The Split (The Mayfly Series Book 1)

by Hannah Hopkins

  She smiled her dazzling smile, her eyes still fixed on the parents as she stressed her point. Will started to wonder if Miss Fortem was always on the platform to give such an encouraging welcome, or whether the school had simply gotten wind that The Captain’s daughter would be starting that year.

  "Right then," Miss Fortem clapped her hands together causing several members of the crowd to jump. "Without further ado, I must ask you to board the Shuttle," she gestured to the giant spacecraft next to her. "We will be leaving at 11.11 am precisely! First-years must board through the first door on the left. I ask parents and those helping to take any luggage to the stewards, who you will find outside the back compartment of the Shuttle.”

  At these words, the parents poured upon their children and began their emotional goodbyes as butlers and staff began to hurry towards the rear of the Shuttle. Will found Elsie, who was standing in a clearing of people and smiling proudly at him from a distance. He walked over and she crouched down to tidy him up, readjusting his coat and smoothing his hair, which he immediately ruffled again. Elsie smiled and cupped her hands around his face.

  "Well,” she said. “I suppose this is goodbye.”

  "Don’t worry Mum, it’s not that long until the school holidays." Will smiled.

  “I’m sure you will have a fantastic time,” Elsie said, fighting hard to keep her sadness at bay, “but I will miss you.”

  "I'll miss you too mum," he replied. “At least you’ll have Derek to keep you company.”

  Elsie laughed. It was a lovely sound and Will wished he had heard it more often in his childhood. The two of them embraced briefly and then pulled apart, Elsie blinking back tears as she released him.

  "Make sure you call! " she ordered him, though her voice was light and weary.

  "Of course I will, all the time! You can’t get rid of me that easily," Will grinned. He would miss home, it was true, but the excitement of starting a new adventure at the Space Academy was luring him. He could be anyone he wanted to be there. He no longer had to be ‘Will from Floor One’. He had always felt a powerful conviction that there was much more to life than he had known and he was filled with a burning curiosity for all the things he was yet to discover and all the people he was yet to meet.

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, forcing his feet forward and into the Shuttle. The voices of the other first years filled his ears and the smell of new fabric shrouded his nostrils as he entered the large transporter ship. He allowed himself a moment’s pause before he opened his eyes again and began the next chapter of his life. His entire transition from a boy into a man would occur at the Academy and he struggled to comprehend the significance of the moment.

  "Erm, excuse me?"

  A voice snapped him out of his reverie, forcing his eyes open as he whipped his head around to see a tall, lanky boy with dark hair standing behind him, clutching a rucksack with a bemused look on his face.

  "Did you know you were just standing there with your eyes shut?" he smirked. "You're holding the whole queue up!"

  Will tried with all his might to stop the inevitable flush of red that was making its way up through his neck to his cheeks. He looked over the boy’s shoulder to see a line of students, peering around one and other to see what was holding up the line.

  “What were you doing?” the boy pressed him. “Were you having a seizure or something? Should I go and get a medic?”

  A few of the boys behind him began to snicker. They were all staring at him, trying to work out if something was genuinely wrong or if he was just incredibly strange.

  Will’s mouth moved soundlessly as he tried to think of something to say that would save him from eternal social damnation. Those who were already seated around him had stopped their conversations to see what was going on. Whatever he said next would determine their first impressions of him, and yet he could not come up with a single reasonable explanation as to why he had been stood completely still in the middle of the Shuttle with his eyes closed.

  "Leave him alone Rudy, he's probably just nervous," said a girl’s voice from within the queue. Will was both simultaneously grateful for her intervention and morbidly embarrassed that he had to be rescued by a stranger. He turned and began making his way towards the rows of seats decorated with navy blue upholstery that filled the first compartment, wishing that the metal bottom of the Shuttle would give way and let him fall through the platform and into deep Space. He was mortified when he noticed that the seats were designed for two people, realising with a sudden fit of panic that nobody was going to want to sit next to him and he would have to face the humiliation of riding the entire journey on his own.

  He slumped into the nearest chair and pretended to be very interested in looking out the window, hoping he would blend into the furniture and disappear.

  "Mind if I sit here?" a voice said.

  Will jumped and looked up to see a girl standing over him. She flicked her long, chestnut hair from her shoulders and smiled at him, her arms folded nonchalantly as she awaited his response. He recognised the voice as belonging to the person who had saved him from Rudy’s mockery.

  "Y-yes of course," Will stammered, caught off guard. The girl sat down beside him and swung her handheld luggage onto the floor, resting it safely between her knees. For the first time in his life, Will became acutely aware of his limbs and wasn’t sure where to place them. He was certain that even an accidental brush of his arm against hers would cause his head to explode in a fire of embarrassment and so positioned himself awkwardly against the wall. He didn't have much time to worry about how to seat himself however, for no sooner had the girl sat down than Rudy had begun to call out from the back of the compartment where he and a group of his friends were sitting.

  "Emily what are you doing?!" he scathed."I know there's obviously something wrong with that boy but you don't have to feel sorry for him. Come and sit with us!"

  Emily continued staring forwards as though Rudy had never spoken, her deep blue eyes flashing with contempt.

  "Just ignore him,” she told Will. "He's always like that."

  "Wow!" Rudy continued, ensuring that he was in earshot of everyone around him, “it must be true love! Good job your mum's a nurse Emily, I think that one is going to need all the help he can get.”

  Rudy’s gaggle of followers burst into exaggerated, raucous laughter, though Will didn't find the insult was particularly clever or funny. He looked around to see if any of his peers from Floor One would jump to his defence, but they were all doing an extremely convincing job of pretending not to recognise him. In fact, Lois seemed to find him completely invisible when he attempted to catch her eye. She looked around wildly, terrified that somebody would have seen her with Will on the platform and would expose her for knowing him.

  "We used to be tutored together, Rudy and I" Emily explained calmly, as though this situation was a regular occurrence for her. "He always seemed to think that we were friends. I don't know why, I never liked him. I was hoping that going to school would mean I could get away from him and make a fresh start.”

  "I can relate to that," Will replied, throwing a cursory glance towards Spencer, Alasdair and the rest of the tutor group.

  A wave of silence suddenly fell across the compartment. Will looked around in confusion, unsure what was going on. It took him a few seconds to notice the boy from the ragged looking family he had seen earlier, frozen in the doorway of the Shuttle, aware that every face inside was turned towards him. He was holding on to his patchy bag so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. Sitting down on the very front seat, which was vacant, he turned his back on all his spectators and positioned himself as motionless as a statue. Before a single word could be uttered, Miss Fortem appeared, her presence alone stifling any taunts or nasty remarks that might have been aimed his way. Will saw his shoulders sag with relief as Miss Fortem began to speak, distracting everybody's attention towards her.

  "Okay first years," she began,"the Shuttle is about to
take off at any moment. Please make sure you have arranged yourselves as two to a seat. There are protective seat belts located to the left of each person, however they will be not needed unless we experience any difficulties-"

  Will swallowed hard. He wasn’t entirely sure what ‘difficulties’ they might encounter flying through Space and nor was he in any hurry to find out.

  "If they are required, you will see a flashing red light in the compartment at which point you must immediately take your seat belt and clip it across your waist, securing it firmly in the slot on the right-hand side. I must ask that you do not move around whilst the Shuttle is in motion, unless absolutely necessary. “

  Will remembered her soothing words in front of the parents about approaching her on the journey if anybody felt scared and was suddenly convinced that anyone seeking her help would find more peril going to her than they would ever encounter in outer-space.

  “The journey takes roughly fifteen minutes,” she continued. “When we arrive at the Academy, we will enter into the Gathering Hall where you will attend your first assembly. You will be addressed by the Headmaster who you are to refer to as ‘Admiral Allance’. After that, you will be assigned into three classes and further instructions will be given to you. Does everybody understand?"

  There were a few nods and noises of compliance.

  "Good then. Without further ado, I must ask that we prepare for take-off."

  Miss Fortem sat down at the front next to the ragged boy. He turned his body sideways, shrinking into the window and resting his face against the glass as he stared blankly at the back wall of the platform.

  At that moment, everybody in the compartment began leaning backwards and forwards, stretching their bodies as high as they could manage to see onto the platform as they attempted to get one last glimpse of their families before they launched. Will caught sight of his mother moving through the crowd, pushing her way right to the front so that she was almost touching the Shuttle. She blew kisses to him with both hands and waved furiously. Will grinned and waved back, bemused to see his mother so expressive.

  The engines beneath them whirred into life, shaking the entire ship with the force of their activation. They lifted into the air, Will’s mother and the other parents pushed backwards by a sudden surge of energy that pulsated out from under them as they took off. They hovered towards the ceiling, floating higher and higher until the people below began to resemble toys in a dollhouse. Will kept his eyes on his mother, even as she became minuscule, fixated upon her figure until the metal roof of the platform snapped shut and they found themselves in an enclosed capsule. As one roof closed, a second one above their heads opened, providing their exit into Space. They ascended through it, sitting suspended for a moment as they hung still in the infinite black sky. Will felt Emily stiffen beside him as they waited in the silence, full of bewilderment and fear. The moment lasted only a few seconds before there was a sudden jolt, flinging them forwards as the Shuttle began hurtling through the air.

  “This is it!” Emily said.

  “This is it,” Will repeated, taking a deep breath.

  4.

  The Space Academy

  Emily peered out the window, straining her neck to see past Will who had pressed his face upon the glass in awe. There was something wonderful and yet equally terrifying about being in the depths of Space as they travelled to the school, the stars blurring into a silvery haze as the speed of the Shuttle increased. Emily felt a deep sense of discomfort as she gazed at the Universe around her, realising how small and insignificant she was in comparison to its sheer size. Suddenly, Will turned to her with a concerned expression on his face, breaking the silence and rescuing her from her thoughts.

  “What do you think it’s like at the school?” he asked her, his eyes wide and eager.

  “My brother’s in third-year and he’s told me a few things. You get to study real-life aliens and you get to fly your own rockets through Space,” she replied, making a conscious effort to keep her tone cool and indifferent in order to impress him.

  “Wow” he said after a moment. “Are you sure he isn’t winding you up?”

  “He does enjoy winding me up,” she acknowledged. “But no, I don’t think he is this time. He knows how excited I am about starting at the Academy. It’s the only way I get to escape from our dad. He and I don’t get on.”

  The words ran off her tongue before she could stop them and she flushed crimson with embarrassment, internally berating herself for having shared such personal information with someone she hardly knew. She braced herself for the awkward, stuttered reply she was customary to receiving after bringing up her terse relationship with her father.

  “That’s a shame,” Will said with sincerity. “But at least you have a dad. Mine died before I was born.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” she told him, surprised by how truly sad she felt at the thought of him suffering such a loss. He smiled with gratitude and the two of them exchanged a moment of understanding, each one entrusting the other with what they had revealed.

  “What do you think you’d like to be then?” Will asked her. “When we get to Novum. I mean that’s the whole point of the school, isn’t it? Train us up and make us useful!”

  Emily laughed but was momentarily thrown by the question. No one had ever asked her this before. There had been so much focus and emphasis on her getting into The Space Academy and not embarrassing the family by falling short of her brother’s achievements, that no one had ever considered what she would decide to be once she had completed her training.

  “I don’t know,” Emily mused. “I like technology. I think I want to be something to do with that. My dad wouldn’t like it though. He doesn’t think subjects like that are suitable for girls.”

  Will raised his eyebrows.

  “Well, I suppose you’ll have to prove him wrong then, won’t you?” he grinned.

  “Yes,” Emily agreed. “I suppose I will.”

  As the journey continued, their conversation flowed thoughtlessly and with ease. Emily couldn’t help finding herself hoping that their friendship would continue once they had disembarked from the Shuttle and arrived at the school.

  After a while, an excited wave of voices went up in the seats around them. Emily and Will returned their attention to the window to discover what had caused the ruckus and were quick to lay eyes on the culprit. Looming out of the darkness just in front of them was The Space Academy. The school itself was encased in a huge transparent dome that was floating graciously in mid-air. Through its surface, a grand building could be seen, set in the centre of the grounds and rising to the height of at least a hundred feet or more. A colossal, white tower lurched out of the floor to the left of the school, reaching almost to the top of the protective dome. A smattering of buildings filled the rest of the campus, most notable among them a silver observatory, glittering as it caught the light from the stars above it.

  “Wow” Emily breathed as they drew closer to the school, circling around the edge of the dome until they reached a round, metal door in its casing- just big enough for the Shuttle to fit through. It sprung open as they approached and revealed a hidden room designed for spacecrafts to land in, providing just enough room for them to begin their descent. The door sealed shut immediately behind them as they juddered into landing and oxygen was pumped noisily through a ventilation system. Despite this, Emily felt as though all the air had disappeared from around her and her head swam with anticipation as the engines cut, immersing the first-year students into a sudden, sharp silence.

  Miss Fortem leapt straight into action, jumping out of her chair and twisting around to face everybody in the same, swift movement.

  “Right boys and girls,” she said. “We are about to get off the Shuttle, but before we do, it’s important that we listen and all understand exactly what needs to happen.”

  She pursed her lips and tilted her head down, widening her eyes to emphasise the importance of the point she was makin
g. She waited until she had personally ensured that every individual student was listening.

  “First of all, I need everyone to check that they have all their belongings. Most of you will have bags stowed in the luggage compartment as well. That luggage will be taken for you and unloaded into your new rooms.”

  A hum of excited whispers sounded at the mention of “new rooms”. Miss Fortem cleared her throat loudly.

  “Secondly,” she continued, “I want you to have a look at the person sitting next to you.”

  Emily and Will glanced at each other for a second before looking back at Miss Fortem.

  “This person is going to be your partner on our walk up to the school. Unfortunately, we have had incidences in the past where pupils have got over excited about the Academy and wandered off, only to be found somewhere in the grounds hours later. As you may have noticed, our school campus is very big, so it is extremely important that you do not make any detours. You are each responsible for ensuring that your partner stays with you for the entire walk. Are we all clear?”

  There was a mild murmur of understanding.

  “Yes, Miss Fortem,” she demanded.

  “Yes, Miss Fortem,” the compartment repeated.

  "Okay, we are now going to get off the Shuttle, so please stand up with your partners."

  There was a flurry of movement as everyone scuffled to their feet, hauling rucksacks and holdalls off the floor and out of the overhead bins. Emily bent down to grab her bag from the floor, catching sight of Miss Fortem gently putting her hand on the arm of the scruffy looking boy as she stood up.