Move Along

An Elegant Evening?

Chapter 2:

An Elegant Evening?

Walking out of the elevator, my bright blue eyes lit up at the sight of the beautiful chandeliers. A man with a fancy white tux and a funny moustache came up to us, with no line at all to wait in. This place is no McDonald's. Another younger worker came up to Amber and knelt down on one knee. He graciously grabbed her hand, and she melted as he kissed her hand. Head over 1 inch heels, she had fallen for the twenty-year-old-tux-wearing waiter. I laughed, sometimes she could be so ridiculous. My dad was kind of protective and confused, but my mom knew that it was all part of the "Elegant Atmosphere." No guy with a fancy suit came up to me, but I didn't care. The round, white tables and China Plates impressed me.

The moustache man led us to our table, following fancy pants and Amber, who had practically fainted. "It was nice to meet you, Amber. Hello sir, I am Jack Monroe. It is a pleasure having you and your beautiful family along board with us this evening," Jack, A.K.A. fancy pants, said to us. When he exaggerated the word "beautiful," he winked at me. I figured that he tried to make me feel important too, but I wasn't impressed by a wink.

Jack Monroe left our table, and Mr. Moustache took our drink order. He didn't even have to write it down; now that's what I call class. "Mom! Look out the window!" Tim yelled at the top of his lungs once the waiter left. He pointed quickly to the port hole, which was made with real gold. "It's another ship! We're going to crash!" When Tim yelled that, half of the guests were surrounding our table, and the other half ran out the door. If I hadn't explained before, Tim is a huge prankster. I knew there was nothing, and he either wanted attention, or a laugh. Or both.

"No, no there's not!" my mother screamed. I couldn't help but laugh. Tim was ruining my elegant dinner, but it was funny. Besides, we still had tomorrow night for some fine dining. The manager was freaking out, but managed to calm himself down. He quickly shooed everyone back to their seats, and escorted us out the golden doors even faster. Mr. Roe told us that we would be attending the buffet tomorrow and the rest of the cruise, instead of the fancy restaurant. Well, when I heard that, I was furious. Instead of going crazy on Tim in the elevator, I bit my lip the whole ride up to the buffet. It helped that Dad was standing between Tim and I, because if I had to see his cheek-to-cheek smile right then, I would scream.

When we got to the buffet, I realized that it wasn't so bad. We were the only ones in fancy dresses and ties, but nobody seemed to care. I once heard about a little girl who was wearing a golden dress - yes, pure gold - and she was kicked out of the restaurant because she was squirting ketchup everywhere. I can picture a little girl with a beautiful dress that was ruined with ketchup, standing in the buffet line with her parents. If Tim ruined everyone's beautiful outfits, I would understand us getting kicked out; but a prank? I don't think that telling people that a giant ship was next to us was that big of a deal. I guess those employees make good money, so they'll follow all of the rules to make it. Well, I guess panicking other guests would be frowned-upon in a 5-Star Restaurant.

We got in line at the buffet, and I almost fainted when I saw Ms. Golde and her daughters standing in front of us, getting their meals. When Ms. Golde saw us, I knew she was embarrassed, but she covered it well. I looked over at Amber, and she laughed, watching them get French Fries from the sweaty man behind the counter. Dresses and sweat don't go well together...at all. I was pretty bummed about not having an elegant dinner that night, but things couldn't get much better than this. I guess we weren't the only dressed up ones eating buffet food.

"Did you see them?" Tim asked. I knew he was talking about the Fancy Pants Family.

"Yeah. It was awesome, huh?" Mom replied. I guess everyone in the family had an enemy feeling against them. We talked more about the crazy night we had, and by the end of the night, everyone was laughing about how we got kicked out. Even Mom and Dad were laughing, even though they were mad at Tim before. When we finished, it was only 7:00pm. Tim begged Dad to take him up to Laser Tag, and I thought it was a fun idea, too.

"Alright, I'll take Chloe and Tim to Laser Tag, and you can take Amber over to the pool," Dad said to Mom as we threw our trash away. Mom agreed, and she and Amber went over to the lounge chairs we were sitting on earlier in the day. Amber got her magazine from Mom's purse, and Mom got her book. I looked over towards the deck above us, and I saw a beautiful sunset view. I wanted to see it so badly, so I ran up to the next deck. The sun was just peaking over the clouds, and was half-way above the horizon line. The sky was the color of the coral below us, and the puffy clouds were slowing panning across the evening sky. My bright blue eyes grew wide at the sight, and my long blonde hair and black and white dress blew gently in the wind.

"Chloe! Laser Tag is in ten minutes!" Tim boomed. He always knew how to ruin a perfect moment.

"Fine!" I snapped. I then took a quick picture, and ran to catch up with Dad and Tim. Though I was running to laser tag with Dad and Tim, I could still picture us eating 5-course meals in that amazing restaurant. "Are any kids my age going to be there?" I asked Tim.

"No, probably sweaty little boys like me!" he cried, running around dramatically, throwing his arms in panic mode. We got to Laser Tag, and it was just about to start when a man announced that we needed socks to enter the Laser Tag Blow-Up. Tim and I looked at each other, looked down at our sandals, and ran to the elevator, passed all of the stores in the hallway. It quickly took us up to Floor E. I was relieved to get to our room, and even happier that I had my room key with me. I held the door open, while Tim grabbed our socks from a suitcase, which was halfway unpacked. "Okay, let's go," he said, sprinting out the door. I slammed it closed, and ran to catch up with him. While running back to my dad, we barely waved to my mom and sister, who were looking at jewelry in the jewelry store.

"Where were you? Laser Tag is starting!" Dad said as Tim signed us up. I guess I didn't know what to expect, but I was awful at the game. Little kids ran passed me, jumped over, me - gosh, one even crawled under me! The blow-up laser tag arena was not very ventilated, and I wasn't wearing running attire. In a disgusting, sweaty dress, I quickly ran to our cabin before any cute boys my age could see me.

*

After getting showered, I decided to explore the boat while Amber was at the pool, my brother was in Camp Carnival, and my parents went to a restaurant for dessert.