Chapter 1: Beginning of a Long Journey

Hi, I'm Matt. I'm 18 years old, and have lightly colored skin, black hair, black eyes, I'm 5 foot 7 inches, I wear contacts, and am devilishly handsome if I do say so myself. Okay, not really. Everything mentioned is true except for that handsome part. I'm "okay-looking" I guess, not very attractive. Heck, I haven't even managed to get a girlfriend yet. Anyway, it was Mid-June in the year 2002 and I finished High School. It was time for the cruise I've been waiting for since 5th grade. I told all my friends about my plan on going to the Carribean after graduation in my sophomore year in high school and they all agreed...well most of them anyway. When I asked my dad if he'd be fine with it, he said it was okay as long as I could afford to pay for myself. So, I've ben saving up ever since. My movies I had made recently have done really well, so that helped out this whole trip.

I haven't seen my best friend, Adam, in 6 years. He moved to Pennsylvania after I moved to Texas. I told him about it in hopes that he'd come with me on it. He jumped on the next flight over to Texas. He has never met any of my friends, but Iwas pretty sure he'd fit right in. My mom had a little problem with the idea of inviting all of my friends. Well, not a problem with the people, just the fact that they weren't all guys. But I explained to my mom that we are all mature adults and that the guys and girls would have different rooms.

My parents thought about it for a couple days. They finally gave it an okay, but there was one catch: the rest of my family would have to come on the cruise also. And they explained why they had to come: "if it were just us parents, that would leave Michelle (the 13-year-old daughter), David, and Kris (my 19 and 20 year-old brothers) at home." And my dad said "I would like to do this sort of thing with the family anyway." After informing my friends about that, they all stopped by my house and smacked me accross my head. I took it because I could understand their grief. But they were all okay with it because my parents said that they'd be going seperately, and that they'd only check on us before we went to sleep and they'd be there for breakfast and the occasional dinner. My brothers invited a friend each. My eldest brother, Kris, invited his friend Ryan, my brother David invited his friend invited his friend Robert, and my sister invited one of her little friends. Anyway, I told everyone to meet us in the ticket line at 2:30 Pm on the day of the cruise. The ship sailed at 6:00, but they had to get everyone on and settled down, of course.

The next morning we got there and waited for everyone to arrive. All 26 of my friends managed to arrive within 2 hours. That's kinda pathetic, if you ask me. The last ones to arrive were everyone in the "Indian" group. They've got their own mental clock for these things. Apparently appointment times don't matter much or something. All of us paired up in rooms. We got 6 rooms. Pawan, Bobo, Alan, Bobby, and Sanket (eveyrone called their bunk the "IB Bunk") were in one. Paul, Adam, Jayneil, Michael, and I were in another. Ours was called "The Bunk" because...well, we couldn't find something that everyone had in comon. Shaun, Ben, Aaron, Erez, and John were the "Sarcastic Bunk." Then there was Becky, Elizabeth, Amy, and Alice in "The Chick bunk." And of course, the girls didn't like the name. But all the guys did, so we made it so the girls wouldn't complain: They could call it whatever the hell they wanted and we'd just stick to "The Chick Bunk." We knew they'd complain a little, but we left it at that. And of course Annie, Erica, Jennifer, and Linda had to be in the same room, ("Anime Bunk" of course) so there they were. And so did Gail, Jackie, and Allison (mostly called Allee). ("Non-grad Bunk"). The guys' bunks were all next to each other. The girls' rooms were directly across. Each bunk was like a mini-appartment that had a nice hotel-look too it.If it was anything less, I would have demended my money back. It was one expensive cruise. They had a fair sized TV, a VCR, cable with the movie channels and "Pay Per View," 2 huge beds, and a futon. The beds were big enough to fit 3 or 4 people on it, but we decided not to have mor than 2 on it for comfort's sake. My family's room was right down the hall. I just thank God for making them not be right next to us. Some called my parents' room the "Evil Bunk" as a joke, but others just called it "The Parent's bunk." We all promised not to mention the "joke name" for that room anywhere near my parents, even in a whisper, or I'd be thrown in the ocean as shark food. My brothers' bunk was "The Bro Bunk," I thought it was a pretty dumb name, but oh well.

We boarded at 4:30 and finnished settling down by 6:00. Everyone just relaxed, watching some movies on TV until 8:00 when they were done. My parents came by and told us to go to the main dining hall and have dinner with them. It was one of those buffet things that all the hotels have. Everyone was pretty quiet at the table, most likely because of my mom eyeballing everyone at the table. If there was any talking, It would be from someone blose by my mom talking to her about a decent topic. My friends have heard me tell plenty of stories about how my mom is; so they know better. After the silent dinner, 1/2 of us went back to "The Bunk," and the other 1/2 went to "The Anime Bunk" which was right across the hall. "The Bunk" had Jayneil's laptop so a couple people drifted over to our room. Jayneil is a guy who's kind of a mix of a studious kid and a jock. He's an all around cool guy. We've called him "Jay-Dawg" ever since 10th grade when the coach called him that as a joke. He can't really stay away from his mp3s for very long. Nor his "Nutzo's." We had to substitute that for daily ice cream on a cone. He had all his mp3s burned on a CD along with "Winamp" just in case something happened to his laptop. We were all laughing, having a great time until the phone rang. I told everyone to be quiet. It turned out to be my mom. She was comeing over to check on everyone in 5 minutes. I looked at the clock and it was 10:25. I hung up, yelled at everyone to go to his or her bunks and just do soemthing quiet. Everyone dispersed and, luckily, just as the last door closed, my mom's door opened. We all had to give her the 2nd copy of the door keys or we wouldn't have been where we were.

When everyone left the room, Michael was flipping through the channels and saw "American Pie" on Pay Per View. The sequel was coming out in a week. I could hear footsteps approaching our bunk outside. It stopped at the door to our right. We were in the middle so I knew we were next. I jumped out of the bed asnd told Michael to change the channel or we'd be screwed. he just complained that it was coming close to the part where Shannon Elizabeth gets naughty. As I reached over for the control, I heard a door open. Everyone became completely still and silent.I kept reaching over for the remote and Michael was keeping it away from me. I continued reaching for it. It turned out to be somewhat of a wrestling match that I couldn't win. Michael was twice my size, muscle-wise, if not more. There was no way I'd be winning this one. About a minute after the wrestling match began, I hadn't gotten the remote, so the TV was still showing "American Pie," and Adam got up. I figured he was getting up to help me out so I felt somewhat relieved. The door suddenly swung open with my mom standing in the doorway. "I'm dead. I'm screwed. I'm a hungry shark's food tomorrow, she's gonna kill me," I thought, "and it's all MICHAEL'S FAULT!" My mom just yelled, "What the hell is going on in here!?" All the other bunks' doors swung open. By then, I was tied up in blankets still trying to reach over and grab the remote control. Michael was holding the remote away from me, Paul was sitting in the bed staring at the television laughing, Jayneil was pulling me away from Michael by my feet, and Adam was by the television.

"Ihm tryhing to changeh thuh chawnuh," I said muffled by the bed sheets. I was tied up like a mummy for crying out loud! Paul put Jayneil's glasses over my mummified head. Just then Linda took a picture of Michael, Jayneil, and me and ran off. Jayneil took the glasses off after the picture and put them away. My mom looked over to Michael.

"I'm j-just trying to," he swallowed hard, "a f-f-funny moo-hey!" Michael said in shock. Adam had been flipping through the channels on the TV manually. "I was watching American P...!"

"...Presidents." he said quickly. "On the Discovery Channel. Isn't that right Paul?" Adam stated. My mom looked over at Paul in disgust.

"Yeah. I was sitting here watching it and Michael changed the channel, like, 30 seconds beforeit finnished. It's most likely done now."

My mom looked over at the clock and then at me, so just nodded. "Stop making a mess. Clean this up and NO MORE MUMMIES!"

Everyone got up and unwrapped me as my mom stood in the doorway watching all of us get to work. Paul just sat there flipping through the channels.Once we cleaned up, my mom told us to go to sleep and that if we didn't, and she found out, she'd take away our key so we couldn't get back in. That way, someone would have to stay in the room all day. She closed the door in the next room.

"Dammit Michael! You almost got us screwed over!" I hissed at him quietly.

"I woulda changed the channel before she saw it," he justified. Everyone moaned, hit him in the head with a pillow, and got in bed.

"Hey Matt, you coulda just changed the channel manually ya' know," Adam said.

I just replied with a "Shut up."

We all voted that Michael was to sleep on the futon, so we forced him onto it. We all laid in our beds and stayed up talking about what we'd want to do on the trip. We ended up going to sleep at about 12:00.

Chapter 2: (No title yet)

I woke up and checked the time. It was 7:53 AM. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up about 2 hours later and felt something poking at my foot and shoulder. I opened my eyes to find Amy's head a foot away from mine, looking down at me from the side, her finger poking my shoulder, Erica poking my foot with a stick, and everyone I invited on the cruise gathered around my bed.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" I yelled out when I saw Amy's face a foot away. Everyone jumped back and a camera flashed. They all had big grins on their faces.

"What?" I asked. I didn't get any response, and they all began to chuckle which turned into burts of laughter.

I looked over to the side and saw a bag of M&Ms, liquid hand soap, and a can of shaving cream. I slowly brought my hand towards my face. I could feel M&Ms on the surface of more shaving cream. Everyone in the room started cracking up. With my other hand I touched my hair. It felt like it was full of gel. The laughter just got louder. Erica was laughing so hard that she fell over. I looked around to see who was in the room and noticed my brothers staring at me with big grins on their faces.

"YOU!" I yelled. I plucked off an M&M and chucked it at David. He dodged, and it hit the wall and broke into several pieces. I slowly got up and eyeballed everyone in the room. They all started backing up which led to running out the door. I wiped some shaving cream off my faces and continued walking towards everyone who was gathered around the bed. I took the shaving cream in my hand, and smeared it on the left side of Amy's face. She screamed, reached over for the shaving cream, and grabbed it.

"Now you die little man!" she yelled. Then she ran after me. So, I ran. I turned around and got her with more shaving cream on the other side of her face. She dropped the can in some kind of shock and I picked it up. Everyone in the room was screaming, yelling, or trying to leave the room, and I was chasing them with a can of shaving cream. Paul was standing there in the corner recording it all. I saw a plastic cover over the lens so that the glass wouldn't get messed up. I ran up to it, turned my head sideways towards that camera, and held the shaving cream up to the lens.

"Good bye!" I yelled as I shaving creamed the lens. I ran after my brothers and yelled, "DIE!!!" David was too fast and ducked the first shot, so I hit Kris who was trying to use him as a shield. Then he screamed like a girl and ran.

Erica yelled out, "Circle head's circle is filled with little circles!" and started cracking up. She was referring to the M&Ms. Circle head is one of my annying nicknames. I walked up to her holding the can in my hand, so she ran up to me and grabbed my hand trying to face the can away. I just shot the shaving cream out and it got all over her arm and hand. She looked at her arm and screamed. Then she tried to smear it on me, so I ran and got others. Jayneil was just in fron of the TV, sitting on the futon. I came from behind and shaving creamed his head. At the end, it looked like he replaced his hair with shaving cream. He just kept watching his TV show. I ended up getting everyone who didn't leave the rom, but David and Kris got away. The last person was Linda.

When I pointed the can at her, she just said, "Hit me and die."

Jackie, who's face was covered in shaving cream, started chanting, "Shoot her! Shoot her!" That was then followed by Allison, then Alice, Gail, Jayneil (who was still sitting on the futon), and everyone else who got creamed.

"Don't..." Linda said as she held up her finger.

She has a small attitude problem, and I felt that she needed to sit back and relax. I just smiled and fired. Then she growled and put her arms out as if she was going to choke me. I ran, still shooting back at her. She just kept repeating "DIE MATT!" She caught up to me and started ot choke me,so I kept shooting shaving cream at her shirt.

Everyone just looked at each other and opened the door to get to their rooms and shower. And there she was. My mom was standing right outside the doorway.

"Who started this?!" she screamed. She looked around and saw everyone looking up, covered in shaving cream, and the room in a big mess. Then she looked at me. Then she looked at me. At the same time Linda was still strangling me. Jennifer quickly ran up to Linda, pulled her back, and sat her in a chair. "Well, Matthew? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Well, I woke up, things happened, and it turn out like this." There were a couple chuckles. "Someone brought out the shaving cream and someone got it all over everyone."

She saw the can in my hand, so I just tossed it over to Adam. He stuck it in Paul's hand. He was still in the corner recording.

"Turn that off!" my mom yelled.

Paul dropped the carmera in shock. Luckily there were a couple pillows to cushion the fall.

"I want each and every one of you to clean this place up and clean yourselves up. Since there are so many of you responsible adults here, I expect this place clean in 30 minutes. And if not, all of you will be having a fun filled cruise in your rooms. And I'll make sure to that." Then she closed the door.

Everyone looked at me and yelled either, "This is your fault!" or, "Great going Matt!"

"Hey I...ya' know, none of this woulda started if y'all hadn't shaving creamed me," I said thoughtfully.

Adam started laughing. "Y'all?" He continued chuckling. Then everyone looked at him with a straight face.

"Oh yeah, that's right. All of you guys are from Texas."

Everyone started laughing. Jayneil just sat there confused. "What's everyone laughing at?" He waited a bit. "Oooooh, he said guys. And there are girls in here too. I get it!" Then he started laughing.

Everyone went dead silent and Jayneil kept laughing like an idiot.

"Uh, Jayneil? We're laughing because of the lingo. He was laughing at the 'y'all' and we're laughing at his 'you guys.' Up north they say 'you guys,' not 'y'all.'" He just kept laughing like a moron.

"At least I feel better," Adam mentioned.

I grabbed a hand towel and started cleaning up the shaving cream.

"Are y'all gonna help or what?"

So everyone started helping to clean up. After the room was clean, everyone changed their clothes and cleaned the ones with shaving cream on it. We finnished in exactly 30 minutes so I turned the television on and American Pie was showing again.

"Leave it here! Leave it here!" Michael was yelling as he ran towards the couch.

"Hell no!" Adam yelled. "Are you stupid or something? That almost got us busted last night!"

"We'll just say we were watching 'American Presidents' again."

"Dumbass," Adam mumbled.

"I heard that!"

"We'll turn it on after Matt's mom comes back and inspects everything," Adam said. Michael agreed to that.

Adam flipped to the Cartoon Network. It was an anime show, so all the girls told him not to change the channel. So everyone watched it. The show finished 30 minutes later. My mom still hadn't checked on us. We just kept watching Cartoon Network. Another anime show came and finnished.

"Hey David, I thought your mom said she was going to check on us again," Shaun said. He calls me by my brother's name because I do the same to him.

"Yeah, Parker, I know. That's what she said. I'll check on that." So I called the Parent's Bunk and no one picked up. "Uh, no one's picking up.

"Why don't you try knocking, Nacho," Elizabeth suggested. Nacho was my Spanish name, and she won't stop calling me that.

So I went over an knocked. No one would open the door either. I went over to my brother's room and knocked. David opened the door.

"Yeah, what do you want?"

"Do you know where mom is? She said she was check on the room about an hour ago, but she never came."

"She went to go eat breakfast, cook around the ship, and watch Michelle swim at the pool."

I sighed. "So she won't be back for a while, huh?"

"Seems like it."

"Okay, thanks." I called The Bunk and told them that she was gone, and that I'd be right over. Right when I opened the door I looked over at the TV and saw Michael and Adam wrestling and all the girls trying to ply the remote from Michael's hands.

I heard someone yell, "It's...tiiime...for...AMERICAN PIE!" I figured it was Michael.

At that moment I ran over and tried to break it up. Everyone who was standing by watching all of this happen, decided to join. Michael ended up losing the controler the controller and started pouting. Then started laughing. Paul took the remote and tried to change the channel. It wouldn't work. Michael started walking away to another room. Paul looked in the back of the remote and saw that a battery was missing.

"Michael, where's the battery?" He looked back and he was gone. "Anyone wanna go around the ship?"

Everyone just nodded and stared at the blank TV screen. Someone turned it off.

"Okay, cool. Let' check out what we can do. I've got a map of the ship over here." I grabbed the map and started out the door and held the door open for the people that were supposedly behind me. But they were all still on the couch watching the TV that was turned back on.

"Aw, come on. Y'all can watch TV at home. The point of a cruise is to do something new on it and relax. Not doing the same thing you do at home."

They still just sat there.

"Geez, fine I'll head over to the pool and get my mom so she can check on the room."

Just then the TV shut off and people were jumping and falling over the couch, in order to get to the map which was with me. And I was outside the door on my way.

I heard a loud thump and an "OW!" from Jayneil as he fell off the couch, so I stopped and turned around. There were only two words that came to my mind. "Daaaamn straight!" I said.

We all huddled around outside the door to talk about what to do, simultaneously clogging the hallway without noticing it.

"Where should we go first?" Bobby asked.

Bobo yelled out, "Hot tub baby! Oh yeah!" I smacked him upside his head.

"Bobo, you idiot. We're trying to stay away from the pool area. The hot tubs are always by the pool. Matt's mom is there," Pawan explained.

Paul chuckled at the fact that "bobo" in Spanish means "idiot."

"Fine then, Ill just stay here and watch American Pie with Michael," Bobo stated.

"Fine, check the other guys rooms. Michael can't get in the girls rooms," I said.

"Michael's in the 'IB bunk.' I gave him the key," Bobo answered.

"Go figure. While you're at it, tell him to put the battery back in the controller here," Sanket called out as he was leaving.

"So where do y'all wanna go?" Adam asked.

Everyone started shouting out ideas at the same time. "Pool hall!" "Go the pool!" (that person was smacked upside the head) "Just walk around the bow of the ship," "the mini-mall" were all thrown out there at the same time. Pawan then yelled out, "food!" as a joke. Everyone eye-balled him and continued throwing out ideas that no one paid and attention to. I just picked up the cruise map and started looking at the places that we could go to.

"Um...you guys, don't you think we should go back in the room? We're kinda crowing the hall," Jackie mentioned.

Everyone looked behind us. There were about 5 people trying the get around 24 of us who completely blocked the only way to the rest of the ship. We were directly in front of the elevators.

"Yeah guys, you're blocking off the hall. Geez, what's wrong with you?" Bobby said. A couple people shoved him and then we headed in the room. Once I passed through the door Alan grabbed the map from me. It got swiped from Alan, 2 seconds later. Paul started looking at it. Then Ali took it. No guy could take it away after that. So Ali, Jackie, and Gail huddled around and started looking at it. Well, no guy would take it...but Aaron. After a minute, he just came by and the only thing they heard was "Yoink!" and it was gone. That wasn't too smart of Aaron. He got ambushed about 5 seconds later. There was a huge pile over Aaron...and Pawan was on the top.

After it looked like there was a football play gone wrong, someone got smart.

"Will someone just read off the places? There's one map and 24 people here," Linda stated. She had that "this is why I hate men...they're idiots" look on her face.

A mumbled sound came from the bottom of the pile. "Help? I cant get move at all," Aaron called.

Pawan got off the top of the pile and Aaron was able to squirm out. He stood up, brushed himself off, and started looking at the map again while everyone waited for him to read it off. He just stood there reading it as he smiled at the paper.

"Would you give me that," Amy said as she swiped it away from him. Aaron hung his head in shame. "Okay, the places that we can go to are..." she began to read them off.