Chapter 6

Today is the day that I finally leave for this assignment. It's been three weeks and I'm proud to say everyone is physically and mentally prepared for any emergencies, or at least I think they are. I have to admit it was a little fun watching Lucas, Riley, Farkle, Smackle, Missy and Charlie all do simulations. I think they all have a new appreciation for Buddyguard.

At first it was a little hard to be so close to them again. But after a constant reminder from myself that I would try to be different, that I would try to be better, it was actually really enjoyable. Josh and I haven't really spoken to each other since that exercise with Lucas and Riley, and I'm okay with that, because it just makes my life so much easier. I know we going have to talk on the ship, but at least we will be in separate rooms, and he has to watch Missy and Charlie, so we will hardly even see each other.

"Maya you ready?" Shawn called from the living room. "Yes, I'm on my way down," I shout back. I take one last look at my room going through a quick checklist in my head, hoping that I hadn't forgotten anything. I walk down the stairs to see Shawn and my Mom sitting on the loveseat and Cory sitting on the single. "Hi, Mr. Mathews. I thought Shawn was taking me to the harbor?" I question while putting my bags down. "Oh he is. I just came to drop off something for you," he said pointing at a red backpack. "You left it at school the other day and Josh brought it home for me to give to you," he said giving a poker face. Clearly this bag has all the essentials that I need incase of an emergency, a Go-Bag if you will. "Thank you, Mr. Mathews. I was wondering where that was," I say giving him a slight nod. "I will see you when you get back Maya, enjoy your trip," Cory said standing up and giving me a hug.

During the hug Cory whispered something to me. "Don't trust anyone". It had me thinking the whole way to the harbor, what does he know that he isn't telling. "You okay Maya?" Shawn asked as we entered the gates to the harbor. "Yeh, I'm fine. Just nervous about leaving Mom and Grandma on their own, you know?" I confess to Shawn.

When I was four years old my mom went through an "unstable" stage if you will. My Grandma and I did all we could to support her, but it got really expensive and she became very needy. That was half the reason I joined Buddyguard; the pay was really good. After my Mom meet Shawn things got a whole lot better. They have been married for two years now; it was a good first year. But then my Gran started to get very sick and the medical bills went really high. Even though we have the support of Shawn now and my financial aid we just get by.

"I know. But I don't want you to worry at all. I'm here now and you can trust me Maya," Shawn says squeezing my hand that was resting on my leg. That got me thinking even more. Cory had told me not to trust anyone, does that include Shawn? The person who was his best man at his wedding? His partner? The person I trust with my life? After a moment of thinking I realized I hadn't answered Shawn. "Thanks Shawn," I say, giving him my best I trust you smile.

As we pull up next to the ship that I will be cruising on, all that I could say was: "Wow!" Shawn helped me with my bags and as we waited for everyone else, we went for ice creams at the little dinner on the edge of the dock. It was a cute dinner, like the one my mom used to work at before she worked at Topanga's. After half an hour of waiting and talking to Shawn, everyone seemed to have arrived. We all said our goodbyes to our parents on the dock and, with a quick nod of the head from Cory; I followed everyone into the foyer, where the President and his wife stood waiting to address us.

"Hello my lovely children. I'm so glad you could join us on this beautiful day. We wont keep you long as I'm sure all of you want to explore. So here are your room keys and the rooms are on the second deck. Enjoy your day and I will see you all at dinner at 19h00, please dress smartly," the President told us. Soon enough we got our room keys and headed to our rooms. I wonder whom I will be sharing with? Maybe Riley?

I found my room fairly quickly. It was an amazing room. There was a single queen sized bed set in the middle of the room with a beautiful painting above it. There was a sliding door that opened up to a large balcony and not to mention the flat screen T.V. The bathroom was stunning; it had all of the sate of the art appliances. I'm starting to think that maybe this won't be as bad as I thought it would initial be.

As I was unpacking my clothes into the chest at the foot of the bed, I heard the door open and someone walked in. Josh looked just as confused as I was. "You in room 126 right?" he asked moving further in. "Yep," I say checking my room key number. "Well this is going to be interesting," he said throwing his suitcase onto the bed. "You can't be serious. You in this room too?" I ask staring at him as he starts unpacking his clothes. "It seems like it," he says pushing his clothes into a draw. "Great, just great," I say to no one in particular.

After I finished packing my clothes and other essentials, such as my drawing pad, camera and pencils, into the chest I flopped down onto the bed staring out the door that lead to the balcony. I was so lost in thought that I got a fright when Josh spoke; "So, I'm thinking after I'm finished we should go exploring, I mean scouting the ship? What do you think?" he asked. I just nodded and got up from the bed and walked over to the balcony. I could feel Josh watching me, but I really didn't want to make eye contact with him just yet. During the duration of Josh's unpacking, I had a lot of time to think. Maybe sharing a room with him won't be too bad. But after what Cory said, can I really trust him? I grabbed my laptop out the chest while Josh was putting all his hair products in the bathroom, and went through all my emails and did a profile check on all the staff working on the ship. If I'm meant to spend 2 months on this ship, I might as well get to know everyone.

After another hour of waiting, Josh had finally finished unpacking and we were off "exploring" the ship. To describe the ship in a single word: HUGE! Four decks filled with entertainment. And a "basement" that had jet skies! It was spectacular; don't get me wrong; but it just made me more nervous. If we were to get boarded by unwanted personal, they sure had a lot of access points and escape routes (not to mention all the hiding places).

"I don't like this," I whisper to myself as we arrived to the main deck, which had a large slide leading into the pool and a zip-line that started at the lookout tower. It was awesome; any normal teenager would faint at the site of it. But, I'm no ordinary teenager. To me, I didn't see an amazing slide I saw a death trap. I didn't see an incredible zip-line I saw a quick drop point. "Oh, come on Maya, relax a bit. You look like a ridged piece of rusted metal," Josh said massaging my shoulders. I shrug his hands off my shoulders and moved to the side of the boat, where a ladder was bolted to the side. That didn't seem right, I went through all the plans and diagrams for the ship at least a hundred times, no where did it say that there was a ladder on the side of the ship.

After going through the plans that had burned themselves into my brain I was positive that this ladder should not be here. I heard Josh come up behind me and stop just behind my left shoulder. "What's wrong?" he asked me. I must have been standing there for a while or else he wouldn't have come. "This ladder on the side of the ship…it shouldn't be here. I've checked the plans of the ship over a hundred times and it doesn't say that there is a ladder anywhere," I tell him while pointing to the ladder on the side of the ship. Josh steps forward and takes a look; he has that skeptical look on his face. I know he knows that I'm right. He looks up at me, back at the ladder and then up at me again. "Who would put this here?" he asks me, like I would honestly know. "Oh, I did…I watched them install it personal," I say my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh haha," Josh says with an annoyed look on his face. "We can't do anything about now, so let's talk to the President tonight after dinner and see if he can't do something about before it turns into a problem." Josh tells me and pulls me away from the side. I was a little confused why he pulled me away from the side, until I saw the others join us on the deck.

"This place is amazing!" Riley squealed when she saw the view that sported a beautiful sunset over waves, and not to mention the classic movie sunset with a dolphins swimming into it. I checked my watch that I had and realized it was nearly 19h00 and I wasn't even close to being ready. I looked at everyone else and saw that they were all wearing very fancy clothing for dinner. Lucas wore a very smart tux with a purple tie that match the color of Riley's beautiful strapless dress. Farkle and Smackle were dressed the same, along with Missy and Charlie. Great, I'm aboard a lover's cruise I thought to myself while taking it all in. "Maya, you not even ready yet," Smackle pointed out. "Uh, yeh, I'm going to go now," I said while sliding towards my cabin. "We'll come help," Riley said while linking her arm with Smackle's. "Yeh sure," I said with the best smile I could master. "Lucas," Riley said spinning around, as we were about to leave the deck. "Yeeeessss?" Lucas responded in his best Mr. Mathews impression, it was actually really good that I couldn't help but chuckle under my breath. Clearly it irritated Riley because she sent Lucas the biggest death stare in the history of death stares. Lucas just smiled and wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Yeh okay, why don't you and Farkle help my dear Uncle get ready," she said while smiling at Josh. "Actually I think I will do just fine on my own, thank you," Josh said while taking a step away from Lucas and Farkle. "Riley?" I said in an attempt to rescue Josh. I don't know why I did it, maybe I felt sorry for him or maybe I wasn't thinking, or hell, maybe even both, but by the look on Josh's face I could see he wasn't confortable at all. And by the looks on both Farkle's and Lucas's faces neither were they. "Josh won't be able to get dressed. We have the same room and by the looks of it I might take forever. So why doesn't Josh go and quickly get dressed and take his hair products to Lucas's room and we can get ready straight after?" I said looking her in the eye. And by the way her face fell I knew that I had won. "Fine, but this isn't over Mathews," she said pointing a finger at Josh. I received a very thankful look from the three boys before Josh and I were dragged to our cabin.

After Josh had gotten changed, Riley and Smackle started getting me prepared. I still didn't understand why I had to be so dressed up; I would have been fine with a pair of jeans and a pretty top with my combat boots. But apparently that wasn't good enough. Riley managed to get my hair unknotted and curl it into a half up half down hair-do with flower clips in. Smakle found a spaghetti strap teal cocktail dress in her cupboard that was my size and, somehow, got me in to it. She did however have to redo her hair, as I did put up quite a fight. I did however put my foot down when they showed me the shoes they wanted me to wear; I told them that I would through those over board. So instead they gave me black pumps with little silver bows on them. I did however let Riley do my make-up; she always managed to make make-up look so natural.

"So, what's the deal with you and my Uncle Josh?" Riley asked as she was applying some blush. "Nothing," I said in a tone that gave a clear indication that I didn't want talk about that subject. The girls seemed to have gotten the clue and changed the subject. "Okay then, so how long have you been apart of this 'Buddyguard' thing?" Smackle asked me. "Ummm, since I was four," I told them. "WHAT?!" Riley and Smackle shouted and droped their jaws at the exact same time. "My dad recruited you when you were only FOUR YEARS OLD!? How could he do that to a little kid? And why didn't he tell me about it? And how did Josh get involved?" Riley rumbled on with question, clearly upset that her dad hadn't told her anything about this.

"Well, he didn't recruit me, I kind of stumbled in on the planning of Buddyguard and insisted that he put me in the program. He didn't tell you about because he wanted to protect his little girl. You meant so much to him that he didn't want you exposed to that kind of environment. I mean Riley look at me and look at you, you beautiful and you look like you still have hope for something that is million of miles away from here, if you grew up like I did and seen the things I have you wouldn't be like you are today, you wouldn't have any hope. And lastly, Josh and I were playing hide and seek and he found me talking to your dad about it and said he wanted in, your dad didn't have much choice." I told them.

"But why Maya? Why would you join something like that? And why wouldn't you tell me something like this? We were friends since we were two years old and you have kept this secret from me for 11 years, I thought we told each other everything?" Riley asked with sadness in her eyes like she just watched a dog die. "Because, I need the money Riley. Mom was going through her unstable stage and we couldn't afford it. I didn't know what else to do. I wasn't born as fortunate as you were, I didn't have the privileges that you did. I didn't have a choice! You don't know what its like to have only one parent. You don't know what its like to wake up every morning and have your other parent drunk and out for revenge on the person that left them. But as that person wasn't there they took out on the person that reminded them the most of that person. And guess who that person was Riley, me! I was tired of hiding the bruises, so when I had the chance to fix 2 out of 3 problems I took it." I screamed at her and Smackle. "I didn't tell you about it because your Dad made me swear not too. Do you know how hard it was to lie to you everyday when you asked where I was going after school or why I wasn't at school for a week? That's why I left you guys, to protect you all. Not just from the people who wanted me dead, but also form myself. You all deserved much better than me," I told them. It wasn't a lie, I really did leave them to protect them, it was the hardest thing I had ever had to do, and I had to climb out of a hundred year old tomb.

When I looked up at their faces, Riley had tears streaming down her face and Smackle had a shocked look on hers. "I'm so sorry Maya, I had no idea," Smackle said while pulling me into a hug. "So that's why you left us," Riley whispered. I just grimaced at her and she knew that what I said was the truth, the whole truth. "Oh Maya," Riley cried and hugged me so hard that it hurt. But I didn't let go, instead I hung on, I hung on to her as long as I possible could. I missed them both so much and I wasn't going to let them go as easily as I once did.