Semester at Seas BxB (Staten Krown)

5

I somehow managed to avoid Vince completely for the entire week and a half that it took us to finally make it across the Atlantic. It was kind of easy actually. I had no idea it took so long to travel...even if we were going to Africa.

Patience's strange behavior had continued. She stopped making her little meetings mandatory. That meant...I stopped going. She didn't seem to mind either.

I spent most of my times practicing with Kim...she was actually kind of nice. I thought she was an idiot because she was referred to me by Patience and was helping me work on my voice without any pay.

"I got a horse right here...his name is Paul Revere..." I sang out, looking down at the lyrics.

Class had just let out. I had hoped that I would see Amir again, but he just didn't show up to class that day.

I'd definitely gotten better, but right now my voice wasn't strong at all. The passion wasn't there. I was bored with it honestly.

"I know...I know," she said, taking the notes out my hand, "I can hear you're over it for the day. We've been at this all day...why don't we do something to celebrate. You know we are docking in Liberia today right?"

"How long we staying?"

She held onto her chest, "Two gorgeous weeks."

"Wow," I said.

I was surprised. I never went out of the country. Africa had been somewhere I was always interested. It was the Motherland for Civilization. It was some place that I'd always dreamed of going. I felt like when people were lost, they always went home. Well...my home definitely wasn't in the ghettos of the Grove with my mother. So maybe I would find the answers to these questions in Africa.

"Let's go do something."

Normally I would have said no in a polite way. I wouldn't have wanted Patience ordering me to stop talking to this girl and then doing something rude to her if I didn't stop. She hated when I hung around with what she considered, "The Help." Now Patience was acting all weird though.

"Sure...what do you have in mind?"

"Well lets go to the smoothie bar and then when we are getting close to land, we can go out to the deck and see Africa for the first time."

She seemed more excited than I was. I guess it was because I had learned to subdue my emotions as best that I knew how. We went like she said we did. Kim talked a lot...I didn't mind. She talked a ton about everything.

She was so different from the girls that I normally knew. She didn't wear make up. I never saw my mother or sister or my sister's friends without make up. They just wouldn't allow themselves to come out of their bedrooms without it being on. She sang often too. It was random and loud. Sometimes it was annoying, but sometimes it was the most beautiful sounds in the world.

We made it to the smoothie bar only to see that it was crowded. I guess everyone was thinking about the same thing that we were thinking about. I looked around. There were all these excited faces and excited people. There was this long line for smoothies.

"Hey!"

I turned to see a girl. She was standing at the front of the line. She had a friendly smile. She was waving at me. I looked at Kim as though wondering if that was perhaps her friend. Kim had the same confused look as I did.

I walked up to her, trying to see if I could remember her face. It didn't look familiar to me though...but then all of a sudden it made sense.

"Do I know you?" I asked.