“But why would our classmates care about this? I can see how it would benefit the academy, but how do we convince the others?” asks Philip.
I find myself pacing the small clearing as I think about Philip’s question. How are we going to talk our classmates into doing this?
“All right let me bounce a few ideas off you two.” I stop right between the two benches. “First, we’d address the positive impact it would make on their future placement selections. This project would distinguish us from other classes, and it would make us more valuable spacers. Right? We could also show them how doing the research to make this a marketable project would teach us how to run a business, all about recycling, how to stretch supplies, and also how to collaborate at a higher level. All things that spacers do but aren’t really taught at any of the academies.”
Philip frowns at his tablet. “How do you know spacers need to know those things? None of that is mentioned in any of the job descriptions on a space station.”
I smile. “My mom talked about life aboard the stations a lot. Real life. Everyday life. Beyond their actual jobs. When they weren’t working, they would try to make extra money trading supplies and craft stuff, or recycling materials they’d collected. These business skills also helped the long-term missions because they had to rely on a fixed cargo of supplies, and the colony ships have to setup whole new civilizations. Every civilization needs some way for the colonists to barter or build businesses, without consistent supplies from Earth.”
“That’s brilliant, Anja. That shows we’re planning long term as well.” Kai pulls out his tablet. “I wonder if we could talk the academy into giving us a couple of business credits for this project as well?”
“Great idea. The business classes we take in Year Two are mostly math and money classes. This project takes those one step farther.”
The lights around the edges of the green house dim twice. I blink and check my tablet. “I can’t believe we’ve been up here so long. We completely missed dinner.”
23
Teamwork
We put our tablets into our packs and hurry out of the greenhouse. On the lift down my stomach growls.
“We should pop into the cafeteria and grab some protein bars on our way to the dorms,” offers Kai.
I smile. “Guess so. Sorry, Philip, no dessert tonight.”
He grins back. “That’s all right. At breakfast I’ll have extra bacon.”
I freeze my smile, trying to not let my anger at Josh seep through. Probably another way Josh controlled Philip. “Sounds good,” I say out loud.
Once on the residential level we jog to the cafeteria as the staff are about to close. They let us grab protein bars and then we’re racing toward the dorms.
We come skidding into the common area out of breath and laughing.
Rand is waiting for us. He’s facing the dorms leaning on the back of one of the couches, his arms crossed.
“Rand?” I walk over to him.
When he turns, I gasp.
The skin under his right eye is a fierce purple. He’s got a cut on his lip, and when he drops his arms, I notice that his knuckles are red.
“Rand? You got into a fight?”
He takes a deep breath. “I couldn’t take all the lies he was spreading about you guys. When he lit into Katrina and made her cry again, I lost it.”
Kai and Philip crowd around Rand as we study his wounds.
“What does Josh look like?” asks Kai.
Rand grins, then winces when the movement pulls on the cut lip. “Worse than me.”
“As much as I appreciate your loyalty and your empathy for those Josh has harmed, this is not going to help your standing here at the academy,” I say softly.
Rand looks down at me. When I first met Rand and he looked at me with those clear blue eyes I was instantly irritated with him. At the time I thought it was because his presence at the prep school meant more competition for me to get into the academy. But now as I look into his eyes, I realize it’s because his eyes are the exact same shade as my father’s.
And now his anger has gotten him into trouble just like my father. Something deep inside me knows I can’t help my father. But I can help Rand.
“You’ll have to go before the academy board, right? When do they meet?”
“They meet next Friday.” He frowns.
“That means you have one week to show that you can play nice and be a productive citizen here at the academy.”
“As long as Josh leaves me alone.”
“I think we have a plan that will unite our classmates once again. If we’re all on the same page, then he can’t play us against one another, anymore. And we’ll all be a bit safer from him.”
We sit down on the couches and quietly tell him our plan to present to our classmates in the morning in each project group.
“Those are some amazing ideas. I just don’t think my group will go for anything you guys come up with. Not with Josh on my team.”
“It’ll still work without your project. For your sake, though, we need to find some way for you to prove yourself on your team, despite them.” I look at Philip and Kai.
Philip straightens and looks at Rand. “Volunteer to work on the payload storage. They’ll think you’re just taking the easy way out. Don’t even bring up our idea of turning the drones into recycling ships.”
“They’ll hear about the idea after today though,” Rand argues.
“Yes, but we should have all our ship parts tomorrow. They won’t be able to change your job on the project. Even when they do find out, everyone except Josh will be grateful you did take that role,” Kai says.
“If the others like your idea,” adds Rand.
The lights dim red and a few students come racing down the corridor and skid into the dorms. We stand up and head to our respective doors.
Instead of going to my room first, I knock quietly on Katrina’s door. She opens it and I can tell she’s been crying most of the night.
“Can I come in?”
She frowns but allows me in. She plops on her bed and I take the chair across from her.
“I know Josh has been saying a lot of hurtful things. I’m sorry he took his anger out on you.”
She grabs a tissue and dabs her eyes. “I’m not usually this emotional. I should be used to his crap.”
“No, you shouldn’t. No one should ever get used to that kind of abuse.”
She just hangs her head.
“Look, I owe you an explanation. Josh has been allowed to tell lies all day because I’m not allowed to tell everyone what really went on last night. But I think we’re friends, right?” I wait, my heartbeat thumping in my throat.
She gives me a nod and a small smile.
“Then I’ll tell you what happened. But it has to stay between us, all right?”
“Even if it helps the other students not believe Josh’s lies?”
I grin. “You already trust that what I have to say is not how Josh tells the story.”
She tilts her head. “I guess I do. I wasn’t sure about you at first. The commander seemed to put you and Rand on a pedestal right from the beginning.”
I scrunch up my face remembering how all the students just stared at us when the commander made us walk to the front of the auditorium. I felt humiliated and a little betrayed. But I understand now what he was doing. He was trying to set a high standard within our class. And maybe challenge me to do my personal best as well.
“But I’ve gotten to know you and you’re nothing like I imagined. I’m sorry I judged you so harshly.”
I nod and gather my thoughts, so I don’t cry as well. I tell her about confronting my father and our idea to market our projects to the commander and the academy board. She cries with me when I talk about my father. And she has good ideas on how we need to present the recycling idea to the other students.
We talk until late, and by the time I stumble back to my own room I’m brain-fried but happy that Katrina and I are
friends again. And we have a cohesive plan for the morning. Other than Kai, I really only hung around my brother and my mom, so having so many friends here at the academy feels indulgent. But I like it and I want it to go back to the way it was before Josh’s lies.
I fall into my bed fully clothed. Again.
I’m confused when my tablet pings me awake in the morning. I roll over and touch my tablet thinking I’m turning off my alarm.
Then I hear Cam’s voice.
“Anja? Wake up.” He laughs and says it again louder.
I sit up. “What?” I rub the sleep out of my eyes.
“Did you go to sleep dressed? Don’t they let you have pajamas?”
“What?” I say again. I pull my tablet up onto my lap and look down into Cam’s face.
“Wow, what did you do, party all night?” He laughs and my situation finally comes crashing down on me.
“Cam, I was supposed to call you yesterday.”
“Yep.”
“I’m so sorry. When we got back from the ship all our classmates were mad at us. We had to figure out what to do.” I wave my hand. “Never mind. How are you?”
I grab one of the protein bars we snagged last night and chew on it as I listen to Cam ramble on about moving to a new house, again, and about his project and work with Mr. Chao. It’s like a movie where I’m only expected to watch.
I grin when he finally winds down and can’t think of anymore to say.
“Finished?” I tease.
“You’re the one who asked how I was.” He sticks his tongue out at me.
“I miss you Cam,” I say, not taking his bait.
He sighs. “I miss you too.” He frowns a bit. “Will you tell me what happened with our father? Mr. Chao won’t tell me anything. He says it’s your story to tell.”
I smile. “He’s a wise man. I’m glad you like living with them. Did he tell you what we need to do to protect you from our father?”
“He said they’re preparing adoption papers. But he won’t tell me why we need to do that. I wouldn’t want to go live with father anyway. I really do like it here.”
“I know, but you’re not old enough to decide where you live. And I’m not eighteen yet. Before I tell you why we need to do this, just trust that it was a hard decision for me too. But I know that this is the best thing for you.”
He nods. “I trust you. I’ve always trusted you.”
I look at the time and realize I’m going to be late. I gather clean clothes as I explain to him generally what happened on the spaceship. I leave out some of the details, but I give him enough to know why I believe our father is not looking out for our best interests.
When I’m done, he explodes with questions. I try to answer him the best I can, but I feel like I would’ve done a better job if I could’ve had this conversation in person.
“Listen, Cam, I need to get dressed and meet Kai for breakfast. Just promise me that you’ll let us know if you hear from him again?”
“Of course. But it doesn’t sound like he’s going anywhere.”
“I don’t trust him. He’s way smarter than he lets on. I think I shocked him by confronting him in person, but I still don’t know why he wants your software research. Maybe you guys can keep it from being published for a bit? At least until we get your name changed and he’s at Starlight Max.”
“I’ll talk to Deng about it. I’m sure he’ll agree. He felt horrible about us having to leave our house so quickly and move.”
“All right. I love you. Talk to you soon.”
“Love you too,” he grins and cuts the connection.
I stare at my tablet; a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I was so busy last night I forgot to even think about how I would tell Cam. But now he’s up to date, and I know he’s safe. I send Mr. Chao a message asking for the adoption papers to sign. Since I’m the only non-criminal family member, the courts want me to agree to it.
I quickly get dressed and repack my backpack adding a few of the protein bars.
Because who knows how this day will go?
Kai, Rand, and Philip are waiting for me off to the side. I hurry over to them, allowing other students to stream by. “Sorry I’m late. Cam called me.”
We start walking toward the cafeteria.
“Did you tell him about your father and what happened?” asks Kai.
“Yes. I didn’t have time to go into every detail, and I wish I could’ve done it in person, but I think he took it all right. And he was fine with the adoption. He was just confused why we need to go that route.”
We don’t have a chance to talk much more until we get seated at our table. True to his word, Philip piles his plate high with bacon.
“What did Josh have against dessert and bacon?” I ask quietly.
Philip’s eyes flick behind me where I hear Josh’s annoying voice. “He gets to know what we each like and prefer. At first, we thought it was because he was being nice and a good friend to us. Later though, we realized he uses our likes and dislikes against us.”
“He used your dislikes against you too?” I’m continually surprised by the depth of Josh’s mistreatment of others.
Philip nods but then stuffs bacon in his mouth. The rest of us finish our breakfast in silence as well, and we successfully leave the cafeteria before Josh.
The quick look I get of Josh as we pass by makes me believe what Rand said. Josh really did get the worse of the fight.
Once upstairs we cross over to the twin building. Everyone is ignoring us. My heart is heavy as we make our way to the main doors and wait.
I scan the sea of faces until I find Katrina. When she sees me, she grins. I smile back and wave her over.
“Did you talk to them?”
The guys look at me in confusion.
“Yes. I made sure to talk to each one in person. They love your idea.” Her eyes are a tad puffy, but otherwise her perfect face isn’t showing any of the sadness from yesterday.
I turn to the guys. “I talked with Katrina last night and told her our idea for the class projects. Since she’s friends with everyone,” I grin, “she was able to talk to the leader in each group, other than yours, Rand.”
He shrugs.
“And they’ll each talk to their teams this morning. We all should have our parts ready for us in our rooms. We’ll just have to make modifications for the payloads.”
“They all agreed to make them into recycler drones?” asks Philip. He’s nervously looking around at the faces passing us.
Katrina’s hair bobs as she nods her head. “They still have to convince their teams, but yes, they all thought it was a great idea. And they had some marketing ideas as well. We thought after our teams meet individually, we’ll all meet in the main auditorium to go over some marketing strategies for you to present to the academy.”
“Me?”
“Of course. I didn’t give them any details, but I made sure they knew what Josh was saying about you was false. They’ll talk to the others.” She bumps shoulders with me. “Now, we should get to class.”
I look at Rand. “Good luck in there. Please no more fighting. Once he realizes what we’re doing he’s going to be mad enough. We don’t need him pre-angered.”
I turn him around and push him in the direction of his class. He pretends to look afraid. We all start laughing and he has no choice but to smile as we walk toward our classrooms.
Kai gives me a kiss on my forehead and heads into his class. Philip, Katrina, and I make our way to ours.
Philip’s face looks like it will crack in two with the big smile he gets when he sees all of our drone parts spread across the tables. We hurry over to inspect them.
By the time Carstair and Tod find us we’re all practically petting the newly printed machine parts.
“I see you guys have started without us.”
Katrina and I look up guiltily, but the guys are grinning at us.
“Sorry, couldn’t keep my hands off them,” Katrina says, a bit
raspy.
My neck cracks when I turn too quickly to gape at her. Did that husky voice just come out of my friend?
My friend. I grin at that thought.
Tod steps over and carefully takes the small booster rocket out of my hand. “Don’t want you to break it yet. You three should see the expressions on your faces. You look like you’ve died and gone to heaven.” He’s smiling at me, and I get the idea that Katrina has already talked to him.
“We aren’t in heaven?” asks Philip. His whole body is vibrating with excitement.
We all laugh.
“Shall we get started? I hear we have some modifications to make.” Tod winks and puts the booster back on the table.
I look at Katrina. She sure did.
She shrugs. “What? I’m very social.”
“Social looks good on you,” I whisper.
She surprises me by grabbing me up in a hug. “Thanks to you. I appreciate you believing in me and trusting me with this.”
I grin and hug her back.
We soon realize the guys are staring at us.
Grinning, Katrina pushes me toward the front of the room. “Now, you show us exactly how we’re going to accomplish this crazy idea.” She puts on her best motherly expression and sits down.
I update them on how each group will create their spaceship drone with some commercial purpose in mind. We discuss all sorts of options, but we keep coming back to Philip’s original idea of recycling lower atmosphere space junk.
“And you’re going to present this to the academy board and the commander, right?” asks Carstair.
I look at Philip and Katrina. They both nod their heads, grinning.
“I guess so.” I frown. “I know they’re meeting Friday. We’ll need to get on their agenda and have a working prototype to show them. Do you think we can do that?”
Tod looks at the pile of parts in front of him, glances at Carstair, then says, “Heck, yes. We can do that.”
Earthlight Space Academy Boxset Page 37
