their faces! Something had to be done about this...

"Line up" she announced to the girls.

The girls continued to sit and converse on the bleachers.

"I said LINE UP!" Miss Desjardin shouted. "Two straight lines! Right now! Move!" She moved down the line. "Katie! Madison! Eyes forward! ...You too, Cindy! And spit out that gum!"

"Where shall I put it, Miss Desjardin?" Cindy said in syrupy mocking tone.

"You can choke on it for all I care" Miss Desjardin told her. "Just get it out of your mouth!"

Cindy ripped a peice of paper from her notebook and put the gum in it.

Miss Desjardin moved down the line. "Wipe that smirk off your face, Tracy" she advised another girl.

Tracy's face dropped.

"Alright..." Miss Desjardin began. "Now I want you to know you did a really disgusting thing to Maggie today. A really disgusting thing! Did any of you ever stop to think that Maggie has feelings? ...Do any of you ever think? No, you're probably preoccupied with your dates and your dresses and the prom!" She stopped pacing in front of Cindy. "I guess you have your pick, don't you, Cindy? Who the lucky guy?"

"Daniel Samson" she answered.

"Who?"

"Daniel Samson" she repeated.

"I can't hear you, speak up."

"Daniel Samson!" Cindy shouted.

"Well, doesn't he have his pick of the litter..." Miss Desjardin replied.

She sized up the crowd of girls and nodded her head slowly. "Now my idea of a punishment for this little stunt you pulled..." she announced. "Was three days suspension and refusal of your prom tickets."

The girls moaned in fear.

"What?"

"She can't do that!"

"Oh God!"

Miss Desjardin smirked, before turning back to the girls. "That would get you where it hurts, wouldn't it?" She asked. "And you most certainly deserve it! I don't think any of you really understand just how nasty what you did was!" She paused to revel in their scared faces and how close to tears their eyes were. "But the faculty has decided that one weeks detention was enough."

The girl's visibly sighed in relief. Some of them smiled and smirked to each other, knowingly.

Until it was Miss Desjardin's turn to smirk. "Still there's one little catch" she told them. "It'll be detention with me. That means everyone on the athletic field after school for fifty minutes, for the next seven school days. Understood?"

"I'm not coming to that!" Cindy scoffed.

Miss Desjardin glared in her direction. "That's entirely up to you, Cindy" she said. "That's up to all of you. But punishment for skipping out on your detention is three days suspension and refusal of your prom tickets! Anymore thoughts? ...No? Good! Change into your gym clothes! Move!" She blew her whistle.

☠️🩸☠️

The next hour was grueling for the girls. Fifty jumping Jack's, followed by fifty sit ups, followed by fifty push ups. The girl's faces were red and sweaty, their hair stuck to their foreheads from sweat and others like cotton candy from the humidity. If their precious prom dates could see them now...

It was when they were running laps that Cindy reached her breaking point.

"She can't just get away with this" she muttered. "I swear I going to get her back!"

"Let it go, Cin" Tracy groaned.

"Like hell I will" Cindy moaned, storming over to Miss Desjardin. The other girls stopped running and looked at her.

Miss Desjardin turned at the sound of their feet stopping. "Detention isn't done, Bellamy!" She told her.

"It is for me!" Cindy snapped.

"Keep running!" Miss Desjardin told the other girls. "You have ten minutes left" she told Cindy.

"Stick them up you ass!" Cindy told her.

Miss Desjardin walked over and slapped Cindy on the cheek.

Cindy gasped and began to bawl. "Yoh can't do that!" She cried. "I could have you fired for that!"

"Give me a reason to give you another one, Bellamy!" Miss Desjardin shouted. "Give me a reason!"

Cindy turned to the other girls teary-eyed. "She can't get away with this! If we all stick together, she'll cave!"

The girl's kept running their laps.

"Hello?! Tracy?!" Cindy snapped. "Maddie?! Katie?! Connie?!"

"Shut up, Cindy" Connie shook her head. "Just shut up."

Cindy turned on her heel and stormed off the field.

"This isn't over! This isn't over by a long shot!" She shouted to Miss Desjardin.

"You're out of prom, Bellamy!" Miss Desjardin replied unfazed. "The rest of you, get those knees up!"

☠️🩸☠️

It was around eight o'clock that evening when Captain Jack let Maggie out of the closet. She still refused to tell him where she hid the mirror, but Jack couldn't very well let her sleep in the closet all night. He offered her some dinner he set aside for her, but Maggie sarcastically reminded Jack how he told her to refused food from her captors. So instead the exasperated Captain sent her straight to bed.

Maggie wad very aggravated by her father. Why didn't he warn her about menstruation and other changes? Why did she have to hear it about from Miss Desjardin? And what was he going on about her getting pregnant for? What? Like Maggie was going to get pregnant now just cause she had her period? Pfft...

As Maggie went to bed, she pulled out the Mirror of Maturitas from her bra. The one place she knew her father wouldn't look and you'd surprised how much space is in one of those things!

Maggie stared down at the mirror, her father's voice echoing in her ears.

"You are messing with something know nothing about, Magnolia! But one thing is still certain! I'm your father and I will protect you always! Even if it means protecting you from yourself!"

Why did her father have to tread all over her plans? She wanted to be a teenager and have the high school experience! Why couldn't he just let her have this?! If her father didn't treat her as an equal when she's s a teenager, when will he?!

Maggie stared down at the mirror. "You don't need to protect me anymore, Daddy" she muttered darkly to herself. "Because that little baby girl you knew is gone..."

The Mirror of Maturitas shattered on that final word. Maggie planned to be a teenager, and she would stay a teenager. It was time her father learned to go along with her plans for once. And if he didn't, she still had her newfound power of telekinesis...

To be continued...