AN: This is the rather wordy "informative" chapter where you learn where they are going and such. The actual disaster won't happen until they have visited several ports of call…hope you like it.
Chapter Two: Chance of a Lifetime
After Cody's phone call to Barbara, and Zack's call to Max, both sets of parents had requested a personal meeting with Carey and London to go over the specifics of the program.
That evening Carey, London, Zack, and Cody were all seated around a table in the Brownstein dining room with the Brownstein's and the Montgomery's while Carey went over all the material she had been able to gather from Mr. Moseby.
With each passing minute, Cody could sense that the dads not only liked the idea of the program, but definitely wanted to send their daughters. Their wives on the other hand, were being…well fretful mothers.
"It will give her the opportunity to see the world…and look here honey; they even have an advanced orchestra program in which the class meets right in the ship's grand ballroom!" Mr. Brownstein said to his wife.
"I'd be in that class with her!" Cody tossed in, obviously brimming with excitement.
"Let's not forget to mention that Mr. Tipton himself would be paying for them" Mr. Montgomery added.
"How long would she be gone again?…Oh and what if something awful happened out on the ocean…so many things can happen" Mrs. Brownstein said.
"Yeah, you hear all the time about people disappearing from cruise ships or getting food poisoning" Mrs. Montgomery added.
Cody began typing furiously on the laptop his mother had brought to show the presentation while Carey tried a different approach.
"The students will be monitored at all times by various Tipton and Semester-at-Sea personnel…according to this, the only time the students are allowed off their designated deck, which is located here in the middle of the ship where they have their classes, dine, and bunk, is at certain hours of the day. At these various times, small supervised groups are taken up to the top decks for recreation…kind of like recess periods…there is a 1 hour morning, 2 hour afternoon, and 1 hour evening recreation time. Like normal school, the students have the weekends off but are still closely supervised. When the ship comes into port the students are led ashore by their homeroom teachers and remain with them at all times while field experiments in cultural and scientific studies are carried out, then they are led back to the ship to bed down…" she said.
"Oooo, and daddy says the students all wear this little bracelet thingie that goes up to the satellites and back to the ship so the teachers know where they are at all times!" London piped in.
"And you don't have to worry about safety at sea…" Cody began turning the laptop so the two families could see.
"…Mr. Tipton's new ships are not only the biggest yet built, but they have the latest safety equipment and multiple backup systems. Shown here is a test on a model that shows how the ships can weather even a category 3 hurricane!" he added.
"Well Cody, theTitanic had the latest and greatest too and look what happened to it" Mrs. Brownstein said.
Cody looked defeated, but to his credit, both families began to look at the information about the ships that he had brought up.
"About the food thing, I heard they got chef Paulo to be the chief chef on the ship we're all signed on to" Zack said.
"And knowing him like I do, food poisoning is the last thing you'll need to worry about" Cody added.
"I think we should let her go hon" Mr. Montgomery said.
"As do I" Mr. Brownstein said.
"Well, if the instructors are half as good as Mr. Tipton is boasting, we won't have to worry about a second rate education" Mrs. Brownstein said.
Zack made sure no one could see him, and then rolled his eyes.
"It's the chance of a lifetime, an all expense paid trip around the world! What could be better!?" Zack said.
"What do you think Marsha?" Mrs. Brownstein said to Max's mom.
"Oh what the heck, I'm actually getting envious the more I hear about it…okay!" Mrs. Montgomery said.
Zack, Cody, Max, and Barbara all jumped up excitedly giving high fives and shouting.
The next day at school Zack and Cody were busy giving the same presentation to their friends and peers. Carey had had sufficient pamphlets printed out and Cody had created a more advanced show on his laptop that their friends could take home on their flash drives and show their parents.
Carey and London made themselves available to speak to whichever family wanted more in depth information such as the Brownstein's and Montgomery's had wanted.
By day's end Zack and Cody each had their 14 people signed up. They each had an additional friend of theirs coming along and, to be fair, the twins had created a raffle during their lunch time and fellow peers had been randomly selected. Unfortunately, Zack noticed one of the school's top bullies, Russell, had won one of the spots. On the bright side, Bob and Mark were going along!
Maddie, as luck would have it, had been accepted at her top pick college on the same day London approached her so she decided not to accept the offer. London decided to take Chelsea Brimmer in her place. Mia was definitely on board.
Everything was set; they would all be leaving at week's end.
The twins sat in their room talking about what the trip was going to be like, Cody showing Zack different pages on the laptop as the pair sat on Cody's bed.
"What's the name of our ship again?" Zack asked.
"Poseidon, it's the middle ship of the three" Cody said.
"That's an odd name for a ship" Zack said.
"Not really, in Greek mythology Poseidon was the god of the sea, so it makes perfect sense to name a ship that" Cody replied.
"Leave it to a dork to know that" Zack said shifting to lie on his stomach on Cody's bed.
Cody sighed shrugging off Zack's comment even though it stung.
"Show me all the places that we'll be going to again!" Zack said.
"I already showed you 10 times" Cody replied.
"I know, I know, but I forgot some of em'" Zack said.
Cody smiled and reloaded the map of the ships course.
"Our particular semester-at-sea course is the Pacific package, so we'll start out hitting the Bahamas before heading south through the Caribbean Sea and down along the South American coast. We'll be stops in Brazil and Argentina before rounding the tip of South America and heading out into the open Pacific. We go all the way over to Pago Pago Island, New Zealand, Australia, then up to Taiwan, China, and Japan, before cutting back east hitting Hawaii and ending up in San Francisco. When we dock there, London's plane will fly us back to Boston" Cody explained and Zack watched all the locations light up.
"Wow, I'm looking forward to the Bahamas and Hawaii the most…think of all the babes!" Zack said hopping off Cody's bed to get in his own.
Despite being a nice thought for Cody as well, he nevertheless rolled his eyes at Zack.
"That really is all you think about isn't it?" Cody asked.
"You make it sound like a bad thing" Zack replied.
"Not a bad thing, no, but there are other things out there to think about" Cody said
"Yeah, like what 'Greek mythology'" Zack said yawning.
Cody just looked down at his bed.
"Let's try and get some sleep…the sooner we do the sooner it'll be time to head to Miami to catch the boat" Zack said turning over.
But sleep didn't come easy to Zack and Cody that night. Each kept thinking about what lie ahead. What had seemed to them a bad idea at first had turned into a dream come true, to sail the high seas with their friends.
What actually awaited them was nothing short of a nightmare.