Rourke's Kid
Chapter 1
"Lily, we're getting a new member of the team, I want you to keep an eye on him, make sure he's one of us." My dad, Lyle Rourke said, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Of course, dad" I said, standing up straighter, resting my hand on my knife. I would do anything to make him proud of me and he knew it. Beneath my long sleeves, my bruises were purple and green.
I stood on the deck of the ship hunched over the railing, losing the remnants of my lunch. Near me, a man in his early thirties did the same exact thing, barely holding onto his glasses. "I hate seasickness." I muttered darkly, hearing him mutter something about carrots as he straightened up. He wasn't much taller than me, skinny, and he was obviously new. Who was this guy? I knew practically everyone on the expedition. Could he be the guy dad was telling me about? Whatever, I could figure it out later. "Hey Lily! Come on, it's time to go!" My friend Audrey Ramirez yelled at me, oil stains already on her face and overalls. "Coming Audrey!" I yell back and run down to her, hug her and we go onto the huge submarine. On our way to our shared room, we chat animatedly, easily switching between Spanish and English. I quickly claim the top bunk and she yells at me in Spanglish and I laugh. "Won't it be easier for you to get to the machines if you're on the bottom bunk though?" I ask, brushing a strand of dark brown hair out of my blue-gray eyes. Rolling my eyes, I put my hair up with a pencil from my bag, grab another and my sketch pad. "get up here and I'll draw you." I say to Audrey and she climbs up the ladder and sits in front of me. Forgetting where I am and who I'm with, I roll up my long green sleeves, exposing my now green bruises and Audrey grabs my arm hard enough for me to wince. "This look like finger marks, what happened?" She asks, her gaze suddenly sharp. I pull my arm out of her grasp, roll my sleeves back down and say "Nothing, I just tripped. You know how clumsy I am." I smile self-consciously. I quickly start to sketch her, first the eyes, then the rest of her face. "What do you think?" I ask, turning it to face her. "That's incredible! I love the detail!" She says and I smile. Art is my passion but it's not like I can tell dad that. We heard Packard's voice over the intercom and went to the bridge, me making sure to hide my sketchpad.
I rolled my eyes at the bungling of Milo Thatch and caught Helga doing the same thing. Seriously, this was the guy who was going to lead us to Atlantis? I couldn't help agreeing with Mrs. Packard when she muttered "We're all gonna die." I caught dad's eye and gave him an incredulous look, but he just glared at me and I looked away, holding my arms close to my body.
Audrey and I had up late talking, her eyeing my long sleeves when we heard alarms blaring and Audrey ran to the engine room while I threw my bag over my shoulder and jumped off the top bunk, running for the deck.
When I finally got there, I gaped at the sight of the monster, the leviathan from the screens Milo had shown us earlier! My hands itched to draw it and I quickly memorized what I could of it to draw when I could before Helga started shoving me towards the pods. To anyone else she was angry, but I knew her well enough to know that she was scared. Scared of something so big her guns and fighting wouldn't have an impact. I quickly buckled myself in, dad and Helga in front of me. Audrey, Sweet, and Milo were in the same pod as us and Milo was freaking out. I was rapidly twirling a pencil in between my fingers, a method I had long ago developed to help control my nerves. I was holding onto Audrey's hand just as tight as she was holding onto mine until we broke out of the channel into a pod just like Milo had said we would. Huh, interesting.
The brief memorial was the saddest thing I've ever seen. So many people gone in the space of not even an hour. I glared at the ground when dad directed the attention to Milo and said that our fate rested in his hands. "Jeez dad, way to pin the blame if something bad happens. I suppose you'll jump in and take the credit when something good happens." But I remained silent. I knew what happened to people who dared to speak out against my father.