A/N: About the names of Know-It-All and Hero Girl...I made them up. I don't own them. I just thought they needed names.

And any brand names or other references I make to real-world things...I don't own those, either.

-

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE NEXT TITANIC

As soon as the train hit the ice, it skidded this way and that. I sighed. As if almost getting smushed by a tunnel and going down really steep tracks wasn't enough! Now we had to go ice-skating?

We hit an iceberg and Shannon practically fell off. The conductor grabbed hold of her, but then he was about to fall off, so Dad and I got ahold of him. And as soon as it looked like all four of us would go tumbling off…my dad turned around to look at something. I looked to where he was looking and saw the hobo that had saved me.

We finally got back on the train, the hobo disappearing as we did so. Dad and I exchanged glances.

It was about time those moronic engineers fixed whatever they were fixing, because the train finally slowed down and stopped. But not before turning itself all the way around.

The four of us made our way to the engineers. "What in the name of Mike…?" the conductor began.

As he was about to continue, something caught my eye. A little golden stick was sticking out of the ice. And coming out from there were cracks. Cracks that were moving quickly toward the train.

I gasped. The conductor, Shannon, and Dad all looked at me and then to the ice. There was a huge cracking sound, and they instantly realized what I had figured out.

The ice was breaking.

"Get us the blazes out of here!" the conductor commanded.

The engineers were able to turn the train around, thank goodness. We began to head away from the breaking ice, but to where, I had no idea.

"Look!" Dad said, pointing to a sliver in the huge icebergs lining the lake.

"Tracks!" the conductor cried.

I started bouncing up and down slightly. Sure, we had found tracks. But the question was would we make it in time? Considering our track record and the close calls from earlier, I was beginning to think--once again--that this was the end.

While I was thinking about this, I saw that stupid ticket fly in front of my face.

Why did I even bother?

"You're going to lose your ticket!" Shannon told him.

"It's not my ticket, it's yours!" Dad said.

"It's MY ticket?!"

"Yeah!"

They both started frantically grabbing for it. I would have, but it was too far out of my reach. That…and I was just so sick of the stupid thing!

"OH, NO!!!!" they both screamed. I looked and saw that the train was sinking. So this was how it ended? This train being the next Titanic?

"BRACE YOURSELVES!!!" the conductor hollered. He didn't have to tell me twice.

So you can see how happy I was when I heard metal against metal and saw that the train had made it on the tracks.

"WE DID IT!!!" I started jumping up and down like an idiot, hugging them both. "OH, MY GOSH WE ALMOST DIDN'T! BUT WE DID!!!! YAY!!!!"

"Calm down, Lucy," Dad said, laughing, and I suddenly felt relaxed. Dad stared at me and I at him. There was something weird going on…

"Thank you!" Shannon said, hugging him and completely cutting of my train of thought.

Thanks for that, I thought.

"I can' believe you found my ticket!" she said.

As if on cue, the conductor popped his head up. "Did someone say they found the ticket? Well, then…tickets, please."

He did his punching routine and handed it back. I was surprised to see the familiar "L" and "E".

"L, E?" she thought out loud.

"Hey, you're like that one know-it-all kid…" Dad said.

"His name's Eddy," I said. They both looked at me and my eyes widened. "Oh, my gosh…I DO care!" I said, slapping my forehead.

They laughed, and I couldn't help but join in.