The pirate skeleton clattered onto the stage, knocking over two buckets as he swung his sword.
"Hand over all your loot, monsters!" the skeleton demanded.
"Agh!" Mr. Freaky screamed and darted behind a stage curtain.
Waldo was shaking.
"B-but all we have is our lunch money!" he said.
"Huh?" The noise suddenly woke Mog from his nap.
"What's going on? Are we being robbed?"
"Robbed? Ha!"
The bearded skeleton roared, waving his sword in Mog's direction.
"You're being pirated!
I'm Pirate Pedro, and I'm here to tell you all about my career—pirating!"
Mr. Freaky peeked out from behind the curtain.
"You mean you're part of Career Day?"
"Yes, and I'm the best part of Career Day," Pirate Pedro said.
"Because the best career in the world is being a pirate!"
"Whoa." Mog sat up in his seat with wide eyes. "Cool!"
"Being a pirate isn't for everyone," Pedro went on.
"You have to be strong.
You have to be bold.
Most of all, you have to be brave.
I'll never forget my first voyage as a captain of a pirate ship.
I sailed for the king.
He sent my crew and me to track down the most feared pirate on the sea.
He was called Awful Ollie the Orange."
"Ooh! Ooh!" Mog waved his hand in the air to ask Pedro a question.
"Was he called Ollie the Orange because his hair and beard were orange?"
"No. His hair and beard were yellow.
But he wore lit candles in them.
His whole face looked like it was on fire."
"Did you ever track down Ollie?" Ben asked.
"Oh yes," Pedro said.
"We found Ollie and battled him and his men for a day and a night.
Cannonballs flew from our pirate ships.
But finally my crew managed to board Ollie's ship and capture him and his crew.
We threw Ollie to the sharks, and then my merry band and I claimed his treasure."
"Yay!" Monsters cheered. "Treasure!"
"But the king betrayed us," Pedro went on with a scowl.
"He stole our treasure for himself."
"That stinks," Mog said.
Water suddenly gushed from the ceiling, and Pedro ducked out of the way.
Mr. Bog ran up to the stage with more buckets.
"This is ridiculous," Ben whispered to Winnie.
"They'd better fix the leaks soon."
"I heard Mr. Freaky talking to the office ogre before the assembly.
Mr. Freaky said there's a budget crisis.
So there's not enough money to fix the roof."
Winnie looked worried.
"Ben, what if Monster Academy has to shut down?"
"That won't happen," Ben said.
"I'm not so sure," Winnie said.
"Things sound bad. I'm really worried about it."
Meanwhile, Pedro was still telling his adventure story.
"Eventually my band and I managed to steal the king's ship and sail away.
We sang merry songs as we plundered the seven seas.
And whenever we found the king's ships, we sent them to Davy Jones' locker!"
"I got stuffed into my locker once," a blob said.
"It was very uncomfortable."
Waldo laughed.
"Davy Jones' locker isn't really a locker.
It's just an expression that means the bottom of the sea."
"I've been to the bottom of the sea!" a fish monster cried.
"It's awesome!"
"On the sea we battled zombie whales and killer crabs," Pedro went on.
"Then Awful Ollie the Orange came back as a ghost.
We had to fight him again and again.
When it was all over, we sang songs of our victories."
"Finally . . ." Mog looked dreamy.
"I've found the perfect career—pirating!"
Everyone had lots of questions.
"Pedro, are you still a pirate?" Cleo asked.
Pedro shook his head.
"No, I'm retired now.
I spent almost a hundred years in jail.
By the time I got out, everything had changed in Monsterville."
He sighed.
"Pirating has changed a lot too.
It's not what it used to be."
Mog waved his hand again.
"You must have gotten super rich from all that treasure."
Pedro grinned, flashing a shiny gold tooth.
"I had huge piles of gold," he boasted.
"I had pearls the size of your head!"
"Wow!" The students were impressed.
"What happened to all your treasure?" Gaby asked.
Pedro frowned.
"The police confiscated most of it when they locked me up.
But they didn't get all of it.
I managed to hide my most valuable treasure."
"That's good," Mog said.
"Where did you hide it?"
Pedro hesitated.
Then he looked sad as he shrugged.
"I can't remember!"