Me and my family had been in our quarter suite on the ship in its first day. A couple of short hours ago, we were waving to the crowd at the port of Southampton; tears were filling their eyes as the largest cruise ship ever left the port in England. A proud day for thousands.

“Mother, can William and I head down to the game room for a short while?” I said with excitement pouring out of my mouth.
“Ok Charles, but be back by 5:00 because we are having supper at half past” Mother said.
“Oooh! Where are we eating?” I yapped back at her with glee.
“We are having French at Ventre Hereux. Does that sound alright?” Mother said.
“Yes!” William and I said simultaneously.

                                            
When we got to the game room, we got very excited because there were games beyond imagine. There were board games, OH! How we would never be bored! There were playing cards, toys, cars, and dolls. A few children sat on the side of the room playing house with each other.
They were rich folk, you could tell by their clothing: They wore silk dresses, hats, bonnets, polished clogs, leggings and bright haircuts.
William and I were playing Old Maid in the corner on a soft carpet. I was losing, only because Old Maid is William’s best game and mine is Go Fish.
“So, here we are. The Unsinkable Ship”, William said.
“Yeah, this is amazingly beautiful. I wonder how Father is doing in the States.” I sighed heavily.

Our Father was in the United States because he possessed the dreaded plague. The plague had recently been new a couple of months ago. When we first found out that he had the plague, we all didn’t take it very well. As far as we know, Plague X  has no known cure and we all freaked out.
Oh, and by WE, I mean me, my mother, my brother William, and my sister Annabel. We all looked for the next available ship to the states which was the Titanic. The Plague was the worst thing to hit Earth since the Great Comet. Your lips were swollen, you had red bumps all over your body and you bled internally. You also vomited like crazy. It was a deadly disaster. The reason that my father was in the states was because he was on a business trip there and he caught the plague.
“Bloody Americans. Of course, ‘The Greatest Country in the World’ had to give Father the plague,” William huffed. William wasn’t very high with the Americans— he preferred to think of them as a pack of wild animals.
“I’m sure he’d be doing mighty fine, don’t you think? I mean, I know that you don’t like the Americans but they do have some excellent medical history at their hands.” I retaliated.  Although I seemed like I was doing fine, I was actually a nervous wreck. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if our Father passed away. How would we get our money and food and shelter?Mother was unemployed, and it didn’t seem like she was getting a job anytime soon. We were first class citizens and I didn’t want to become poor and helpless. I was truly petrified.
                                        
We were dressed in our finest clothes as we were seated by the hostess in the restaurant. Mother wore a beautiful gown which brought out her beauty. William and I were in our finest suits. Annabel was in a gown that seemed to make her eyes shine bright.
“You look very lovely, Annabel,” I complimented.
“Like she ever does,” William muttered.
Then, Mother got mad. She got up and laid a hard slap across the face of poor William who then whimpered. “Respect your sister, William!” Mother barked.
“I’m sorry, Annabel,” William apologized.
“Thank you Charles,” Annabel said, “Why, what a wonderful way to travel to the States, don’t you all agree?”
“Yes, Annabel this is lovely,” Mother replied.
Mother was scared too. She loved Father very much and she didn’t want to experience what life would be like without him either.
Then our food came. The steaming hot, juicy, tender duck that I saw on the silver plate made my stomach growl and my taste buds water. I then dug into that duck like I hadn’t seen food in years. Even mother seemed to eat without proper table etiquette.
“This is mighty delicious,” William gawed.
“I could have this everyday,” said Annabel.
And so we sat there, Annabel’s dry blonde hair getting sprinkled with duck sauce and William’s freckled face laughing as he gobbled his duck. We all laughed and had a grand old time, completely forgetting about our father in the States.

They were walking by on the other side of the hallway embarrassed. My family was laughing at them. 3rd classers walking through the deck with their tattered clothes and messy hair and outfits. Us 1st classers were laughing and making fun of them.
“You cankes! What low-class savages!”
“They probably can’t even dress themselves!”
“Losers!”
“Dirty sloths!” shouted William.
But not me. I wasn’t going to stand for this any longer. I turned around and faced my family. “How could you be so heartless and rude? They’re people like us. Just with less money. So— so what? They’re life just isn’t as fortunate as ours. But that doesn’t give you the authority to make fun of them and put them down!”
My family looked so shocked that a 7 foot rabbit with red teeth wouldn’t have surprised them as much as my little outburst.
“Charles—,” my mother began.
“No,” I said. I turned around, tears filling my eyes at the indecency of my disgusting family. I ran away toward the deck of the poor, embarrassed 3rd classers.

As I was sitting in a corner on one of the decks, a girl approached me. She was a small girl with auburn hair cut before her shoulders in a straight line. She wore work clothes that were dirty and overused. Her face was lightly freckled with large, too-blue eyes that seemed to hypnotize you.
She sat down next to me and sighed. “I saw you with your family back in the deck up there making fun of my family.”``````
Oh, so she was a 3rd classer. Figures.
“Hey, you think I was making fun of you guys. I was the one defending you guys from my family. If anything, you should be thanking me. I’m disgusted with my family,” I grumbled.
“Oh. Well, thank you then.” She seemed sincere for accusing me.
“You’re welcome.”
“Name’s Alice, by the way.”
“Pleasure, Alice. I’m Charles, but some call me Charcoal.”
Alice giggled. “Hi, Charles.”
We shook hands. A 3rd classer befriending a 1st classer. What would this mean? Could society mesh like this? What would Mother think of this friendship? You know what, it wouldn’t matter anymore because at this point I didn’t really give for Mother’s opinion.
Alice suddenly spoke up. “Would you care to play a game of tag with my brothers and sisters around the lower deck?”
This was a huge decision that I had to make. I didn’t know how this could possibly turn out. The result could be good or bad. Ahhhhh!?
Alice notices me pondering over this for quite a long time. She was about to speak but I piped up.
“YES!” I blurted out. 
Alice smiled— “Sure, I’ll go get my siblings.”

    
We started off with Alice being it. She counted and me and her brothers ran away and hid. Alice was chasing us and getting us it. I became it and we kept going in circles for what seemed like hours having the time of our lives which sadly, had to end. Alice and her siblings were so kind, and I was so happy to be with them. I was sad when it had to end.
“Bye Alice. Thank you so much for inviting me to play with you and your brothers. This was wonderful,” I cheerfully thanked.
“You’re welcome Charles!” Alice then piped back, “See you tomorrow!”
As I started the trot back to my quarter, I realized what was actually happening. I was walking back to a family of mine who I just solded and reprimanded. I then played a game for hours with the people who they had put down. I couldn’t tell them. I just couldn’t. Could I? Should I?

By the time I got back to the cabin, it was already a quarter to 2200 hours. Mother would be furious with me.
I walked through the door to find William and Annabel out cold, and Mother sitting cross armed on the chair.
“Charles James Smith! Where have you been?” Mother barked.
“I was out wandering about, ”I lied, “ Why?” I lied.
“Did you hear the news?”
“No,” I said.
“Plague X is aboard the ship!” Mother squealed.

This was bad. Very bad. It didn’t even matter now that they were making fun of the 3rd classers. We had bigger things to worry about now. Plague X was honestly the most contagious sickness ever to exist on planet Earth. It could divide humanity. And this ship didn’t exactly have hospitals fit for hundreds. We had a doctor’s office. Pretty much it.  What if one of us caught the Plague. What about Mother? Even if I was mad at her we still needed to be taken care of. Would this mean no Alice? They’re medical attention would come last. Their medicine supply would be terrible. Could I risk it by spending time with her? I DON’T KNOW!! My brain screamed in terror.
“What are we going to do?” I asked?
“Well, we can’t have any fun on the ship anymore. You must wear gloves and not touch anything except food and drinks.”
“Have you told William and Annabel yet?”
“No,” she glanced over at William and Annabel who were soundly asleep.
“Oh, my.”
The rest of the night was quiet except for the waves crashing against the boat and my rambling brain.

I awoke and checked the date. April, 13th. We were somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I got up and got my anti-Plague gloves on and grabbed a glass of water. William and Annabel were already up. We didn’t really do much yesterday except read and talk in the room. We told William and Annabel. I was worried sick about Alice. I needed to check on her. She gave me her room number in case I needed her. I went over to Mother’s bed and looked at her.
“Can I go get us some more food?” I asked.
“Oh, alright .” Mother said.
I ran out the door and took a look at the scene. Empty decks. Barren wastelands. We were lucky that the ship was still moving. I missed Alice terribly. “ALLLLLLLIIIIIIIICCCCCEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed. I ran to her room.
When I got there, I opened the small door and looked inside. Her and 3 others lay there. They were dead except for Alice.
“Alice! Are you okay?”
“Charles, come closer,” she squeaked.
I inched toward her, trembling. “Alice?”
“Good luck,” she rasped out.
“No, no, no no no no no no no no!” I screamed. This was horrific. Alice was a kind-hearted, sweet, wonderful person who innocently caught this plague. How many people is this Plague going to take away from our lives?
Then she died.