When the Sun Sets


People rush by me with luggage and their kids on their trails. I soon get mixed into the mix too.

"Dad? Daddy!" I call into the mad rush of the crowd. "Daddy!" I shout out. I turn around and bump into something. A boy glares at me with a ridiculous mohawk. The boy was familiar, too familiar: Noah Puckerman.

"Watch where you're going will yo- Berry?" he questioned. "I wonder if there are any slushy machines on the boat?" he snickers and wonders away from the heap of people.

"Darling!" I turn at my dad's voice. This cruise is going to be quite different now, once I saw Noah. "There you are!" dad says to my face.

"I got lost." I tell him.

"I can see, you have tears in your eyes," he notes as he bends down to remove the hair in my face.

I bring my hands to my face and feel the wetness underneath my eyelids. "Oh!" I squeal. "I guess I scared myself." I shrug and connect my hand to my father's.

"Let's go find your father, shall we?" he tightens his grip on my hand and drags me through the wild crowd. "Hurry up darling, were going to be tired in the morning is we don't scurry off to bed now." he pulls me along as we go through the halls of the ship. We pass maids, other passageners, and the amazing art work of the interior.

We turn another corner and set our eyes on our room door that read, 507. I keep running my fingers along the walls and don't pay much attention to my surrounding but I soon hear my father talking to someone. I don't budge as I run my eyes over the painting on the wall. I turn around when I feel my dad tugging on my shoulder.

"Rachel, don't be rude, say hello." I turn confused.

"Why would I say hello to a maid- Oh!" I say. "Hello, Mrs. Puckerman and Mr. Puckerman and-" I set my eyes on Noah, he smirks at me. "Noah," I snarl out of my smile.

"Hi, Rachel," The Puckermans say as they enter their room, room 510.

Soon my dad opens our door and only Noah and I are still in the hall. "Hello, Rachel." he says slyly to me with a rise of the eyebrows. "This is going to be an excellent cruise." he smiles again and steps into the room and slams the door.

I frown and enter my own room with my purse. My purse doesn't contain much, except lip gloss, a brush, disposable camera, note pad, and hair ties I should add more accessories to my bag but I won't, I don't need to and I hardly need the stuff I have now. When I enter the room I can see right into the bedroom and out the window. The window calls my name as I drop my purse and walk to the window. I smile at the view of the ocean. Tomorrow morning I will soon be swimming in that ocean and away from Noah. I sigh and walk to my bed that has my belonging on it.

"Get to bed darling we'll have a busy day tomorrow at the crack of dawn- and yes I'll wake you up when the sun rises, we'll go up to the deck and watch it rise. Sound like a plan?" my daddy says as he unpacks his clothes. "Don't tell dad, it'll be our little secret." he smiles and continues.

I smile as I fall back into my bed. I push off my suitcase on the floor and began to throw out my clothing. My pink tank tops and skirts began to pile up in a heap and my father is behind refolding and putting them away as I continue to distribute my clothes from my bag. When I'm all finished I kiss my dad's good night and climb into my queen bed that I get all for myself. I smile when I close my eyes and sink into my bed.


I awake to a shake of my leg. My eyes open slowly; I blink, reopen my eyes and see my father by my face.

"It's morning, sun rise. Come on!" he smiles and I smile at his enthusiasm. "Grab a robe, we'll go down before dad wakes." he throws me the kids robe, I wrap it around my body and slip on my slippers and shuffle out of the room behind my daddy.

When I exit the hallway and onto the deck, I want to shred my robe because of how nice it feels outside. The sun is slowly rising I smile as the sea breeze cools my cheeks. I close my eyes and I hear the waves crashing beneath me.

"It's pretty," I say. Daddy turns and nods, he agrees.

"Indeed it is pumpkin, indeed it is." he sighs. We stay for a while and listen to the waves and the sun floating up like a hot air balloon. We got to ride one before arriving on the cruise. It slowly took off from the ground and faster if the man pulled the robe that made the flames bigger.

When we get back to our so-called "cabin" my daddy called it that, I see that my dad is up and drinking his coffee. I make my daddy some and I watch closely as I pour in the creamer and see the two colors mix and make a cream color. I take it to him and I walk to the room to get changed.

I dig through the drawls and pick out my pink swimming suit with my shorts and tank top to wear over it. I strip down and pull on my swim suit and pull over my clothes. My dad comes in and hands me the sun block I began to rub the smelly white stuff on my body and watch my daddy dig through his drawls. When I am covered white from the cream my dad has picked his clothed and walks to the bathroom to change.

I skip to the living area of the room and plop down on the coach and flip through the channels on the TV while I wait for my parents to get done. My daddy yells at me to pack a bag with extra clothes and other stuff like the band aids, sun block, etc. When I am done with my job I find that my dads are done and we're ready to go. I slip my bag over my shoulders and skip out of the room with my purse. We walk out to the deck area where our boat is waiting for us. We're going scuba diving. I follow behind my daddy and grab his hand for support as I step over the railing to the much smaller boat on wires. I walk and sit by my family and wait.

"Hey, Berry." I turn to my left at the name. Noah.

"What do you want Noah?" I ask as I roll my eyes.

"Nuthin, just chillin with you. Hey Mr. and Mr. Berry," Noah waves to my parents and they willingly wave back with a smile.

"Hello, Noah. Where's your family?" they ask him.

He points to the entrance of the boat where we got on the boat. Mrs. Puckerman steps onto the boat with Mr. Puckerman holding onto Sarah.

"Oh, well nice of you guys to join us, glad you could make it." My dad smiles. I turn to them with wide eyes.

"You invited them?" I ask.

They jump back surprised. "Well, yes- actually Noah asked if he could come but then we thought why not all of the Puckerman clan," Daddy smiles.

I smile and turn to look at the sea and calm my heart rate. I turn to look at Noah and hiss through my smile, "What are you trying to do? Ruin my vacation?"

He smiles back. "Trying to start mine," he says through his teeth.

"Well, leave me alone, or I'll tell your parents."

"What are you a baby?"

"No! I'm older than you, actually!" I whisper back.

"By five months."

"Well, I'm 8 and you're still 7," I rub in his face.

He rolls his eyes and turns to his family and I turn to my own as they pull over a bulky monkey suit that's supposed to keep us "safe."

When we arrive to where we're supposed to be a man starts to talk and I just want to swim in the ocean. "Daddy!" I whine to him.

He sighs and looks down to me, "What darling?" he asks.

"When are we going in the ocean?" I point to the blue water.

"In a while pumpkin, we're listening to the man talk right now." he points his thumb to the man still talking away.

I cross my arms and pout my lips. In the corner of my eye I see something; I turn and see Noah snickering. I frown and scrunch my eyebrows up and look to ocean. Finally I feel my arm being pulled and I jump up with a smile. "Swimming time?"

"Swimming time," my dad replies as he gives me a snorkel and a pair of goggles. I pull my hair up in a ponytail and slip on the goggles next I pull on some flippers and wait for the others. When we're all ready we all jump into the ocean water. When I look under the water I open my eyes to a whole different place. I see fishes swimming from all sizes to all colors than to the left I see more different fishes with wonderful bright colors. I stay in that one spot absorbing it all in. When you're under the water you can't hear anything but the water moving. Different spots in the water I saw the sun in the water, giving a different fish their own spot light. I smile and swim farther, where my parents were. When I come to the air, I fill my lungs with air and look around; the sun has traveled from the left side of the sky to the right. I had spent about an hour or so swimming around, I don't notice till' I see my wrinkly hands. I swim to the boat and use the ladder at the edge of the boat to help me to the top. When I step on the boat I sit down and strip off my stuff on my body: goggles, snorkel, life jacket, and flippers. I walk to the ice chest where the water and drinks are and pull out a juice. I turn and see Noah sitting by the edge looking down at the water.

"Why aren't you swimming?" I ask.

He whips around and stares at me. "Don't feel like it," he glares at me.

"Okay," I shrug and finish my drink quietly. When I am half way finished with my juice Noah gets up and walks to the ice chest and pulls out a drink.

"Why are you not swimming around, like a gold fish?" he places his drink on the counter with the lid off.

"I have been swimming for a long time, I'm thirsty." I tell him. I get up from my seat and walk to the counter where the snacks are settled.

"Well go back out," he throws a flipper at me and it falls to the floor.

I turn, "I don't want to right now." I throw it back.

He gets mad and walks to me. "Go," he says to my face.

"No," I say back and push him aside so I can reach the snacks.

He becomes madder and shoves me back. I fall back against the counter surprised I push him back and tell him, "You don't push a girl."

He's surprised. "Well-girls don't push back!" he pushes me again and this time I hit the juice and it spills on the man's stuff.

"Look what you did!" I yell.

"No! Look what you did!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"I'm going back to swimming" I scream back I put back on my gear and jump back into the ocean and distract myself with the fishes, the colors, and the quietness.

I hear the whistle, which means it's time to go back. I pull myself up from the water and onto the boat. "Have fun, baby girl?" dad and daddy ask as I wrap a towel around my body.

"Yes!" I tell them with a smile as I sit on the boat bench.

"Good," they say as they sit next to me.

They start counting us and make sure everyone who left with us is coming back. I began to feel my eyes get heavier and soon I fall asleep.

I wake when I feel my father shaking me. "Rachel, get up. It's an emergency." he says.

I open my eyes and see that everyone in the boat is up and I feel my skin pop up with goose bumps. The sky is dark when I find out why I'm so cold, rain has fallen and made my arm and hair wet, everyone is running around yelling at each other. "

"What's going on?"

"A sudden storm has fell upon us and the navigation system isn't working, water damage."

I nod and remain calm but I feel my heart speeding. Then I remember Noah's juice being spilled on the man's stuff. I wide my eyes and look to the "stuff." the man is looking at and keeps hitting, I turn to Noah who looks just as scared. I feel my body being moved and see my dad is placing a life jacket on my body.

"The storm is getting worse!" someone yells.

I look to the ground and see water on the floor and rising. I keep my eyes on it and tug on my daddy. "Daddy!" I yell and show him the water.

"We need to get out of the boat!" he yells. Everyone looks to the floor and sees why, they agree and hurry around looking for something. I don't know what to do so I pretend to do the same. I pull out a bag and someone swipes it away from me.

"Here! Here! Here it is!" he yells. He pulls something, maybe a string? Then a boat comes to view, a yellow one.

He throws it on the water and holds the robe that is connected to the boat. "The children first!" Mrs. Puckerman says. Everyone all agrees too. Then I am being lifted from the boat and onto the small yellow one. I can't see because of my hair in my face because of the wind blowing it everywhere. Then I hear yelling from the boat. I pull my hair out of my eyes and see that the boat isn't next to the yellow one. I see that this one isn't full but for two more people. I see my fathers and Noah's jump into the sea and try to reach it, I crawl to the edge and reach out, but it's no use, we're too far away.

"Daddy!" I yell. "Dad!" I shriek out.

"Mom!" I hear someone else yell. I turn and see Noah by me as he cries out. "Dad!"

Then I feel someone pull me back and Noah too. It's a man, the man who took the bag from me. "Stay away from the edge!" he says loud enough for us to hear over the waves crashing onto the little boat.

I stay away from the edge like he said and stay where I am and curl up in a ball. The storm becomes bigger and I feel the waves getting bigger too. Somewhere between the end of the storm and the morning I fall asleep. When I wake again I see the sun in the sky and the ocean but I'm not on it. I turn and see Noah next to me on sand. I push myself up look around: I see trees and sand and the ocean and that's it. I stand and walk to where the waves are. Then I smell the smell of smoke, it I turn and see black smoke being in the sky, I follow it. I see the man and a huge fire.

"You're a wake!" he yells. He walks to me and gives me a hug.

"Where are we?"

He frowns and looks around. "I'm not too sure."

"Is my father's here?" I ask as I look around.

"I'm afraid not, girl" he says as he turns away from me.

"But don't worry, girl, I'll get you and your friend off this island, if it's the last thing I do." he gives me a part smile, and I know I might not see my family again. "Why don't you go wake that boy, and make sure he isn't hurt." he nods and walks to the fire.

"My name is Rachel, Rachel Berry." I say to him. "Not girl!"

"Go wake him, Rachel." he says again and throws a something in the fire that makes the fire black. I walk away from him and to Noah. When I see Noah he's up and confused.

"Hi." I say.

"Hi." he says moody and gets up. "Where are we?" he asks.

I shake my head and turn away. "My mom and dad?" he asks with something in his eyes, hope maybe, but I'm not sure.

I shake my head again. "But we do have someone with us, that's a grown up." I tell him with a fake smile. Right when I finish the sentence the man comes yelling from the fire with a crab running after him. Noah turns to me and sighs, "We're going to die."


Tell me what you think, should i keep writing?