Come Hell or Highwater

When I heard Shavai screaming, immediately, I jumped out of bed only to find myself realizing this white and red oak nightmare was not my room. No way, it's too bright and happy to be my room.

"What's wrong, Shavai!" I demanded an answer.

Her eyes were wide with terror, as she screamed "I'm too young to die!" With that having been said, in rushed Megan, Darcie, Katie, and Elizabeth.

Megan looked around and then settled her eyes in a glare at me and shouted "What the hell are WE doing on Titanic!"

I sat on the bed, suddenly not feeling well. I had just turned 15 and already I was gonna die. We all looked at each other in a complete panic.

"What are we gonna do!" Katie yelled, grabbing hold of Darcie. "I don't wanna leave my Meggy-bean or Darcie-loo!" I thought about things rationally for a minute before breaking out into a screaming frenzy. Megan slapped me out of it, literally. I stared at her a moment before slapping her back. It turned into a catfight between us.

"Knock it off!" We stopped and looked at each other as Shavai came between us yelling "You guys are more annoying than Mrs. Guerrero's 5 4 3 2 1 speeches!"

We suddenly directed our attention to our clothes.

"What the hell are we wearing!" Darcie yelled as she examined the material of her dress.

Elizabeth started freaking out "Oh my god! This is worse than the time I cut all the hair off the my-size Barbie doll my mom got me and it stared at me all night!" She picked at her dress, which was an off-white color that made her ivory skin appear a few shades darker.

I looked at Shavai, starting to calm down. She had a black mom and a white dad. There was no way we were going to pass her off for a white person, even if we pancaked white powder on her and said she was a mime.

Soon, a man came to the door in a white outfit that resembled a waiter's. I carefully opened the door, despite objections from everyone in the room.

"Excuse me, Madame." He said meekly. "But we heard some screaming coming from this room. Is everything alright?" He had a British accent that was laced with the grace of a gentleman from France.

I made up the a quick lie as I winged it with him "Oh the screaming? That was uh- uh just Megan. Poor dear's a little claustrophobic; she thinks the ship is going to sink."

The man looked confused. "Pardon me, but, who's Megan?" He motioned towards Megan, whom I assumed he knew under a different identity.

"Um, yes of course. A little inside-joke, see, I call her Megan sometimes because she reminds me so much of a girl from my finishing school named Megan Collins. Absolutely no manners at all."

He looked at me and then strangely at Megan. "Anyway, this ship is unsinkable."

Megan ran to him "Don't fucking joke with me, pal! I've seen the movie!" She pushed past him and walked to Shavai, panicking, leaving the man to wonder what a movie was.

I went back inside the room a little further and looked through a purse; I assumed was mine and pulled out some dollar bills. "And I have a little game to play with you, if you're interested."

As I flipped through each bill, he happily agreed. "For some money, tell me who we are and what background we came from." He looked a little confused at me with a raised brow.

"Uh, yes, well. You are Sydney Davidson. You earned an inheritance from your grandparents who owned some diamond and gold mines in some place called 'California'." He looked a little like he was trying to pronounce a new word when he said the state's name.

Then he pointed at Megan. "Kyra Alexander. Parents discovered some rare diamonds in Africa. Parents had a terrible accident involving a carriage and passed. She's been taken care of ever since."

Then he moved onto Darcie and Katie. "Jocelyn and Myra Edwards. Father's Earl of Rochester, waiting to meet them in New York."

Then he moved onto Shavai. "Nina Ashcroft. Parents died in a terrible fire, Nina rushed in and saved a few souls from hell's grip, one happening to be one of the royal family. Rich from inheritance, gratitude and honor."

And finally, he went to Elizabeth. For this one I longed to hear what made her who she is (or was) and what gave her her money. "This is Faith Anderson. First cousin of John Jacob Astor, richest man on board this ship."

I admit, I thought she would be related to the pope or something. But, surprising the rest of us, she seemed to be the most comfortable in her surrounding. I sighed and handed the man the money. He fingered through it, counting each bill separately.

"Out of curiosity, how'd you know all that about us?" Shavai crossed her arms over her chest, asking what I thought was a very good question.

He looked smug, having won as he tucked the bills away in his pocket.

"Oh, I do a little snooping around." He answered as he left, calling back to us "If you need anything, just scream."

Darcie pursed her lip "Interesting little bastard I wonder if he is a - Ooh! Pretty!" She and Katie went back to looking at each other's dresses.

&&&&&&

Before I knew what was going on, I found myself modeling on some dresses tucked away in the closet. They ranged in all different shades from scarlet to clover green. I wore one the was a shade of green that had short sleeves and it was actually looser than I thought it was gonna be. Megan came in looking like a saloon girl. I loved the whole outfit on her. Deep reddish pink and crimson with not a bow in sight. The fabric wrapped on one side, making it have really slender legs, and Megan's reddish-brown hair was up in a neat bun.

"Wow." We both said.

The lighting did us both really big favors. It was nice and gave our pale skin a warm glow.

"You look great, Meg." I said and she curtsied a bit "I mean, Kyra." We giggled a little bit.

"You don't look half-bad yourself, Sydney. Who you trying to impress, anyway?" Megan teased me about the name. Just then the trumpets rang out announcing dinner.

"Oh, just a certain man played by one Billy Zane." I answered smiling wickedly. Megan gasped.

"But, even you said you'd never go that far!" She said.

"Yeah well, I didn't know wishes came true, either. And since we're gonna die anyway...why not?" I countered.

She walked in front of my path to the door.

"I'll give you one very good reason: You're underage." I shrugged it off.

"You know that, I know that, and everybody knows that. But, you're not gonna do anything, I'm going to anyway, and Darcie and them won't know. And besides, he's doesn't get laid throughout the whole movie anyway." I stuck my tongue out at her and shoved by her. She lost.

I sighed, with every passing minute, we were heading closer to our doom. And we were the only ones that saw it coming. We could already taste the ice, and smell the fear as we stepped outside into the sunset.

"Megan, don't you think we should warn the captain or something?" I asked, fiddling with my fingers as we walked. Megan sighed.

"I have no idea. You know women are subordinate and all that jazz." Megan looked at all the women heading towards the dining room, trailing behind or beside their husbands and fiancés with no clue of what was going to happen.

When we got to the dining hall, something was horribly wrong. I realized after all this time, I had no idea where the others were. I saw Shavai talking to some men at the foot of the staircase, but other than that they were gone.

"Megan..." I said a little panic in my voice. Megan looked around, too, probably sensing the same fear.

"I know. They're gone." We hurried down the stairs to look for them, Megan leading the way. She called back to me,

"If they're molesting anybody, I'll kill um."