Part I - All Aboard!! 

Well this is a story about my first time. It happened a few years back before Livin La Vida Loca was even dreamt of. My name's Jordan and I was 15 at the time. I'd been on a couple of cruises before and they were fun enough I guess, but they were always so.. I dunno.. not what I wanted. I'm gay, and I knew then that I was gay, and every time I went on a cruise I wound up spending my time with a girl cause I wanted to be one of the "in crowd". I didn't think that this one would be any different. I'll start the story on a Friday - the night we would leave for Miami. Well it would actually be Saturday morning at around 4:30am, but I still think of that as Saturday since I wouldn't go to sleep before Saturday. If I haven't gone to sleep, it's all the same day! That's my thinkin. 

My mom of course had waited till the last minute to pack the same way she always does, and she and my dad were running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get 12 hours of work done in 4 and a half hours. We would be leaving for the airport at 2:00 and it was now 9:30. The sun was hanging low in the sky, and I was laying on my bed staring up at my ceiling. "Jordan!" Came my dad's voice. "Have you seen my red tie?" 

"Nope sorry dad!" I yelled back. 

My brother walked in rolling his eyes and gave me his little smile as he dragged his oversized suitcase into my room. He was 8 years old and adorable. He always had a way of defusing a stressful situation. "Jordy," he began with his innocent little voice and I knew he was about to ask some kinda question. "How come mommy and daddy always do this when we go away?" 

"You mean leave everything till the dating back and forward, playing checkers (I let him win to keep him happy), and playing video games. 

We were sitting talking quietly again when my mom walked into my doorway and rested her arm against the doorframe and leaned her head against it smiling. "Are you two having fun?" She asked. 

"YYYUP!" Joel peeped as he jumped to his feet and started jumping up and down on my bed. 

"Come on you!" I said scooping him into my arms and grabbing his suitcase. "Time to get everything downstairs?" I asked 

"That's right," she said smiling at our excitement. 

We got our things downstairs and a short while later the limo pulled up and we were off to the airport. We cleared the security after Joel was finished talking to the people who checked the bags why he couldn't keep his suitcase with him, and headed off through the terminal and got to our gate and finally got to sit down again. My brother of course couldn't sit down and relax at 4:00am, so he ran over to the big window that looked out at the plane we would be flying on. "WOW," he exclaimed. "Is that our airplane?" He asked wide eyed as I walked up behind him. 

"That's the one we're gonna fly in today kiddo," I said messing his hair. 

"Hey!" He said grabbing my hand. "That's a really big plane right Jordy?" He asked holding my hand over his shoulder still looking out at the A 3-10. 

"Yup it's a really big one," I said resting my other arm over his left shoulder. He held each ot my arms and stepped back so he was standing on my shoes then told me he was too tired to walk back to the chairs so I had to walk for him. I took little steps lifting his feet on top of mine the short distance back to the seats and we sat down. He was getting sleepy and he climbed over me to sit on my mom's lap and closed his eyes for a quick break from all the excitement. A short while later we were seated on board, Joel wide eyed and in his over-tired, excited state. 

The plane ride was pretty uneventful aside from a patch of heavy turbulence that shook the plane up and down. It was down right alarming, and I think some people thought we were goners. Fortunately, it only lasted a minute, much to the dismay of Joel who thought it was "so much fun bumping up and down". When we finally broke through into calm skies, a lot of us still had our hand gripped firmly to our armrests. As a stewardess.. oops.. flight attendant walked down the aisle a minute or two after the plane stopped shaking, Joel called out to her "hey mrs. lady, are we there yet?" which sent most of the passengers (as well as the flight attendant) into bouts of laughter. A half hour later we were landing at Miami airport and it was time to disembark. The whole way up the ramp, Joel was talking about the landing. He'd landed in airplanes before, but I guess they weren't all that fresh in his 8 year old memory. 

"That was really cool when we landed and the plane made that loud thunder noise right mommy?" He asked happily. 

"Yes dear, it was very cool," my mom said while looking for our luggage on the turnstile, or whatever you want to call the conveyer belt that the luggage comes up from the plane on. 

"Jordy there's my suitcase," He said pointing. "Can you please get my suitcase Jordy?" Joel asked in his little voice, and I could tell by the looks on some people's faces that his manners impressed some people. I smiled as I lifted it off and rested it down next to him. He grabbed it's handle and dragged it behind him to where my mom and dad stood with their bags. Mine was the last to come up, and once I had it we headed for the main exit to the terminal. 

To make a long section of a longer story short, we got our stuff together, took a bus to the docks, got onboard, found our room, had our luggage delivered that evening during dinner after exploring all day with Joel. Around the pool, and everywhere ese I went, I saw nothing but hot guys. It was like being a little kid in a candy store and not knowing which way to look first! Everywhere I looked, there was some cute guy, and eventually I decided to call it a day and headed back to the cabin to watch some tv before dinner. After dinner I changed into some nicer clothes, and kicked back for a couple hours before I had to take my little bro to his kids activities which started an hour before mine for the evening.