Angelica's Adventure Part Three
Disclaimer, Rugrats belongs to its original owners and no infringement is intended. Zack and Celeste belong to Celrock.
Over the course of the weekend Charlotte and Drew Pickles informed Stu and Didi, Didi's parents, the Watanabe-Finster family, the Deville family, and even the Carmichael family of their invitations to cruise with them in the Caribbean. Of course they all accepted as it was about a year since their last big cruise vacation together (the one that Stu almost ruined and where they got to meet the Thornberries) and nothing else was really going on this summer.
Sadly though, Zack Wehrenberg and his Aunt Celeste couldn't come as he and Celeste were visiting family for the month.
As promised, Drew took his daughter, Angelica, to the clothing market to get her the new outfits once the weekend was over. He also kept a close eye on her when she played with her cousins and friends to make sure she kept her promise to be nicer in the week leading up to the cruise. Of course Angelica didn't like when grownups were watching her.
Soon the day had arrived and the families packed their bags and headed to the airport and boarded a 747 in rout to Florida. The flight was going smoothly although Charlotte was irritable that first class was full and that she had to sit in middle class like everyone else.
"Don't these airline people know who I am," Charlotte growled to her husband "I'm Charlotte Pickles, CEO of Mega Corp."
Angelica Pickles couldn't help but realize that whenever her mom was freaking out over stuff like this it was actually really funny. She gave herself a naughty giggle.
"Huh?" went Susie Carmichael sitting in the seat next to her.
"Oh nothing" Angelica responded.
She looked down at her new cloths she was wearing, a purple long sleeve shirt with orange on the cuffs, neck collar, and bottom lining as well as a blue and green spotted skirt. She than swung her head back up against her seat and growled.
"Girr, I'm so bored!" the blond whined.
"Why don't we talk to pass the time," suggested Susie. "Your mommy told me we're going to meet your cousin, Anthony, are you excited about seeing him?"
Angelica than heard a voice above her ask "you have another cousin?"
Angelica looked up to see her younger cousin, Dil, hanging on the top of her seat looking down at her curiously.
"Ever heard of privacy, Shorty," the girl snapped.
"Hey Angelica," Susie partially snapped back "you know what your daddy told you would happen if you were mean to anyone."
"I know, I know, I'll get no snack later," Angelica grumbled.
"You never tolled'ed us you have another cousin," said her other cousin, Tommy popping up from behind her seat as well.
"Yeah, Anthony's from my mommy's side of the family," said Angelica.
"What's he like," asked Dil.
"Oh he's really big and really scary," said Angelica in her scary tone "and he hates dumb babies."
Susie noticed Tommy and Dil looking a bit nervous.
"Okay Angelica we all know your making this up to scare them," she said.
Angelica just turned and stared out of the window as Susie assured the Tommy and Dil that there cousin was most likely just fibbing as usual and that Anthony would probably be really cool. Of course no one realized that for once Angelica might have actually been telling the truth even if she enjoyed the prank of seeing her younger cousins get scared. Deep down she was actually really worried about their safety even if she didn't show it.
Eventually the plane arrived in Florida where everyone got off and spent the night at a hotel. That very next day they all headed to the shipping port where the cruise ship they were to sail, the M.S. Sea-Wise Odyssey, was docked ready for her trip through the Caribbean.
Angelica, Susie, and the Rugrats all looked up at the massive cruise liner in awe. It was far bigger than the one they all went on before. Its gigantic blue hull alone towered over them like the hotel they stayed at in Euro-Reptar Land. And that wasn't including all the balcony decks that were three times as high as the hull on their own.
"Wow, I thinks it's even bigger than Reptar-Land, Dilly," said Tommy to his little brother.
"Defiantly way bigger," said Dil.
"It must be very easy to get lost in to," said Chuckie.
"You mean to go on adventures in," added his sister Kimi.
"And I bet it has all the sweets I can eat," said Angelica as she smelled the aroma of baking goods from the ship. She then noticed her dad and uncle Stu arguing in the background.
"For the last time Drew, I didn't soil myself on that fishing trip!" yelled Stu, "it was the stink-bate!"
"Oh really" said Drew.
"Would you boys pipe down," said Lou their father and Angelica's, Tommy's, and Dil's grandfather.
"They remind me of me and my brother when we used to argue over work back in Old Country," said Boris, Tommy's and Dil's maternal grandfather in his Russian accent.
Angelica laughed at the whole seen until she heard her mom speak in the background.
"William, is that you," said Charlotte.
Angelica turned to see a familiar tall goateed blond man with a smile on his face approaching her mom.
"Ah Charlotte it's been too long," he said hugging his younger sister.
"Far too long," said Charlotte, "Drew, Angelica!"
Drew was snapped out of his argument with his brother and walked over to his wife.
"Come on Angelica," he said to his daughter, "let's say hi to your uncle William."
Angelica followed her dad to her mom and uncle.
"I'm sure you remember my husband, Drew," Said Charlotte.
"Of course," Said William shaking hands with Drew. "And I'm sure you've been taking real good care of my little sister and niece," he continued at Drew in a passive aggressive tone.
"Of course I do," responded Drew in a slightly nervous tone.
"And speaking of my niece, where is our little Angel" William asked.
"I'm" *Ahem* "I'm right hear uncle William," Said Angelica trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.
William turned and looked down to see the four year old girl in pigtails.
"Well it looks like someone grew up fast," said William, "the last time I saw you, you were just a little baby and now you are all grown up."
"Yep, and I can do all sorts of things dumb babies can't do," replied Angelica, forgetting for a second about her anxiety.
"That must be very fun," William said. "Anthony!" His voce suddenly shifted from happy to stern when calling his son.
A large (large by small children's standards) five year old boy approached. He must have been three times as big Angelica (and Angelica was already big for her age) with the same blonde hair only buzzed and a similar facial structure. But the most noticeable thing about him was the pink scar on his right cheek. That scar sent shivers down Angelica's spine.
"Say hello to your cousin, Angelica, Anthony" ordered William.
"Angelica" said Anthony in a well-mannered but intimidating and slightly raspy voice. "It's been a long time cousin." A wicked smile crossed his face.
Angelica refused to make eye contact with him.
"Y-yah," she simply said.
"Oh, are these your friends" Anthony asked.
Angelica turned around to see Susie and the Rugrats behind her.
"Hi" said Susie, "I'm Susie, Angelica's friend."
"Nice to meet you Susie," said Anthony.
"Hi" said Kimi to Anthony, "I'm Kimi and this is my big brother Chuckie."
"Nice to meet you," added Chuckie.
"I'm Lillian," introduced Lil.
"And I'm Phillip," Added Phil.
"You two must be twins," said Anthony.
"We are," said Phil and Lil at the same time.
Anthony turned to Tommy and Dil. "And who are you," he asked.
"I'm Tommy Pickles" the small two years old introduced, "and this is my little brother Dilly."
"What's up," added Dil.
"We're Angelica's other cousins," continued Tommy.
"Other cousins, that's very interesting" said Anthony, "I imagen that you must enjoy the company of Angelica here." That wicked smile crossed his face again as he put an arm around his resentful cousin's shoulders. Poor Angelica felt like she was going faint.
As for Tommy, he was put on the spot a little by Anthony's question. Of course he often tried to avoid Angelica because she was mean to them but he didn't want to say that in front of her. And that wasn't just because he was afraid the she'd get mad but because he didn't want to make he upset even though she was always mean to him.
"Oh would you look at the time" said William in the background, "Sea-Wise Odyssey is ready to be boarded."
Just then the ship blew from its horn, everyone than headed up an escalator to the boarding entrance. Once in, they all gave their tickets to the ticket taker and were escorted to the Guest Services Office to meet their personal tour guide William had arranged for them.
"Hello" said a smiling young woman with black hair and dressed in an all-white jacket and skirt holding a clipboard. Her shoulder epaulets each bore two gold stripes separated by a single white stripe. "My name is Andrea Otonashi, the Assistant Guest Services Officer. I will be your personal tour guide."
Andrea led the families through a short but very wide hallway, with large paintings on the walls, and into a gigantic lobby.
"This is the Greater Lobby," said Andrea, "hear you can easily access all the major restaurants, shops, spas, bars, theaters, and activity clubs toward the front of the ship."
Angelica looked up; the lobby was so big and extended so far up that it was like standing inside a hollowed out skyscraper. Six glass elevators moved up and down all around her and people could be seen using stairs and looking over the railings all the way up.
They then continued the tour through the main theater and the ship's hospital in the ship's bow. After that Andrea led them back through the lobby and up a wide staircase.
"And now we are passing through the Sea-Wise Promenade," said Andrea.
Both the adults and the children looked in awe at the Promenade. It was a huge opening deep inside the ship that extended from the Greater Lobby to the Ballroom towards the stern. It was literally like walking through a small city. In fact it was designed to look like a cross between a big city and the largest super-mall you had ever seen. Shops, restaurants, and just about every service possible were available in this Promenade.
Angelica caught a whiff of some chocolate chip cookies backing in one of the shops next to her. She looked around and saw several other shops selling sweets of all kinds, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, ice cream…
Angelica's mouth watered and her stomach groaned in greedy hunger.
"Daddy" Angelica asked her father, "May I get some cookies?"
"Not yet" responded Drew, "but as long as you are good on the whole vacation, I'll let you eat as many sweets as you want during the cruise. But you still got to eat heathy foods to, okay."
"Okay Daddy," said Angelica. Her tummy continued to groan as if begging her to run in one of the shops and stuff as many goodies in her mouth as possible.
After passing through the Sea-Wise Promenade the tour continued through the Grand Ballroom and through the rest of the ship. The Sea Wise-Odyssey literally had everything you could have on a cruise ship. There were carnival like rides, an onboard aquarium, and impressive water slides at the stern. The ship also boasted various pools, both diving pools and wading pools. Once the tour was over every one was led to their cabins, all of which were arranged side by side each other so the families could get to one another easily. That is except for Charlotte's, Drew's, and Angelica's cabin which was a first class suite located near the front of the ship near William's and Anthony's cabin. William had arranged for his sister's family to have a very luxurious suite to which she was very happy about.
As Angelica entered the cabin with Drew she saw her mom hugging her uncle William and thanking him for everything.
"Thank you so much for everything Will," said Charlotte to William.
Angelica looked around the oversized double floured suite. It might as well have been a small house. There was everything, a small refrigerator, a huge HD plasma TV, and an over spacious balcony with its own hot tub.
"Look Princess," said Drew to his daughter, "you get your own room hear."
Drew took Angelica up the small spiral staircase and into one of two bedrooms that were part of the suite. Angelica's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when she saw the loads of new Cynthia merchandise on the bed.
"For me!" asked Angelica grinning.
"For you," said William down stairs.
Angelica jumped on the bed and looked at all her new toys wondering which one she should play with first. As she was about to open the new Golden Chrome Cynthiamobile, her greedy excitement disappeared when she noticed that Anthony, with his creepy, and almost evil grin, was standing outside of her room just staring at her. There was then a three note chime from the speakers in the cabin.
"Ladies and Gentlemen" said a man on the announcer, "this is your Captain, Bruce Anderson, speaking. We will soon begin our lifeboat emergency drill and once that is finished we will make way. That will be all, thank you." That tree note chime sounded off again.
"Come on Anthony," ordered William.
Anthony followed his dad out of the suite leaving Angelica slightly trembling with her new toys.
End of Part Three