Finally...the time that every student waits for was coming close. No, not summer. Spring break was just a week away! Two weeks to do what I wanted to. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to go on a cruise. I was 17 and had a job, so I could afford this. To where? Well, I didn't know that, but I had a while to decide. Time to use every student's almighty tool, the internet. Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit, but oh, well.

Wow, there's quite a few options. Let's see, a Caribbean cruise. Nah...everybody goes to the Caribbean.
A Hawaiian cruise. Eh...all the islands with the natives. I didn't know any Hawaiian. I'll have to keep that one in mind, though.

Bahamas. Hmm...that might be nice. Oh, drat. They're all sold out.

European. Well, that might be interesting. One of them went to Venice for one of the days. Venice always fascinated me. An entire city, with water transport, only walking or sailing. Besides, I knew some Italian. I looked at that. That was sold out, too. Wait a minute. "Similar Cruises"? Never saw that button before. Curious, I looked at that. There was one cruise.

"A 13-night cruise touring the Far East, then sailing to beautiful nearby Arutomare, a city surrounded by legends. There will be plenty there to educate and entertain you, plus, there are a few secrets to this city. We can't tell you what those are, but we are sure there is plenty to entertain you for the week you'll be staying there. Below is an itinerary." It listed it departing from San Francisco, California the first day, visiting Hong Kong, China the third day, going to Kaoshiung, Taiwan on the fourth day, Tokyo, Japan the fifth day, at sea the sixth, then at Arutomare day 7 through 13, then back at San Francisco the 14th day.

Basically, typical Far East cruise, except for this "Arutomare" place. What cruise stopped for a week in one city? Was is really that interesting? "Surrounded by legends"? "Secrets to this city"? What did that mean? The photos and panoramas looked nice, and it bragged of "diverse wildlife". This city looked a lot like Venice...except that there was no map on the site showing where Arutomare was. I bookmarked the site and Googled for "Arutomare". Okaaay. Looked like some weird Japanese TV show website. I looked at that for a second, hoping it had some real info on this place, but it didn't. Anyways, I took a look at the cruise liner they would be using. About 200 passenger capacity. Certainly not the biggest cruise liner around. Inside, $1,099, Oceanview, $1,299, Balcony, $1,799, Suite, $2,299. They said they weren't using as much fuel as they were staying a week in Arutomare, explaining the low price. This was also the liner's first cruise. Now all I needed was a plane to California, and a well-timed plane back home so I could get back to school on time. At least finding that was pretty easy. Two early flights, one the day the cruise started and one after the cruise ended. Luckily, those were pretty easy to book. I got myself an oceanview room for the cruise, so all I had to do now was wait.

One week later, 30,000 feet, Flight 380, Seat 381, 2:49 A.M.

I had to get up at about midnight to get through all the airport security. What a pain. Oh, well, at least I got to the flight on time and was on my way now.

People looked at me strangely when they heard my original Game Boy beeping out 8-bit sounds almost the whole plane ride. Yes, I'm a Nintendo freak. I don't want to hear it. I'm sure everybody was bugged by the Game Boy going for seven hours, and probably sang praise in their head when the batteries died seven hours later. Well, actually, one guy stood up and yelled out "Thank you, God! It's finally over!". Sheesh, you don't have to make that big of a deal out of it. I saw another kid nearby playing his red DS with his headphones on. I'd say he was about 14, playing some odd game. I shrugged and lied on my seat. No room to put the seat back in coach, though. Just as I closed my eyes, though, the flight attendant came through to say we were making our decent. I buckled my seatbelt as the plane started heading downwards.

On the ground, outside the airport, 9:42 A.M.

Finally, out of that cramped coach seat. Maybe I should have at least gotten a second class seat. I wondered if anyone else was going on that cruise. It seemed like there were mostly people going to business trips on that plane flight. I also needed to get to San Francisco Bay...the cruise left at 11:00. Luckily, there was no shortage of taxis at the airport. I flagged one down, and I was on my way to San Francisco Bay.

10:45 A.M., at San Francisco Bay, about $18.50 lighter.

Great...about 15 minutes to find my cruise in San Francisco Bay. At least they said where the ship would be. After running for about ten minutes, I finally made it to the ship that I would be cruising on. I gave the guard at the ramp my pass to get the key to my room and ran on board. Of course, the guard had to tell me I was the last one there. That always seemed to happen. Or maybe I didn't notice when I wasn't late. It didn't matter, though. I got here before it left and that was what mattered. For a ship that held 200 people, though, it didn't look like there was nearly that many. Mostly younger people like me, wanting a vacation, or at least that's what I assumed they wanted. I saw a few adults, but not very many. Amongst the random chattering, I heard something directed at me.

"Hey, I remember you! I saw you on the plane ride here!"

I looked to see the same kid that I saw on the plane in front of me. He had a blue, long-sleeved shirt, denim jeans, and a classic Game Boy case slung on his shoulder, carrying a moderately thick white binder. He had brown hair and hazel eyes.

"My name's Dallin. What's yours?" he asked.

"Steven."

"So, how old are you?"

"17."

"Heh...I know I don't look it, but I'm 16."

Wow. I thought he was 14 when I first saw him. Suddenly, the boat started up.

"Well, now that the boat's started up, might as well get my room ready. See you, Steven." Dallin said and ran off.

I guess it was time for me to do the same. I headed into the boat to look for my room. I found it a few minutes later. Room 25. I unlocked the room and looked around. Not bad. Nice view, too.

"Lucky! You get an oceanview room." I heard Dallin say from behind me.

"Yipes!" I wasn't expecting him to show up again. "Hey, I'm trying to set up my stuff in here!"

"Oh, right...sorry..." he said and closed the door. I locked it just in case someone else decided to show up and after I set up my room, looked out the window, wondering what this trip would be like. Especially this mysterious Arutomare...