Max's POV

"Be sure to pack your bathers" Nudge told me as she lounged on my bed, watching me pack my bag.

"Nudge, we're crossing the ocean on a boat. Not in the water" I sighed.

"You never know, when we get there, there might be beaches" she shrugged.

"We're going to a large tropical island with lots of native people to learn about marine life for biology, I think we'll be in the water" she added and I sighed, throwing my bathers in my bag.

I continued to throw more clothes in, such as shorts, shirts, underwear, and a few different items such as a few books and notepads. Nudge laughed holding up a book named "How to build a raft" that my dad had got me as a joke for this trip. I rolled my books up in my rain coat and put it in my bad, zipping it up with a lot of effort.

"So how's Ella?" I asked. Seems my phone battery was dead and I had no idea where the charger was, I hadn't been able to talk to one of my best friends, Ella, all weekend.

"Being Ella" Nudge said, putting down her magazine. "She tries to push it down by keeping busy, Mrs Martinez said she's cleaned the whole house at least 5 times" Nudge frowned.

About a week ago Ella discovered her boyfriend of 6 months had been cheating on her for at least 3 of those months.

"Scott is a toad" Nudge growled and I nodded. Ella didn't come to school for the first 2 days then spent the next 3 avoiding him, even skipping the one subject she had with him.

"Maybe we can push him overboard, no one would miss him" I suggested and Nudge laughed.

Her phone beeped and she sighed, throwing her long, mocha skinned legs over my bed and standing up.

"I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow for our trip. At 5 in the morning" she groaned, leaving. Once Nudge had left I finished my last bit of packing, then climbed into my bed. We had to be down at the docks by 5 tomorrow so I wanted a goodnights sleep.

We would be away on our trip for 10 days which would be the longest I would be away from my parents, even though I was already 17. It didn't bother me though, even though I had a good relationship with them, my younger brother Josh always took up their time. I drifted off to sleep eventually, excited for tomorrow.

I threw my alarm clock at the ground as it buzzed annoyingly at me. Unfortunately my alarm clock was heavy duty and was still buzzing. I ungracefully rolled out of bed and pulled the plug out, making heavenly silence.

I took an extra-long shower, soaking up the warmth, not knowing when my next warm shower would be. I got dressed in jeans and a tight brown shirt with a black hoodie over it and my work boots. I had a quick breakfast and mum got dressed quickly to drive me out to the dock.

As I arrived there I saw almost my whole class was there already. I gave mum a quick hug bye and jumped out of the car with my one backpack and headed over to the group. It was still dark but lights lit up the area.

Nudge found me fast and headed over my way. She had a backpack on her back and one in her hand. She wore tight jeans and a stylish purple shirt and leather jacket over it. The purple looked good on her dark skin and her fuzzy brown hair was hanging around her shoulders.

"Ready?" She asked excitedly. And I nodded.

"Ella!" she called, seeing Ella climb out of a car and head over to us. She looked like she hadn't slept in a week. Her light brown hair was flat and her brown eyes were dark.

"Hey Ella. Excited for the trip?" I asked her.

"Of course, can't wait to get away from here" she smiled.

"Everybody head over to the front of the docks" Mrs Fin boomed. I wished she wasn't coming, Mrs Fin could turn anything into an educational bore.

She went on and on for ages about what this trip was about and how we were expected to behave.

"Before anyone asks, you will find out which groups you are in and which cabin you are in once we are there" she said and the whole class groaned. I hated when she did that.

"We will be splitting up into two groups to fit on the boats. When I call your name you will be on boat A. The rest of you will be on boat B. Boat A people are: Ari Batchelder, Kal Bow, Lissa Carlor, Iggy Griffiths, Scott Lou, Dylan Lutz, Ella Martinez, Sam Newt, Tanny Mona, Angel Moon, Gazzy Moon, Fang Nova, Liz Peirce, Lina Pose, Max Ride, Nudge Tain, Gracie Tull, Ellen Vrise" She called off a list.

Ella and Nudge squealed and grabbed my arms, pulling me towards the first boat. It was bigger than a fishing boat, but was no Titanic. It looked like it would barely fit 20 people.

Slowly we all headed on and we were piled below deck. Once below I noticed it was much bigger than it looked. Nudge, Ella and I got our own room seems it would take a whole day and night to get there.

By the time everyone got settled in and we had all been counted 3 times, we finally took off.

Boats didn't bother me much, but we were only an hour in when Tanny had thrown up all over the top deck.

The day passed slowly and I won 28 games of poker before Nudge and Ella had given up. I then continued to kick their asses in uno, go fish, snap, jack-black and a few other card games. We had mostly stayed in our room so we didn't have to run into Scott. At one point when I had gone up top I had seriously considered starting a fight with him, but knew it would end in me pushing him overboard. I stayed away from him, but eventually had to go downstairs. Between school jocks like Fang, Dylan, Ari and Sam, plus the school sluts, Lissa, Ellen and Lina, I was drowning in stupidity so had to go back under deck.

Despite not doing anything today, the early morning and not really using our brains today, had made everyone sleepy. Everyone was in bed after our so called dinner on the top deck.

I'd admit it was very nice to be eating dinner under the stars on a boat. Poor Ella had a hard time having fun, tonight had to be the most romantic night ever and Scott was too busy to notice as he openly flirted with Ellen.

I watched around me as Lissa curled up between Fang and Dylan and Kal and Gracie holding hands under the table.

"We have to be the three most undateable girls ever" Nudge sighed.

"No, we're just surrounded by moronic boys" I said, rolling my eyes as Fang over heard me. Serves him for being an eavesdropper.

As soon as Nudge, Ella and I had laid down in our beds, we were all out like a light.

I heard the screaming first. I bolted up in bed and saw Nudge and Ella do the same. It was still night but I could feel the boat shaking and the people screaming.

We rushed outside and I tried to ask people what was going on but they kept running past me screaming. Finally I grabbed the nearest person by the scruff of their shirt and pulled them to me.

"Fang! What the hell is going on?!" I asked him.

"The captain is drunk!" he yelled in a panic.

"So?" I asked.

"Max, we're lost. We have no idea where we are and we're about to crash into some rocks" he said, his voice breaking. I let him go and he ran off.

I was about to ask why wasn't someone trying to change our direction when there was a giant crash, sending everyone flying in one direction. I saw a wall heading cloer to me and there was a thump as I passed out.