Link Six (completed)

Chapter 27 - The Suite Life

When the families finally make their way to their suite, their mouths drop open. Elegant sofas adorned the room. A chandelier dangled from the wall. A wall-mounted flatscreen rested above the glass island. And this was only the main room, they haven't even seen the bedrooms yet, or the bathroom.
"Woah," Rhea breathes. "And, I thought the rest of the ship was nice."
"This is awesome!" Gerald says.
"This place is a mansion, like an actual mansion on a ship," Emma says.
"You guys like it?" Ms. Lawrence asks.
"Like it? This place makes me feel like a billionaire," Colton says.
"Thank you, so much for this Genevieve," Mrs. Parkerson says, "This suite is amazing." 
"Don't mention it," Ms. Lawrence says. "I think we all need a bit of normal in our lives huh?"
"Normal?" Howie repeats, looking at his mom.
"I mean a luxurious kind of normal." His mom elaborates.
"It's great," Mrs. Mayes assures Ms. Lawrence. "Thank you."
Ms. Lawrence smiles. "So this place can room 10, two bedrooms, four people in each and a pullout in the couch, how are we going to arrange this?"
The parents look at each other, as if trying to work it out non-verbally.
"Well Michael and I can sleep on the pullout," Mrs. Parkerson offers.
"Well, if you don't mind, Lorelai, I can sleep in the boys' room and you can room with the girls?" Ms. Lawrence suggests.
Ms. Mayes nods in agreement. "Sounds fun." She smiles at the girls. They smile back. But, when Ms. Mayes wasn't looking Rhea sends a look to Colton, who smiles teasingly.
"Okay, well then I guess that's settled," Mr. Parkerson says. "How about as soon as we get our luggage we change into some swimsuits and go exploring?"
"Okay," Emma agrees.
"Sure," Rhea says.
"Why not?" Gerald says.
"Anything's fine," Colton says.
Leeanna shrugs noncommittally.
"Whatever," Howie says. None of the kids are too keen on the idea.
"Alright something tells me you guys don't want to go exploring the ship," Ms. Mayes says.
"That's because we don't," Colton says.
"Why not?" Mrs. Parkerson wants to know.
"Because it's a big ship, and a big ship means lots and lots of people. You may not know this, but we don't exactly like people," Emma says. 
"What's wrong with people?" Ms. Lawrence asks.
"It's not the people that's the problem but the amount of the people and stuff that we know about people that people don't want us to know about them but we know anyway because of what we can do," Gerald says.
The parents look at Gerald with confused expressions.
"Um, can you repeat that, please, a bit slower?" Mr. Parkerson asks.
"Nevermind," Rhea replies. "You wouldn't understand."
"Then, help us understand," Ms. Mayes answers.
"We can't," Emma says. "There are things you guys just don't get, and can't get because you're not us and your not like us."
"Yes, we don't have the same gifts you guys do, but we're your parents and we know you, that's gotta count for something, right?" Mrs. Parkerson asked.
Howie scoffs. "Not really. You may have raised us, but that doesn't mean you know us, or understand anything about us."
"Howie!" Emma cries looking at him.
"It's true," Howie mutters. The parents look at Howie with disapproving frowns. 
"Howard, that is no way to talk to an adult!" Ms. Lawrence admonishes. Howie glares at his mom with his fists clenched.
"My name is not Howard! For the bazillionth time!" Howie cries. "See this is exactly why you don't understand us. You don't care about anything except for our gifts."
"That is not true," Ms. Mayes objects.
"I think he's exaggerating a lil bit," Rhea says.
"A little?" Mrs. Parkerson says. "Emma, Leeanna you don't think we only pay attention to your powers do we?"
"Uh," Emma blanches and looks at Leeanna. Leeanna looks at Emma and then at the rest of the kids. She looks back at the parents.
"What they're trying to say is that you guys have spent so much time focusing on trying to make us feel normal and pretending that our... gifts aren't as abnormal as they are, that you sometimes forget to actually do normal things with us. You either go overboard worrying about our gifts or you pretend that they're not there and it tells us that you really don't understand what it's like." Leeanna says simply.
No one seems to know what to say to that, and Mrs. Parkerson tries to hide the fact that she is tearing up.
"We try our best," Mr. Parkerson says eventually.
"We do," Ms. Mayes agrees. "We never knew you guys felt like this."
"Yeah, you know you can talk to us about anything and everything, right?" Ms. Lawrence says.
"No, we can't," Gerald says. "But, we really appreciate all the efforts you make."
Ms. Lawrence looks at Gerald and Howie with a frown.
"Can we please just stay here?" Emma asks.
"Alright," Mr. Parkerson says. "But, you're going to have to leave the room eventually."
"Thank you," Emma says and the kids quickly hurry out the room and retreat to one of the bedrooms.
The confused parents look at each other, then at the door to the room they were in. It's now very clear that the kids had gotten closer to each other than they are to their parents over the summer.
"Let's go get the luggage," Ms. Mayes says, not acknowledging the situation.
"Are we bad parents?" Mrs. Parkerson asks as they walk towards the door.
"No," Mr. Parkerson replies. "We do the best we can given the circumstance."
"Sometimes I feel as if I should be doing more, but I don't know what," Ms. Lawrence says.
"I'm sure all parents feel that way," Ms. Mayes opens the door and they see all their bags piled in front of it. They grab a few of the bags and bring them inside, then go back for the rest, twice. Finally they finish and shut and lock the cabin door.
"Why don't you three go out and explore the ship, I'll stay with the kids," Mr. Parkerson tells the moms.
"Are you sure?" Ms. Mayes ask him. "There are six of them."
"Yeah, maybe I should stay with you," Mrs. Parkerson says.
"Amanda, Lorelai, Genevieve," Mr. Parkerson begins. "Go explore, take a few minutes off."
"Okay, but page us if anything happens," Ms. Lawrence asks.
"I will, go on now," Mr. Parkerson urges. They leave the room and Mr. Parkerson settles down on the couch and watches the TV.

"I feel bad for blowing off our parents," Emma says frowning.
"We did not blow them off," Rhea says, "We just told them how we felt and said we didn't want to go exploring."
"Well, maybe it wouldn't go that badly," Colton speculates.
"You really think that?" Howie says.
"No," Colton replies moment's pause. "There are hundreds of people out there, that means hundreds of emotions, hundreds of memories, hundreds of dreams, hundreds of injuries, hundreds of thoughts and hundreds more things to sense around you. It took us practically the whole summer to get used to those few kids and counselors at camp."
"But, we can't just stay in here the whole cruise," Gerald says.
The kids are quiet thinking it over.
"Alright, so say we go outside, what if something happens? We'll be surrounded by people." Rhea says.
I think we should at least try it, Leeanna projects. If something happens, Dad will be there, and the rest of us can come up with some excuse to cover.
"Not if something happens to all of us," Howie points out.
"You're very optimistic," Emma notes.
"Let's just go for it," Gerald suggests.
The kids look at each other with uncertain expressions, then Emma peeps out the door. She slowly walks up behind her dad and taps on his shoulder.
He turns around and looks at her.
"Oh, Emma, hey, what's up?" Mr. Parkerson asks.
"We just wanted to apologize for being mean earlier. And, we actually think exploring could be fun," Emma smiles, trying not to show her uncertainty.
"Really?" Mr. Parkerson turns and looks at the rest of them. They nod.
"We'll just put on some swimsuits and we can get going," Colton says.
"Good, this should be fun. Don't worry guys, you'll be fine," Mr. Parkerson assured them.
Glancing at eachother again, they decide to change and leave the security of their suite.