Short Chapter Summary: What happens when the Sunset Cruise ship goes haywire? Will everyone live? *Don't worry – it's not a drama. I'm not really into drama's.*
Disclaimer: You know the deal – go look on Chapter one, okay? Oh, and I don't own "Titanic" or associated characters, if it concerns anyone… o_0
The Cruise: Chapter Nine
Helga, Arnold, Gerald and Phoebe were all walking down the hall to their rooms, when all of the lights turned off.
"W…what's going on?" Phoebe asked nervously, tugging on Gerald's shirt.
"I don't know," Gerald answered, looking around the ship, and then putting an arm reassuringly around Phoebe.
"Criminey! Just our luck," Helga spat angrily. "What in the heck could be going wrong?" she yelled.
The P.A. system came on. "To anyone this message may regard, any boarders on the ship," a male's voice rang through the ship, "we have just come in close contact with an iceberg, and –" the P.A. system went fuzzy, and the ship rocked violently back and forth. Everyone fell over as a result.
Helga's eyes widened. "We're all gonna die!" she wailed.
Arnold looked determined. "Not if I can help it," he said bravely, struggling to stand up, but he stood up eventually.
"Come on guys," he said, looking down at Helga, Gerald and Phoebe who were helplessly lying on the ground. "I have a plan!"
Meanwhile, at the front of the ship…
"What do we do, Captain? It's like we're living on the Titanic!" one of the crewmembers wailed in an uptight manner.
The captain frowned. "We are not going to go down like the Titanic," he said quickly before the boat rocked violently again. The crewmember sobbed.
"We're all gonna die!" he panicked.
"No we're not," the Captain said, taking a sharp turn, and hitting the steering wheel as a result. The crewmember panicked. The Captain seemed to be out cold.
"Oh my gosh…oh my gosh!" the crewmember frantically ran around. "HELP!" he yelled.
Meanwhile…
"Did you just hear that?" Arnold asked no one in particular, as he ran down the hall with Gerald, Phoebe and Helga. They all nodded.
"It sounds like it came from the front of the ship," Arnold announced, running forward blindly in the dark.
After finally reaching the front of the ship, Arnold opened the door leading to the helm; where the crewmember and the Captain were.
"Is everything alright?" Arnold asked the crewmember.
The crewmember got wide-eyed. "If about to be dead, crashing into an iceberg, and living through the lives of the people on the Titanic is alright," the crewmember started hysterically, "then we're all fine. Yep – just peachy."
Helga rolled her eyes. "We don't have time for sarcasm, bucko!" she yelled impatiently, and the crewmember shrunk back.
"EVERYTHING'S NOT ALRIGHT!" he yelled in a panic.
"Ya think?" Helga said under her breath sarcastically.
"Okay," Arnold started calmly, "all we can do is be calm about this whole situation, and help the Captain-" Arnold stopped when he noticed the Captain's position as out cold.
"Uh guys," Arnold started, not taking his eyes off of the Captain, "the Captain's out cold," he stated the obvious.
Helga got wide-eyed. "What?" she rushed over to see the Captain, and Gerald and Phoebe followed.
"Gerald," Arnold said, shifting his attention to Gerald. "You take the lookout and navigator position, since you're tall." Gerald nodded.
"Phoebe," he said, turning to Phoebe. "You take the wheel!" Phoebe nodded and moved to the wheel, pushing the Captain gently out of the way.
"Helga," Arnold turned to Helga. "You'll be in charge of the accelerator," Helga nodded. "Okay, football-head."
"You," Arnold pointed to the crewmember. "Go get help, okay? Someone who's a professional." The crewmember nodded, and ran off quickly.
"And, I'll be in charge of the breaks," Arnold said running to the brakes, beside Helga and the accelerator.
"Turn Right," Gerald directed. Phoebe swung the wheel to the right, and kept twisting. "Okay – accelerate!" he commanded.
Helga pushed down hard on the acceleration pad. "Arnold," she said slowly.
Arnold looked up at Helga. "Yes, Helga?" he asked obliviously.
"Brakes!" Gerald yelled, and Arnold pushed down hard on the brakes.
"Just incase we…don't make it…" she said slowly. "You should know something."
Arnold blinked. "Okay…" he said slowly.
"Accelerate!" Gerald called.
Helga pushed hard on the acceleration pad. "All these years that I've taunted you, humiliated you, teased you," she started, "and everything I said on that Future Tech Building that night…well, I guess you should know that-"
"Brake, brake!" Gerald called urgently, and Arnold blinked back to reality, turning away from Helga and pushing hard on the break.
"Accelerate," Gerald yelled, "and turn left!"
"You were saying, Helga?" Arnold asked.
"Well…" Helga started, "everything I said was tr-"
"Turn right!" Gerald interrupted. "Accelerate harder!" he yelled at Helga.
Helga growled. "Listen, Geraldo," she yelled from the ground; "I'm accelerating as hard as I can!" she hissed, "STOP INTERRUPTING! I'm trying to confess, here!"
Gerald raised an eyebrow. "Confess? Confess…what?"
Helga blinked, and got wide-eyed. "Confess that…that I…uh…" Helga rubbed her arm nervously, as she pushed the other arm down on the acceleration pad.
"Uh…Helga," Phoebe interrupted quietly.
"I just wanted to confess that I…" Helga searched for an excuse.
"Helga," Phoebe repeated.
"What I meant by "confess"…was…" Helga started again.
"Helga!" Phoebe repeated urgently.
"What!?" Helga snapped, "what could you possibly want, NOW?"
"Well," Phoebe said quickly, "I think we're about to hit an iceberg so you might want to lay off the acceleration pad," she pointed out urgently.
Helga gasped, and let go of the acceleration pad quickly.
"Oh Criminey-" Gerald started. "Brakes, brakes!" he yelled; going back to his lookout position.
Arnold pushed hard on the brake pad, and glanced at Helga. "Helga, tell me what you were going to say…what you were going to confess," he said softly.
"Well…I was…just…" Helga started nervously, not making eye contact, as the boat rocked violently. Helga and Arnold's faces became inches apart, thanks to the rock. Arnold blushed slightly, and Helga just blinked nervously.
She turned away quickly. "Criminey! What's going on up there? You're supposed to be steering, not having a party for crying out loud!" she yelled angrily, referring to the violent rocking.
"We're doing the best we can," Gerald said quickly.
"Turn right!" he yelled to Phoebe, and she twisted the wheel as far right as she could. The boat rocked violently again, almost being tipped over, but it just made it.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief, except Helga. She stood up with a frown.
"Okay, I'll go get the balloons," she said with heavy sarcasm, referring to her last comment about having a party. She started to move towards the door.
"No, Helga," Arnold said, pulling on her dress lightly. "We need you down here. We need you to survive."
Helga looked down at Arnold. His eyes shone with honesty, love, kindness and bravery, and Helga gave in at the sight of Arnold. It was like he was saying he needed her to survive. Technically, in the spot they were in, he did, but Helga thought of his words as romantic.
She looked sceptically at him, as if to figure out what he meant.
"I need you," he said almost inaudibly, but Helga heard it. She would've died just to hear him say that.
'Arnold, my beloved. Do you love me back? Oh, how I pray that is the way things are. I need you, and you need me. Ooh! I'll always love you, no matter what you may feel for me,' she swooned to herself.
Helga nodded. "Okay," she said determinedly, moving back to her acceleration position, as Arnold smiled at her warmly.
"Thanks Helga. What made you come back?" he said with a cute smile.
"I…uh…felt guilty that without acceleration the boat might have gone down…and…I could've died because I wasn't there to save myself," she said quickly.
'Wow! I should get an award for all of these on-the-spot lies. I can smell an Emmy…' she thought to herself with a smile.
Arnold smiled; knowing the real reason was him. "Oh, okay," he said with a grin. "Thanks for coming back."
'Whoa…I do care about Helga. A lot. I didn't know I cared this much…' he thought to himself. 'Oh well. Love is actually pretty fun. Entertaining, sometimes confusing- but fun,' he told himself with a smile.
"Accelerate!" Gerald called urgently. Apparently he had been calling it for a while but Helga hadn't heard.
"Oh…right," Helga said quickly. She had gotten so caught up in Arnold that she forgot her job she was maintaining. She pushed on the acceleration pad.
Suddenly a crewmember came racing in with the other crewmember that had been with the Captain before.
"Hello kids. Everyone stay calm," the crewmember said in a deep rich voice. "My name is Larry, and I'll be helping you."
Arnold blinked, and moved from his brake position. "Why didn't you come sooner?"
"I was on my lunch break," Larry said sternly, "and lunch is a very important meal of the day," he insisted, taking a bite of a donught he had taken at lunch.
They all cocked an eyebrow at him, and he sheepishly threw the remains of the chocolate donught over his shoulder.
Larry cleared his throat. "Anyway kids, please get out of the way." Arnold, Helga, Phoebe and Gerald all stood back and watched.
Larry chuckled. "Are you kids trained for directing where Cruise ships go?" he asked them with a smile.
"Uh, no…" Gerald spoke up.
Larry's smile widened. "Well you should be, because…" he paused as they waited, "you got us to safe land!"
Gerald, Phoebe, Arnold and Helga all exchanged happy and excited glances. "Really?" Arnold asked.
"Really!" Larry exclaimed. "My work here is done," he said simply, walking back to the lunchroom. "I hope they still have jelly filled left!" he started running.
Everyone cocked an eyebrow at him, but then the crewmember caught their attention. "Guys, look," he said excitedly, "the Captain's coming around…"
The Captain coughed a couple of times, as the kids walked up to him slowly.
"Hey Captain!" the crewmember smiled. "These kids helped us get to safe land, after you were out-cold and we were stuck in iceberg territory!"
The Captain placed a hand gingerly on his head, before looking around and spotting Phoebe, Helga, Arnold and Gerald. "Thanks a lot kids…is there anything I can do for you? I mean, you saved everyone's lives."
Helga opened her mouth to suggest something, when Arnold gently nudged her. He smiled. "No sir, just knowing everyone's safe is thanks enough."
Helga rolled her eyes but then when no one was noticing, smiled lovingly at Arnold. 'Oh Arnold. So brave, so kind, so loving. Ohh, my beloved – we're all fine! I'm fine, you're fine…we all survived!' she swooned happily to herself.
The Captain smiled warmly. "Well thank you. As much as I respect your request, I will be putting your names up on golden plaques that we will all proudly remember your brave efforts, by."
Later
Arnold, Gerald, Phoebe and Helga all stood proudly in front of their plaques.
"Well," Helga started with a smirk and her hands on her hips, "I guess we have to thank you, Arnold."
Arnold looked at her. "Thanks? For what?"
"Well, thanks for everything. For saving the ship, for getting these plaques, and for…well…" Helga started, "a great time," she finished with a confident smile.
Arnold smiled back warmly. "No problem, Helga."
'Wow, she's actually thanking me!' Arnold thought to himself with a smile. 'Well there ya go!'
Helga smiled back sincerely.
"So what were you going to confess back there?" Arnold asked her suddenly.
"Me? Confess?" Helga asked nervously, tugging on her collar for air. "I…I was delirious! What would I want to say to a football-head, like you?"
Arnold smiled knowingly at her behaviour. "Whatever you say, Helga." They walked down the hall together, headed for their room.
Gerald and Phoebe smiled sweetly at each other before looking up at the plaques.
"You did great back there, Phoebe," Gerald spoke up.
"Thanks, Gerald. I couldn't have done it without you, though," she said sweetly before giving him a quick peck on the cheek, and walking down the hall. Gerald raised his hand to where Phoebe had kissed him, and smiled warmly. He ran after her.
**
Mwa-ha! End of Chapter Nine! This really wasn't a cliff-hanger…was it? Eh…oh well, who cares. I am in a KILLER mood! ^_^ It's my birthday in 4 days (Sep. 2), and I'm gonna get Super Mario Sunshine for the Nintendo Game Cube! YAHOO!! I wuv my life! ^_^ Anyway…reviews are more than welcome. Cya in the next chapter…until then…you know what to do…
Keep readin',
Reviewin',
And enjoyin'!
Satokasu Suki
