Lara Croft: Origins

Chapter II: Acquainted

Chapter II

     The ship leaves at 6 o'clock and I was fine with that as I had the time to take in my new surroundings.

There, against the opposite wall was a full sized bed with 5 pillows and in front of that was a double shelved bookshelf.

I lived for books so I sat down and looked at them relaxedly, taking my time. I found a couple of good books about Greek mythology in modern times and others about shadow hunters and mundanes. They seemed so fictitious but then I remembered what this trip was for and then they didn't seem so weird at all. I set them aside on the desk beside the bed to read them later.

An announcement was made over the P.A. "Dear crew members of the Endurance," the sound blared awkwardly and unclearly, but still audible.

"Please report to the conference room by 5 o'clock to meet the rest of your crew mates and guests; I will see you in an hour and a half." and then the message was finished.

I checked my watch; it was 3:28 p.m. and I wasn't gonna stand around the whole time so I decided if I was going to live here a while then I was gonna change it up to my preference.

I switched the furniture around so the bookshelf was right next to my bed and the desk in front of my bed. The dresser stayed the same right next to the doorway.

"There." I said with a slight proudness in my voice.

I jumped onto my bed from three feet away, kicked back and read the first book I had found interesting, The Lightning Thief.

I was on page 87 when I remembered about the meeting. It was 4:49 and I wasn't even sure where the conference room was!

I changed to some khakis and a loose shirt with a Yankees cap to top it off. I ran out the door when I bumped into some guy.

We both tumbled to the hard steel floor but the man put himself before me and broke the fall.

"Oooowwwwch," he groaned. He seemed rather familiar actually.

"Oh my, are you okay?" I asked guiltily. "I'm so, so sorry. I didn't see you and I, well this happened." I smiled sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it," he said grinning.

We both took a moment to get up while dusting off our clothes. "I'm Lara."

"Name's Josh but I already knew who you were," he said. "You're quite well known on this ship. Dr. Whitman speaks quite highly of you to everyone on this ship."

Although I felt flattered, I wasn't totally sure how I felt about that. I did recognize Alex's face from somewhere.

"You're one of Dr. Whitmans' past students, aren't you?"

"Yeah you might know me from the expedition I went to with Dr. Whitman a couple of months back."

I went on to say that this was my first expedition with Dr. Whitman and that I was really excited. "You should be Dr. Whitman always has something exciting in mind with these trips".

I let that sink in a little, but then proceeded to tell him,"I was actually on my way to the meeting with the ship guest and crew, would you happen to know where that is?"

• • • • •

It turns out the conference room was on the third floor the one above deck. It was a domed room with a long table made of steel with free of any chairs.

On the table was a map of where we were heading: the Dragon Triangle. The floor was made of the same steel as the ship. The room felt like a nuclear shelter, and there I was standing, just taking it all in. I hadn't thought much of it, but I still appreciated it. It wasn't the ship itself that was amazing. It was where we were headed towards.

"Nice." I said quietly to myself. My teacher, Dr. Whitman walking up beside me from behind, asked me to join the rest of the people gathering around the table with the map, and so I did. Most people would've have made a big deal out of standing next to multi-millionaire, but I treated Dr. Whitman as my teacher nothing more, I mean I wouldn't want my teachers head getting any bigger. He was more than prideful as it was. A few more people walked in only two of the people who walked in I recognized, Sam and another student who was in my class and more of an acquaintance than a friend.

A few minutes later the captain walked in and the meeting began.