Chapter 1- Boarding

I wake up bright and early with a smile on my face. I was on the first day of vacation with my parents and brother. We had decided to go on another cruise to celebrate Christmas and the new year conveniently we used the cruise to also celebrate my dad's work promotion and my brother's, Caleb, achievement of receiving the Etkin medal of excellence for his ground breaking scientific research. Once her parents had asked her if she was interested on another family cruise she saved up her sick days so that she could be able to go on this trip.

A cruise to Tris was second nature. Her parents regularly took her and Caleb every Christmas and summer break to somewhere new and often was on a cruise. They had accumulated so many points because of going on so many cruises that they were diamond members.

They ate breakfast at the hotel they we were staying at in Florida, which wasn't far from the cruise port where their cruise ship waited for them. They took a cab to the port and wheeled their luggage to the check in terminal.

I was getting more excited, I was happy to escape the office and my mean boss back in Toronto. I would be work free for the next two weeks. The weather was a drastic change too for me. There was definitely no snow in Florida and it was definitely going to get much hotter since we will be traveling further south towards the Caribbean.

We quickly dropped off our luggage at the carousel, I was thankful we had already attached the required tag information earlier which was necessary for our luggage to make it to our stateroom as I was seeing quite a few families having difficult doing it. I groaned at the sight of the line for security, the line was as long as ever and all I wanted to do was to get on the pool deck and swim before everyone else came along.

They had many tills opened for security all ready but it seemed as if everyone had the same idea to come to the terminal at the same time. I patiently waited with my family and had a chat with my mother about the upcoming project at work I had to tackle after the trip. At the corner of my eye I see someone staring at me. I didn't want to be too obviously so I slowly looked up and pretended to look around the terminal. My eyes met with a pair of eyes of electric blue that burn like fire. They belonged to a man that looked about my age and boy was he hot I thought to myself. He was with a group of friends I presumed in another security line and was wearing a fitted black v neck that showed his muscles. His hair looked like he just woke up with it but it suited him.

The man quickly looked away when he realized he had been caught staring at her. Tris smiled at herself and sworn she saw his ears go red. Did that really happen? she thought. An attractive guy had been staring at her or possibly checking her out? Maybe my hair is sticking out or there's something on my face she wondered. Maybe that's why he was looking at me. Tris wasn't usually the one to have guys fawn over her. She thought of herself as short and baby faced. Whenever her and her friends out back at home would go out she would be the awkward one out while guys hit on her friends but not her.

As the line moved she lost sight of the man with the blue eyes. She didn't want him to occupy any space in her mind. There were 4,180 passengers on the ship and the chances of bumping into him again were very slim. The cruise ship was big as she read up online and checked the deck plans. There were 16 floors which consisted of bumper cars, a theater, a Grande promenade filled with shops, music hall, gym, restaurants, bars, rock climbing etc. the chances of seeing him again was small but secretly she hoped she'd at least get a glimpse of him again.

They finally went through security without any problems. As she slung her bag over her shoulder from the floor she crashed into a something, more like someone, and fell. The contents from her purse flew out. Tris grumbled, served her right for carrying three carryon bags, she had once again over packed and had bought new clothes when they arrived in Florida, she had to carry some of small contents in a carryon bag.

"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going" the deep voice muffled.

"It's fine I over packed I shouldn't be carrying so many bags in the first place" she said.

She looked up and gasped. It was the blue eyed man that was staring at her from the security line. So much for a slim chance of seeing him again she thought to herself.

The man quickly gathered the things that fell out of her purse for her. She quickly realized that it was her turn to stare and helped him.

Tris silently thanked herself for not having any embarrassing objects lying around in her purse. She would have been mortified if god forbid a packet of condoms flew out or something. She shoved everything in her purse and he helped her up. For once they looked at each other and didn't look away.

"I'm sorry again for crashing into you, my friends are excited, they ditched me at security and I was trying to run after them" he said sheepishly

"No worries, I'm excited too for this cruise" she replied with a smile "I better get going my family's waiting for me at the check in line"

She really didn't want the conversation to end. It was the first time she felt safe around a guy after what happened with her and Peter.

"Oh yea same but to my friends. My names Four by the way, I guess I'll see you around '' he waited for me to complete his sentence with my name

"Oh it's Tris" I replied shyly.

"See you around Tris" he smiled. "Bye Four" , Four? I thought to myself what kind of name was that?

I made my way to the priority check in since I'm a Diamond member. I spot my family waiting for me in the line.

"Where did you go?" Caleb asks. "We thought you were right behind us" my Dad says.

"I was, some guy bumped into me by accident. I was partially my fault, I have a lot of bags" I answered.

"A guy?" my brother looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes Caleb a guy" I rolled my eyes. Even though we're the same age 10 months apart, he thinks I'm still a little girl. "It was nothing he just helped me pick up my stuff"

"Ok Tris" he replies with a nod. I guess ever since the whole Peter situation he's been extremely protective over me and flips out when I mention guys.

We get checked in and make our way to the escalators that bring us to the entrance to the ship. I'm so ready to start this vacation.