Cruising to Perfection by JDVera (great book club books .txt) 📖

have a map made for you,' her aunt joked.
'I'm okay, thank you.'
'Oh- my son was here a minute ago, he's probably gone with his friends to eat. I shall introduce you to him later. I think all the guests have arrived so it's our turn to eat, I think.' She checked if anymore guests are coming just incase, decided no, and led them to a prepared table at the dining hall.
'Mmm, looks delicious,' Mimi's mother complimented eyeing the food tastefully. Aunty Reina laughed.
'Tuck in and enjoy,' she said, picking up her napkin and unfolding it, then laying it on her lap.
Mimi ate a delicious meal, that she thanked wasn't all seafood. If she had to be on this ship for fourteen days the the food better not all be sushi.

'Maybe you shouldn't have eaten all that food,' Aiiko said, patting Kai's back hesitantly as Kai wretched again, throwing up over the side of the deck.
'What did you want me to do? Starve to death? After that long journey in the car, I swear I was gonna pass out.'
'Pass out? Hey, I thought you weren't gay, you're a guy and you mention passing out?' Aiiko mumbled.
'Hey! You jerk-' Kai was cut short by another bout of wretching.
Aiiko heard decending footsteps and sighed dejectedly as he saw a girl. Why does she have to enter at the wrong time? Here he is patting a friend's back as he vomits to the sea below.

Mimi turned to find a regretful looking guy patting his friend, who she assume must be being sick as he was leaning over the barrier, wretching. Does her conscience really have to tell her that there were motion sickness pills in her pockets, where her hands are tucked in right now? She made her way over hesitantly.
'He alright?' she asked the one who was doing the patting.
'Yeah, he should be fine, he gets seasickness,' Aiiko looked her smiling sheepishly.
'I have motion sickness tablets if that helps,' she said in a suggestful tone, pulling her hand out of her shorts' pockets holding up the packet.
'That would be great, thanks.'
Mimi handed the packet to him, 'It's getting cold, I'm gonna go in.'
Kai grabbed for Aiiko's shirt pulling him closer, 'Water,' he demanded.
'Uh- okay. Wait here.' Aiiko left him and ran up the steps, taking them two at a time. The Hall is too far from here, he halted as he saw a vending machine. 'Coins, coins, coins,' he repeated feeling his pockets for some.
'Water?' asked a familiar voice, he turned to find the same girl from earlier, she put in her change and pressed for water.
Aiiko turned to her again, 'Thank you, I swear, we owe you.' He retrieved the water. When he looked up, she was already down the corridor.
'Arghshh, Kai, even though she's not my type, you still owe me one.' He returned to Kai who still had his head over the sea. He handed him the bottle of water and a tablet.
'Don't vomit this one out.'

'Where did you go?' Mimi's mother asked her as she arrived at their dinner table fifteen minutes later.
'Just taking a detour,' she answered simply.
'Well, okay, Reina went looking for her son, stay here, I want you to meet him.'
Mimi rolled her eyes at her mother, before leaning her head on her hand, her elbow on the table. She watched the crowd, talking and laughing for a moment, some had more glass of champagne. Two people emerged from the crowd. Mimi recognised one of them as Aunt Reina, dragging along who she assumed to be her son, who was looking a little pale. He looked, alarmed, over his shoulder. Aunt Reina smiled as she spotted Mimi and her mother at the table where she left them a while ago.
'Hello,' Aunt Reina said breathlessly, pulling her son from behind. 'Mimi,' she said, and Mimi looked up surprised, 'this is my son, Kai. You probably won't remeber but you two met one summer when you were both five.'
Mimi stood up. 'Kai,' she said testing the name on her tongue, 'nice to finally meet you,' she said politely though not really meaning it. She held out her hand formally.
Kai looked at it confused, normally, every girl he's met so far would be blushing or screaming or aiming to please him or all three, but no, this girl seemed oblivious to his fame. He shook it hesitantly, trying to remember the summer his mother was talking about. She looked like she was trying to do the same.
'My name is Melody,' Mimi said, sitting back down after the awkward handshake.
'Hi,' he said, looking towards the dancefloor where his mother and Aunt Julie disappeared muttering about an old school friend Aunt Julie wanted to see. He looked for his friends as well.
Mimi glanced at the dancefloor towards where Kai searched for someone. 'Looking for someone?' she asked, hoping the answer was a 'yes'.
He finally looked at her again, she noticed his eyes were a shade of warm brown. 'No,' he answered quickly, thinking he had offended her.
'You look like you're expecting someone,' she told him.
'Well, yeh, I guess I am. My friend is supposed to be looking for somenone for me.'
'Oh? Shall we help him?' She realised her mistake as soon as it came out of her mouth. She had volunteered instead of imply that he could go and leave her alone.
He turned to look at her, questioningly, 'You don't mind?'
Oh well, it's too late to back out now, she thought. She nodded, trying to seem sincere. He smiled and stood up, and began making his way to the dancefloor. He stopped and turned around, waiting for her. Mimi walked over to his side, her pinned up hair at the back left out the shorter ones at the front, framed her face nicely. She brushed one that stuck to her long eyelash away quickly so it wouldn't come across her being flirty. Kai didn't seem to take notice and continued walking as soon as she was beside him.
They exited the ballroom and made their way out side to the deck. They bumped into Jan and Kyran coming the opposite way.
'Kai! And... 'Kyran trailed off, looking at Mimi, 'girl- sorry, Miss, what's your name?'
'Ah, I'm Melody,' she told the odd boy.
Kyran looked at Kai imploringly, then back to Mimi, 'Ah, hi, I'm Kyran, this is Jan,' Kyran introduced.
'Hi,' Mimi greeted. She was starting to become fed up, there were too many people turning up in her life right now, she wished she could just jump off the ship, but the bridge has already been disconnected.
'Aiiko's looking for you,' Jan told him after nodding at Mimi.
'Where's Director Cheng?' Kai asked as they started walking.
'She went to her room, she's got a headache,' Jan informed his friend.
Mimi remained quiet, the ship had began to leave the harbour, and the sky had become increasingly darker, in the distance she could see a thin glow of red where she had missed the sunset. It was twilight and in the east stars had started to appear.
After a moment of silence Mimi turned to Kai, 'Who are we looking for again?' she asked, trying to keep the impatience she felt out of the tone of her voice.
'I'm not really sure what she looks like,' Kai scratched his head, 'it was my friend that met her, but um... I wanted to thank her for the help she gave.'
Mimi stoppped walking, Me? she thought. She looked at the bottle of water Kai held in his hand, Kai who looked at her, confused at why she stopped. Mimi smiled her thought away, 'Sorry,' she apologized bowing slightly, 'I have to find my mother right now, I'm afraid I won't be able to look anymore.'
'That's okay,' said a confused reply.
'I'm sure she knows you're thankful,' Mimi told him beginning to back off. This better not turn into one of those love encounters, Mum will be freaking out at this. Oh, sheesh, Mum.
She found her cabin, it was fairly nice, Aunt Reina invited her family especially for this occasion, so her room was fairly large, it had a balcony that had the over looked the deck and looks out over the ocean. She was guessing her mother had one just the same too. She couldn't be appreciative of it, it meant her Aunt and her mother are planning something for her.
'Argh! Why can't they just leave me alone?' she moaned before collapsing on the bed, face first.

'Did you find her?' Kai asked Aiiko.
'No, I'm tired already, can we go to bed? I'll point her out tomorrow if I see her,' Aiiko yawned and pushed past Kai and Kyran.
Jan turned to his friends, 'I'm getting tired too, we won't find her unless we have Aiiko,' he pointed out. He shoved his hand into his pockets trying to warm them up, and headed for his cabin.
Kyran turned to Kaii, 'I've never seen you make such a fuss over one girl, could it be...' Kyran began, 'the start of a love encounter?' Kyran wondered aloud. He had his head up in the clouds until a hand slapped the back of his head.
'Don't be stupid, I only want to return these tablets to her,' Kai snarled, before turning to leave.
'Hey! Wait for me,' Kyran cried, walking quickly to catch up with him.

Mimi changed quickly into her pyjamas after washing herself quickly. She closed the curtains of the balcony windows and jumped into bed, hugging her pillow tightly, trying to spread some warmth into it.
She stared at the ceiling for a while and sighed, there's too much going on. Her mother is back to her usual self, maybe she should go back abroad to study, she wants to finish her course as soon as possible. Music and art was a future she always longed for, maybe she was being too selfish but her mother will be delaying her for a while.
She sighed another deep sigh and closed her eyes allowing the darkness to envelope her. Her dreams were filled with waves of surprises that washed her uncomfortably, at the distance her mother laughed splashing her over and over.

Kai was awoken by the bright sunlight that flooded through his cabin windows. He squinted at the unwelcomed guest through the light. His mother came into focus with her hands on her hips.
'Get up Kai,' she demanded, 'I left you with Melody yesterday, you came back into the ball room without her.' She glared down at him.
Kai pushed himself up on his elbows, rubbing the sleep off his eyes. 'She was tired, she went to her cabin.'
'Did you escort her there?' his mother asked in a sudden interest.
'No,' he answered shortly, and decided to give a better response , 'She said she needed to find her mother. I didn't really get to ask her if she needed to find her way, she left quickly.' He groaned and collapsed in his bed, throwing the cover himself. Why is he bothering? Kyran was right he was slightly making too much of this. He heard his mother huff and stomp out of his room. It was only motion sickness tablets, she can get some more, why should he need to return it.
An hour later, Kai was having his breakfast at the breakfast room with Jan. Director Cheng approached them sitting on one of the chairs, she carried her breakfast tray and set it on the table.
'Are you okay?' Kai asked her looking up from his breakfast,