A/N : Thanks for your reviews, ppl! They mean a lot to me! Here's chapter 2; i hope you like it!
The cruise was 45 minutes' drive away. Some of the G-Rev, such as Tyson, Lee and Kevin, decided to get some sleep. Others, like Tala and Ray, tried their best to but for some reason, once they were awake, they just couldn't get back to sleep.
Julia was staring absent mindedly out of the window when she heard Tala move beside her. Realizing he wasn't asleep, she tried to make some conversation.
"So…" she remarked. "You're from Russia?"
"Yup," Tala replied, without even looking at her. Julia hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Tala properly and make his acquaintance, because he had only joined a few days ago.
"Cold place," she remarked, and immediately went red at how stupid her remark sounded.
Tala glanced at her for a second and then said "Yup" again.
"It must have been hard at the abbey," said Julia. Then she realized how tactless it was to have mentioned the abbey. Tala gave her a strange look and then replied, "Yeah…"
Julia didn't speak again, since it didn't seem that this conversation was going to do anything but embarrass her. Tala smirked inwardly; he knew she was trying to make conversation but he wasn't helping at all. She'd have to figure it out herself…
At that moment, Hiro called out, "Julia!"
"Yeah coach?" replied Julia.
"Come here a second."
Julia stood up and, crossing Tala, went to the driver's seat. "What's wrong?" she asked Hiro. "This isn't the right way."
"Yeah, I realize that," snapped Hiro. "I've lost my way; Raul told me you know the way."
"But Raul knows the way too!" exclaimed Julia, glaring at Raul. "Raul, why didn't you just tell him?"
"I forgot," said Raul with an innocent grin.
Julia groaned and turned to Hiro. "Ok, just turn right, and then go left at the fork in the road. Then you'll be back on the road. Oh, and watch out. It's a bumpy road." She turned at the same time as the van turned right, to go back to her seat. As she was about to sit down, the van went over a rut in the road. Julia would have fallen headlong onto the seat, but Tala reached out and grabbed hold of her shoulder. "Steady…" he drawled, letting go. Julia sat down in her seat, flushing.
"So, you live in Japan?" said Tala.
"Well, yeah," replied Julia. "Nowadays. When we were in the circus, we used to travel all over."
"Hot place," said Tala, with a slight smile.
"Yes," said Julia, her face burning. He didn't need to make fun of her! She fell quiet again.
Beside Hilary, Tyson was snoring loudly. Hilary put her face in her hands and groaned.
"Try poking him," suggested Ray with a smile.
"So that he wakes up and starts being his usual loud self?" replied Hilary. "No thanks."
"But Tyson loves passing time on long journeys," said Ray, feigning innocence. "Maybe I should just…" he reached out to poke Tyson.
"NO!" shrieked Hilary. Unfortunately, she was so loud that she woke Tyson up. "How much time is left?" he asked sleepily. Max, who was sitting behind them, said brightly, "Oh, great! You're up! Now we can have some fun!"
"Yeah!" said Tyson, punching the air. Hilary, meanwhile, was glaring daggers at Ray, who was looking very amused. Tyson and Max stood up and made their way to the back, where Kai, Spencer and Bryan were sitting.
"Hey, Kai, old buddy old pal!" exclaimed Tyson. Kai opened his eyes and said in a suspicious voice, "What is it?" Over time, Kai had become good friends with most of his team mates in his own weird way.
"Do you want to have paper ball fights?" asked Max.
"No, I really don't," replied Kai, settling back into his original position. Tyson and Max, however, refused to be fazed. "Okay, then, we'll ask someone else!" said Tyson.
"Ray will play with you," Hilary spoke up. "He's the one who woke you up."
"Oh, Hilary!" said Tyson. "You can join us!"
"No," she said firmly. At that moment, Hiro interrupted them by calling out from the front, "No paper ball fights! Tyson, Max, sit down. We'll be there in 5 minutes."
Sure enough, in 5 minutes' time the van had been parked, and now they had to unload their luggage.
"What we need," announced Emily "is a porter."
"I'll get one!" said Raul enthusiastically. Then, cupping his hands around his mouth, he bellowed: "Oi! PORTER!"
Julia, who was just getting off the van, groaned and walked over to her twin. "Raul, there are no porters!"
"But Emily said…"
"Yeah, she said we need one, not that there is one."
Raul's face fell. "Oh…"
At that moment, Hiro stepped off the van. "Since there are no porters," he said, "You'll all have to carry a suitcase each, and your own personal bags or i-pods or whatever…"
With considerable grumbling, everyone trouped to the back of the van to get their luggage. Grabbing a suitcase each, they staggered toward the ship.
Max had a suitcase, a bag, and an i-pod in his hands. As a result, he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings and while walking up the gangway, he collided with somebody else and his i-pod went tumbling into the sea.
"No!" he yelled. "My i-pod!" Behind him, he heard someone say "Uh… sorry… I didn't see you…"
"No problem," replied Max, turning around. "They should really have port—" He stopped mid-sentence, and looked incredulously at the girl he had banged into. "Miriam?" he said. Then, looking behind her, he saw the rest of the Saintshields behind her. "Ozuma? Joseph? Dunga? This is AWESOME!"
"Max," came Tyson's voice. "You're blocking the way, dude!"
"Tyson! Look who's here! The Saintshields!"
"Seriously?" exclaimed Tyson, dropping his suitcases. "Hi guys!"
"Hello," replied Ozuma. "Maybe we should get onto the ship and then talk?"
"Oh, yeah…" replied Tyson. "Sure." Gathering up his suitcases, he started walking back up. Now that the blockage of the gangway was over, people stopped grumbling and went back on their way.
On the ship…
"So, Saintshields," said Max with a grin. Everyone had found their cabins and unpacked, and now the G-Revolution and the Saintshields were all gathered up on the deck of the ship. "What brings you guys here?"
"We split up ages ago…" said Miriam, "As a team, I mean. We stayed friends and all and when we heard of this cruise, we decided to take a vacation and go together, all four of us."
"Well, now we've ALL met!" said Tyson, bouncing up and down. "So we can have fun together!"
Meanwhile…
Julia was standing by the railing, staring at the water below. She seemed to be frozen in place, leaning dangerously far from the railing, just staring at the water. Her childhood fears had come rushing back, just when she thought they had left her forever.
Raul came up to her and put an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, sis," he said gently. "You okay?"
Julia answered without looking at him: "I'm still afraid of the water… I thought that I got over it… if I knew that I hadn't, I'd never have come on this cruise…"
"Hey, don't worry," replied Raul, trying to be cheerful. "Stay away from the railings and you'll be fine." He began to pull; her away from the railing, but she resisted, still gazing at the water. "I think I see something," she said softly.
"Julia, now you're being paranoid!" said Raul. "Come on, get away from the railing!"
"Alright, Raul!" she said, suddenly impatient. "Just let me stay here a little longer, okay?" Raul reluctantly walked away, and she resumed her staring at the water.
A'N : Liked it? Hated it? REVIEW! D