nights? It’s
Pirates of the Caribbean
.”
“Sure,” I said.
Lauren picked up her camera. “Hey, I have an idea. Let’s wander around the ship and find interesting things to videotape. What if we found someone stowing away or something like that?”
“It would be easy to stow away on one of these ships,” said Evan. “You could go through the buffet line ten times a day, and no one would know. They don’t check your ID or anything.”
“Where would you sleep?” I asked.
“You could sleep out by the pool, on a lounge chair. Or maybe on one of the sofas you see sitting around,” said Evan.
“Where would you shower?” I said.
“Just go swimming every day,” said Guy.
“How would you get on board in the first place? They check your passport and everything,” Lauren pointed out.
“If you had a passport, I bet you could get on,” said Evan.
“I bet a lot of people try it,” said Guy. “Want to go searching for stowaways?”
“Now?” I hesitated. My heart started beating hard. The teen club would close in an hour. I was pretty sure Daddy and Uncle Ted were expecting us to stay in the club rather than wander around the ship.
“Yeah!” said Lauren. “I’ve been dying to try to find my way around.”
“I want to check out the rock-climbing wall,” said Evan. “What about you guys?”
I didn’t want to sound like a baby or a goody-goody and be the only one who didn’t want to leave the teen club. So when they got their stuff and got ready to leave, I did too.
As we were leaving, Josh came up to us. “You guys heading out? Were your parents going to come back for you or what?”
“No, they just said to come back to the room when we were ready,” Lauren said.
“Okay, cool. Take it easy; maybe I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.
“Let’s walk on the upper deck,” said Evan. We went up two flights of stairs and came out on the upper deck. As we stepped out into the open, the breeze blew our hair and plastered our shirts against our skin.
“Wow, look at the stars!” I said. They were brilliant, spread across the sky like bright diamonds. The movement of the water all around us created a constant wall of sound.
Evan was walking along with Lauren, and I was walking along with Guy.
I started asking Guy about what it was like to be diabetic.
“It’s a definite challenge,” he said. “I found out I had diabetes when I was seven. I had to start testing my blood sugar then. When you’re diabetic, your body doesn’t make its own insulin, so you have to give it to yourself.”
“Do you have to stick yourself?”
“Yes, but the needles are so tiny, you can barely feel it. It doesn’t hurt. You have to learn about blood sugar and what kinds of foods cause it to go up or down, and you have to test your blood sugar about five or six times a day.”
“What kinds of foods cause your blood sugar to go up?”
“Sweets and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates get metabolized into sugar, so you have to watch the carbohydrates you eat … like pizza or chips. Eating a lot of snack food isn’t good. One thing that’s really good for you if you’re diabetic is exercise. It burns up the glucose. But at the same time, you have to be careful not to let your blood sugar get too low.”
“Wow.” I hadn’t ever thought about having to watch so closely everything I ate and did. I thought about thetimes we had cheerleading practice and did back tucks until we were about to throw up. None of us worried about our blood sugar. It was a different way of living.
Guy shrugged. “When I was first diagnosed, I felt really sorry for myself. I thought,
why did this have to happen to me?
But you get used to it. If my blood sugar is high, I need to give myself more insulin. If my blood sugar is low, like after exercising, I need to eat or drink something with sugar in it. Like, I just sip Gatorade during soccer practice to keep my blood sugar from falling. I’m not going to let it keep me from doing
Pirates of the Caribbean
.”
“Sure,” I said.
Lauren picked up her camera. “Hey, I have an idea. Let’s wander around the ship and find interesting things to videotape. What if we found someone stowing away or something like that?”
“It would be easy to stow away on one of these ships,” said Evan. “You could go through the buffet line ten times a day, and no one would know. They don’t check your ID or anything.”
“Where would you sleep?” I asked.
“You could sleep out by the pool, on a lounge chair. Or maybe on one of the sofas you see sitting around,” said Evan.
“Where would you shower?” I said.
“Just go swimming every day,” said Guy.
“How would you get on board in the first place? They check your passport and everything,” Lauren pointed out.
“If you had a passport, I bet you could get on,” said Evan.
“I bet a lot of people try it,” said Guy. “Want to go searching for stowaways?”
“Now?” I hesitated. My heart started beating hard. The teen club would close in an hour. I was pretty sure Daddy and Uncle Ted were expecting us to stay in the club rather than wander around the ship.
“Yeah!” said Lauren. “I’ve been dying to try to find my way around.”
“I want to check out the rock-climbing wall,” said Evan. “What about you guys?”
I didn’t want to sound like a baby or a goody-goody and be the only one who didn’t want to leave the teen club. So when they got their stuff and got ready to leave, I did too.
As we were leaving, Josh came up to us. “You guys heading out? Were your parents going to come back for you or what?”
“No, they just said to come back to the room when we were ready,” Lauren said.
“Okay, cool. Take it easy; maybe I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.
“Let’s walk on the upper deck,” said Evan. We went up two flights of stairs and came out on the upper deck. As we stepped out into the open, the breeze blew our hair and plastered our shirts against our skin.
“Wow, look at the stars!” I said. They were brilliant, spread across the sky like bright diamonds. The movement of the water all around us created a constant wall of sound.
Evan was walking along with Lauren, and I was walking along with Guy.
I started asking Guy about what it was like to be diabetic.
“It’s a definite challenge,” he said. “I found out I had diabetes when I was seven. I had to start testing my blood sugar then. When you’re diabetic, your body doesn’t make its own insulin, so you have to give it to yourself.”
“Do you have to stick yourself?”
“Yes, but the needles are so tiny, you can barely feel it. It doesn’t hurt. You have to learn about blood sugar and what kinds of foods cause it to go up or down, and you have to test your blood sugar about five or six times a day.”
“What kinds of foods cause your blood sugar to go up?”
“Sweets and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates get metabolized into sugar, so you have to watch the carbohydrates you eat … like pizza or chips. Eating a lot of snack food isn’t good. One thing that’s really good for you if you’re diabetic is exercise. It burns up the glucose. But at the same time, you have to be careful not to let your blood sugar get too low.”
“Wow.” I hadn’t ever thought about having to watch so closely everything I ate and did. I thought about thetimes we had cheerleading practice and did back tucks until we were about to throw up. None of us worried about our blood sugar. It was a different way of living.
Guy shrugged. “When I was first diagnosed, I felt really sorry for myself. I thought,
why did this have to happen to me?
But you get used to it. If my blood sugar is high, I need to give myself more insulin. If my blood sugar is low, like after exercising, I need to eat or drink something with sugar in it. Like, I just sip Gatorade during soccer practice to keep my blood sugar from falling. I’m not going to let it keep me from doing
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