I had slept in. I woke up with Ava, smacking me on the head with a pillow. 

“Wake up!” she yelled at me. 

“Just five more minutes!” I pleaded. 

“You said that 2 hours ago!” she shot back. 

“What’s the big deal?” I asked. 

“They are serving breakfast on this ship! Let’s go eat! The others are already there,” she answered my question. I got up like a zombie and walked with Ava towards the “cafeteria”. This ship was stocked with food! Bacon, eggs, and pancakes! Eric and several other adults ate with General Lang, so us kids ate together. There was a big table with enough seats for all of us to sit. 

We ate and talked. We shared a lot of laughs and grinned a lot. We finished our breakfasts and walked down through the hall. Ernest, being a nerd and such, wanted to go and study the ocean. I hadn’t hung out with Ernest for a while, so I came with him. Everyone else went to go somewhere else on the deck. 

“I noticed you have repeatedly kept looking at Jacy. Do you like her?” I asked. Ernest’s eyes widened. Ernest has big eyes, so his eyes looked like baseballs inhabiting his face. He sighed. 

“Well…” he said. 

“You do?” I interrupted.

Ernest looked behind to see if anyone was watching and then turned to look at his feet. 

“I guess,” he eventually said. 

“You got to get her then,” Ernest just blushed bright red.

“You know that’s nearly impossible for me,” Ernest stated firmly. 

“Well yeah, but she seems kinda lonely,” I said. 

“This is your only chance.” 

Ernest glanced at Finn, Wyatt, Ava, Mary, and Jacy talking at a table nearby. Then he gave me the “really?” look. I just sighed. 

“Ok, she may not be that lonely anymore, but still, this is your best chance at getting a ‘friend’,” I told him. 

“And my highest chance at getting a ‘friend’ is about two out of one hundred,” he told me. 

“Go, confess to her,” I said pushing him over towards Jacy. 

He was blushing so hard that he looked like a strawberry. He looked at her. 

“Oh, hi,” Jacy said awkwardly. 

“Oh, h-h-hi, Jacy,” he stammered. He had the jitters. 

“I—uh just tripped on my shoelace,” Ernest lied. 

“Oh, are you ok?” Jacy asked. 

“Oh, I’m fine,” Ernest answered shrugging. 

“I kind of gotta go,” he said quickly.

 I dragged Ernest back and said, “You screwed up, Jefferson!” 

“I know,” Ernest replied. I knew Ernest would never have a chance, but still I didn’t want him to only have two friends his whole life. He just needed to have a content sociality.

The rest of morning Ernest got sea sick a couple of times and Mary got a paper-cut, but that was really it. At one time we thought A Nazi ship was attacking, but all it really was another Japanese honking at us. At first we thought the honking was like a battle cry, but soon found it was just a friendly “hello!” from the other ship.