**Chapter 1**

There was a woman named Tai Lee who lived on a pineapple plantation on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The plantation was owned by a man named George Pallas; whose wife was named Paula. Because they had no children, Tai became like a daughter to them. When Tai was not in school, she was working on the plantation. Tai had spent her entire life on Oahu only leaving the island once to go to Honolulu. She was enjoying the life that she was having. She was always walking around barefoot. However, she was required to wear her shoes while at school, which was the only disappointment she had.

She walked into school, and all the women looked away. Many of the women did not like Tai because she was extremely beautiful. She had been voted the most beautiful woman in the school. Although many of the schoolgirls refused to be a friend to her, she had no problem making boyfriends. Many of the boys lined up disappointing the rest of the girls in the school.

Two of Tai’s biggest enemies were two women named Rosa and Annie. They always played dirty tricks on Tai. Although many of the boys protected her from them, they occasionally got a laugh. One day, they took away her schoolbooks and hid them preventing her to complete her homework. On the very next day, the teacher was collecting the homework and realized that Tai did not have any homework to turn in.

“Where is your homework?” the teacher asked.

“Someone stole my book,” Tai said. “I have no idea what they did with them.”

At that time, Rosa and Annie were beginning to smirk. The teacher caught a little glimpse of their smirk and began to realize something.

“I have an idea,” the teacher said. “I say that since Tai is a woman of great beauty, I think that someone should be a sacrifice and surrender their homework so that they could get in trouble instead of Tai.”

All the guys volunteered.

“I think Rosa is a wonderful person.” The teacher stared at her. “You will volunteer.”

“That’s not fair.” Rosa shouted. “I turn in my work every day.”

“You do?” The teacher asked. “Where is yesterday’s work?”

A big gulp went down Rosa’s throat.

“I say that Rosa will gladly surrender her homework and will take Tai’s punishment,” the teacher said.

All the guys in the room congratulated Rosa for her sacrifice that she was forced to make.

“Thank you for your kind service.” The teacher smiled. “Now, if you wish not to do this kind service again, then you will return her books to her.”

Rosa became very furious. The class was then dismissed, but Rosa had to stay behind as her punishment. Tai received a new set of books and made her way home. While she was going home, a guy named Gilbert came along side and asked, “Need an escort?”

“Sure,” said Tai.

Tai took off her shoes. “Sorry, but I do not like shoes.”

“No problem,” said Gilbert.

Gilbert and Tai walked all the way to Tai’s house before they finally parted ways. Tai went into the house, threw her shoes onto the floor, and went out into the field to do her normal duties. As she was roaming around, a bird flew down onto her shoulder. She was frightened at first, but she realized that it was just a bird. The bird stayed on her shoulder a little while before flying away.

After she finished her chores for the day, she went inside to have dinner.

“It looks like we have a great harvest today.” Mr. Pallas arrived at the table. “Buyers have  been calling me all day. We may run out of pineapples.”

“Would that be good?” Tai asked.

“Sort of,” said Mr. Pallas. “If we run out, we will have to wait for a new batch to grow. That could take a month.”

“Well,” said Tai, “they say that these are the best pineapples around.”

George replied, “As long as the money keeps coming in, we’ll be alright.”

They ate dinner and relaxed for the evening.

**Chapter 2**

Days went by. Tai was entering the school and looked over and saw a signup booth for the school beauty pageant. A boy named Juan came over to her and asked her, “Do you think you’ll sign up this year?”

Tai looked at him and replied, “I don’t wish to brag, but it would be nice to let others have a chance.”

“Come on,” said Juan. “You would be a shew in.”

“I am aware of that,” said Tai. “That is why I never sign up for things like that.”

Tai walked to her locker and began putting away the books she did not need for the current class. While she was looking in her locker, Rosa and Annie snuck up behind her and dumped a can of red paint on her. Rosa and Annie laughed at Tai as the paint dripped on her clothes.

“You girls are not going anywhere until you clean this up.” The principal was furious at them.

Rosa and Annie were not too happy with their chore.

“Go home and clean yourself up,” the principal said to her. “I’ll let your teachers know what happened.”

Tai went home and into the house to clean herself up. She later returned to school and saw Rosa and Annie scrubbing the floor, but she walked away.

“You’re going to pay for this.” Annie shouted. “Don’t you forget it.”

Tai ignored them and kept going.

#

At the end of the school day, Rosa and Annie were still scrubbing the paint that they threw on Tai. Everyone laughed at them as they were hard at work.

“You two are not to leave until this is cleaned up.” The principal told them.

That made Rosa and Annie more unhappy.

#

Tai was making her way home. Gilbert came alongside her and asked, “Do you think you need an escort?”

“I don’t,” said Tai, “but you’re welcome to do it.”

“It’s a pleasure,” said Gilbert.

They began the walk to Tai’s place.

“I saw what they did to you this morning,” Gilbert said.

“Nothing new,” said Tai.

Gilbert said to her, “Don’t be afraid to ask for protection. Juan, Soto, and myself will gladly do what we can to keep those witches off of you.”

“Thank you,” said Tai. “You guys do plenty.”

Gilbert replied, “Glad to help.”

They arrived at the house. Tai went inside while Gilbert when his own way.

“Good news!” George was excited. “We earned over a hundred thousand dollars today.”

“That’s amazing,” said Tai. “What are we going to do now?”

Paula replied, “As for now, you are not going on the plantation today. Pretty soon, we’re going to head out to Dingo’s for dinner.”

“Dingo’s,” said Tai. “We haven’t been there for such a long time.”

“Go get ready,” said George. “It’s going to be a great evening.”

Tai went upstairs to prepare herself for a very wonderful evening.

#

George, Paula, and Tai went out for dinner. After dinner, they took an evening drive around the island. They were enjoying the view over the ocean.

“Why can’t we get a place on the water?” Tai wondered.

George replied, “Because we can’t grow pineapples there. Without pineapples, we have no money.”

“Oh well,” said Tai. “Just thought that it would be nice.”

They continued their drive until it was time to go home.

**Chapter 3**

It was around the middle of the night. There was a great storm brewing in the ocean. A pirate ship was being tossed around by the waves. The ship got caught up in some rocks off the coast of Oahu and remained there. The pirates remained in the ship until the storm ceased.

#

Morning came. The skies cleared up. The pirates looked around and saw a beach nearby. They all got off what was left of their ship and made their way to the beach. They looked around and saw no one.

“What are we going to do now?”

“We are going to find a means of transportation and get ourselves out of here.”

One of the pirates spotted a Coast Guard ship and pointed it out to the others. The pirates immediately went and hid themselves. The Coast Guard was looking over the marooned pirate ship. The pirates knew that they were going to have to leave the area and made their way to a nearby road. They followed the road until they came to a school. This was the same school that Tai attended. They staked out the school and saw Tai making her way to the school building. All the pirates admired her beauty.

“We should go and grab her.”

“Not yet,” said the leader. “We will be spotted, and they’ll call the police. We must wait for the perfect time.”

“Why don’t we just shoot everyone and take her?”

“When the Coast Guard finds out that it’s our ship that’s marooned, they are going to make an all-out search for us. We must remain undercover as much as possible.”

They looked around and saw Rosa give Tai a shove. Tai walked away as Rosa was yelling insults at her.

“We may have the help we need.”

The pirates remained staked out until lunchtime.

#

Many of the students went outside to eat. The pirates looked at Tai as she was laying out on the grass. Two of the pirates acted inconspicuous and mingled among the students. They came upon Rosa and Annie who were sitting at a table away from the rest of the students.

“May I help you?” Rosa stiffed her nose.

One of the pirates asked, “How much will you want for helping us take away that woman over there?”

“Oh please,” said Annie. “We’ll do anything to get rid of her.”

“Really?” asked the one pirate. “You are very gracious. However, we are also going to need a ship to escape on.”

“I can’t help you with that,” Rosa smiled, “but I can get you a plane that you can fly away  with.”

“Amazing,” said the one pirate. “How can we get her?”

Rosa pointed in one direction. “Go about a mile and you’ll come to an airfield. We will meet you there.”

The pirates did as Rosa told them to do.

#

It was time for school to let out. Tai was walking out of the school. A green pickup truck, driven by Annie, came close to Tai. Rosa came out from being hidden in the truck bed and grabbed Tai pulling her into the bed. Annie the drove off. Many of the students saw what happened and called the police. The truck was driven to the airfield where a Lear jet was parked. The pirates were waiting by the plane as they drove up. Rosa got out of the truck and said to the pirates, “Here is your prize.”

“What is going on here?” Tai asked.

“They are taking you away from us forever.” Annie punched Tai in the face.

“You can’t do this,” said Tai.

Police cars were approaching the airport.

“We better get on,” Annie warned Rosa, “or we’re going to jail.”

The pirates grabbed Tai and put her on the plane. She was taken to a special compartment and was duct-taped to a chair. The pirates put the duct tape on very thick. Rosa went to the cockpit and started the engine.

“We’ve got to go.” Rosa warned them. “Police are here.”

The pirates finished up with Tai and left the room closing the door behind them. Everyone took a seat. Rosa hurried to the runway. She flipped the anti-radar switch so that no one would track where they were going. When she arrived at the runway, she then took off. The police kept shooting at the plane until it was airborne. One or the bullets put a hole in the door causing the main cabin to leak air. The main cabin lost its oxygen. The plane kept ascending as everyone was losing oxygen in the main cabin. However, Tai was protected in her section of the plane, but she was totally unaware of the peril she was really in. The plane ascended to 10,000 feet. Rosa, Annie, and all the pirates had frozen to death, but Tai was still alive.