"This bed is so nice." Ariadne was settled into the biggest bed she's ever laid in. "I just wanna fall asleep now."
"Well go ahead. Its eight anyway." Jules jumped onto hers. "Ships usually don't take off until the afternoon."
"I should not be awake now..." Ariadne buried her face into the pillow. "I've graduated..."
A ding was heard in their room, very similar to the ones a high school bell made.
"Attention passengers, the ship will set sail at one. By law, your required to report to your designated lifeboat station for a practice emergency drill. When you hear the alarm go off seven short times and one long time, that's your signal to report. No life jackets are required."
"Good." Jules muttered over the captains voice. "I don't do well in orange."
"Is it now?" Ariadne asked tiredly.
"It better fucking not or I'll be pissed."
"Check your suite brochure to see what muster station your on."
"Shut up!" Jules snapped. "Seriously shut up!"
"Remember high school?" Ariadne chuckled.
"Mrs. Dixon." Jules was disgusted at the thought of the woman who worked the intercom at their old high school. "She's a bitch."
"Just because she yelled at you for not wearing shoes..."
"I had athletes foot!" Jules protested.
"Oh yeah." Ariadne drifted off into a small nap.
"I can't believe you were hit on by three different guys." said Jules as they went to the top deck around noon.
"Maybe they thought I was Jayne Alvers." Ariadne assumed.
"No offense hon but you look nothing like her."
"Well then I bet they were already drunk."
They walked outside to meet the sun on the most crowded area of the ship. There were people reading and tanning on the deck chairs, people were swimming in the two pools and all five hot tubs were filled.
"Maybe we shouldn't have napped so long..."
"We'll just get chairs in the shade." Ariadne went to the edge of the deck which was cool and shady. She found two empty chairs and threw her cover up on the first one. As she pulled off her sunglasses, she noticed a figure at the bar that looked familiar from the back. The man was wearing tan shorts, a pink Hawaiian shirt and was spinning something as he waited for his drink. "I'm going for a margo."
The stool next to his was recently empty so she hurried. Ariadne didn't want to look too foolish as she sat down a little embarrassed. She wondered if people were starring at the marks on her back.
The truth was, she had welts on her lower back from an abusive teen-hood. Being able to forget any of that would have been great. For the first time in years, she was out in a bikini.
"Hello Gorgeous." One of the guys at the bar whistled.
Ariadne ignored him and ordered a margarita with salt. Looking over, she saw that the spinning object was a poker chip. She looked over as the bartender was grinding up her drink.
"Eames?" he looked over, rather surprised to see her. "I never thought I'd see you here."
"What a pleasant surprise." he said. "Spending your paycheck already."
"No." Ariadne shook her head. "My friend won the tickets."
"Hmm." Eames took a sip of his vodka. "Did you know that Arthur's here too?"
"Really?" Ariadne scanned the deck to see if any human outside had his shape.
"Your supposed to call him Rodger Kingsley though. Even Joe thinks that's his real name."
"Oh. Ok... And who's Joe?"
Her eyes were locked on him as if she expected an immediate answer.
"Joe is his girlfriend."
Ariadne chuckled. "He's dating a girl named Joe? That's a guy name!"
"Isn't it sad?" Eames asked. "And she's tall, tan, and blonde."
"I wanna meet this girl." Said Ariadne as she claimed her margarita from the bartender. Jules needed to be there when it happened. Every woman needed a sidekick to cling to when going against what might be either a bomb or a blossom. "Hey Jules!" Ariadne called. "Get your Ginger face over here!"
"I'm coming!" Jules yelled back. The Ginger walked over to the bar in her red bikini. Eames looked her up and down, a small smile sneaking from his lips. The top three features he wanted in a woman were physically already there.
"I found a friend." Said Ariadne waving her arm over to Eames. "Jules, this is Eames."
"So what kind of contest did you win Darling?" Eames asked.
"British accent." She took the bar stool next to him that recently emptied. "That's sexy."
"Jules." Ariadne whispered. "I called you over here because a B-bomb is bound to head our way."
"Excellent. We haven't had one of those in a while."
"Wait…" Eames stopped completely confused. "A B-bomb?"
"Blonde Bombshell." Said Ariadne and Jules simultaneously.
"What do you ladies have against blondes?" Eames asked.
"Long story." Said Ariadne.
"We have never met a nice blonde woman before." Jules explained, pushing her hair back. "They were all bitches to us."
"We know that not all blondes are mean." Said Ariadne. "I'm going to meet this girl before I judge her."
"Well here's your chance." Said Eames pointing forward. Ariadne looked toward the pool to see Arthur's arm hooked with Joe's. He was getting her a beach chair in the sun, paying no attention to anyone else as she peeled off her beach dress.
"'Thank you Rodger'." Jules scoffed. "Just look at her!"
"Let's be rational." Ariadne reminded her.
"Hey Rodger!" Eames shouted across the deck to grab Arthur's eye. Arthur looked over at a waving Eames.
"What is it?" Joe asked, laying down on the beach chair.
"Were not alone." He said. "Some guy I know is on here… along with Ariadne."
"Who?" she questioned.
"Just a friend." Said Arthur. "C'mon… let's meet them."
"Fine." Said Joe. "I'd love too."
"Here they come." Said Eames.
"Bartender, get me a cup of Canadian whiskey, pronto!" Jules called.
"Whiskey huh…" Eames leaned against the counter. "You sound adventurous. Most girls go for the pina colada."
"Not my recommended choice." Jules replied.
"Here they come." Ariadne muttered.
"Didn't know you were here Eames." Said Arthur as they stopped walking towards them. "Ariadne… Jules."
"What do you know? He remembered my name." Jules hated it when people forgot her name.
"I didn't know you were here Rodger." Said Ariadne. She looked over at Joe. The tall blonde stood in a nice white one-piece with Chanel sunglasses. Ariadne noticed hanging from her ears were diamond crosses. "Hi."
"This is my girlfriend Joe." Said Arthur. Ariadne shook Joe's hand like a civilized person.
"That's quite a tattoo." Joe observed the Eiffel Tower ink sitting on Ariadne's right hip. "How bad did it hurt?"
"A lot." Ariadne laughed.
"I was thinking about getting one."
"Well as good as they look on the wrists, they hurt more." Jules bared the tattoos on her wrists. One was a gold and diamond rose and on the other wrist was a magenta jeweled heart that said 'Love' over it with an arrow through it. "It hurts more here."
"Don't even get started on me." Said Eames.
"What kind of tattoo were you thinking of?" Ariadne asked.
She could see Joe blushing at the question.
"Like a mom and dad one."
"My mom always said, 'Think before you ink'." Said Jules."I thought for six years."
"Cause one that comes on, it never comes off." Ariadne smirked. "And it hurts a lot too. My sister has fairy wings tattooed to her back. They're not the small ones either, they're way out there. My other sister has words on her abdomen."
"What do they say?"
Ariadne paused. The words on Mirra's skin brought her back to darker times. "I don't remember, but I think it's in Italian... So, what do you do for a living?"
"I'm a dancer."
"What kind of dancer?" she narrowed down. "A little more specificity dear."
Eames snickered as she repeated the fancy word that she only heard Arthur say once.
"I'm a ballet dancer." Joe explained.
"Oh ok..." Jules sounded like she was very uninterested.
"And what do you do Jules?"
"And I graduated college recently with a degree in culinary arts."
"And I just got out with an architecture degree." Ariadne added.
"Well you two seem like interesting women. Wanna have dinner with us tonight? Is that alright honey?" she looked over at Arthur.
"It's fine by me, but..." Arthur was ready to say something about Eames. "Sounds great. Meet us at the Grand Restaurant at six-thirty."
"Clever name for a restaurant..." Jules muttered as Arthur and Joe started heading off.
Eames encircled his arms around both the girls. "He might have one date for tonight, but I have two."
Ariadne anticipated the dinner conversations between Arthur and Eames.