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September 9, 2001Lincoln Park, NJ Lincoln Park International AirportThe seven Coleman siblings were standing just outside the terminal of a local airport holding their luggage, their father Mike Coleman was standing in front of them, they were preparing to board a flight to Pearl Harbor. The Coleman's consisted of the quintuplets(in birth order), Letty, Aldo, Jari, Kassy, and Alexio, and then Paola and the youngest of the seven Joey.Mike had leaned down to his children's level, the other kids were either standing beside or behind Joey as their father was saying goodbye to them, unfortunately he wouldn't be able to accompany the seven on their flight.All seven of the Coleman children were going on the annual Tiger Cruise, a week-long cruise aboard a navy aircraft carrier for the families and friends of the US Navy and Marines excluding significant others such as husbands and/or wives, their mother and Mike's wife Diane Coleman was a naval sailor who got deployed every so often which took her away from her husband and children for sometimes several months at a time."Mr. Coleman, it's almost time for their flight." said a female flight attendant as she walked up to Coleman family.Mike sighed and shot his children a concerned look. "Stay with her okay? I promise I'll meet all of you at the port.""Dad, don't worry so much." insisted the preteen Jari as he hugged his father goodbye, knowing that his father always worried over his brother and sister's safety as well as his own when it came time for them to go on the Tiger Cruise. "We're going to be fine.""Are you going to escort them?" Mike asked the flight attendant who nodded her head in response. The flight attendant then told the kids to follow her so that she could escort them to the boarding area onto the plane, the seven Coleman siblings once again hugged their father goodbye before going to stand next to the woman, Joey and Alexio grabbed either of the flight attendant's hands as the woman escorted them into the terminal.Next Chapter: Jari and the others find themselves in trouble when they sneak onto the flight deck during an airshow.
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September 10, 2001USS ConstellationAfter the flight to Hawaii, the Coleman siblings got on a bus which drove them to Pearl Harbor where the 'Tiger Cruise' ship, the USS Constellation had docked. While many of the 'Tigers' were children, a lot of them were adults as well, but the bus was still filled with excitement as the young children looked out the windows and saw their extraordinary surroundings of large buildings, offices, and etc.The bus arrived at Pearl Harbor and Diane had met with her kids at the lobby before they boarded the large ship, she apologized to her children for being away so long and hugged each of them, and then walked them into the USS Constellation.Jari and his siblings had met and made friends with a few of the other Tigers including Maddie Dolan, witches Emma Alonso and Katie Rice and wizard Jax Novoa, kanays Mia Black and Diego Rueda, Diego's fraternal twin sister Gigi Rueda, Diego and Gigi's younger cousins(also known as H2O) Hector and Oscar, Daniel Miller, Daniel's three younger siblings(also known as the Terrible Three or T3) Robbie Miller, Melanie Miller, and the youngest Tommy Miller, Andi Cruz, and Sophie Johnson.A day had gone by since the cruise begun, Emma had learned about an airshow taking place that afternoon and had informed her friends who wanted to take pictures of the jets taking off, one of the naval aviators Lt. Grace Torres had told them that the flight deck was a restricted area and that they would have to watch from Vulture's Row.Everyone had sulked around for a bit after Letty who had seen Vulture's Row let them know that they wouldn't be able to take any good pictures from that area, however Emma then cast a spell over the group and disguised them as navy pilots, and then Maddie, Emma, Jax, Mia, and Jari had snuck onto the flight deck and took pictures of Grace's jet taking off but were spotted by an instructor before being able to take another picture.The five of them then made a run for it as a couple of guards had tried to capture them, Maddie had panickered and wondered what would happen if they got caught before being warned by Jax and Emma to bequiet since the guards were still after them, they were presently hiding in a stairway.“Guys, I think we're safe." said Mia as she saw the guards pass right by them.Cautiously, Jari followed Mia out of the stairwell and looked around the area. “I think she's right."“You were saying.” quipped Maddie as two guards suddenly cornered the five from behind as they tried to walk out. Having no other option, the five of them were led into Captain Anderson's office by the guards where they were shortly joined by their families who had been paged by the Captain.Next Chapter: The cruise takes a dark turn when the 9/11 attacks bring the ship into high alert.
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September 11, 2001USS Constellation Hangar BayFollowing the thorough scolding that Jari, Maddie, Mia, Jax, and Emma had gotten from Captain Anderson and their families, none of them had felt bad about sneaking onto the flight deck, since they didn't harm in it. But when Maddie found out from her father about an accident that happened on the flight deck that ended with the loss of someone's life, they apologized to their families and to each other.It was very early in the morning and all the lights were off for the passengers, but the sound of loud noises and rushing footsteps woke Jari out of his sleep, Diego briefly woke up and asked Jari what was wrong but his friend didn't answer him as he ran outside of his quarters in order to find out what was going on.Maddie had met him in the hallway and when both of them saw Grace rush past them, the two of them had tried to ask the woman what was going but she simply rushed into a room with the other naval aviators and shut the door on them. The two preteens then begun calling Grace's name and banging on the door to get her attention, but one of the guards showed up and ordered the two of them to return to their quarters.Despite being confused, Jari quickly left Maddie and woke Diego back up, an announcement came over the ship's PA system for all of the 'Tigers' to meet in the main hangar bay of the ship for an announcement by Maddie's father, Commander Gary Dolan.In between Jari trying tell Diego what had happened, the two boys put on hoodies over their pajamas and then headed into the hangar bay with the rest of the passengers, a podium had been placed at the front of the room as Commander Dolan walked to it and faced the large crowd of children, teenagers, and adults.“Don't worry Joey, we'll stay with you." Jari assured his younger brother. Letty, Aldo, Alexio, Kassy, and Paola were standing next to him and Joey, he had run into siblings shortly after entering the hangar bay, all of them were a bit wary since they didn't know what was going on.“What do you think this could be about?" Daniel asked.“I don't know Daniel, but it seems serious." Diego said and then frowned in Jari and Maddie's direction. “Hey, did either of your parents tell you anything? I didn't see my dad on the way here, but I'm not sure he would talk anyways."Both Jari and Maddie shook their heads in response, the room then went completely silent as Commander Dolan began to speak, practically everyone had expressions of confusion and fear as the man announced the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon.“The nation's gone on full alert." announced Commander Dolan, he then went on to tell everyone that the loss of life in the towers was great but assured them that they would be safe, tears began pouring out of the eyes of Emma, Mia, Gigi, and a few of the others as Daniel, Jax, and Diego tried to comfort them. Jari felt numb for a minute as the Commander finished his announcement by informing them that all Tiger activities would be suspended indefinitely.Paola called Jari's name repeatedly but was unable to get his attention, she then asked if he was okay and hugged him despite having tears in her own eyes, neither of them had expected such a tragedy to take place.Next Chapter: Jari, Maddie, and the others learn something when they comfort the younger Tigers.
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September 11, 2001USS Constellation“Are you coming or not?” asked Jax as he, Emma, and Mia walked out of Jax and Daniel's quarters. It was now nighttime and soon the Commander would be calling lights out for the Tigers, Maddie's father had asked her to watch out for the younger Tigers and tell him how they were feeling about the situation, and her friends had agreed to help once they heard. Even though Commander Dolan had informed everyone of the ship going on high alert that morning, no one knew what could have possibly gone on since then.***USS Constellation Rec RoomJari nodded his head and followed after his friends into the main recreation or rec room of the USS Constellation where most of the teens and the younger Tigers had taken to hanging out since the Commander's announcement. The first thing that stuck out to Jari was Daniel comforting his three younger siblings, Diego and Gigi comforting Hector and Oscar, and Letty comforting an upset Joey.He found it hard to watch, knowing that all of these people were truly hurting, then Jari heard crying from a girl with her face buried into the couch who he recognized as Kassy upon walking over.Immediately Jari leaned down so that he was sitting on the back of his knees and started rubbing Kassy's back for comfort and asking if she was okay, Kassy replied that the only thing she wanted was to go home, she wanted her mother but Diane was currently on duty. In fact not one of the seven Coleman children had seen their mother since yesterday, when they had asked one of the lieutenants of her whereabouts, he had told them that she was busy and would contact them later.Things had gotten silent between Kassy and Jari, both of them were scared and the latter wasn't sure what to say to his sister, they barely noticed when Letty came over to them with Aldo, Alexio, Paola, and Joey.“Are you two okay?" asked Letty in a concerned tone.“We're going to see Mom soon, don't worry." Aldo assured his quintuplet brother and sister.Letty then pulled Jari into her arms while Alexio did the same with Kassy, and Jari admitted that while he wished Diane was home more, this situation was starting to make him think about the full impact of his mother's job. Then Paola told him that she was starting to feel the same, it was like this situation had completely changed everything.“I agree Paola, we're not going to go home and forget this happened." said Kassy.9/11. Jari knew that his sister was right, they would all remember September eleventh, it didn't matter if days or years went by, they wouldn't forget going on the Tiger Cruise and wouldn't forget the attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon even if they wanted to.Next Chapter: Epilogue.
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Epilogue.Jari discovered from Commander Dolan that the ship would be docking in San Diego, and because of the need for them to keep their arrival classified, there would be no one to meet him and his siblings at the port.Throughout comforting the old and young passengers(some being siblings or cousins), Maddie, Emma, Daniel, Jax, Mia, Andi, Katie, Sophie, Diego, Letty, Aldo, Jari, Alexio, and Kassy had finally learned about the hope and courage it took for their families to do their jobs, life in the military was much harder than they thought. It came to no surprise to Jari that his mother had decided to stay in the navy instead of coming home when he and siblings had asked her to.Maddie and the others had gone into the kitchen and after messing around and eating cupcakes, she laughed harder than she had in a long time, and realized that there way to bring everyone out of their despondency they were in. She then talked it over with Captain Anderson and he agreed, soon after all the passengers spread a huge American flag across the deck of the Tiger Cruise. A lot of the kids had let go of the flag and went underneath it to play, the same kids that were scared and upset only a few days ago, they had let it go for the moment and were actually having fun.Before everyone could exit the ship and to buses that would take them to airports(if need be), Commander Dolan made a closing announcement to everyone about how proud he was of them, they had managed to conduct themselves well and hold it together for the younger Tigers.Once everyone had gotten their luggage and exited the ship, Jari had exchanged contact info with Maddie and the others and they all hugged goodbye, deciding that that their friendship wouldn't stop just because the Tiger Cruise was over.Because the ship wouldn't dock for another few hours, Diane told her children that they had some downtime to do whatever they wanted to, and Joey suggested that they could get ice cream which everyone agreed to. Since their flight back to New York wasn't until tomorrow, the Coleman siblings would have to stay with one of the military families for the night. It had happened before on the last Tiger Cruise that they all had gone on so they were used to it, Jari told his mother to keep on being on a sailor even though he wished she was home more, and all the others agreed with him that her job was too important especially after the crisis that was September 11, 2001.