Everyone Ages (XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN)

Rules Of The Sea

There is nothing restful about an ocean voyage.

At first light Clay's shadow fell across our beds. "Rise and shine, you two. they'll be bringin' breakfast."

Very bossy.
The breakfast came, on a table with wheels.

The maids burst in, and they were all over the cabin.
"What are they doing?" I muttered to Clay.

"They're layin' out you and Kimiko's clothes," he replied. Hangers clattered.
Bedsprings squeaked next to us as Kimiko struggled upright. The door franned, and people came and went.
Plates were thrust among each of us. Two toasts, buttered. A mound of scrambled egg. Bacon and grapes. This breakfast didn't look evil enough to be heylin.

Breakfast was no sooner over than the maids were back, pulling things out of the closet, lacing up shoes, rummaging for hair-clips, and putting us in life preservers.
"What's this for?" I murmured to know-it-all Clay.

"They're dressin' us for the deck and puttin' our life preservers on."

My heart nearly stopped. "Are we sinking?" Though I whispered, Kimiko and Raimundo were all ears.

Raimundo rolled his eyes. "It's a lifeboat drill. All the people go to the open deck and stand by the lifeboats to be counted." Raimundo tried looking very superior. "It's like the rules of the road. But for the sea. The rules of the sea." He preened.

"Well, excuse me for not knowing, Raimundo," I snapped. "We don't all have heylin girlfriends to tell us these things."

Everybody listened.

Bells rang. A whistle shrilled. The maids swept out of the cabin in a flurry of skirts.

A little peace and quiet at last! I hadn't drawn an easy breath near that many people. I never do. But busybody Raimundo was already making for the door, peering around it with a small slit out to the crowded corridor. To find Katnappe maybe? Though curiosity killed the cat, the rest of us followed.  We could barely see above the boys, but Wuya, Jack, Katnappe, and Chase were all out of their cabins,  jostling each other and retying the ties on their life preservers.

We had to keep quiet, but I was tempted to laugh. Over Jack's twiggy body, he wore his thickest black trench coat and that great, big, bulky, bulging thing around him.
"He'd sink like a stone," Kimiko muttered in my ear. "That life preserver wouldn't float his goggles."

Chase looked wretched. He'd anchored his clothing with armor that matched his hair.  He swayed.  But to me, Jack looked the best of them as he always did. But a life preserver is flattering on nobody. Rules of the sea indeed, they looked ridiculous.
Wuya fussed over them all in that way she has, but they were heading off along the corridor to the open deck. I was just ready to duck back inside the cabin when I got a shock more surprising than I can tell you. Raimundo, Kimiko, Clay, and I were cheek by jowl near the slit in the door when out of the blue Raimundo blurted, "Well I'm not gonna be the last to show up and die the enemy who was stupid enough to expose himself."

I was so stunned by this outburst I could hardly utter. "Raimundo, it's only a lifeboat drill. An exercise."

"You don't know that, Ashley could've been wrong," Raimundo babbled right in my ear. "It could be the real deal! Besides, I bet ships have sunk before during lifeboat drills. You know nothing about it. You don't know anything, Alice."
He was hysterical. I would've slapped him but there wasn't room. "Raimundo, they are making for the open deck," I explained. "It will be miles of ocean in every direction. I'll be petrified. It's water, Raimundo.

"I don't care," He said. "I want to see that lifeboat with my own eyes. You never know if we might need it!"
And with that, he pulled on the mask he used to disguise himself and pulled the door open and walked off down the corridor before Kimiko, Clay, or I could think.  We watched round-eyed as he bore down upon Wuya, Jack, Chase, and Katnappe who didn't think of him as anyone but heylin.
We were shocked witless. Our chins would have been on the floor if that was possible. Then into my other ear Kimiko muttered, "He might have a point."

"What?"

"He might. I don't mind knowing where the lifeboat is. Besides, if Raimundo can fit in, so can we."

Then we were all leaving the cabin and running along the corridor to catch up with Raimundo.

It wasn't a long walk to our lifeboat.