Author's note: So… umm, hi. I just have a few things to mention and then all of us can continue reading another chapter of the story, ok?

1. If anyone wants to be a beta reader for this story, feel free to speak up. My grammar is shit even in my own native language so I can't promise any quality in this piece of fiction. I have no idea how I managed to graduate with the amount of mistakes I make in my writing, haha.

2. For now I have some stuff written in advance so there should be regular updates for a little bit. I can't make any guarantees for the future, though, since I have way too much shit going on – moving back to London/ finding a cheap room to rent/ finding a job, etc. I'll try to be nice and update as much as I can but life has a tendency to fuck plans up so I apologize in advance for all the times I will probably disappear.

3. Thanks for taking an interest in this story. My ego appreciates this.

And now back to the story.
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There aren't that many tourists here, which is probably because they are either still crawling through the ship taking pictures of every ornament they find, or they are unpacking. Both options are completely plausible. It's actually a good thing because it's not that hard to notice other crew members. A tall girl dressed in a white button up shirt and white skirt is the closest to me so I drag my suitcase towards her. She is looking around, probably trying to find someone on the deck.

"Hey, could you tell me where Mr. Fugazi is?"

She looks at me and narrows her eyes in attempt to remember. Her red hair is perfectly tied in a bun; I can't see even a single loose strand. Her full red lips start moving and I focus my attention back to what she is saying. It's always distracting when a pretty girl is talking, even when she is not my type. Although, this girl is probably everyone's type.

"I think I saw him by the Children's Pool over there in the front. Just keep walking to this direction" she motions to something behind her with her hand, "And you should find him."

"Thanks" I politely smile and proceed to the shown direction.

"Are you new here?"

"What?"

"Are you going to work on this cruise?"

The girl has raised her eyebrow indicating that she is genuinely interested.

"Yeah I'm on children duty."

"Oooh, poor you, for the past two trips the kids here were" She quickly looks around to check that there are no passengers around her to overhear, "Complete assholes. I swear most of the crew wanted to throw them overboard at least once."

I awkwardly chuckle and flex my fingers while holding the suitcase.

"I guess exciting times are waiting for me."

The girl smiles and nods.

"You can bet on that. This ship is almost always carrying annoying children. The last girl had to quit because she couldn't take it anymore."

Well that's great news knowing my medical history and emotional state.

"Seems like I chose the perfect way to spend 3 months of my life."

"Well you might get lucky and end up with decent ones. Who knows, right?" She says while starting to walk away.

"Yeah, I'll have to get a prayer circle to pray for me" I absent-mindedly respond while moving to opposite direction.

She chuckles and looks back at me.

"I'm Addison, but everyone calls me Addie, come over to my table when we'll be having dinner tonight."

"I'm Arizona and I'll do that, see you around."

The girl nods and walks up to some tourist who judging from his facial expression seems to be lost. She moves in that simple all-American girl fashion, not too sexy, but still with little sex appeal at the same time. I would so hit on her under normal circumstances… like if she weren't a colleague, or a person who I will have to share limited amount of space with, or that my mental stability is not exactly, well, stable. I can't afford going crazy in the middle of the sea.

I successfully find the kids pool, which ironically has a no swimming sign. There is an Asian guy fixing one of the lounge chairs position to my right.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Fugazi?"

The guy ignores me for a couple of seconds while moving the chair a few millimeters and suddenly turns to me. He looks like he's in his fifties, with some grey in his stubble and head hair. He has a small beer gut, but somehow it makes him look more approachable, kind of like a Santa Claus effect.

"Yes, that's me."

"Right, I'm Arizona Robbins, I'm here for the job… the childcare one…"

He narrows his eyes and just stares at me for a few seconds. It's slightly awkward since he is not even blinking. Maybe he is having a vision or something, maybe he's like a ghost whisperer. Nah, he needs huge boobs and incredibly well-maintained hair for that.

"Oh yeah yeah, I remember now. You're a bit early; the crew meeting is only a few hours later."

"Aaah, yeah I know, it said in the letter that I should come earlier because of my medical history… I need to sign some papers or something…"

The guy seems to get lost in thought again but now he's looking up at the sky in attempt to remember what I was talking about. Suddenly his eyes snap back to me.

"Oh right, yeah, you're the girl with no experience and… stuff…"

I don't even attempt to fully smile, just slightly lift a corner of my lips to indicate the acknowledgement of his sentence. It's not fun to be remembered as a crazy girl who slashed her own wrists. Mr. Fugazi motions for me to follow him and I'm not sure if I should be happy or not. On one hand I finally arrived after all this time, on the other hand this is it… I can't get out of this now; no more available choice of return… also my hand feels like it's on fire by now. I really should have fixed my suitcase wheels before going on this journey.

I follow him through the ship, going right to the bridge. I read somewhere that seeing the captain on a cruise ship is like spotting a celebrity. I might get some cool point out of this experience I guess.

Mr. Fugazi quickly opens the door and holds them open for me to enter. There are people walking around, I think checking that all the equipment is not damaged. No captain around or at least no one that looks like a captain: no wooden leg, a parrot on a shoulder or a pipe between the lips.

There is a small office on the right, slightly hidden by either very misplaced or cleverly situated to mask the entrance decorative tree. We walk in and the guy pulls out some papers out of a drawer.

"Just sign these; it's saying that we will not be liable if you suddenly become a danger to yourself or someone else."

Oh. Just that. Nothing big.

Mr. Fugazi hands them to me and looks at me impatiently. I think he expects me to sign them without even skimming over what it says. In the back of my mind I can feel alarms going off saying that if I actually take my time to read I will annoy him, which will result in my job becoming more nerve-wrecking than it should be. I guess I'll have to read extra fast.

My eyes scan over the words fully knowing that this contract will make me feel even more under pressure than usual and I look up to Mr. Fugazi.

"Do you have a pen I can borrow?"

He is fixing a stack of papers placed on a filling cupboard. He might have some OCD thing because he is really attentive to even slightly misplaced objects. He doesn't even turn his face towards me.

"There should be one on a table."

I scan over the table and find a pen under some kind of small map. Quickly signing the contract while feeling like I'm signing my soul away to Satan, I put the pen back and hand the papers to Mr. Fugazi.

"Great. Now you need to leave the ship and come back later since I don't have the authorization card for you yet."

And I had to come here to sign the fucking papers 2 hours earlier than everyone else for this. It took me like 10 minutes. Great. Another smoking break it is…

"Ok, thanks, bye."

Mr. Fugazi waves his hand and resumes his paper fixing task. I awkwardly escape the ship that now actually feels to be even more filled with annoying people. God. Three fucking months of this.

Why do they even have the meeting so late anyways? I mean don't they need someone to look after the children when the parents are moving into their cabins? This is so unnecessarily unstructured.

The shadow under the tree that I previously occupied has been taken over by some random group of teenagers. I immediately move further away from them while internally telling myself that I'm an adult and I shouldn't be intimidated by some random kids.

I finally find some free space on a bench facing towards the sea. It really does have a great view; it's perfect for the healthy minutes of filling my lungs with smoke.

A cigarette later I realize that I am very, indescribably bored. My iPhone needs to have its battery preserved just in case - that piece of equipment loses 20 percent just by turning on a Tetris app. A book it is then. I take it out of my backpack and soon immerse myself in the land of fiction.

Time goes by quickly enough and I finally head back to the entrance of the ship, where as I can see a small group of people have accumulated. There is still around 15 minutes left, so I stand a bit to the side and light another cigarette. I think no one has even noticed that I'm standing near them. That's good; I'm not in my social mood yet. My brain is still focused on the book in my backpack, trying to make sense of what I've been reading for the last couple of hours. In the corner of my eye I notice something familiar. And then the laugh. The wonderful confident girly laugh. Oh god. It can't be.

I turn my head and see the girl from the shopping mall casually talking with one of the guys in our small little group. Whyyyy... why must she be here… I knew this is going to be hell, I mean I signed my soul away not so long time ago now. Why must overly-confident and beautiful girl with definite self-righteous personality be here? I bet she thinks the world owes her something. She is so pretty that she is used to everyone giving her all their attention and offering her everything they can. Entitled little brat. Her parents probably own this whole cruise ship or something. Why else would she be here.

I finish my cigarette and notice a few people giving me strange glances. Why are they… oh shit, did I grunt out loud when I was thinking about that girl? Please tell me I didn't. Of course I did, my own body is trying to sabotage my social life.

Mr. Fugazzi appears out of nowhere. I swear he wasn't here a second ago. Crouching tiger, hidden dragon, huh.

"Hello, my name is Mr. Fugazi. No you cannot know my first name as I am not your friend but employer."

A few people immediately lower their hands. I guess they really wanted to know his name.

"Our main goal is to provide the best possible customer service. Most of you are going to end up in groups of two, depending on what job you signed up for. It is extremely likely that the person you'll be working with is your roommate as well."

A few people release a few "oh's" and "ah's".

"What else did I miss… umm… there is going to be a complimentary dinner for all employees tonight… well not all, since the ship can't function without someone working. Anyways, you will meet some of our old workers, get to know each other and enjoy a nice meal as well. I have all of your authorization cards here and the room list. So, when I call your name you need to step up and take the card. I will call out your roommates name and after he or she gets their card you get the room keys and can go on your way to your cabin. The rest of instructions will be told during the dinner."

Mr. Fugazi takes out a list out of his pocket, which is so neatly folded that I think he used a ruler for that. He clears his voice and looks at us.

"Also there is no change in rooms. Well, that will only happen if you try to kill each other or something. We do not and I can't stress this enough, we do NOT care about your petty disagreements, we do not have time to solve your problems. Please act like adults and work well with the group. Everyone got that?"

He looks at everyone and somehow does make us feel threatened. It's probably that unblinking stare that he has going on that lets him be so intimidating.

"First we have a few kitchen porters joining our team. Jackson Avery, could you please come up here and take your card?"

A guy dressed completely in black comes up to him. He kind of looks like he just got here from a bank robbery – black jeans, black trainers, black sweater. He's missing a bandit hat, but that can easily be purchased from a nearby store, I'm sure.

"Here you go. Your roommate is Alex Karev, please come here Alex."

Another guy comes up, but my attention gets distracted by a random kid falling over his little sister in the street. I quietly chuckle and hear my name being called out.

"Arizona Robbins, childcare services, come here please."

I drag my suitcase past the little group and I can feel all of them sizing me up and judging if I'm friendly. I take the card and check the photo on it. I look relatively ok, not like I own 10 cats in my parents' basement as I do in all of my other photos. I stuff it in my pocket and look expectantly at Mr. Fugazi. He is checking the list. Then he lifts his eyes and widely smiles.

"Alright, your partner in crime is… Crystal Torres."

I raise both of my eyebrows. Am I the only who thinks that's a bit of a strippers name? No insult to anyone with that profession, I just didn't expect any on this cruise… and in childcare services…