A/N: Hello awesome readers! I know I said last chapter that one of my favorite ships would be making an appearance, but I had a better idea! So really only half of the ship appears in this chapter, but no need to worry! Next chapter will make up for it.
And something new that I'm going to start doing, chapter dedications! This chapter is dedicated to SasoriSweet19 because that review was awesome and literally made me laugh!
Drew's P.O.V.
"Welcome back to the SS. Hayden Mr. Hayden. Miss Soledad and Mr. Harley lovely that you'll be joining us again. And Miss May it's a pleasure to have you for the first time."
Soledad and Harley just waved and walked off in the general direction of the dining hall. I rolled my eyes at her. This girl was painfully, obviously, new and I already thought she was too perky. I glanced over at May who was gawking at the greeting lady. She was probably wondering how she knew her name. Go figure, oh well time to leave.
"Hey, if anyone-that being my parents- asks we'll be in my room." Shit, could that have sounded anymore wrong? I just made it sound like we're going to go up to my room we can do the nasty. Great job Hayden, now what am I going to do if word somehow gets back to Soledad? Or worse, my sisters?
"Yes, of course Mr. Hayden."
Did I ever mention that the staff here was really annoying? I am not Mr. Hayden that was my dad! I gave up on trying to correct them some years back, they never listened anyways. And everything was so formal sounding when they talked it was ridiculous. Stupid first class only ship filled with snobby stuck up rich people. How I sometimes wished that I had normal parents. That was until I remember the money, then I was quite content with my parents again.
"Come on May let's go." I grabbed her hand and started walking towards the elevator.
"What about Harley and Soledad?" Of course you had to bring them into this too.
"They already know where my wing- er I mean room is and I can trust that they won't get lost. You on the other hand will be staying with me the whole time because I don't need you somehow getting locked in a closet." Because seriously that would happen to you.
"But Drew!" Ugh, must you argue with all of my decisions.
"No buts May, I promised your dad that I would protect you, even from yourself. And I don't want to fail him already; he looks like he can be very scary when he's pissed off." I am not taking my chances with your crazy over protective father!
"Well, I can't really argue with that now can I?" Didn't think so, and I value my life too much to be killed.
"No, you can't, and trust me you won't be bored. It's literally impossible to be bored on this ship; my father built it that way." One of the only things he ever did right in his life, made sure that complete strangers could have a good time on his ship instead of spending time with his family.
We were at the plated gold elevator now. I pressed the 14 carat diamond button and it opened instantly. We stepped into the sparkling glass interior that reflected you back in 360 degrees. I was used to it by now, how everything around here was completely over the top and entirely ridiculous, but May looked like a kindergartener in a candy shop whose mom just told her should could have as much as she wanted.
"Actually, now that I think about it," she began, "I think I could us a good nap." I nodded in response. "I didn't really get the best night's sleep at the center because I was too hyper." I know, you were tossing and turning all night. You basically kept me up all night too.
"That's fine, while you sleep I can do some stuff that I've been putting off for awhile." I turned to the giant row of buttons and carefully pushed in the floor numbers; 1-4-7-0-8-6-4-2-3-5-7-9.
"Um Drew, what the hell are you doing?" Just then the secret panel on my right opened, and the hand print scanner popped out. I placed my hand on the surface and it quickly scanned my hand to verify that I was in fact myself. Then I heard a ping! and instantly knew what was coming next.
"Welcome back to the ship sweetie!" called a female voice, that I would know anywhere, through the speakers. Then the back wall of the elevator turned into a video monitor showing the owner of the voice. I let a small blush of embarrassment escape through my façade. I glanced over at May and gave her the-I'm-so-sorry-for-this-look.
"Hi mom, what are you doing here? I thought you were in the Sevii Islands with Aunt Lily." What I really wanted to say was: Mom what the hell do you think you're doing here? I thought Dad shipped you off on a mandatory vacation and Aunt Lily was supposed to keep you there.
"Oh don't be silly honey! Once I heard from Soledad that you were going to the Rose Islands so soon after your last region I just had to see you off! I've seen all of my children off to every region and this time is no exception." Oh geez mom, way to get all sentimental over nothing. And Soledad was going to pay for this… "Well Drew, aren't you going to introduce me to this lovely young lady who's accompanying you?" Oh right, mom's never met May. That's kind of amusing. I've known May for six years and she's never formally met anyone in my family until the past three days, which now she's been getting a crash course.
"Mom this is May Maple. May this is my mom." Not surprisingly my mom was looking her over and probably running a background check as we speak. A way over protective mom to make up for a flighty dad, just my luck.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Hayden!" She was so sincere in the way she said it that there was no way you could question it. May was just a people person like that. I wonder if she went to charm school.
"Oh please the pleasure is all mine darling. It's always wonderful meeting one of Drew's little friends." The smile on her face somewhat scared me a bit; my mom never smiled like that. So the only explanation was that the twins got a hold of her and filled her in that I was traveling with my "girlfriend". They were so in for it. "Now Drew you better stop in and say hello to your father today. You know how he can get when he becomes irritated. And I'll see you two at brunch tomorrow! Have fun and enjoy yourselves kids! But not too much if you know what I mean." She winked and then the screen went blank.
"Well Drew, your mom seems very sweet, so I'm kind of wondering how the heck she ended up with a son like you?" Looks can be very deceiving. My mother was actually an actor once upon a time. She was very excellent at faking emotions, runs in the family.
"Why don't you go ask my older siblings why I turned out like this? I'm sure they can explain better than I can."
Dad was never home because he was always traveling all over the place because of the NPCA and Mom was always busy designing a new piece for a collection. Having your older sisters raise you can really give you some emotional scars. I mean come on they were ALL girls. I was just happy that Drake had me home for awhile, to look after him, before I left. Otherwise he could have ended up pretty messed up. I didn't think he would have handled it as well as I had.
"Maybe I will one of these days. I mean after all I bet they have TONS of stories about you from when you were younger." Not the answer I was looking for.
"Yeah, you do that. Anyways this is our floor." May gave me this weird look, probably wondering (for the hundredth time) if I was psychic, and why the elevator didn't "ding!" My dad thought the ding noise was too cliché for a five star, first class only, luxury cruise liner, so when you reach your floor it just stops. Which also happens to confuse first time guests, whom end up complaining about elevators breaking down. "Come on, someone else is probably waiting to use the elevator, let's go."
We stepped out of the mirror box contraption, into the family wing of the boat, and started to walk. The loud and obnoxious tile design lining the floors looked like it belonged in a girl's clothing boutique. And the walls (of course) were still the same hand painted mural of a rose garden. Obviously emphasizing the roses because it was our family flower and all that jazz. I think my Grandmother was the one who originally painted the fresco, and every year my Aunt Lily puts a new coat on.
"I know I've said this at least a million times in the past week, but wow you're family is insanely over the top." Didn't I know it.
"Yeah, tell me about it. You should see what they do for everyone's tenth birthday party." My family puts the tv show Outrageous Kids Birthday Parties to shame.
"So since this is like your family's wing of the liner, does this mean I'm going to meet more of your family?" Oh my god dear higher powers above I hope not.
"If everything goes according to plan, then no, eh well besides my parents, but you already kind of met my mom."
"So is your family the only ones that can stay in your wing?"
"Well immediate family all have separate rooms in this wing, but extended family have their own wing on the other side of the boat. Oh, and family friends stay in this wing too, so we might run into some interesting characters in the next few days. And that was your warning to stay away from any strange people you meet in the wing that don't have green hair."
"What do you think I could really get into trouble just because I talked to some family friends?"
"Knowing you, and knowing my family friends, yes, I do believe that together you could cause the boat to go down like the Titanic." And I would prefer to not end up dying in freezing cold water like that one guy.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"Anytime. Okay well here we are the Poseidon Suite. "
I slid the card key and paused to let the green light blink on. I twisted the knob, pushed the door open, and held it open for May.
"Whoa, now this is cool."
She was probably commenting on the crazily over done Poseidon theme. Okay I will admit that I secretly loved it. I had this obsession with Greek gods when I was little and Poseidon was my favorite. So, it only seemed fitting to my mother that when my father built an over blown up yacht, that my room would be Poseidon themed and everyone else's would be the other Greek gods and demy gods.
"Yeah sure it is." I will also admit that the way the blues were blended on the hand painted wall really were done well. I think one of my sisters might have painted it.
I turned back to make sure that the door was closed, and as I watched the door closing, I caught a glimpse of brown hair slip out of the suite across the hall. What the hell? As noted earlier, no one in my family has brown hair.
"Hold on a sec-" I took a step and caught the door before it slammed shut and darted out of the room.
"Drew what are you doing?" So much for never letting May out of my sight, but this was an important matter if I thought this was who I thought it was.
I glanced down the corridor the way we just came and sure enough a tall brown haired guy was a few cabins down already. I smirked
"Hello there and just who do you think you are?" The figure stopped cold and froze in place. "Watching through your door peek hole and waiting until I was in my room before trying to sneak away. Nice try, but you forgot rule number one, after the last time the subject is in sight count to one hundred and then leave your hiding spot."
"I always thought rule number one was never let your guard down." Okay so maybe I was talking before thinking again.
"Yeah well, I make my own rules." Because I was just cool like that.
"Whatever Drew, you think you're such a bad ass." He cracked a smile. "I've missed you man."
"Yeah right," I laughed. "If you really missed me, you wouldn't have tried to sneak past me."
"Um Drew, I'm confused again." I glanced backwards at May. Her eyes were slightly widened and she was tapping her index finger on her chin. She looked pretty cute like that.
"Oh right, you don't know each other. That would be my fault, how rude of me." I motioned to May, saying she could come over by us. I looked back at Gary and sure enough he was staring at her. However, it wasn't in the I'm-checking-her-out-way that I thought it would be, it was more of an I've seen you before expression. I'll have to ask him about that later. "So let me formally introduce you two. Gary, this is May Maple. May, this is Gary Oak."
"I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance Miss May." He even threw in a bow.
"Oh no Mr. Oak, the pleasure is all mine." She somewhat managed to do an acceptable curtsy. "I've just heard so many good things about you." She giggled. "Oh-kay, I can't do this anymore." She threw her arms around him, and he picked her up and twirled her around. WAIT WHAT!
"Long time no see m&m." Gary placed her back gently on the floor. "And I think before we continue catching up, we should explain to your boyfriend what just happened."
May glanced at me a stifled a laugh. "Drew, there's no need to be angry." I guess without my knowledge my face turned bright red. "You know my cousin Leaf?"
I had to think about this one. Leaf…hmm. "Oh right, yeah I remember you talking about her before. But what does she have to do with this?" Stop trying to change the subject. And I wonder if she could be the same Leaf that I know. I mean there can't be that many girls in the world named Leaf.
"Chill out I'm getting to that part. Okay so before I turned ten I would always go to my Aunt and Uncle's over the summer to hang out with my cousin Leaf, since she was only a few years older than me. Anyhow, so Leaf's hometown is in Kanto, more specifically Pallet Town, and just so happens to be next door neighbors with Gary! When we were all little we would hang out together. And I still see him from time to time because believe it or not, he's FINALLY dating Leaf after about a gazillion years of them crushing on each other." Well that made more sense now, and I guess she's the same one I know then.
"It has not been a gazillion years... actually I'm not sure gazillion is even a number. Never the less, now that everything is cleared up, how would you two like to help me with a little something?" Last time you said that we ended up lost in some underground caves.
I glanced over at May and nodded. "Sure, we'll help you," she said. "Now, just what exactly are we helping you with?" Yes, just what exactly could Gary need our help with.
"Well you see, I might have possibly lost Leaf somewhere on the boat…" Oh shit here we go again…
"You what!" I screamed. "How could you even let her out of your sight? You remember what happened last time you lost a girl on here!" Ugh I didn't want to have to go through that again.
"Yeah I know I remember! That's why I'm asking you guys to help me find her." Gary plus missing a girl equals more running than three marathons and no nap.
"Wait, what happened last time?" questioned May.
"You see what happened was that Drew here had this huge party and-"
"What happened last time isn't important," interjected Drew. "What matters now is that we find Leaf and fast." That party wasn't that huge, and it might have gotten a little bit out of control, but seriously it wasn't like the cops showed up. Plus, May just doesn't need to hear that story… ever.
"You guys make it sound like Leaf is actually in danger; I mean what could possibly happen to her on a ship." Lots of things go wrong on ships, especially this one, and even more especially when Gary and I hang out.
"Umm, well… you see… we never actually found that other girl we lost on here." said Gary.
"Wait what the hell! How do you never find someone? What was she murdered or something and then tossed off the boat?" Nah, at least I didn't think so.
"Like Gary said, we don't know what happened to her. But there's no way that we're losing Leaf because this is the first time that a girl has stayed with Gary for more than two weeks."
"You didn't need to point that out."
"I know, but I thought it would be fun."
"Both of you shut it already, let's split up and find her."
"Good idea. May, you stay in this wing and check the rooms. Gary you check the north and south wings and the cafeteria, and I'll check everything else. Everyone keep your dexes on and ready." Gary and I looked at each other, nodded, and went of running down the corridor.
"Good luck you two!" May shouted after us.
A/N: So yeah I know not much happened, but it set things up for next chapter! And plus Gary and Leaf next chapter! *insert fan girl scream* Oh yeah and please review :)