At roughly 10 am we arrived at the airport and we checked our luggage. The paper was there and they took pictures of us as we were waiting in line. In the picture that went into the newspaper, Jared is sniffing his armpit. I'm not even in it. After checking in, we were given some food, which we ate. Then there was Banana-Boat-Bingo. We played bingo, and if you won, you won a free ride on a banana boat in Coco Cay. I almost won, but didn't.

At 5:15 pm, we all set up for practice and we played through our songs until 6:00. Ryan Fossier played my part with me and it was cool. After we finished up, guard practice started, and I put away most of Kris's and my luggage away in our room, which was 204. Our chaperone's room was 210. Our chaperone was Sue, Mallory's mom. She was just great during the trip.

After putting luggage away, I changed clothes into my bathing suit and t-shirt and shorts and went downstairs for dinner (pizza party.) The pizza was gross, so I only ate a little bit. Then we went swimming in the pool. The pool was okay but the bugs kept falling into it until there was this pretty nasty layer of bugs floating on top of the water. I couldn't swim in that; plus the water was extremely cold, so we went inside. Curfew was 11:00 pm. We played around for two hours before we went to sleep. We banged on the floor and Stephanie's boyfriend, Matt (who was staying in the room right below us) banged up through the ceiling. It was fun. He called a few times on the hotel phone and we had some fun confusing him. It was jerky fun.

Then we left Ron Jon's and we boarded the buses for the cruise ship. Around 11:30 we got to the ship. Not really to the ship. Mostly just to the area outside the ship where you check in and board. This was a big pain in the booty because we all had to check in according to room. So the lady who was handling us had to deal with four of us, and she was dumb, to boot. It took us like 10 min longer than the average group because she was so dumb.

Also Mrs. Crews was a jerk while we waited to get checked in. My shorts were sagging and I couldn't really keep them tied so tight, or I wouldn't be able to breathe. But no, she had to be such a witch and say, "Pull up your shorts or pull your shirt down. One or the other." I have a third option: instead of you worrying about my clothes, you could just pay more attention to the tack-ayyyy Hawaiian print ensemble you have going on. Wrong ocean, jerko.

Then we finally got on the boat and put our carry-on crap in our rooms and we went to lunch in the Windjammer (restaurant.) I don't remember what I had. We had free time (which I think I used to sleep) until 4:15pm, when there was the Muster Station thing we had to go to. Right before that though, I heard that you had to put the money into your account if you wanted an account before 4:30 or something. So we stood in line and just barely made it to the deadline. Then we ran up to like the 8th floor or something and wore our life jackets and stood around listening to stupid crap like the emergency horn-toot. I have to admit, that was pretty entertaining. It was like 7 short hoots in a row, followed by a long. Something like that. Then we went back to our rooms for a while.

During dinner, the boat really started to move and the mom was like "It is soooo hot in here" but I had goosebumps galore on my arms. She was just upset about the boat moving, but that sort of thing didn't bother me. She was actually very nice and kind of mischievous in a conspiratorial-old-person kind of way. The dad, however, was mortifying to sit at the same table as, because of his table manners and conduct. When Guarav (our waiter) brought out the three kinds of salad dressing, [the Dad] put his knife in one of them and tasted it. AHHH! You're totally not supposed to do that. And another thing he would do was put his jacket on the back of somebody else's seat and sit a seat away from his family, so that the seating order went (the first night) as: [Mom], Michaela, Christina (w/ jacket), [Dad], Kris, me. I was sitting next to the mom. I thought that was rather rude. Anyway, I had strawberry bisque for appetizer and I had some turkey in sauce thing for an entrée. I just remember that it was too huge to eat.

It was Italian night that night, and after they brought out the desserts (I had tiramisu and another dessert that I don't remember. They were small pieces, and I lost weight on the cruise, so shaddup), they sang like gondoliers, I guess. It was pretty cheesy.

And that's where THE WALK happened, where not much walking occurred. Just a little bit of romance and backrub and flirtation between Kris and Robbie. I won't give away every detail, but here's a small one. Every once in a while, he'd brush her hair back from her face. Yeah. Awww, is right. And then it got late (12:40) and we were going back to our room for curfew and some chaperone was out there and he was using his CB radio thing and he was going, "I've found them, don't worry, I've found them.." (He was wearing his stupid Hawaiian hat and I wanted to punch him, but instead) I was like, "It's 12:40" and he was like, "You are late." Screw that. We were 5 minutes early. It's just that band parents are retarded. Again.

May 4              (the worst day)
I got up at 6:00 so that I could be first in the shower and that was okay, because I didn't mind getting up. I felt all nasty because my skin tasted like salt from all the ocean-air blowing on me and the salt just settled. I had a bad face week because of this. After breakfast, we got ready for our competition (which we ended up getting first place in.) Somehow the competition schedule got messed up -- some band went out of turn or something -- and we ended up being like last and the last ones of the ship to go to Nassau. Nassau sucked; Kris and I didn't even want to go. It was cloudy and rainy. Originally, we were just going to stay in the room, but Sue found us and told us that she couldn't get off the ship if we didn't go. So we went, because Sue wanted to.

Another thing that happened was a woman came up to us and gave us bracelets. She said, "Now since I'm nice and I gave you these bracelets, I think you should be nice and give a donation. Hey, mum?" She said, then looking at Sue. So Sue gave her five bucks, but I only gave her $1, because I didn't even like it. And the woman looked at us and was like, "Hey hey now, I gave you a bracelet, you give a small five or something.. Mum, give a five.. You got a bracelet?" But I was just like, I don't have any more. Which wasn't true. I just wasn't going to pay too much for something I didn't ask for and didn't particularly want. But Sue gave her two more bucks and the lady finally went away.

So then we went in search of a purse and I found one for $9.99, no haggling. I gave her a ten and I got a Bahamian penny. It had a starfish on it. Cool. So at about 4:00 we went back to the ship and there was an option of going to the Captain's party but I really didn't feel like going, so we didn't go, because we didn't have to. This night was the Captain's Dinner and it was formal and I wore my formal dress, but I had forgotten my formal shoes! So I just wore my denim ones. It worked out alright. But when we went to dinner, we sat down, looking all nice and everything, feeling pretty good.. and the dad guy goes "Honey," talking to his wife, "When you were young, did the girls all wear skintight dresses?" This was a slap in the face to our fashion taste. Kris and I have a joke about this. Remember, it's just a joke. Didn't really happen. Just remember that:

The Dad guy: [Condescending] Nice dress, slut.
Kris: [in chirpy happy voice] Thanks, fatty!

Michaela had gotten the front of her hair braided. It looked cool. Then after dinner (I had fruit salad, filet mignon, and Napoleon something-err-other for dessert) I met Michael. We all met Michael. He was the son of the mean dad guy at our table. He was a fine specimen of a human being. He was all Italian and dark and handsome. But he came off as a player. He had a big tattoo on his back that said "Carpe Diem" in huge gang lettering. That was mad crazy.

Then we went to the front deck in our formal wear, which was such a pain in the butt because it was cold and windy. We had to get our pictures taken (but I don't have any of those.) I was stuck in the back row with the tall people (5'10"/+) and I stood next to Brad (a senior) and we had to stand very close together and I kept accidentally nudging him in the butt and that became our cruise joke. Like when I'd walk by him some other time, I'd be like "Hey, I didn't touch your butt, aren't ya proud?" and he'd laugh. Anyway, behind me was Justin Meaux and I had never realized that he was so tall. Anyway, so we got our pictures taken and we had to go to the awards ceremony. That was stupid too, because I didn't want to be there in my formal.

The cool thing, though, was there was a little bit of dance music on and the lighting was low, so Ashley and Mallory and Amanda went to the middle of the room and started dancing. Then some St Augustine kids joined in, and eventually they got the whole lot of us dancing. Kris wouldn't dance then, though. We hadn't seen Robbie all day, except that we had heard he had made friends with some Pennsylvania girls and Kris was sad about that. It didn't really help very much that Ashley kept flirting with Robbie and pulling him into the dance floor with her, even though he didn't want to dance. Eventually Steve just went out there and that seemed to please all of them enough. Then I think they left Robbie alone. When I got too hot in my formal, Kris and I, although we weren't supposed to, went back to our room. I changed into my pink shirt and my black skirt. I did Kris's hair.

After awards, it was boring. Kris and I went to our room and then to the karaoke. She wanted to see Robbie, but wouldn't really admit to it. We saw Robbie and Steve at the karaoke but they left quickly. So Kris wanted to leave. I didn't really want to. So I made a big stink about it because we had to always be together.. Buddy System, y'know? We went back to the room. Actually, she went into the room and I stood outside and talked to Ryan Fossier or somebody for a couple minutes, until I heard sobbing in my room. Sarah Crews went to see what was wrong, and she took Kris (who was crying her eyes out) somewhere. I just stood outside the door the whole time and then I talked to Chris B (Kris' ex-boyfriend.) I complained a lot. I was already running low on sleep, which makes me cranky and irritable. Eventually, Chris and Christina (who were going out at the time, but they have since broken up because Christina kissed another guy) wanted to go to the movie. Christina wanted to talked to him, so I kind of trailed behind them on the way to the movie theater.. like 15 feet behind. Eventually, I was just lonely and tired and sad, so I went back to my room and wrote angry poetry. (grin)

Then I heard Kris outside sort of sniffling and stuff, so I tried to go comfort her. We sat in the middle of the hall and Stacy W's mom came and comforted her. And about a hundred other people asked what was wrong and Kris told them ("boy trouble") and I wrote a short note to Robbie for her. "Robbie, stop acting like a teenage stupid. xoxo (not really), Becky" and I asked Ryan Fossier to deliver it to him. I don't know if he did or not.

So then we went back to the room and we all had little jokes about how Kris better not sob too loud or she would keep us up at night. Although, come to think of it, nothing was keeping me up that night. We were rocked back and forth and it was nice.

May 5              (the best day)
I got up at 6:00, as usual, so that we could get ready to go to Coco Cay. While in the shower, I heard an announcement on the overheard speaker system. Because I was in the shower, I couldn't understand what they were saying. So I continued to get ready and when I was done in the bathroom, I woke up a room-mate and made them get up and get ready. Unfortunately, the announcement was that, due to the 30mph winds and big waves, the tenders couldn't safely reach the boat to take us to Coco Cay.

But first, the Newly "Not So New" Newlywed Game. It was like the Newlywed game, but the difference was that there was only one truly newlywed couple (6 hours), one 6-year marriage, and a 48-year marriage. My fave was the 48-year marriage. That was Ernest and Rebecca. When asked what size bra he thought Rebecca wore, Ernest had no idea, but said 4C. She turned out to be a 40C. Very close. :)

After that, we went to the disco (which was on the high tower, 14th floor), but I could not dance due to the crazy back-and-forth rocking. So we all just sat and talked for a while. Chris then showed up. He was very courteous. Then Michael came, and he called Josh over. Josh said about two words the whole time. We talked about a lot of stuff and Chris told us that we should come to St Augustine some time.. which is weird and or funny because I go to Crescent Beach every year for vacation ("just a hop, skip, and a jump away from St Augustine" says the dad guy at our table.) But I would never go visit. I'm not cool/dangerous like that. So then we left the dance and walked with these guys on open decks in plain sight of everyone. I have to stress this, because later we got in trouble for being with these guys.

The principal (yes, he came with us on the trip) said that he knew the St Augustine reputation: they're heavy drinkers. And they kind of are, but no one brought any alcohol that night. Stefanie's mom (who is a nurse) pulled her aside and yelled at her for looking stoned, which of course Stefanie was not. And another band parent came to our room and said, "Don't you guys go anywhere.. your room is being watched." They said this all ominously. It was like.. okay, we're already upset because we're getting in trouble for socializing. My God, imagine that! Teenagers, socializing! Boys! Sinful! Ahhh! Anyway, we outnumbered the boys 8 to 3.

Later Sue came in and told us that we weren't in trouble; it was just that some of the band parents had seen us "running from the boys out of the elevator." Okay. There were 11 people in that elevator at the end of the day. Not everyone smells the best. We weren't running, we were piling out. I wasn't scared at all. Probably the most "menacing" of any of the boys was Michael and his parents were next door to us. We explained to Sue our side of the story and told her about Stefanie's mom telling Stefanie she looked stoned. Sue only could say this, "It's the fourth day of this trip. We're all exhausted. It's one in the morning! We're not going to look anything else, but stoned!" We laughed, but even after she left, we ranted and raved. We comforted Stefanie and finally we all went to sleep.

May 6              (the "funnest" day)
Sue had told us the night before that the schedule had changed, so that we could get up at 8:00 and be out of our room by 8:30. This sounded good, up against the option of getting up at 6:00. I got up at 7:30 because I am a slow bathroom person and then we all got ready and after getting chided by band parents for not being out of our rooms already (even though Sue had been told, and told us, that it was okay) we went down to breakfast. I didn't eat, because I wasn't hungry. We were surprised to see Chris and Josh sitting at the table with Ashley and her crew. We sat with them and then we were all supposed to go outside for pictures. After pictures, we waited a LONG time to disembark the ship.

May 7              (the sleeping day)
I got up at 4:42am to "Whole New World" from the movie Aladdin. I found myself singing it all day. We were on the buses by 6:00 and I slept on the bus on the way to the airport. I drooled, which meant I slept WELL. We at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. I had like 3. It was great. Chris B (not Blair) and I traded books and I looked through his CD collection to keep from being bored. At 8:00, our flight left. We didn't sit by Robbie this time. We sat in front of Ashley, Amanda, and Mallory. I fell asleep there too, with a Tootsie Roll pop in my mouth. My mouth felt funny after I woke up. I only woke up because Ashley kept banging my seat (on purpose) until I told her to cut it out, I was trying to sleep. She did, and I fell back asleep. We arrived at Belleville IL at about 9:30 and by 11:00 we were back at school. I had McDonalds for lunch that day.

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