Chapter 2
Of the two friends who find a new member at sea

When they looked more closely, the two saw that a girl was clinging to this board. For it to have been hanging there for a while, it must have had a firm grip. They got her out as soon as possible, as she would probably lose her footing at any moment. She was completely soaked, her hair was dripping and she was shaking all over, luckily she was still conscious and it was a miracle that she had survived in this freezing cold water. When Andrew asked her what she was doing in the water, she couldn't say a word. "Now Andrew! Leave her for now! You must be terribly cold!", Mike said and pulled his jacket over her. "D-Thank you ...", the girl said simply. She was probably too cold to say more, because her lips were already all blue. But the water was also freezing and who knows how long she was in it. Andrew wanted to know: "What have you been doing in the water now? When the water is so cold you don't go swimming!". She looked at him trembling while Mike hit him on the head: "She certainly wasn't swimming !!". Andrew rubbed his head, stuck his tongue out at Mike and waited for an answer, which he got: "II was on ... a Sch-ship ... D-That worthless captain I-hit a rock ..." . The answer was probably not enough for him, because he really wanted to know the name of the captain and Mike just gave his friend a head-butt with the words: "Now leave her alone! And why are you asking her such crap ?? That's not it." totally useless! ". "Stop beating me! I just wanted to know!" Said the blonde pouting and rubbing his head. "And besides, these are very important facts! What if she wants to report him ??" Andrew started to talk total crap. His friend Mike just shook his head; sometimes Andrew was worse than the Navy would allow. Mike looked at her, somehow sorry for her. Also because it landed on this nutshell, because after all there was simply no space. He thought for a moment about throwing Andrew overboard. He didn't stop talking, but she didn't really notice anything. She hadn't said much, Andrew wasn't at all satisfied with that.
After a few hours she felt better again, which Andre was very happy, because he finally had a few questions for her. He didn't know where to start, but then Andrew started to talk: "I'm Andrew and this is Mike. And what's your name? And what happened to the rest of those who were on the ship?". She looked at him briefly: "I'm happy. I'm Isabel. Thank you for pulling me out! Because I can't swim! And what happened to the others interests me very little." At first Andrew looked puzzled, but then he knew why: "You ate a devil fruit, didn't you?Me too! From the fire fruit! ". She smiled and said:" Yes, I have. I ate the metal fruit. That means: I have bones made of steel and I can deform metals at will. "Mike was amazed, because that was a cool devil's fruit and not as predictable as bullying a friend with fireballs!" Wow, that's strong! I wonder what I can do with my strength! ", said the blonde boy and grins broadly. Mike looked at her briefly:" Warmly you don't care what happens to the others? And who were the others anyway? "." Oh, you know we were on a school trip, then thanks to the captain we went off course, hit a rock and went under. And I don't care because nobody would look for me either. They don't want anything to do with me anyway. They'll probably even be happy when I'm gone ... ". Mike looked horrified:" And your parents? ". She smiled briefly and looked at him:" They haven't been here for a long time ... And I don't have any other relatives either ... "" Oh, by the way ... ", Andrew began," Since you don't have anyone yet ... You want us participate? We are pirates and want to be on the Grand Line! After a moment she looked at and said: "Really? Well, I would go with you ... But your cutter is so small. I don't know if this is such a good idea to sail with this ... ". Mike looked at her laughing:" I told him that too! He built it himself! "Well that explained everything, Isabel thought." Yes and ?? "Andrew looked offended at Mike," We're getting a bigger one! I can promise you that! "." You shouldn't make promises that you can't keep Andrew! ", laughed his friend. Andrew turned his head offended:" Well then I'll just build a big one ... It doesn't matter ... And I can promise you! "." Do you know what I'm just noticing? You are the captain and the youngest too! ", Mike said with a slight grin. Andrew was now rather annoyed that he was the youngest on their boat, because Isabel was already 16. But he was the captain, that was the most important thing! Besides, he was already this year 16, then it wouldn't make any difference. After a while they finally saw an island, finally solid ground under their feet again. And beyond that they would get a ship there, at least that was what Andrew meant.
The three of them had ended up in a small town, and it was also quite busy. Shops were everywhere, but where should they get a ship? There were many fine ships at the harbor, but they couldn't afford them. Andrew has been evicted a couple of times for trying to trade. But for the little money they had, he would never get a ship.
Mike folded his hands over his head. What was he getting into? Becoming a pirate, why didn't he just refuse? He could sit at home now, have a nice cocoa and read a good book.Now he was just wondering why he hadn't taken any books with him. His buddy had nothing more to do than run around like crazy and then be scared away by the dealers because he didn't have enough money. He even tried to collect some money by singing, all he got was a heavy headbutt from Mike and Isabel. At some point, after a few hours, Isabel held him and said: "It won't work that way! We won't get a ship here. Who would sell children a ship? Apart from the fact that we have no money!". Andrew looked confused, children? He wasn't a child anymore, but unfortunately the money thing was true. The three of them didn't have a berry that they could have bought on a ship. After all, they needed the money for the provisions. "I really want to have a ship!", Andrew whined to himself. "Do you want to steal one or something? And please, don't answer Andrew now!" Said Mike, because Andrew would have stolen a ship. Isabel looked at the two in surprise, she couldn't believe that Andrew would steal a ship. But she also didn't know what Andrew had already done.
Towards evening the three sat in their nutshell. You wouldn't find a ship here, that much was certain. But they couldn't get on the Grand Line. There wasn't enough space in that little nutshell. Besides, Mike was pretty sure it would go down with full provisions. The three decided to go on first. It was already dark but they couldn't just stay in the harbor. In the end, a large ship would not have seen and crushed them. "We have to get away from the port people! A big ship can no longer see us when it is dark, then we would be apple pulp with splinters of wood!" Said the 16-year-old and scratched his head lightly. The other two looked at him a bit confused, because his example was a bit peculiar. If he had said they would be crushed, they would have understood immediately. "That was kind of not that great ... Without a ship on an island that we don't even know ... And on top of that, we wouldn't have any money ... We should really get out of here ...", Isabel said approvingly.
They untied their boat and sailed on with their old sail. They were off the island again. And it was too dark to see anything. Andrew wanted to know what Isabel was for. She said that she could navigate, which is very important at sea. Especially on the Grand Line, because without it you would be completely neglected. Her grandfather had taught her when she was very little, and he was a very good navigator. Not everyone could say that about themselves. Unfortunately, he died 8 years ago. But Isabel had taken on his hobby quite well.
So it was clear: Isabel navigates while and Andrew leaned back, he could live with that.But then Mike said that Andrew will be the ship's carpenter. He knows his way around that, and he had his tools with him. Andrew didn't like the word "work" and he wanted to know what Mike was doing. He had to think about it first. "If anything," he began, "I'll probably be the ship's cook! Because if you cooked we'd all die!" Andrew blushed a little, but only because he was angry. Cooking is easy, not like carving! Because you can learn to cook, but if you have two left hands you can't become a carpenter. Besides, he doesn't cook that badly, it was always just a bit black and spicy. Nobody would die from it, if anything would go wrong with it. But that wouldn't kill anyone unless he used a chemical because he mixed it up. And on top of that, he was also a captain, which was much more important than cooking. Isabel had to grin, she had never seen anyone like Andrew before. Cranked up and totally convinced of yourself, maybe those were even good qualities for a pirate captain. Better than someone who doesn't dare to do anything, but not quite as practical either, because he would certainly get everyone into trouble. With Andrew, you could be pretty sure that at some point he would get the three of them into huge trouble. Because shut up when it is appropriate, Andrew is not quite as good at it. In shock situations, however, he can sometimes do it, for example when his English teacher asked him something in English that he did not understand. Then he could even shut up very well. All he managed to get out in such a moment was just a brief "Um ...". There was nothing more in there.
The next morning they realized that they were in the middle of nowhere. There was only water everywhere, and the sun shone down uncomfortably hot from above. Andrew mumbles something unintelligible that sounded like, "It's so hot ... I wish I had an iced drink ...". But the others seemed to want that too.