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The pirates lived in a houseboat off the shore of Gambino beach. If you wanted to find them, that was the place you went. So it was no wonder that Austin and Polly were standing on the beach, a shovel in one hand and a bucket in the other, wearing ragged, tattered clothes that looked as if they had seen better days and would rip at any moment.

They were their clam digging clothes.

In front of them stood a tall black teenager, his long dreadlocks pulled up into a ponytail, his own clothes much better than theirs. They didn't have holes in them, at least. That's because he didn't plan on doing the hunting. "You know the deal," he said. "The one to bring in the most clams wins an extra dessert for the rest of the week--"

"Where's Kaeden?" Austin asked, interrupting him.

"No you don't," Jake said. "We all know you cheat like a snake when he's here. So I sent him and Chloe off to get the vegetables for the clam bake. And quit interrupting!"

"I want something better than dessert," Polly said. "Gimme something shiny!"

"Fine," Jake muttered. "Oye! Tock!"

"I'll offer a bracelet and that's all," Tock said, still half asleep on the deck of the ship.

"The one with the emeralds!" Polly yelled.

"The one with the single ruby, and that's all you get," Tock said.

"Wait!" Polly said, not noticing the newcomers. "Is that the silver or the gold bracelet?"

"Silver!" Tock said.

"This is totally not worth it," Polly complained.

"Then I'll be taking the dessert and the--" Austin stopped at the shouting, scowling darkly as the shiny girl from when he was young showed up, screaming for his evil cousin. He looked at his cousin, his cousin looked at him. "You wouldn't," he said.

She gave him the most evil grin imaginable. "ORLIII!!!" she shouted, turning to race towards her best friend for a hug.

Obviously, Austin thought, she would. Evil witch.

"We're having a competition," Austin supplied, leaning back slightly and crossing his arms over his chest as he eyed his evil incarnate cousin. You had to admire it, actually. She was a great pirate.

"Just a little game," Polly said, pulling back with a brilliant smile. "We're digging for clams!"

"And the one with the most clams gets--"

"Extra dessert!" Polly said before he could tell all. Well, he guessed that wasn't a bad thing. He didn't want to give up treasure, either. "Do you want to join? You wait till lowtide then you look for little holes in the sand and stick your finger in them. Then if something moves you gotta dig it out!"

A glint caught the sunlight from the deck of the ship and Polly cursed inwardly. "She's forgetting something," Tock said to the newcomers. "Whoever gets the most clams wins this, as well." He smirked at the glare his little girl sent him. "Don't want to keep it boring, now do we?"

The bracelet looked old and expensive, even if it was silver. "I stole this from the mermaids on the island. No big loss for them, though, it tends to tarnish underwater. But the ruby isn't bad."

"And a bucket," Jake said, handing Orli both a bucket and a shovel. "For your hunt."

Austin cursed and headed out with remarkable speed for someone who tended to be lazy.

"Holes," Polly said, pointing to the wet sand. "Then you stick your finger in and if something moves inside you have to dig it out." Although her enthusiasm was a bit lower now that the prize was out of the bag. She would yell at her father later.

With that decided she headed for the sand, crouching down next to the first hole she saw and sticking her finger in, her shovel at the ready.

"It's a clam," Polly said, a bit shocked that someone didn't know what a clam looked like. "It's two shells closed together like a pocketbook, I guess." There was nothing in her hole, she thought irritably. "And they dig in fast so if you find it move quick!"

"Sometimes things wash up on shore," Austin said as he dropped another clam into his bucket. "And they dig into the sand, just waiting for someone to reach a finger into the hole--"

He let the comment linger in the air, as if he were distracted.

"Yeah," Polly said. "It's not real gold." And she hadn't bothered to pay much attention to it after that, other than sticking it on one of her random bracelets. She wore it once in a while, but not all the time.

"Corpses," Austin went on, poking another hole. "Ghosts. The bones of a pirate looking for revenge..."

"Kaeden got possessed on one of the trips we took," Austin said matter-of-factly. "It's dangerous getting involved with pirates."

"He did not!" Polly said. "Now you're just lying."

"Sure he did," Austin said. "Watch him for a bit sometime. He goes off and starts acting weird for no reason. Remember when you said he took on a shark?"

"But--" She frowned. "It was just--"

"Stupid," Austin said.

She frowned, then looked at Orli again. "So it's magic..." Then a strange look crossed her face.