Chapter 1: Intro by Tiger002
Once again, the sky deck was decorated immensely, for that time of year had come once more. A brisk winter's breeze blew across the sky deck reminding the passengers that it was winter despite the fact that they were sailing through the Caribbean, much to the jealousy of their friends up north.
"Is everything ready?" Bailey asked Cody who was inspecting the camera.
"Yep, we have the live feed up ready to connect to London's website, all the lights are set, I double checked all the mic's three times, and made 10 copies of the nominations along with having at least 5 digital copies throughout the ship," Cody said, confident that he hadn't forgotten anything.
"And now the cap is off the camera," Bailey said holing the small black object with a smirk.
"I was just getting to that."
"Sure you were," she said as the two of them walked to the stage.
"How's everything else going back there?" Cody asked making sure everything was centered correctly for optimum visual appeal.
"Well we've had some interesting situations with the guests. Apparently, one of them didn't know the rule about no weapons and ended up bringing out a sword with some strange words on it.
"That seems odd," Cody said, wondering if they should have hired someone other than Kirby for the security team.
"Oh, that wasn't all, one of the girls we brought in kept wanting to borrow the sword and duel Zack with it. I'm not sure what that was all about. We also had someone talking to that swordsman grilling him with questions about his home."
"Where was he from?" Cody asked while scooting the podium over an inch.
"Iratus or something," Bailey said, no clue where that was.
"Sounds Latin."
"We also had someone who was talking to Mr. Blanket about the human mind which was interesting to listen to even though it went way over my head."
"Did any part of it make sense?"
"Surprisingly yeah; that wasn't the strangest thing though, we had one of the other guests who seemed to be really uncomfortable whenever Zack or I tried to talk to him."
"Really what happened?" Cody asked, worried that their guest wouldn't be having a good time.
"Well he was talking to a couple of the other guest and Zack went over to welcome him, and he all of a sudden got really nervous. Zack then said something about there never being another tonight, which for some reason made him run away looking like he wanted to puke."
Before Cody could ponder what had happened backstage, someone coming up onto the stage interrupted them, and made sure everyone knew she was there.
"Wow, this place is almost as fabulous as me."
"Thanks London, we certainly put a lot of hard work into it," Bailey said remembering how little the heiress did during the construction phase.
"Oh, I would have helped but I saw you were getting all sweaty and I didn't want to ruin my dress for the night."
Before Cody or Bailey could respond, Zack came running onto stage, hiding behind his younger brother. "That crazy samurai ninja is going to kill me," he said as he tried catching his breath.
"Attention everyone!" a loud voice bellowed. The four of them turned to see Woody approaching the camera carrying a megaphone and clothed as if he was a director complete with the jacket, hat and even the glasses. "It's time to start the show."
As the four prepared to take their spots on the stage, they heard a stampede coming from backstage. Turning behind them they saw a black haired teen girl carrying a sword followed by a pale skinned blond chasing her while trying to keep the sun out of his eyes and saying something about giving Defiance back.
An unusually tall person wearing a black hat, was chasing, and bombarding the blond with questions, while attentively scribbling in a notebook.
Several others tried to stop them while a couple more stood in the background, a mix of confusion, excitement, and story ideas running through their heads.
"All right people, no killing each other until this awards show is over," Woody said, turning his megaphone up to full volume. "Remember everyone, we go live in five."
After much grumbling, everyone took their positions, ready for the show to begin.
…
The lights went up along the darkened sky deck revealing the four teens standing in the middle of the stage. "Salutations everyone," Cody said politely.
"Everyone has their own holiday traditions," Zack added, as he briefly glanced down at a note card.
"Some include getting lots of presents and cash," London said.
"While other's traditions entails calling for various people's death," Bailey said.
"And we've decided to continue our own tradition of recognizing the best stories of the previous year," Cody said excitingly. "We've got a lovely medley of fun activities to not only show the best but also show you a little more about the wonderful authors that create them. To start off the night we shall present a collection of classical music to set the mood."
"Yeah, about that. I might have changed a few things," Zack said tossing his note card into the ocean.
"Like what?" Cody asked, afraid all his carefully constructed plans were going to be ruined.
"Well you know the classical musician you hired to come?"
"Volander Hikeland?"
"I told him to take a hike."
At this, a light cheer could be heard through some of the audience.
"What are we going to do for music then?"
"Oh, I have that all taken care of. Please welcome to the stage my good friend Lil' Little!"
Marcus walked up to the stage shaking everyone's hand before grabbing a mic while Zack began beat boxing to give him a good rhythm to rap to.
"Now listen here boys and girls
I got a rap that I hope won't make you hurl.
Now it's that great time of year
To recognize stories we hold so dear.
Some made us laugh, some made us cry
Though on the latter, I'm sure Zack would lie
Too many to list
But I know I won't forget.
There were the romances that made me go aww
And the tragedies that made me bawl
There were the villains who I loved to hate
And the great characters the authors did make
We had massive epics that drew me in
Along with one-shots that shocked me at the end
So now don't be a dope
But read these great stories and vote!"
The crowd erupted in applause for Marcus' music causing the rapper to bow.
"Impressive," Cody said, not sure quite how to get the show back on his perfectly planned schedule, but couldn't help but marvel at seeing his friend get back into doing what he loved. "We've changed some things from last year, correcting mistakes and trying to bring as many people into this long process as possible. One of these changes is the announcement of best author. Last year, this was placed at the end to preserve the suspense, but I doubt any of the finalists will come to a surprise to the readers. Now, would the following authors please make your way to the stage?
Best Author:
Elianna22
Kulmanari
Reneyyy'Sprouse'
the-lovely-anomaly
tiger002
The five authors made their way up to the stage accompanied by a roaring applause from the audience that overwhelmed any other voices. For some of the authors this was not the first time they were being recognized, but both new and old were in awe of the response they were getting.
After a moment, the applause died down enough for Cody return to center stage.
"All five of these authors have agreed to do an interview starting next chapter, so if you have any questions you'd like for them to answer, please post them on the Suite Life Awards forum located in Tiger's profile. And now the awards coordinator, Tiger, would like to announce and explain one of our new categories."
"Thank you Cody, and everyone who has worked to make these awards as good as I'm sure they will be," Tiger began. "One measure of an author is how good their stories are though the many aspects of it which most of these awards will recognize, but perhaps an even greater measure of an author's skill is the impact their story has on fellow writers. That's why we've added the Most Influential Author category, and unlike the other awards where our committee selected the finalists, I don't feel that is a big enough scope. So I ask you readers, what writer on the site has effected your own writing the most?
Perhaps through inspiring you to pick up the pen and start writing, perhaps through pushing you to try something new, or maybe by standing beside you as you journeyed into the realms of fan fiction. Please pm me your answer, along with a short explanation of why, and I shall reveal the results. Thank you."
"And with that, the next chapter shall get into the actually awards! Stay tuned," Zack said as the lights faded.
