The Pirate Princess Sarah (Flash Fiction)

The Pirate Princess Sarah

"Go away, Sarah! You can't play with us, anymore!" Peter Browne yelled at her, standing in front of the clubhouse door and barring her from entering.

"You're just a girl. Everyone knows that girl's can't play pirates!"

"You can be our prisoner!"

The jeers of the other boys rang loud in Sarah's ears, but she refused to back down."I can be whatever I want to be!" She declared proudly. "I'll never be your prisoner; not unless you catch me first, and we all know that I can outrun you all." She smiled sweetly, and then poked her tongue at them. "You WILL all be MY prisoners and I'll make YOU walk the plank! Aarrr!" Sarah brandished her cutlass in the air, straightened her black and white velvet and silk Pirate's jacket and tipped her Pirate's hat to them. She spun round, and marched off back towards home; singing loudly, "It's a Pirate's Life for Me".

Rocks rained down around her, most of them bouncing harmlessly off her leather Pirate boots. Sarah ignored them, and continued walking away from them; but they pelted more rocks at her. The rocks landed closer this time and one large rock even whizzed past her right ear. She spun around to confront them, but they hurried into the clubhouse and slammed the door behind them. 

Sarah turned back and began to walk back home again. Deep in thought Sarah began to frown, and chew her lips. She knew she was right; just because she was a girl didn't mean that she couldn't be a pirate. Gee, she could outrun and out climb them all."

Perhaps that was the problem?" Sarah mused to herself. Maybe the boys thought she'd be a better pirate than them too. "Nah;" she laughed and shook her head. "They are just being silly; leaving me out of their games. They never excluded me before; not until that Peter Browne started to hang out with us."

The realisation that her friends had banned her from the clubhouse and had refused to allow her to join in their game, saddened her. She stopped and turned back the way that she had come. Maybe she could be the prisoner. At least that way she would still be able to hang out with her friends. They had always had fun together, ever since they were tiny kids. Sure, they had had their squabbles; but what friends didn't? But they always had fun, and the fact that she was a girl had never been an issue in their friendship; until now that is.

She stopped again. She wouldn't be their prisoner. They had never pelted rocks at her before; or barred her from the clubhouse. The clubhouse that she had helped to design and to build. Sarah slowly made her way back home, kicking rocks along the way, and sighing. She had really been looking forward to playing Pirates today, and now she didn't know what to do with herself. Today or any other day, now.

"Sarah, you're home early. Is everything ok?" her Mum asked; concerned.

"They barred me from the clubhouse. They didn't want me to play Pirates with them. Well, they said I could play if I was their prisoner. They said that girls can't be pirates. But they can be Pirates; can't they mum?" the words tumbled out of Sarah's mouth in a rush.

"Wow. Slow down, please Sarah." her mum grinned a wry grin. "You can be anything that you want to be. Being a girl should not stop you from being what, or who, you want to be. You can be a pirate, a princess, even a pirate princess if that is what your heart desires!" her Mum hugged her tight and smiled.

"The Pirate Princess Sarah," Sarah tested the sound of that. "I like that! That is who I am!" she exclaimed joyfully. "I'll build a pirate ship fit for Princess. And I'll make them all walk the plank, especially that Peter Browne." She laughed happily to herself, and skipped up to her room to make plans. She knew what she'd be doing today, and every other day now.