Harringtons, Christian Rhodes [e novels for free txt] 📗

the Award show." He proposed to his sister.

"Oh, I don't think your job is quite done yet." Francois approached them again. Apparently he heard them.

The twins looked frustrated, "What? Why?" Londres exclaimed.

The PA system suddenly sounded all around the ship, "Ladies and gentlemen. The SS Harrington Cruise ship is now arriving at the shores of Ireland."

"That's why." General Francois said.

"Aww…man." The twins growled.

Troy and Samantha popped their heads out of nearby plants, looked around their surrounding and after seeing the coast being clear, they tiptoed into the Studio Atrium which was one room from the Main Studio's Lobby. The lobby and atrium were of the same décor but were different than the main lobby. The décor were scarlet red and the lights were dimmed yellow-gold. It had a bad stand and there were many nice tables and chairs around, including chesterfields and coffee tables by the rounded rectangular shape windows that captured the spectacular ocean view. Night had already fallen according to the dusky background.

"You know you can still act casual, right?" Paris's voice spooked them. The siblings saw their sister reclining on a chesterfield while reading a book titled: How to Lie Your Way Out of a Crime you Committed.

"Casual huh?" Troy stared at the book and Paris, "how can you act casual when you're reading a book that attracts suspicions?"

"They're educational." Paris replied, "So please, let me concentrate."

Samantha snatched the book from her. "That's enough reading for one second." She snapped.

Paris glared at Samantha. Samantha faced Troy, "Maybe it's not a big deal." She said, "I mean they're not going to know that we mess it up. They all do that."

"Who do all that?" Troy asked.

"Duh. Computers."

"Err…hello!" Paris pointed out, "Computers don't do that. It's us humans that make computer do that."

"Okay. How do you know all that?" Samantha asked.

"Because unlike you two, I don't stare at boys or girls during class."

The guests began to swarm in the main lobby and headed for the check-up counter where Aaron, Londres, and General Francois were.

"Welcome to the SS Harrington, where you make yourself at home in the seas." Aaron greeted.

Londres faced Aaron and repeated, "At home in the seas?"

Aaron shrugged, "What? Can't I be creative?"

A blond woman, about her forties, was first to the counter, "Hi. I booked a reservation for the Mc-Valley 3-days workshop. My name is Fran Joane."

"Fran Joane." Londres checked on the computer. Troy, Samantha and Paris watched nervously the event, "Here comes the scream." Troy muttered.

"Ah, Fran Joane. Your name's on the data, and you'll be receiving your workshop pass and your stateroom key. Welcome aboard." Londres told the guest.

"Oh, thank you very much." She complimented and left. Troy, Samantha, and Paris froze for a minute.

"Nothing happened!" Samantha said.

"And you were all worried." Paris chuckled.

"No, we weren't." Troy said.

"At least their data are safe." Samantha let out a sigh of relief, but only for a split second.

"What do you mean I'm not on the list?" An angry guest boomed.

"There's gotta be a mistake, ma'am. Err…could you please be patient?" Aaron looked at the computer and began to compute in haste. The moment he pushed the Enter button, his face turned grim, "Uh, oh."

Londres turned to face the guest and smiled nervously, "Are you sure you weren't supposed to be in the SS Harrington of…" she gulped, "…Yemen?"

"YEMEN!"

"err…guys," Samantha began, "something's wrong with the computer."

"Oh, you think?" Troy eyeballed her.

Aaron and Londres froze in front of thousand complaining guests. General Francois came in the scene, "What in the Titanic is going on here?" he shouted.

"General, thank goodness! Can you fix this?" Londres showed Francois the computer screen. Francois' face went grim. He squealed in hush tone.

"I'm terribly sorry, General!" Aaron began, "I…we thought we fixed the whole thing."

"HOW CAN YOU THINK THAT?" Francois boomed.

Londres looked up, her face lit in reminiscence, "Maria!"

Francois faced Londres, "Maria?"

Londres froze, "err…"

"What does Maria has to do with this?"

Troy, Samantha and Paris looked at each other, "Maria?"

"I know what to do." Troy said with a scheming smile, "we're going to frame Maria and we'll be off the hook."

Troy was talking so loud, he didn't realize Maria was standing behind them, listening.

"Who's going to be framed?" Maria asked.

The siblings turned to face her and froze up.

"No one." Samantha responded, almost insincerely.

"By no one, you mean someone?" Maria asked.

Paris starting laughing, and Troy and Samantha joined in the laughter. "Maria, Maria." She said, "There's no such thing as a no one who's a someone."

"Or a someone who's a no one. Ah!" Samantha snorted.

Maria was about to bust the siblings when…

"MARIA CHAVERS RELLA MARMALADE!" the scream of General Francois rang. Maria turned to face a livid general approaching her.

"I believe you had something to do with the Digitech downloading in the ship's main computer, no?" the general asked.

Maria felt her body burning with anxiety. She was in trouble. "Yes," she quickly responded, "but General—"

Francois pointed at a direction beyond the reception desk, "In my office, now."

Maria sighed and started walking to the direction the general pointed. Francois was about to follow when Troy called him, "General Fred, wait!"

"Now is not a good time, Sir Troy. And the name is Francois!" he then walked away.

"Now would have been the perfect time." Troy sighed, "He responded to my name fallout again."

"Name fallout?" Samantha repeated.

"That's when he calls me by my name. Which is…" he stopped to hesitate. Samantha and Paris watch their brother ponder about what was his name. How embarrassing was that.

"It's start with a T., Doofus." Paris insulted him.

"Doofus doesn't start with a T, dear sister." He corrected, "T is for names like Trevor or Tim or Tom…" he stared senselessly, "maybe Tom is my name. Is Travolta my name? Ooh! Ooh! How about Tec. I think it's Tec. No? Maybe Tinker Bell…nah, Tinker is too girly…"

Samantha and Paris walked away.

Londres worried about Maria's job at the SS Harrington. Was asking for help a grave mistake? Could Maria have truly unnoticed that error and deliberately sabotaged the download process of the document bringing in more error?

"General took Maria to his Executive Bureau." Londres said, "Should we go and see what's up, Aaron?"

No response from her brother.

"Aaron?"

Londres turned to watch Aaron dozing on the desk, his head buried on a pile of paperwork. She slowly placed the ringer right next to his ear and threw a slap down on it.

RING!

Aaron raised his head and papers went flying everywhere. "NO MORE SHRIMPS!"

He looked around to notice he was sleeping on the job. The angry customers couldn't help but laugh a little from his waking outburst.

"Rise and shine." Londres smiled at her brother.

"Aw, man. How I hate this whole thing." Aaron groaned, "Missing the Awards show and Eva Mendes is one thing, but Mom and Dad don't have to take away our sole freedom which is sleep!"

"And you are taking away our sole freedom, which is time and patience!" one of the angry guests exclaimed and every one of them joined in the complaining.

"One more minute and I'm walking!" Another frustrating customer threatened and everyone responded in full agreement. Aaron and Londres felt chills traveling down their spines. What to do? The cruise ship can't afford to lose Irish customers, resulting in a great loss of revenues if they walked out. That's not how the twins want to remember their first days of owning the SS Harrington as complete failures.

"Wait! Please!" Aaron exclaimed, "You can't leave! I mean, you can since we still on Ireland shore, but…"

"What are you doing?" Londres hissed at her brother.

"I'm trying to save the business!" Aaron exclaimed, "I don't want my first day to be a first crash at the iceberg!"

"Your first day? That's my first day too!"

"Well, you got any ideas?"

"No. You?"

"No."

The guests screamed and ranted even more louder, only for a short while. Ken entered the setting, sporting up a all-white tennis outfit and held a racquet. The guests turned their attention on Ken and their faces totally changed.

Ken gulped. People were staring. He knew something was wrong, "Uh oh." He uttered.

"OHMYGOSH!" A woman flapped her hands and breathed excessively, "IT'S KENNETH BIFF ORTON WASHINGTON! WORLD FAMOUS TENNIS CHAMPION FOUR YEARS RUNNING!"

Ken shook his head and started to back away, "err…I think you mistaking me for the wrong person…" he faced Aaron and Londres, "could you guys fix this?"

Smiles appear on the twins' lips, "Sure." Aaron said. Londres picked up a microphone, plugged it into Intercom mode to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the SS Harrington Cruise Line! Get free autograph and pictures of yourselves with world tennis champion Kenneth Biff Washington at the Sky Deck plus free swimming lessons from him all afternoon!"

A roaring cheer blew from the crowd. Ken took off, running and screaming for his life as the once-angry guests went after him. Only one person was left alone from the mob and it was a sweet seven-year old little girl.

She walked up to the reception desk and slapped down a bunch of coins, "What took you so long?" she sounded upset and impatient, "I've been waiting here all day for my butter crispy cookies!"

She pushed the coins a little closer to the puzzled twins and looked up with a front-toothless smile, "I'd like four, please."

-Executive Bureau-

Maria sat calmly across a still-fuming Francois, and standing besides her were the twins and their reckless siblings, Troy, Samantha and Paris. Francois eyeballed the siblings and he wasn't the only one: Aaron and Londres were too. Apparently, their secret was out.

"Now." Francois began, "Aaron and Londres have made it perfectly clear to not ask for any help regarding technical support, unless it is addressed to the ship's engineering and programming department on ground deck. So is Maria, unless upon my approval, she is not to do anything else other than follow her job guidelines and ethics according to her contract. So are you three…" he frowned at the three siblings, "…who are NOT to make use of strictly professional devices like the Digitech as your personal Game Boys to crush our business like Enron on the sinking Titanic!"

Troy raised his hand to speak, "I thought the Titanic wasn't our business."

"I thought Enron wasn't a ship." Samantha added.

"And why would you compare our ship to the Titanic. Sure the Titanic was beautiful and all that back in your days, but—all right. All right!" Troy stopped as he saw Francois's face tightening hard enough to form into a ghoulish look. The siblings looked away from Francois's eyes.

Troy sighed, feeling guilty about what happened, "What we did was wrong and out of our league. We're sorry."

"So, if you want," Samantha added, "We'll be going back to our normal, boring lives of champagne and caviar. And we don't even drink champagnes."

"Wait a minute, guys." Londres stopped the three siblings, "You think…? What are you saying? Do you not like the way we're living?"