Chapter Four: New Home
As they walked through the gangway door and into the ship they found themselves in the main lobby. Two red carpeted staircases descended into the main part of the room. The ceiling was a massive round skylight and glass elevators lined the walls, carrying passengers to their desired deck. As they walked down the stairs with their luggage they looked every which way, trying to take it all in.
"Okay, this is cool!" Max exclaimed.
"No kidding it is, look at this place…it makes the Tipton look like a 2 star motel!" Cody replied.
They stood staring a moment longer before Zack finally snapped the group out of it.
"Our cabins are on deck 5, this is deck 8, so we have to go up three levels" he said.
"Thank you captain obvious, wait…did you just do math in your head!" Cody asked him in an astonished voice.
Zack shot his brother a look of death.
Cody just laughed "well let's get going then, I can't wait to see this so called 'school deck'!" he said.
"Yeah, let's hurry up and get the nerd to his new habitat" Zack said
Now it was Cody's turn to give the look of death.
"Okay you guys, stop the sniping, it's giving me a headache" Max said as they began walking towards one of the elevator enclaves.
"Don't you think that's from the heat outside and not me and Cody?" Zack asked.
"Its both" Max replied.
They were directed down a hallway towards the bow where they eventually came to a bank of three of ordinary looking elevators. These, they were told, provided service to deck 5 whereas the glass ones in the lobby did not. They walked up and Max pressed the up button. When the car arrived they got in and took the elevator up to deck 5. When the doors opened the group was surprised to see a relatively normal school type hallway lined with lockers and doors to classrooms.
Overhead signs directed the students to two separate areas where the cabins were. The girls cabins were located towards the stern and the boys cabins towards the bow.
"Well, that's just typical…put all the girls on the complete opposite end of the…" Zack began to rant but stopped short when he saw Max glaring at him. "…I mean what a great idea!" he added.
The commons area, where the students would eat, was located by the elevators.
"The people at the booth said we're supposed to drop our stuff off in our rooms and meet back here for our schedules…" Barbara said.
"Yeah, ok, then I guess we'll see you in a bit then" Cody said and they parted ways.
Zack, Cody, Mark, and Bob headed off towards the bow and soon arrived at a set of double doors that were guarded by SAS staff. The staff instructed them to use their room key cards to open the doors which they then did. Through these doors the décor of the hallway changed to a more hotel-like pattern. Zack and Cody were amazed to see that the carpet pattern was the same as back at the Tipton.
"If we get in our room and it looks exactly like our suite from the hotel, I'm gonna faint" Zack said.
"Yeah, remember when we got to Hollywood and our suite at that Tipton was almost identical to ours in Boston?" Cody said.
"Yeah, that was crazy" Zack replied.
"I doubt it will be that large, I'm guessing it will have two desks and bunk beds" Cody said.
"You saw a picture of the cabins on the site didn't you?" Zack asked.
"Yep" Cody replied smiling.
They came to a cross hall and read the sign that directed them to their cabin number which was 12. Bob and Mark were in cabins 43 and and 47 respectively which were to the right, opposite the direction Zack and Cody's cabin was in.
"See ya in a bit guys" Cody said as they split up.
Bob and Mark waved and headed off. Once they got alone Zack was barely able to contain his excitement.
"Sweet! It looks like were gonna get a cabin with a window!" Zack said.
They turned right again and began to notice the curvature of the hallway angling towards the very front point of the ship. They arrived at their cabin right before their hallway ended in a U-turn with the starboard side hallway.
Cabin 12 was one of the very first port side cabins. Cabins 11-1 were further down, and they noticed that once a person made the U-turn, the starboard side cabins began with the number 60.
"Huh, we could have kept walking with Bob and Mark and we would've eventually ended up here" Cody said glancing down the rest of the hallway.
Zack swiped his key card and the twins entered their cabin. Sure enough, there was a large porthole at the far end with two desks facing to their left and white metal bunk beds to their right. The entire room was probably 15 by 15 foot square.
"I get top bunk!" Zack said.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…why do you get the top?" Cody said stopping Zack from plopping his stuff on the top bunk.
"Because I'm older" Zack replied.
"That's not actually true you know…we began our existence at exactly the same time!" Cody argued.
"How do you figure that!" Zack asked.
"Learn biology!" Cody retorted.
"I was still born first!" Zack said.
Cody sighed calming down and trying a new approach.
"Let's just come up with a simple, fair way to decide this" Cody said
"Okay, how?" Zack asked.
"Well, clearly we can't have a spelling contest…or a math contest…or a history contest…" Cody began.
"Or a dork contest…" Zack added
Cody frowned and glared at Zack.
"Okay, rock, paper, scissors" Zack said.
Cody agreed and they began a best out-of-three challenge which Cody won.
"Aww man" Zack said, putting his stuff on the bottom bunk.
"Its cool bro, we can trade on and off…I'll make up a schedule" Cody replied.
"Agreed" Zack replied.
The two spit in their hands and shook on it.
Cody let Zack have the desk by the porthole and he took the other one. They unpacked their school supplies and placed their laptops on their desks. When they had settled in they grabbed their schedules, left their cabin, and went back to the commons to meet up with the rest of their peers from their school as they had previously planned while still on the charter bus.
When they arrived they made sure everyone, including Russell, was accounted for. They had all made the trip and the boarding and had settled in without loosing anyone.
Soon the large, elegantly styled commons filled up with the rest of the students and the director called everyone to attention.
"Welcome to the Poseidon Semester-at-Sea students, I'm Director Hoss. You can think of me as your principal during our voyage. Hopefully you've all gotten settled in without any problems but in case you did encounter a problem this is Mrs. Hector and she can help you sort it out. Now, we will not be departing for another four hours or so and we would like you to use the time to get familiar with this deck and all the rooms and labs. To do this we will have all the teachers line up over here and you will group up with your appropriate homeroom teacher and follow them to your homeroom" Director Hoss said.
The SAS teachers lined up holding large name tags that everyone could see from a distance. Zack, Cody, Bob, Mark and the girls all got out their schedules and made their way over to the appropriate teacher.
It was no surprise that Zack and Cody had the same homeroom teacher, they always did. Their same last name was responsible for that.
Max had their homeroom as well but Barbara, Mark, and Bob had a different one.
Once in their homeroom, Mrs. Archer, their teacher, handed out some papers and went over the shipboard rules.
They learned that when the school day was over, it's beginning and ending times the same as normal high school; they were free to go anywhere on the ship as long as they logged on an electronic board where they were going. These boards tied into to the GPS tracking systems the students wore. This way, if the student ended up in a location that they did not designate on the board, the system could alert the staff who would then investigate. The log boards were located not only in the homeroom, but throughout the ship as well. This made it so students did not need to come back to their deck 5 homeroom to update their location.
"Allow me to demonstrate…" Mrs. Archer began "…say you begin here and you intend to go to the boat deck for some sun, you swipe your card and type in where you plan to go and any stops you plan to make along the way. If you get to the boat deck and you decide to go somewhere else, simply find another terminal like this one, swipe your card and update the system" she said.
She further informed the group that whenever they intended to return to deck 5 that the system would need to be informed of that as well with the exception of when they returned for dinner at 7pm which the system already knew was mandatory.
"Kinda sounds complicated" Bob whispered in Cody's ear as the teacher paused momentarily.
"Not really, if you just make sure you swipe your card wherever you go there shouldn't be any trouble…it's all for safety's sake, you know, so they can keep an eye on us" Cody replied.
Students, of course, were not allowed in the ship's adult clubs, bars, casinos, and crew only areas. They could attend performances in the ships ballroom, movies at the cinema, go to the water park, visit the astronomy dome, lounge on the boat deck, hang out in the game rooms, and use the gyms and weight rooms. There was even a teen dance club they could go to.
It was forbidden to interfere with non SAS passengers. The students could interact with them but they could not in any way interfere with the enjoyment of their cruise. A strict code of respectfulness towards those in authority and other passengers was demanded. Consequences for disobedience and other rule breaking were laid out.
As for Carey's previously mentioned daily "recess" periods…the program had been modified at the last minute so that, during the 8am to 2:30pm school day, and a post school day study hour which lasted until 3:30pm, students were confined to deck 5. After 3:30pm they were free to hang out wherever they wanted, reporting back to deck 5 only for dinner, until lights out at 11pm.
After a short tour of deck 5, where they were introduced to the libraries, labs, and the other classrooms, they were dismissed for the afternoon to get familiar with the rest of the ship.
Max and Barbara tore off together for deck 4 which was an entire mall from bow to stern. Zack, Cody, Bob, and Mark wanted to check out deck 10 where all the athletic things were.
After the boys had seen the gyms, weight room, Olympic size pool, tennis courts, and even an entire soccer field that could be used for baseball and football as well, Zack received a cell phone call from Carey asking them to come up to her suite on deck 2.
Along the way there, Bob and Mark decided to go check out the game rooms on deck 7 and separated from the twins.
When they arrived Zack and Cody were pleased to see that their mother's suite, since she was the headliner for the ship, was a very elegant two bedroom suite with an ocean view, balcony, kitchenette, and living room. Her bedroom even had a Jacuzzi in it.
"Wow mom, your really living it up here!" Zack said opening her refrigerator to find it fully stocked with food furnished by the company.
"Thanks honey, I like it. How are your cabins?" Carey asked them.
"Small, we have bunk beds, two desks, and a porthole…but it's adequate I guess" Cody said.
"Well, one thing I wanted to let you guys know is, I talked to Mr. Hoss and he said that anytime you two want to come up here and stay for the night that you could!" Carey said.
The twins looked at each other excitedly.
"One thing though guys, at least during the semester I would like for you to try and stick it out in your own cabin as much as you can…this should be a time of independence for you, to kind of live on your own like the other kids on board, okay?" she said.
"So, we can come stay here but only once in a while?" Zack asked.
"You got it" Carey replied.
Zack kind of groaned.
"I think mom is trying to 'cut the apron strings' a little" Cody said.
"Cut the what?" Zack asked.
"She wants us to treat this like we're away at camp, so we can learn to be free thinkers and not so dependent on her all the time, right mom?" Cody said.
"Actually I just want some peace and quiet for once in 15 years" she replied.
The twins glared at her.
"Kidding guys…" she said bringing them into her for a hug "…yes, I do want you to treat this like you're away at camp, it'll be a fun experience…but if, occasionally you want to come up here, that would be fine" Carey said.
"Awesome!" Zack said
"Yeah" Cody added.
"Well, after all, this ship isn't just your school…it's your new home…" she said.
They all looked at each other smiling.
"We'd better be getting out on deck; it's almost time for the ship to leave port!" Carey said.
Again, Cody's stomach took an inexplicable dive when he heard his mother's words. Strange thought Cody I must just be nervous about being on a ship.
Carey turned out the lights as all three of them left to go up on deck.