I woke up Sunday morning ecstatic. We were going on vacation, still, the location was a mystery. I didn't even pack my own bag, Vanessa did, she said the clothes I needed to pack would have been a hint to where we were going. I got out of bed, and changed into jeans and a sweatshirt. I decided, wherever we were going, we were most likely flying, and I intend to be comfortable.

"GOOD MORNING NIÑITA!" Lin threw open my bedroom door yelling this like Robin Williams yells 'good morning Vietnam!' "Are you ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah, just tell me one thing, are these clothes ok?" I asked, gesturing to my outfit.

"Yeah, you'll probably want to change when we get there, but, for now." He shrugged, "come on, we're leaving!" He motioned for me to follow him, which I did, I noticed he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans (no surprise there) and Vanessa was wearing a dress, even Sebastian was wearing a little beachy shirt, and shorts. He was adorable.

"Are we going to the beach?" I asked.

"Nope, stop trying to figure it out, take your suitcase." Lin pointed towards a pink rolling suitcase, which I grabbed, and followed the 3 of them out the door, and down the stairs to the front of the building.

"I called a cab, it should be here soon." Vanessa said, checking her watch. About a minute later, a cab pulled up in front of the building, and we all got in, with me, Vanessa and Seb in the back, and Lin, up front with the driver. In a little more than 10 minutes, we arrived at a port, so we weren't flying.

"Are we going on a cruise?" I asked, stepping out of the car.

"Yep." Lin beamed a bit, probably because he kept this a secret.

"Really?!" I asked, super excited.

"Yeah, to the Caribbean." Vanessa said, grabbing her bag from the back of the cab.

"Oh my gosh! Yes!" Scratch that I was ecstatic.

"I take it you've never been on a cruise." Lin said, handing me my bag.

"I've never been on a boat." I confessed.

"Seriously, I mean I get never going on a cruise, but a boat?" Vanessa pressed.

"It just, never happened." I shrugged.

"But, you can swim right?" Vanessa clarified.

"Yeah of course." I said, walking towards the boat.

"Ok, just making sure, because I had to buy you swimsuits for this trip."

"Yeah, my last family refused to even buy me, like, jeans, much less a swimsuit." I said.

"Ah, I see." Lin said, as we approached the massive boat. "Boarding should start soon." He said, checking his phone. As he said this, a man came out of the boat.

"Priority boarding for disabled passengers and VIP's begins now." He said via a megaphone.

"That's us." Lin said, picking up his suitcase, "come on." He headed towards the boat.

"Wait, we're VIP's?" I asked running after him.

"No," Vanessa responded, "you're in a wheelchair." The sarcasm is strong.

"Yes." Lin clarified, handing tickets to the man who previously yelled for us to begin boarding. "Miranda, party of 4." He told the man, as he checked all of our tickets.

"Passports?" He asked, considering we were going to several other countries. Lin handed him 4 passports. I got a passport when I was adopted, I got a lot of new legal stuff due to the name change. Once he had determined that we were all ourselves. He handed the tickets and passports back to Lin. "Your suite should be on the top deck, the number is on the tickets.

"Thanks." Vanessa said, as we walked past him, into the interior of the boat. It was gorgeous. I followed Lin and Vanessa to our room, which was huge. It had a kitchenette, a TV, a balcony with chairs, a queen sized bed, and a couch.

"Wow." I said setting my bag down.

"You're room is through that door." Lin said pointing, then falling down on the bed.

"I get a room?" I asked, picking my bag up and running into the room. It was smaller but had a queen sized bed, and a mini fridge, so, I was happy.

"I'm going to go explore, see you guys in a few." Vanessa started to leave the room.

"I'm just going to stay here." I heard Lin say, "you know, watch the kid." I peeked out of my room, and saw Lin with Sebastian already under the covers of the bed, with his laptop out. "No judgment missy." He said accusingly to me. "I get to relax like once a year." I started giggling.

"Sorry sorry! No judgement here!" I'm going to go swimming so..." I headed back into my room.

"FANTASTIC!" He yelled. I went over to my suitcase and pulled out a swimsuit that Vanessa packed for me. It was cute, pink, the top was a pink bow, that tied in the back, it came with a little pink see through dress to wear over it. I put my curled hair up into a ponytail.

"Bye!" I called back to him, grabbing my book and phone.

"Bye! Have fun!" Lin yelled. I left out room, and found my way down to the pool, I was very excited, as the weather was warming up. Yay. I'd been waiting too long. I found an empty beach chair, and opened my book. I've read it 3 times already but I love it too much. I mean, Les Miserables was a classic right? I put headphones in (Into The Woods - Steps of the Palace because Anna Kendrick in this was prefect) I was a couple pages into my book when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I put up my finger to ask him to wait just a moment.

"On the steps of the PALACE!" Anna Kendrick nailed the last note, I took my headphones out, paused my music then looked at the person smiling.

"Sorry, yes?" I asked, it was a boy, he looked familiar, about my age.

"Hi," he sat next to me. "It's Abigail right?" He asked, and I nodded, "ok, you probably don't remember me, my name's Hunter, I saw Hamilton a little while ago, I bought you a cookie?" He sounded nervous.

"Oh yeah! I remember you! How are you?" I asked, setting my book down.

"I'm great. How are you?"

"Good, so, is your family going on this trip?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah, it's nice, we never really have the money to vacation."

"Oh." I said, understanding the feeling.

"Anyways, do you want like, a hot dog or something?" He asked, gesturing to the various food stands that surrounded the pool.

"No, I'm ok, but I'll come with you, maybe get a smoothie or something." I smiled, and stood up, walking over to hot dog stand with him. He bought himself a mini-lunch, and then walked me over to a smoothie stand.

"Can I have a," he looked me up and down, "strawberry smoothie?" He asked, the guy in the stand nodded, and started making it. "I was trying to match the monochrome pink aesthetic."

"Thanks." I smiled, and took my smoothie from the man.

"So, what do you want to do?" He asked, taking a bit out of his hot dog.

"I don't know, isn't there like a game room?" I asked, "we could be like old people and play chess."

"Sounds like a plan." He said, leading me away from the pool, over to one of the maps on deck, when my phone buzzed.

(Dinner at the Captains table, 5:00)

Oh, so we really were VIP's. This should be fun. I decided I should probably be back at the room by 4:00

4:00 came very quickly, when I said goodbye to Hunter, and exchanged phone numbers. I went back to our room. When I got there Lin and Sebastian were asleep. I laughed quietly, sneaking into my room. When I got in my room, I saw there was a dress laid out on my bed. It fit with Hunters whole monochrome pink aesthetic' because it was bubblegum pink, with matching pink shoes. I pulled the dress on, and took my nicely curled hair out of its ponytail, and let it fall loose around my shoulders. I finally did my makeup, as I didn't think to do it that morning. When I was finished, and as satisfied with my appearance as I was going to be, I flopped down on my bed and texted William.

(So, I'm on a cruise to the Caribbean!!)

(Seriously?!)

(Yep. We're having dinner at the Captains table tonight too!)

(Well well well, that's exciting.)

(And, I made a friend today.)

(See! I told you you could do it! You just need to start up a conversation! Good job babe!)

(Well, actually I already sorta knew him, and he started the conversation.)

(He?)

Ah yes, protective boyfriend strikes again.

(Yes he.)

(What does this 'he' look like?)

(Normal, he looks normal, don't worry we're just friends.)

(Alright, just making sure)

(I should go now, it's getting close to dinner time)

(Bye)

He responded.

(Bye.)

I typed then turned my phone off. I heard a knock at my door.

"Dinner is in 5." It was Lin, who was literally asleep 5 minutes ago. "You ready?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready." I said, coming out of my room.

"Awesome, let's go." We left the room, and headed towards the dining room, where we were led to the Captains table, apparently, looking at the place setting, it was just going to be the 5 of us.

"Hello." The captain said, coming to our table, "I'm Captain Woods, but you can call me Jason. Honestly, it's such an honor to meet you." He said sitting down.

"Nice to meet you Jason, and thank you so much for inviting us to sit with you." Lin shook his hand.

"Oh, it's my pleasure. So, this is your wife Vanessa." He gestured to Vanessa who sat next to him. "You look stunning." He said to her.

"She always looks stunning." Lin said.

"This is Sebastian, your son. And he is just the cutest little kid ever!" I had never seen a grown man coo over a child until this very moment. "Finally, you're the adopted daughter, correct?" He asked, taking a sip of the glass of water that sat in front of him.

"Yeah." I smiled and nodded.

"It's Abigail, right?" He asked again.

"Yes, that's me." Wow I'm awkward.

"Well Abigail, I'm so glad you're here, you look fantastic, how old are you?" He asked.

"I'm 15, a sophomore."

"Great age, great age." He smiled, and the waiter came around to take our orders. I was the last one they got to, and honestly, I had already had a smoothie today, I didn't need anything else. The waiter asked me what I wanted.

"I'm fine, I don't need anything." I handed my menu back to him, he nodded, and started to make his way out, when Lin grabbed his arm and whispered something in his ear.

About 15 minutes later our food came, and the waiter placed a large bowl of Fettuccine Alfredo in front of me.

"I didn't order this." I said to the waiter.

"Yes, but your father did." He motioned towards Lin, who was seated next to me.

"Ok. Thank you." I said to the waiter, and he left. I awkwardly poked at the food with my fork for a couple of minutes.

"Please eat." Lin whispered to me.

"I'm not..." He cut me off.

"Yes, you're hungry, I know you're hungry, seriously, eat the dang pasta."

"I'm ok." I said.

"No you're not, and as your father, I'm telling you, that you need to eat dinner. Now, seriously, I don't know why you've started feeling this way, but you're beautiful, you really are, and to stay that way you need to eat, so, please, eat your dinner." After this nice whispered speech, I took a bite of my favorite food, and I glanced over at Lin, and he was beaming.

Thanks for reading!

-Abi