[Aleina Avery]

It may have been an odd time for Aleina to be taking a cruise. With everything going on at home; the new baby she thought had died, the family betrayal, the love from her past back in her present... it was all stuff that a responsible woman should face and deal with head on! But it was precisely those very things that caused Aleina to run. Think what you will about her, but it was nothing new. From the beginning, as soon as something became too difficult to deal with, she took off. Not for ever, never for good, but just long enough to get her mind clear enough to make smart decisions. She felt it was better that way. Everything would turn out much better in the long run if she just disappeared and was prevented from making stupid, panicked decisions. Seems everyone else thought that it was a good idea too. This time, before she even mentioned getting away, her best friend Voula had come to her and offered to take her out on a little cruise to Australia. Antoni would stay back to continue working on a solution for their baby, which at this point in time, basically meant deciding whether or not to confront the adoptive parents (who are still alive :P). Reina would look after the house. Lucy would handle all of the family issues. Xiao would do what Ninjas do. So Aleina ran.

It wasn't until they were in the middle of the ocean on the small cruise-liner that Aleina thought to ask Voula why they were heading to Australia. Not that it was that weird of a place. People took cruises to and around Australia all the time... come to find out though, miss V had a secret agenda for this trip. Some ulterior motive to track down her school sweetheart. Anyone else might have been mad, annoyed, or hurt. But Aleina was thrilled to find out that Voula had received some tip that Wendall Habana was indeed alive, and hiding in his mother land. Aleina not only loved secret missions, but the talking and planning and conspiring to get back at that deadbeat Wendall took her mind off of everything else.

One of the days, the two were out on the deck sunbathing when suddenly, the wind started to pick up. Pulling her sunglasses off of her face, Aleina looked up at the sky and nudged V to do the same. Big ugly storm clouds were rolling in quickly and an announcement was just made that the ship would be caught in an unexpected storm. Everyone was to go below deck. So that's where they ran.

The storm came in furiously and tossed the ship around like it was nothing. The wind and waves tore the ship apart in no time at all, and soon Aleina and Voula found themselves running for one of the life rafts.

Fast forward - days had passed and the two of them continued to float alone in the tiny inflatable raft. There had to be other survivors, at least that's what Aly kept telling herself. She just didn't know where they were or why none of them came into their raft. They were hot... you would think some dude would have taken his chances on getting stranded with them for a few days, right? Wrong. Anyways, they would take turns acting as look-outs while the other one would nap because Aly saw somewhere on some survivor show that help could come at any time and that they should be prepared to single them somehow. It was during her shift that she spotted something along the horizon. Moving to sit up on her knees, Aly shielded her eyes from the sun to try to get a better look. Was it a ship? NO! It was landdddd!!!! Leaning over, Aly shook V as she spoke in a low raspy voice, becuse they were dehydrated duh!

V! Land ho!!! Wake up!!! LOOK!!!!

Grabbing one of the pieces of driftwood that they had decided to randomly pick up, Aly then started rowing towards what looked to be a tropical island.

[Voula Asteria]

Voula was a nervous wreck. She didn't have her fucking wand. It was a muggle cruise, so she'd had the brilliant idea that she and Aleina should lock their wands in the safe and actually rough it as muggles for the week it would take them to get to Oceania, because we like that name for the continent. Anyways, she was following up on a lead she'd gotten from some waifish model down under that her beloved ex-boyfriend Wendell, who she believed to be dead, was actually living happily in Australia, his homeland. Voula had decided to book the cruise in order to help convince Aly to come with her, knowing that her best friend had been stressed as fuck lately, but not knowing why.

Anyways, they'd been in the raft for days, and Voula was only wearing a bikini. Thankfully she'd managed to grab her beach bag on the way out of the ship... how, we don't know, but it meant that she and Aleina had actually had a bottle of water for the first day they were lost at sea. That they had sunscreen so they wouldn't be all peely and gross, and that they had granola bars too. They'd barely eaten those though, because neither of them felt right pooping in front of each other, and everyone knows granola bars give you poop. She blinked her eyes open when she heard Aly, but it took her a minute to become responsive.

Did you call me a ho?

She asked, confused slightly until she sat up and actually saw the land mass in front of them. It didn't look spectacular, or like it had a single Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton on it, but hopefully there would be water and toilet paper. Following Aly's lead, she picked up a piece of wood and helped her best friend with the rowing.

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the streammmmmmmmm....

What? She needed to wake up, and keep herself amused somewhat. There were only so many times the two of them could play the I Never game, and she was tired of seeing Aleina's face everytime Voula mentioned doing very unmentionable things with her cousin Braeden.

[Aleina Avery]

That's ok because we're sure the situation was the same when Aly mentioned doing those same unmentionables with her brother. So basically, that came was out for awhile. If they weren't such good BFFFGSAKAJHGDS, they might think differently of each other after their five hour round of playing...

ANYWAYS, after what seemed like hours, they finally made it to the shore of the island. It was a rather large island, at least from their perspective, so it was hard to determine if it was inhabited or not. Aleina's guess was no, but she wasn't about to voice that opinion out loud. Not when V had gone on a four hour rant about toilet paper the day before... Jumping out of the raft, Aly yelped as she hit the cold water, but quickly shook it off to drag the raft onto the sand. Walking up the beach a bit, she then fell face first in the sand.

LAND!!!!!!!! Ohhhhh I love you landdddd!!! No scary sharks wanting to eat usssss just sweet, beautiful SANDDDD!!!!!!!!

Kneeling up, Aly took handfuls of the sand and threw it up in the air above her. She then fell back and looked up at the sky.

I am so glad to be out of that fucking raft! I am never going on another cruise EVER!!!!!

Rolling over onto her side, she then looked over at V.

And as soon as we get home, I'm going to be so mad at you for making me lock up my want! But until then... we should probably explore the place...