The Cruise

The next day the temperatures were an extreme high. All of the passengers decided to spend the day in indoor places. Except for Ruta Ulcinaite. Laying face down on a lounge chair, she was soaking up all of the sun she could get. Tanning was a crucial necessity to her. The heat shot in rays onto her golden brown back. She looked as if she had been out in the scorching sun for hours, lying in that same chair she was relaxing in at that moment. She soon sat up and wrapped herself in a towel and trotted towards the main floor. The room was full of kids with sunglasses and a variety of styles of shorts. Ruta began to push her way through the crowd to reach the next hallway. Halfway through that chattering crowd, Ruta heard something that caught her attention that she over heard one of the ship’s crew members chatting to a coworker about.
“Yeah, the captain thinks there is going to be a big storm just ahead of us.” He told his coworker as the curious European star eavesdropped on the conversation. The other crewman wore a worried facial expression.
“What are we going to do? Are we turning around?” He asked, his voice was slightly shaking. Ruta could obviously tell he was worried. The other man shook his head.
“No” he replied. “The captain thinks the ship can stick out the storm. He is going to keep the ship moving. He doesn’t want any delay” The man gazed off to the side of the ship.
“Is he insane? My god Joe, this is a boat packed with teenagers! They are still children” The man Ruta had learned was Joe looked back at the other man.
“ I am not the driver of this ship, this is not my call” Joe told his coworker. “I very much disagree with the captain’s judgment.” Ruta gasped. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing the men say! She wondered what would happen if the ship sunk. Would she die? What if she miraculously survived? Then what would she do. She quickly ran off. There must have been someone who could help her, someone that knew about storms and weather, someone smart enough to know what would happen.
All of a sudden something hit her. She looked down by her feet, to find the girl that ran into her the day before on the floor searching for her glasses. Ruta quickly was struck with an idea. She scooped up the glasses as fast as she could and dropped them in the girl’s hands.
“Thank you, my apologizes. I…” The girl paused when she looked up, and saw Ruta’s pretty face smiling back at her. “Oh, please do not hit me! Or anything in relation to violence, I apologize, I promise you, miss!” Ruta reached her hand down, as if to help the girl up. The girl had a confused look on her face, as she slowly and cautiously clutched onto Ruta’s hand.
“What’s your name?” Ruta asked smiling.
“My name is Alison Steinbach.” The girl told her, sliding her glasses up the ridge of her crooked nose. Ruta faked another smile.
“Such a pretty name, darling!” Ruta pretended to compliment in her usually rich and snooty tone of voice. “Do you mind if I call you Allie?” she asked. Allie shrugged her scrawny shoulders.
“If you wish” she replied. Allie was still unsure why Ruta as speaking to her, she had nothing to offer to a girl as rich and famous as Ruta had said to be. She wondered if somehow, in some way, that Ruta had made a change of heart over night. Of course, she was wrong about that judgment. Ruta smiled, and glanced quickly from left to right. Then she looked back to Allie.
“Can I tell you a secret that no other passenger on this ship knows about?” She asked. Allie nodded. Nobody had ever wanted to willingly tell her a secret before, it was probably the fact that she had no skills at making friends.
“Yes! Please! I won’t tell anyone.” She replied, her voice was filled with excitement. Maybe life would be more exciting with a secret to hide.
“Are you sure? Can I trust you?” Ruta asked. She knew she would tell her either way. She knew she would never tell a loser like Allie a secret if she didn’t need something from her. Allie was lead on though. She had no idea.
“I solemnly swear” Allie replied, she thought she was about to hear her first real secret.
“I overheard some crewmen talking” Ruta explained, whispering to Allie. Allie had a giant sized grin spread across her acne and freckle covered face. Ruta glanced from side to side again to pretend to be looking for eavesdroppers. Then she leaned in again to tell Allie.
“They said that we are going to be sailing through a storm tonight.” Allie’s smiled faded into a look of horror.
“This is not good Ruta, not good at all.” she said. Ruta was still worried, but her plan to get Allie to do something about it was working. Allie seemed like a nerd, and that was going to be the only type of person that could get her away from that storm
“What are we going to do?” Ruta asked. Allie began to panic.
“I do not know.” Allie said. “I have a laptop in my cabin, we can go find the storm and see how big it is. Maybe it’s just a little storm!” she continued. She was obviously trying to calm herself down. Ruta looked over Allie’s shoulder. A pretty girl who looked as if she were in her late high school years was running towards them. Her relaxed hair was bobbing up and down with each step she made closer to them. Allie spun around.
“Did you say something about a storm?” She asked them. Allie looked at Ruta with a scared look. Ruta realized that she still thought it was a secret and if she wanted her help she would have to play along.
“Umm, yeah. But you can’t tell anybody. Please” Ruta pretended to beg this girl she had never met before; doing so was something totally new to her.
“Oh my gosh how big is it? Are we sailing through it? Am I going to die?” The girl started to freak out. Ruta didn’t know what to say. Allie began to speak in her raspy, yet nasally voice once again.
“We are unsure, but Ruta and I are going to go to my cabin and find out. This storm could be…” The girl pushed Allie to the side and began to run down the hall. Once she noticed that neither Ruta nor Allie were following behind her she stopped in her tracks.
“Are you coming or do you want to die?” She asked. Allie scurried ahead of her. Ruta walked casually behind them. Once they reached cabin 174, which was Allie’s cabin, Allie had unlocked the door with her room key. The girl they had just met rushed inside before Ruta and Allie had a chance to even move.
“Who even are you?” Ruta asked the girl. Even though she didn’t like Allie, she knew that even doing rushing inside of somebody’s room like that was even to rude for her to do. The girl motioned Allie and Ruta inside.
“I’m Déjà, now find out about this storm!” She screamed. Allie frantically pulled open a drawer on a desk that was alike to all of the desks in each room on the entire ship, and pulled out a white laptop computer from it and gently set it on the surface of the desk. Then she typed as fast as she could.
“What are you doing?” Ruta asked Allie. Allie didn’t say a word as she typed like the wind.
“Oh no” Allie said breaking the short moment of silence. Déjà began to freak out as soon as Allie said that.
“I’m going to die!” She shouted at the top of her lungs. She snatched Allie’s laptop. “Let me see this” she said and began to look at it.
“Hurricane!” she shouted as she read. Ruta gasped and looked at the monitor.
“The captain most likely doesn’t know it’s this bad of a storm.” Bring this to him. She ordered. Allie stood up and began to make her way to the cabin door when she stopped in her traces.
“What are you waiting for?” Déjà shouted. Allie froze like a popsicle.
“Listen” she said. The room went completely silent for a split second. The sound of a heavy wind gust coming from outside the door broke the silence.
“The wind” Déjà said. Ruta kneeled down to pray. Allie looked at Déjà and Ruta. She opened her mouth to speak.
“Were too late” She said. “We’re going to die”.