The Pirates Next Door

Nugget comes back from school with a drawing of a beautiful mermaid. Jim laughs: mermaids aren’t like that at all! He knows, for he has seen plenty of them when the family was sailing the seas! This, of course, terribly vexes Nugget. She doesn’t even listen to Matilda who says mermaids do not exist! Embarrassed, Jim wants to make it up to his little sister: he is going to take her on a “mermaid safari”. But mermaids don’t exist, Matilda insists! Yeah, well, if Matilda would be so kind to use this giant tuna as a disguise, she’d make a very good mermaid! So the two kids set their plan in motion to make the little girl happy… But Nuggets finds out the truth, and is going to make them pay – with gusto!

Matilda is too curious as she tries to take a look inside the pirate’s ship, she sets it loose, and the ship goes down the street and crashes into the school. Grandpa who is still inside, gets furious and starts bombing the town with his cannons.

Matilda has to apologize to Grandpa for stepping once again on the Black Hole. She offers him an inkwell and a nice quill to write his memoirs.

Jim sets sail with the VPMs, Ted Winner is a little sailor but he is quickly disillusioned and bosses everyone around. Matilda is kept at home, bored until she learns of an approaching storm. She has to warn Jim.

Jim discovers that he is not descended from the infamous Rackham Red Blood, but from Francis Flunky, an expert on etiquette. He determines to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor by turning into a model boy. However things change.

Matilda and Jim discover an old parchment stating that because one of Brent’s ancestors saved the life of Jim’s great grandfather, the Jolley-Rogers can never refuse anything to a Winner forever! Brent knows and tries to make Jim his slave.