Ready! Set! Hawaii! Read online

  Be sure to read all of our books:

  BOOK 1- worst enemies/best friends

  BOOK 2- bad news/good news

  BOOK 3- letters from the heart

  BOOK 4- out of bounds

  BOOK 5- promises, promises

  BOOK 6- lake rescue

  BOOK 7- freaked out

  BOOK 8- lucky charm

  BOOK 9- fashion frenzy

  BOOK 10- just kidding

  BOOK 11- ghost town

  BOOK 12- time’s up

  BOOK 13- green algae and bubble gum wars

  BOOK 14- crush alert

  BOOK 15- the great scavenger hunt

  BSG Special Adventure Books:

  charlotte in paris

  maeve on the red carpet

  freestyle with avery

  katani’s jamaican holiday

  isabel’s texas two-step

  ready! set! hawaii!

  Coming soon:

  BOOK 16- sweet thirteen

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN M!X

  Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  Text and illustrations copyright © 2009 by B*tween Productions, Inc.,

  Home of the Beacon Street Girls.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  ALADDIN is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and related logo is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  ALADDIN M!X and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Beacon Street Girls, KGirl, B*tween Productions, B*Street, and the characters Maeve, Avery, Charlotte, Isabel, Katani, Marty, Nick, Anna, Joline, and Happy Lucky Thingy are registered trademarks of B*tween Productions, Inc.

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1–866-248–3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2008939757

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-9626-2

  ISBN-10: 1-4169-9626-5

  Visit us on the Web:

  http://www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Contents

  Part One Surprise!

  CHAPTER 1 Not the Titanic!

  CHAPTER 2 Knock, Knock

  CHAPTER 3 Shipwrecking a Cruise

  CHAPTER 4 Totally Sick!

  CHAPTER 5 A Mysterious Voice…

  CHAPTER 6 Kgirl Reunion

  CHAPTER 7 What to Do, What to Do?

  CHAPTER 8 Horsing Around

  CHAPTER 9 A Sight for Sick Eyes

  CHAPTER 10 Pineapple, Pineapple Everywhere

  Part Two New Family, Old Friends

  CHAPTER 11 Supercollider!

  CHAPTER 12 Matching Band-Aids

  CHAPTER 13 The Calm Before the Storm

  CHAPTER 14 Monster Waves

  CHAPTER 15 I Don’t!

  CHAPTER 16 Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect

  CHAPTER 17 Karaoke!

  CHAPTER 18 The Bird is Out of the Bag!

  CHAPTER 19 Questions Without Answers

  CHAPTER 20 I Now Pronounce you…

  Epilogue

  Part One

  Surprise!

  CHAPTER

  1

  Not the Titanic!

  Whoa!” exclaimed Avery.

  “Isn’t it grand?” gushed Maeve.

  “Fabuloso,” agreed Isabel.

  “Sweet, very sweet,” added Katani, nodding.

  Docked in the Honolulu harbor was the biggest ship any of the Beacon Street Girls had ever seen. It gleamed white against the bright blue sky, almost as big as an island, with a large yellow and red flower and the word Aloha! in flowing red script painted on the bow.

  “Did you know Aloha is Hawaiian for ‘hello’ and ‘good-bye’?” Charlotte asked her four best friends.

  “Aloha!” Avery shouted, walking backwards and waving. “Am I coming or going?”

  Maeve playfully shoved her friend. Avery was so eager to get going she started jumping up and down, trying to see over all the people.

  “Patience, BSG. We’re almost ready to board.” Mr. Ramsey, Charlotte’s dad, pointed toward two men in official uniforms who were walking toward the gate.

  Charlotte gave her father a quick smile. Her dad, a travel writer, was working on an article about Aloha Cruise Lines for Family Travel magazine. When he proposed a “special angle” of traveling with tweens, the magazine and the cruise line loved it. All the girls had the opportunity to tag along on their spring vacation. So here they were—ready for the best spring break ever!

  Charlotte could almost feel the electricity running through the whole crowd. A few weeks ago she never would have imagined that one day she’d be boarding a ship in Hawaii with her four best friends in the whole world!

  “A real cruise!” Maeve exclaimed. “Just the sound of the word is so romantic.”

  “Romantic?” Avery stopped jumping for a second to adjust her backpack. “How about thrilling, exhilarating, and totally sweet! Surfing, more surfing…”

  Charlotte shook her head at Avery’s surfing obsession. She was the only Beacon Street Girl who had been to Hawaii before. But Charlotte, who had read her father’s Hawaii travel guide before they left, knew there was more to the islands than just surfing. Hawaii had history, exotic forests, birds, beaches…and so much to explore that Charlotte couldn’t wait for the adventure to begin!

  Katani took out a list she had made of all the different activities and which decks they were on. “It always calms me down when I know what to expect,” she explained to her friends.

  “I’m a little nervous!” Isabel admitted, turning slightly pink. “I’ve just never been on a boat this big.”

  Maeve squinted at the ship, sizing it up. “It’s at least as big as a shopping mall.”

  Isabel shook her head. “Try three shopping malls!”

  Charlotte squeezed her friend’s arm. “It’s really no big deal. Izzy, you’ll be so busy drawing all the amazing things we’re going to see that you’ll forget you haven’t done this a million times.”

  Isabel took a deep breath and hugged her sketchpad close. She knew she was incredibly lucky just being able to go with her friends on an all-expenses-paid cruise! She even had a little bit of babysitting money saved up for some Hawaiian souvenirs. Charlotte was probably right. Going on a huge ship is no problema.

  “Let’s just hope it’s not the Titanic,” Avery joked, and started belting out in an off-key voice the theme song to the popular movie.

  Maeve quickly joined in, and when Isabel started humming along in her pretty voice, Charlotte knew Izzy would be just fine.

  “Come on, Katani!” Maeve urged. “You know you love this song!”

  “I do not!” Katani fixed her friends with a serious look that soon melted into a smile. “Besides, no one,” she pointed out, “wants to hear the Kgirl sing.”

  “Good point,” Charlotte teased.

  As the crowd started to inch forward, Katani gathered her luggage around her. Navigating through the throng with her three matching bags—which had been three mismatched suitcases until she gave them the special Kgirl treatment the week before—was proving to be difficult.

  At least her bags were light and compact, unlike Maeve’s two gigantic, unwieldy suitcases. “What do you have in here, Maeve, rocks?” Mr. Ramsey grinned as he dragged the lar
ger one along the wharf.

  “Just everything a girl on the move absolutely needs!” Maeve stopped and hugged her suitcase dramatically. “Katani, your bags are absolutely gorgeous,” Maeve remarked suddenly.

  “I bet you did that yourself?” Charlotte guessed.

  Katani nodded and smiled, admiring her handiwork. She had covered each bag in orange canvas fabric printed with flowers; gold-thread stitching rounded out the look. “Thanks! I thought the floral print was spot-on for Hawaii. You never know—Kgirl may just rock out a luggage line.”

  “You have to!” Maeve squealed. “Then, when I’m famous, I’ll carry them with me wherever I travel. They always like to take pictures of stars at airports.” Maeve posed as if her own personal paparazzi were following her.

  “It feels like we’re doing less traveling and more standing,” Avery complained. She climbed on top of her backpack to see how close they were to the boarding area. She could barely make out the gangway, which led into the belly of the ship. “Man, we’re miles away,” she said dejectedly.

  “They deal with this many people for every cruise,” Mr. Ramsey told her. “We’ll be inside before you know it.”

  “But we’re VIPs!” Maeve exclaimed. “Very Important Passengers.”

  “My article covers family cruising with tweens, not VIPs,” Mr. Ramsey reminded them, jotting down some notes in a little pad. “And remember—you girls are my assistant reporters. I’m going to need your input every step of the way.”

  “I’m ready, Dad,” said Charlotte as she rummaged through her book bag for her brand-new journal. Isabel had made one for her especially for the trip. It had a brown leather cover with an old-fashioned-looking print of a world map, and leather ties to hold it shut. Although she and her father had been all over the world, she had never been on a cruise. She wanted to make sure she got every last detail down on paper. And maybe, just maybe, an original Charlotte tidbit will make it into Dad’s article!

  The line started moving again, and Mr. Ramsey turned to the girls. “While I’ve got everyone’s attention, I want to hear you list the two most important rules one more time.” The girls huddled around.

  “Charlotte, you first,” he directed.

  “Use the buddy system—no going off alone,” she said firmly.

  “Avery.” Mr. Ramsey nodded at a fidgety Avery, who was jumping up and down again to see how soon they would reach the gate.

  “Umm.” She fumbled for a minute, then blurted out, “Let you or one of the BSG know where you and your buddy are going.”

  “Okay!” cheered Mr. Ramsey.

  “OKAY!” the girls yelled, laughing.

  When the line stopped again, Charlotte opened her new journal and started to jot down her first impressions of the ship and Hawaii itself. Gulls’ cries like music while palm trees sway to the beat—

  “Hello, you must be the travel writer!”

  Charlotte looked up to discover a large man with a bushy red beard smiling down at her. He was dressed in a freshly pressed white uniform that she recognized from her reading as captain’s whites.

  “Captain Bob Frawley,” the man said, saluting the girls. “I’m the commander of this vessel.”

  “I’m Richard Ramsey.” Charlotte’s dad shook Captain Bob’s hand and explained that he was the one writing about the cruise for Family Travel magazine.

  “Well, you’d better come on up to the front of the line, then, sir!” Captain Bob remarked, and ushered the group past the masses of people who were dressed mostly in brightly colored Hawaiian shirts and either chatting loudly or checking their watches.

  “Excuse me! Coming through!” Maeve sang as she maneuvered her giant bags one at a time up to the front of the line.

  Captain Bob was asking Mr. Ramsey if he’d include pictures of the crew in the magazine—maybe he could get in a head shot with his pirate eye-patch?—when someone’s cell phone started to make a sound.

  “Someone’s beeping,” Isabel said.

  “I didn’t bring my phone,” Charlotte replied. “Besides, all the people who would call me are right here!”

  Maeve riffled through her pink and silver purse for her phone while Katani checked the cell phone compartment of her carry-on bag. Each of the girls shook her head. The beeping stopped, but Avery was still rummaging through her enormous backpack, clothes and shoes spilling everywhere.

  “Avery, that backpack is a mess,” Katani said. She had offered to make Avery a proper carry-on bag, but Avery said she didn’t care about her luggage, adding, “It’s not what you wear, it’s how you tear.” Avery’s lack of interest in fashion made no sense to Katani at all.

  “Are you sure you don’t have Marty in there?” Maeve asked.

  Avery hated being away from their dog, Marty, who lived at Charlotte’s house. But pets weren’t allowed on the cruise.

  “He’s at Charlotte’s, promise,” Avery assured her. “He’s got Happy Lucky Thingy and Ms. Pierce to keep him company. Aha!” she exclaimed. “Here it is!” Avery pulled her cell phone out from a tangle of clothes and flipped it open. Her mother’s number was on the display. “It’s my mom.”

  “Shouldn’t you call her back?” asked Isabel.

  “I bet she’s just wishing us bon voyage,” Avery replied. “I’ll call her back later.”

  A short woman with chin-length blond hair stood at the entrance to the ship, which was blocked off by a maroon velvet rope.

  “Aloha! I’m Carla,” she announced in a bright voice. “I’d like to welcome you to Aloha’s seven-day deluxe cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. Now, if I could please see your tickets.”

  “These are my first mates, Carla!” Captain Bob turned to the girls. “I run a tight ship, so no shenanigans or I’ll have you walkin’ the plank, arrrg!”

  “Where are the hair-and-makeup trailers?” Maeve whispered to Isabel. On a scavenger hunt to Cape Cod, Maeve and Isabel’s team had stumbled onto the set of a real movie—all about pirates. Maeve had been cast as an extra!

  Katani looked at Captain Bob skeptically. “They let pirates captain cruise ships now?”

  He winked at her and leaned in closer to the group. “Can you all keep a secret?”

  The BSG looked at one another and nodded.

  “I just play a pirate on board for special occasions.” He chuckled and disappeared into the ship.

  “That was weird,” Katani remarked at the same time as Maeve applauded. “Bravo! What a performance!”

  Mr. Ramsey handed Carla a yellow envelope. She checked their tickets and then handed them each a folder and a brochure. “Inside you’ll find a map of the ship as well as a schedule of the activities, our safety instructions, and your room keys.”

  “So what kind of shopping is on board?” Katani wanted to know.

  Carla smiled. “We have some of the most exclusive boutiques in Hawaii, but looking at you, I’d guess you’re into more cutting-edge fashion.”

  “You’d guess right!” Katani replied.

  “Then you definitely want to check out Bananas, which is on the Celebration Deck.” Carla opened one of the brochures, circled the location of the shop with her pen, and handed the brochure back to Katani.

  Katani thanked her and studied the brochure. It was a lot more detailed than the maps she’d found online. Once she got into the room and got settled, she was going to make a list to make sure she covered all of the stores. She wasn’t as much interested in buying things as she was in seeing the world and developing her eye and skill at fashion design. If she wanted her Kgirl line to totally take off someday, she was going to have to take advantage of every opportunity that came her way!

  “I wouldn’t mind finding a bookstore,” mentioned Charlotte.

  Maeve looked through her brochure. “There’s a movie theater on board? Fantabulous!”

  “We’re in Hawaii and you two want to spend your time in the dark or reading?” Avery scoffed happily. “Forget that! I am all over the swimming pool. It has three waterslid
es and a swim-up juice bar!”

  “We’ve got a little bit of everything,” Carla assured them. She slid their tickets back into the yellow envelope and handed it to Mr. Ramsey. “I’ve checked you in, so you’re all set to go. You’ve got adjoining rooms on the Verandah Deck, which is level three. Just follow the platform to the Atrium, take the elevator up—”

  “An elevator on a ship?” Isabel blurted out loud.

  Carla laughed. “It’s a pretty big ship.” She helped them find their maps inside the folders and circled their staterooms. “Once you get to the Verandah, take a right out of the elevator and go down the hall. You’re in cabins 6180 and 6182. You can’t miss it!”

  With a flourish, she unhooked the velvet rope to let everyone on board. “Aloha!”

  “Aloha!” Avery yelled back. “Hello, Hawaii, and good-bye, land!” She slung her backpack over her shoulder and scampered up the gangway. There was one thing she was certain of: She wasn’t going to miss a thing!

  State Room of the Union

  Maeve shook her head in disbelief. “I think this is the movie set level.”

  The Atrium was an enormous, sprawling space decorated in shades of gold and green. Floral print couches surrounded small tables carved out of wood, and people were everywhere, checking in with cruise ship staff, wheeling their luggage, or relaxing on one of the sofas listening to Hawaiian music piped in over the ship’s PA system. Elevators with gold doors emblazoned with the ship’s logo were tucked away in back, ready to take the passengers to the different decks.

  The BSG squeezed into the elevator with their luggage. “She said we were on the Verandah,” Isabel reminded Charlotte. Charlotte pressed the button for their deck, and everyone watched the elevator doors slide shut.

  “I hope this elevator doesn’t break down with the weight of Maeve’s luggage,” Avery joked.