THE TITANIC DIARIES

:Chapter One- Christine's First Entry:

April 10, 1912

9:40 P.M.

Dear Diary,

This is my first entry in my new diary about my journey and magnificent experience on the Titanic. It was a beautiful day outside in Southampton, England as I looked out upon the crowded streets through our car window. There were many people of all types rushing around carrying around large trunks. There were poor people, rich people and even people from other countries running around waiting to board the largest and most famous ship ever created. As we finally broke through the large crowd of people we reached our destination. Finally I could see it, the ship that would soon take me to my new home, New York. The ship was so large I could hardly control my excitement!

However, as I stepped out of the car I was nearly thrown off my feet by a group of rude, poorly dressed children accompanied by two slightly older girls with particularly malicious grins on their faces. The scary thing is one of them looked remarkably like me.

Oh yes, also Diary I have forgotten to mention two very important facts, my name is Christine Allgood and I am 16 years old; now back to my story.

My family (my mother Patricia, My sister Amelia, and my younger brother Jonah, and oh yes my very own maid Jenny!) and I all walked through the crowds of people. Jenny seemed to be struggling with my trunk so I decided to be my generous and thoughtful self by ordering her to go ahead and set my trunk down by one of the moorings.

There were so many people; we had to practically push our way through the crowd. My brother, who by the way is 14, was running around screaming, "I can't wait!" Which may not have bothered me, however he was attracting several very rude looks in our direction. As I was expecting, soon after this he got separated from my family (cough)Thankfully(cough) it was so loud outside, Diary if only you had the ears to have heard it.

After what seemed forever we reached the steps leading up to the great ship. Sadly and yet unbelievably my brother had used up the last of his tiny brains to remember to wait for us until we found him, which we did. Up the stairs we went to the top where we were greeted by a young and handsome man whom took my ticket and allowed us to pass.

"Mother this is such a beautiful ship! What a delightful choice mama!" I said, smiling at her.

My mother smiled back. "Thank you dear. It's the best I could do for my charming young children."

She gave me a loving pat on the cheek, then stopped a steward and asked where we could find our suites. The man nodded politely and took us away.

"Jenny go get my trunk for me," I said as we entered our room. oh Diary if only you could just see it! It's marvelous there are mahogany walls with gold-plated lining! It's magnificent! But I must say it is nothing like our delightful little mansion.

I watched as a group of fine young lads brought in our things. I sat on a couch and laid my head back on it's soft pillows as the ship began to set sail. I could hear the many yells of goodbye from the people on deck, but they were soon silenced by the sound of someone dragging something along the floor. It turned out to be Jenny, and she was scraping the wood off my trunk!

"Jenny, don't do that you're ruining my trunk! Mother, Jenny's ruining my trunk!" I yelled, sitting up on the couch.

Jenny gave me one of her mean looks. I never know why she does that, I always her so kindly and SHE was the one ruining my trunk!

"Ma'am, please, it seems to be much heavier before, maybe you would know if you had been the one carrying this thing around all day!" Jenny snapped.

Now that was surprising! "Excuse me! How dare you treat me like that! I'm telling mother, and she'll take your pay away for this entire week!" I glared at her. She dropped the trunk in front of me and briskly walked back out of the room. It was then I began to get frightened

The scary thing about that was that the trunk had made a small yelp as it was dropped. I stared at it, watching it closely to see if it would move. Gazing at it, daring it to make a sound again, I finally figured it out. My mind was playing tricks on me!

Then Mother walked in with her usual grin and her eyes glowing. "Dear, please unpack your clothes so we may go to tea."

I smiled my usual smile and proceeded to do what my mother had asked me to. I knelt down on my hands and knees then began to unlock the trunk.

"Honey dear, please help me decide where to hang all of these paintings!" I heard my mother call from the next room. "Yes mother!" I got off my knees and left the room to help my mother with the paintings. Painting after painting was hung by our servants until there was nothing more left to hang.

It was time to dress for tea. So off I went...suddenly, I heard a thump. I turned around and looked at the trunk; it had made a noise! I must admit, I was rather frightened. I slowly approached the trunk and kneeled down in front of it. Cautiously I put my hands on the lid and opened it. There was nothing there but my clothes.

I was very relieved and began taking my clothes out of the trunk. First I pulled out my pure silk skirt and one of my many blouses with pearl buttons. But wait a minute…one of them was missing. That Jenny, I knew she'd ruin something! I had just reached down to pull out more clothing when I felt something in my hand that seemed silky and greasy. I pulled it and it screamed at me, so of course like any young English girl would do, I screamed as well. I looked at what had shrieked at me. It appeared to be a girl... an extremely thin girl at that.

"Get your filthy bottom out of my trunk immediately!" I cried.