"It's not a joke," Cakey said, and there was enough alarm in her tone that Wiggy and I ran to the rail to see. I could see Cakey's entire body under the water, but no sign of Ding-Dong. Cakey looked scared. "She's been under a long time. She said she wanted to touch the bottom."

At lunch time, we all climbed aboard. The sails were raised, and off the boat flew, in search of whales.

Wiggy and I served ourselves some cold rice salad and cheese. Our hair, like our bathing suits, was still wet, but rapidly drying. Everyone was laughing, and for once I wasn't the only one packing the food away.

Cakey, with a sullen look, sat down opposite us. I noticed that her swimsuit was dry.

"Hey, Cakey, nice suit!" I complimented. She stuck out her tongue at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Notice that her new bathing suit has no ties?" Wiggy observed in a wicked tone.

"Ohhh!" I said, getting it.

"I'm not getting caught *that* way twice!" Cakey declared.

"Good for you!" Wiggy replied in a saucy voice, and I busted up laughing.

Cakey frowned. "It was just a stupid oar," she said. "You guys can't take a joke. I don't know why you got so upset over it."

"We weren't upset," I told her. "Graffy and Grooty volunteered to get the oar back. We didn't even ask them."

"Hmmph!" Cakey said.

Wiggy shrugged. "It's not a big deal, Cakey. We're all girls here."

"Oh, yeah? How would you like it if it happened to you?"

"Um," Wiggy replied feebly, reddening. I remembered her "privacy issues" — we'd been taking turns leaving the room when the other had to change clothes. I also turned a little red. I wouldn't want to be caught that way, either.

"Not to change the subject," I said, "but look over there: Shaylen's talking to Graffy and Grooty."

Wiggy and Cakey glanced over. Graffy and Grooty looked embarrassed and penitent.

"Good," Cakey said. "It looks like they're getting in trouble. What did they do?"

"They swam way out from the ship, 'cause they were mad at the Captain," I replied, and told her the story. Cakey listened without comment.

As she sat there, her brown eyes darted everywhere, and I had my first chance to get a good look at the girl. In many ways she didn't look like the other Amazons. In the first place, her blonde hair didn't look natural. I could easily imagine her as a brunette, and thought she'd look much prettier that way. Also, at least at that moment, her posture wasn't so good. Her shoulders were slumped forward, so her upper back was rounded. When she saw that I was looking at her, she straightened up. In that moment she suddenly reminded me of someone... an actress. Then it hit me: "Famke Janssen." I said aloud.

"Huh?" Cakey said.

"You look like Famke Janssen. You know, the woman who played Jean Grey in X-Men?"

"Didn't see it," Cakey replied.

"Except that you're a lot younger," I told her.

"And Janssen's a brunette," Wiggy added in an innocent tone.

Cakey regarded the two of us for a moment. "I think I must have sat at the wrong table," she said at last.

"Give me a break," Wiggy groaned. "We're just teasing you!"

At that moment, Ding-Dong arrived with a plate full of food. When she asked, "Is this the brunette table?" I wondered just how much she'd heard.

Cakey turned her eyes toward Ding-Dong in silent rebuke, but when their eyes met, Ding-Dong burst into laughter. Cakey, unwillingly at first, began to smile, and then she laughed, too.

After she sat down, Ding-Dong leaned forward, and told me in a stage whisper, "Marcie, I have to let you in on a deep, *dark* secret: Cakey and I aren't natural blondes!"

"No way!" I cried, feigning ignorance, but Wiggy, Cakey, and I exchanged a three-way glance, and we all fell to laughing.

"We're not natural blondes, either," I told Ding-Dong, while gesturing at me and Wiggy.

"You are all such idiots!" Cakey said, at once angry, laughing, and affectionate.

"Nobody cares!" Wiggy declared. "It's, like, part of the cheerleader uniform."

Cakey shrugged. "I have to find a better color, though, or give it up. This stuff burns the heck out of my hair. Conditioners and hair treatments don't repair it. They can't."

From there, we launched into a discussion of hair products. I wished aloud I had a copy of Allure with me.

"Why?" Ding-Dong asked.

"Because they have lists of best products and recommendations," I said, "and they always show the affordable ones."

That started a discussion, mainly between me and Ding-Dong, comparing women's magazines.

"Oh, God, Wiggy," Cakey said, "There's two of them now. I don't know if I can take it."

Ding-Dong and I looked at each other, face to face, eyes to eyes, and for a few strange moments, I felt as if I were looking in a mirror. Not that I look anything like Ding-Dong — not at all! And of course I'm not as naive and clueless as she is. What it *was* was the feeling of a kindred spirit: someone with the same interests, the same outlook on the world, the same attitudes. If we were six years old, I would have said, "Do you want to be my best friend?" and she would have said, "Yes."

But we weren't six years old. Still, I wanted to say something, so out came the first thing that popped into my head. I said, "Ding-Dong, do you want to be my best friend?"

And she said, "Yes."
 

As Wiggy and I emerged from the dining room onto the deck, I began with "You know... what I said to Ding-Dong there..." and Wiggy cut in, "No, it's alright. I understand."

"No, wait," I said. "Let me talk. I don't want to get things all messed up so early in the trip. I want to be your friend. I like you a lot. I hope we can be friends forever."

"Really?" Wiggy said, lifting her eyes to meet mine. I saw a cloud reflected in the right lens of her wire-rimmed glasses. She squinted at me and smiled.

"Of course I do! You're absolutely the coolest person I know! I don't ever want to lose touch with you, and I want to hang out with you the whole trip!"

"Good," she said. "Great! I feel that way too. I thought we clicked pretty quickly."

"We did. We do."

"Good," she said. "Can I give you a hug?" We hugged quickly, then she cleared her throat and said, "I understand about Ding-Dong. It seems like you share some interests, and I guess — except for her being such a dimwit — you two are pretty similar. You both have that same mercilessly positive what-do-you-call-it outlook on life."

"We're optimists?" I suggested.

"No, that's not it," she replied. "What is the word? Oh, I know! Pollyanna! You two are both such Pollyannas! That's what makes you similar!" She actually guffawed after she said it!

"Pollyanna!?" I cried. "I am so NOT a Pollyanna! Take it back!"

"No," she squealed, giggling, and I chased her all over the deck. She kept shouting, "Pollyanna!" and I kept saying, "Take it back!" If I had a pillow, I would have walloped her with it.

We kept it up until Flannery grabbed each of us around the waist and hauled us into a corner. "That's enough," she said, and she wasn't smiling. At all. "We don't have time for horseplay. The pair of you just sit there until you cool off. No running, no shouting. No getting in the way."

"What's the problem?" Wiggy said. "We were just running around."

"We could go for a swim," I suggested. "Then we'd be out of the way."

"No swimming," Flannery said. "We have to get underway, and quick."

"Why?" Wiggy asked.

Flannery grimaced. "A storm's coming. So sit there until I tell you. We need to do a head count." She went to the side and called, "Everybody, out of the water! Out of the water, Captain's orders! Now, girls, now!"

We heard Cakey's voice reply, "Ding-Dong just went underwater. I have to wait for her."

"I don't see her," Flannery said. "Remember what the Captain said: no jokes, no tricks. Come on up out of there."

"It's not a joke," Cakey said, and there was enough alarm in her tone that Wiggy and I jumped up and ran to the rail to see. I looked as well as I could. I could see Cakey's entire body under the water, but I didn't see any sign of Ding-Dong. Cakey looked scared. "She's been under a long time. She said she wanted to touch the bottom."

Flannery's face spasmed in disbelief. "Is that girl a complete idiot?" she cried. "It's at least 2000, maybe 3000 feet right here. There's no way—"

But Cakey wasn't listening. Suddenly her head gave a jerk and she said, "I see her! She's coming back up! Here she comes!"

Sure enough, a shadow appeared deep below the surface, and quickly grew. Soon we could make out the blonde head, and see the arms and legs churning and flailing. She was coming up as fast as she could possibly go.

At last, Ding-Dong's head broke the surface, and she gave the loudest gasp I've ever heard. It sounded like a backward shriek, as she sucked all the air possible through her mouth, down into her lungs. Cakey helped her stay afloat, but not very well.

Graffy and Grooty flew through the air in a pair of graceful dives and came up on both sides of the girls. "We got her," one of them told Cakey. "It's okay. You're going to be alright, Ding-Dong."

Ding-Dong was still gasping. The twin blondes turned her face away from the ship, and towed her back to the ladder. By this time, Flannery was in the water, too, and several sailors were perched on the ladder. They made a human chain and somehow managed to pass Ding-Dong up the ladder and onto the deck. Soon, she was wrapped in a blanket, shivering and smiling.

Flannery relaxed for a moment, and gave Ding-Dong's head a playful push. "You silly thing!" she said. "Do you have a turnip for a brain? How could you ever think you could possibly touch bottom in this much water?"

"Oh, I always do that, wherever I swim," the girl replied. "I tried it this morning, but I didn't do a good enough jump, so I had to come back up."

"And today?" Flannery prompted, smiling in spite of herself.

"I touched bottom," Ding-Dong replied, as if the answer was obvious.

"No," Flannery countered.

"Yes," Ding-Dong said. "I jumped feet first, with my body perfectly stiff, so I went down, down, down. I went down so far, it began to get dark. And then, my feet landed on something solid. I looked up at the surface, and it was far, far away. Then I pushed off with my feet and came back up."

"It must have been a fish," one of the sailors commented.

"That's your theory," Ding-Dong told her.

Flannery straightened up. "Okay, that's enough. We need to do a head count."

"They're all here," Riley told her.

"Good," Flannery said. "Everybody needs to stay on board now. No more swimming, rowing, nothing, until further notice. Captain's orders. We've got to get underway, and fast. There's a storm we've been tracking, and it's decided to turn down and head in this direction. It's pretty far off, but the Captain's being prudent. She wants to make a run for the island.

"I suggest that you all take your showers as quickly as you can. We might have some rough sailing, and if we do, you don't want to get tossed around inside the head."

"The head?" Ding-Dong queried.

"She means the poop deck," Cakey explained, and bit her lip so she wouldn't laugh.

Flannery ignored it. "One more thing: as you know, tonight is New Years. If we can, we'll celebrate at midnight. But if things get busy, we'll have to put off the celebration until tomorrow. That's all. Any questions?"

There were no questions, not even from Ding-Dong, who was still busy shivering inside the blanket. We all went below, and as we stood in the crowded hallway, Mirina assigned shower times.

We continued to stand there, one wet mess, just looking at each other. No one seemed to want to move.

"So!" Donkey said, to break the silence, "No whales today!"

"Maybe Ding-Dong landed on a whale," someone offered.

Ding-Dong's eyes lit up. "Oh, Wiggy!" she cried. "Do you think that's possible? Could I have landed on a whale when I thought I touched bottom?"

"I don't know," Wiggy replied. "Anything's possible."

© 2008 by Kaleigh Way

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