Earthlight Space Academy Boxset

by Heather Lee Dyer

  Then I see that there’s a crowd on our side of the river.

  I can’t see what’s going on, but I have a bad feeling. I start jogging down the incline, my muscles screaming at me. Rand is right behind me, and we pass everyone on the path. I head for the crowd.

  I get closer to where our tent is and start yelling over the crowd, “Cam! Cam, where are you?”

  The crowd parts, and Cam runs to me. I catch him as he launches himself at me. “What’s the matter Cam? What’s happened? Are you okay?” I pat him down checking for broken bones or blood.

  Cam hiccups. His tears are running down his face and neck. “It’s Mom. Come on!” He pulls me toward our tent. Mrs. Mitchell comes out. I look at her, and then at Cam.

  “What’s wrong with Mom? What’s happened?” Cam and Mrs. Mitchell don’t say anything. I look over at Rand, and he’s pale as a sheet. I turn and hurry into the tent.

  My mother is bundled in her sleeping bag, her face flushed and sweaty. I drop to my knees. “Mom? Answer me. What’s the matter?”

  Cam comes and sits down beside me. “She’s been like this since right after you left for school. I checked on her before I went to the fields, and she had a bit of a fever and was just mumbling to herself. So, I stayed home and used some of the medicine to try to help her. I tried everything. Just like she would when we were sick. I really don’t know what else to do.”

  I put my arm around Cam. “It’s okay Cam, I know you tried everything. What does Mrs. Mitchell say?”

  “She says Mom probably just has the flu. But she got sick so fast, it scares me.”

  I feel Mom’s forehead, and her eyes flutter open. They’re unfocused and bloodshot. I start peeling the heavy sleeping bag off her. “Help me, Cam. We need to get her fever down faster.”

  We get her stripped down to her shorts and T-shirt. I have Cam take our washcloths down to the river and get them soaking wet with cold river water. Cam and I take turns pressing the cold cloths on her forehead for most of the night. I talk to her about the upcoming tests when it’s my turn. I tell her also about Rand and Kai. She doesn’t respond to me at all, but I keep talking until I fall asleep next to her.

  Cam shakes me awake in the morning. I’m so tired I don’t remember at first why I’m not in my sleeping bag. I turn my head and see I’m next to Mom. Crap. Terror ripples through my body. What if we lose her? What about Cam? What will I do with him? Where will he go? He’s so young, he doesn’t deserve all this.

  I wipe Mom’s forehead again, her tangled brown hair plastered to her head. She’s still got a bit of a temperature. Where her fever isn’t coloring her skin bright pink, she’s very pale. She still won’t wake up or respond to me.

  I look up at Cam. Neither one of us got much sleep. Cam not only looks tired, but there are still tears in his eyes. I place the washcloth on Mom’s forehead and pull Cam down and hug him to me. He lays his head on my shoulder and cries until he’s left with hiccups and a runny nose again. My poor baby brother. I’ve tried so hard to protect him.

  “I’m so sorry Cam. I should’ve gotten the doctor sooner.” I squeeze Cam and plant a kiss on his forehead.

  “It’s not your fault. Mrs. Mitchell says he’s still downriver anyway.” He climbs out of my lap, and scoots next to Mom. “I’ll stay with her today. You need to go to school.”

  “No, Cam. I’m not leaving you alone with all this.” I gather up the washcloths to take back down to the river.

  Cam grabs the cloths out of my hands. “No, Anja. Your best chance for all of us is to ace those tests. You have to concentrate on those. If you don’t pass those, neither one of us will get out of here. We promised Mom.”

  He slips under the tent flap and is on his way down to the river before I can even argue. I check on Mom once more and try to get her to swallow some water. With nothing else I can do for her, I get dressed and repack my backpack for school. I feel awful leaving Cam to take care of her, but he’s right. I need to make it into the Academy. And Mom will pull through this, I know she will. She has to.

  Cam comes back in and replaces the cold cloths on her forehead. He shoves me toward the door. “Go, Anja. Mrs. Mitchell says she’ll help me keep an eye on Mom. We have plenty of supplies for now. Besides I’m old enough to stay here by myself.”

  “Love you, Cam. And I know you’re old enough. And brave enough. And smart enough. I just feel torn leaving you here to care for her while I go to school and have fun studying space stuff.” I mess his hair up and give him a hug. When I step out of the tent, Mrs. Mitchell is waiting outside and assures me she’ll stay here with Cam and Mom.

  I thank her and start winding my way around the tents. I feel much older than my seventeen years right now. I know that I need to continue with my testing for the Academy, but I also feel like my place is here with Mom and Cam. I keep walking out of sheer indecision.

  I slowly walk toward the path out of the canyon. I hear footsteps hurrying behind me, but I keep going. It’s Rand.

  He matches step with me. “How is your mom?”

  I scrutinize him, trying to figure out if he really cares, or if he’s just humoring me. I finally decide that he seems sincere. “I don’t really know. She won’t wake up, and we can’t get the fever down. I had to leave my eleven-year-old brother taking care of her.” I look away before I start crying. I bite my lip and concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.

  “I lost both my parents to fever.”

  I stop and Rand stops right next to me, bumping into my shoulder.

  “Really? Both of your parents? I’m so sorry, Rand. I didn’t know.”

  He’s grinding his teeth, his jaw muscles flexing. He’s really quite handsome when he’s not being a jerk. He has a well-formed square jaw line and bright blue eyes that screams all-American. I shake my head. My mom is lying down in the canyon possibly dying, Rand has just confided in me that he lost both his parents, and I’m thinking about his eyes. Good grief, Anja.

  “Yes, they both died down in California, well what used to be California. When we were forced to move, there were just too many people leaving at the same time. It seemed like everyone got sick after the supplies stopped. Only the healthy survived. Out of hundreds of thousands of us on the lower coast, only a few thousand survived. As a group, we helped each other and then headed up here. But I’m the only one who made it up this far.”

  “You mean you’re living up here alone? No family?”

  “Yeah, well, we had a small family anyway. I think I might have an uncle and aunt back east somewhere. But there’s no way I could find them, or ever afford to move back there.” He shrugs his shoulders.

  Not quite sure what to say, I turn and start hiking up the hill again.

  Rand paces me. “Anyway, I didn’t tell you that to make you feel sorry for me. I told you because I feel bad about how I treated you yesterday, and I want you to know you aren’t alone. I know how you feel and how scary it is to lose your parents.”

  I look out of the corner of my eye at Rand. The scowl that never left his face yesterday has been replaced by sincere sorrow.

  “Thank you, Rand. It does help to know that someone else understands what I’m going through. I still feel lousy leaving them like that. Not only today, but how can I go to the Academy and leave them here like that? I was counting on my mom getting better so she could take care of Cam.” I look back over my shoulder toward our encampment. Our tent has been lost in a sea of colorful, weathered canvas and wooden shacks.

  Rand reaches out and steadies me as I trip over a rock.

  “Oops. Thanks. Guess I should watch where I’m going.”

  He smiles at me. “Before you break something.” We settle back into a quick pace up the hill. “And don’t feel guilty about leaving them. Cam’s a smart kid, and your mom would want the best for you. They both know that getting into the Academy is the only way to get you and Cam out of here. I’ve been south, and there’s nothing there for anyone. If you travel any farther e
ast, people are so crowded together they can’t help anyone else either. They’re all barely surviving, despite what the government says in the media.”

  I nod. Those of us in the Borderlands never believe what the government says in the media. We know better. Rand isn’t the only one who tried to live in the south or go east. That’s why there are so many of us here. We may have to live in tents and dig ditches but at least we aren’t dying in the streets of the big cities. Here at least, we have this prep school and the Academy up north that give families hope for their children.

  Rand picks up a rock and chucks it hard at the solid wall looming beside us. “You need to go to the Academy. The only future we have is up in space.” The rock hits pretty high up the wall, making a small shower of rocks come sliding down on us. Rand looks at me, makes a face, which gets me giggling, and then we both start running up the path to avoid the small avalanche.

  By the time we reach the bridge, we’re both sweaty. We rest on a boulder, dropping our backpacks and our heavy new textbooks nearby. The other kids are just crossing to the other side of the bridge, so we aren’t too far behind.

  Rand puts on his backpack, and picks up my textbook along with his, and heads across the bridge. I shrug, strap my backpack on tight and head across after him. If he’s going to be nice, I’m going to enjoy it while I can. I fully expect for him to turn back into Mr. Attitude once we get to school.

  On the rest of the way to the truck stop Rand makes sure the other kids don’t bother me with questions about my mom. He’s very good with them, making sure they know I’m not mad at them, that I’m just needing some space. Since most of them have seen death sometime in their short little lives, they understand the seriousness of an illness and skip on ahead, leaving me to walk in silence.

  Rand carries my book and walks me all the way to my desk. I sit down, relieved to get back to a normal schedule so I don’t have to think of leaving my mom and Cam behind at home. I thank Rand and take out my tablet to plug it in.

  Just before the teacher starts class, I look up and see Kai staring darkly at me. By the look on his face, he saw Rand carrying my book. I wish I could assure him that’s all Rand was doing. And I ache to tell him about my mom, but the teacher is calling out teams for practice, and I have no chance until lunchtime.

  10

  Attractions

  I throw myself into my lessons, and even more so into the physical fitness class. It feels good to push my body as far and as fast as it will go. I notice Rand doesn’t get upset when I beat him once again in almost all the tests. Kai seems to be holding back though, and I’m not sure what that’s all about.

  At lunch, I grab my backpack and head out to the tree that Kai and I meet under. I’m barely out the doorway when Rand stops me.

  “How are you doing, Anja?”

  So, again, why didn’t I notice those eyes before? Or the warm way he says my name?

  “I’m holding it together so far. Thanks for checking.” I start to walk off, but Rand stops me with a gentle hand on my arm.

  “Here, this is for you.” With his other hand, he hands me a sealed plastic bag with dried fruit. “It’s orange leather. I learned to make it down south.”

  Wow. “You made this yourself?”

  “Yes. There’s enough for you and Cam. And your mom.”

  “Thank you, Rand. That’s very nice of you. It’s been a long time since I had anything other than canned fruit.”

  “Welcome. I worked in orchards on the way up here.” He smiles at me, his whole face lighting up with a hint of pride, and my heart misses a beat.

  All around us I can hear conversations and people talking and enjoying the sunshine.

  Rand looks past me and frowns. “Well, hope you like it. See you later.” He walks back inside the building and disappears down the hallway.

  I turn around and see Kai standing there. His hands are down at his sides, balled into fists. I step toward him. “Hey, Kai.”

  “What did he want?” Kai’s normally kind eyes are suspicious and hard.

  “Rand?” Of course, I know who he means, I just need a moment to gather my thoughts. Did I do something wrong?

  “Yes, Rand. Yesterday he was making life miserable for us, and today he’s all over you.” Kai crosses his arms.

  “What?” Anger builds inside my gut. I storm off toward the tree. I will not have this conversation in front of everyone.

  I flop down onto the grass and open the fruit jerky. I take a bite and watch as Kai eventually walks over. He sits down next to me but doesn’t say anything.

  I finish chewing and place the rest in my backpack.

  I turn toward Kai, who has mentally and physically folded in on himself. I touch his arm. “Rand is being nice to me because my mother is really sick. Rand lost both his parents to the same kind of fever Mom might have. He’s just being understanding and trying to keep my mind off it. I’m going crazy with worry about Cam taking care of her by himself while I’m here at school.” I pull my hand back and look away before the tears escape. If I start now, I know they won’t stop.

  Kai pulls me back toward him and wraps me in a hug. Dang it. Now the tears are falling. Kai lets me cry for a while, then pulls me back far enough to offer his sleeve to wipe my face. I take him up on the offer, giggling. “Better not let your parents know that you have American snot on you. They might torch your clothes.”

  Kai smiles. “Glad to see you can still smile. I’m sorry I was such a jerk, and I’m really sorry about your mom. How long has she been this sick? Is it worse this time?” Kai looks around us, making sure we are alone. “Do you still have some of that medicine I gave you?”

  I nod. “Yes, thankfully. I kept some hidden for an emergency like this. Cam said she’s had a fever for a few days now. Yesterday her fever got worse. By the time I got home she was unresponsive. She still didn’t wake up before I left for school this morning. I’m thankful that several of the families around us have been able to help Cam.”

  Kai lets go of me and unwraps his lunch. He hands me an egg roll. I take it but don’t really taste what I’m eating. Now that I’m talking about Mom, the panic and worry are taking over again.

  “What if she doesn’t make it, Kai? What will I do with Cam on my own? And how can I even think about going to the Academy now?” I lower my head into my hands. Why am I here? I should be with Cam and Mom. What’s the use of working hard to get into the Academy if I have to drop out later to take care of my little brother?

  Kai rubs my back in circles. “Anja, I don’t know your mom, but I bet she would want you to keep fighting for this. A better life for you and Cam. Know that I’m here for you two. We’ll figure out something so you can go to the Academy and still take care of Cam. I promise.”

  “Easy for you to say. You have everything. Parents, money, freedom.” I hate the bitterness in my voice. I usually don’t tend to feel sorry for myself. But I feel like I’m being pressed too far right now.

  Kai drops his hand from my back. “Yes, I understand the difference between our lives. But this time I’m not going to apologize.” He lifts my chin up, so that I’m looking into his eyes. “I can use those connections, those privileges to help you.”

  “What, bribe me into the Academy”

  Kai closes his eyes. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

  Before he can say anything else, I grab his other hand. “Sorry, Kai. I’m not thinking straight.”

  “I know. But what I meant was that I’ll figure out some way to take care of Cam. What’s the use of having all of these privileges as Royal Citizens if I can’t help my best friend? Right?”

  I let go of his hand. “Best friend?” I knew we were friends. We share so many secrets. But I guess I still always think of him having a best friend, a girlfriend, a whole group of friends back home that he just never talks to me about.

  He puts his hand back on mine. “Yes. My best friend.”

  I’m so stunned, I’m not sure what to say.

/>   “Do you not feel the same? Or are you afraid to admit you’re friends with someone from the other side?” He nudges me, smirking.

  I smile at him, squeezing his hand. “No, I’m not afraid. Only spiders and Cam’s cooking scare me.”

  I reach into my backpack and pull out my lunch. I scoot over so we’re sitting shoulder to shoulder. “I guess I just can’t shake the image of you having a whole posse of best friends back home. Maybe several girlfriends.” I smile while chewing my cold sandwich.

  “Girlfriends? Several? Whatever gave you that idea?” He laughs.

  I swallow. “Well for starters, you’re absolutely brilliant. And then there’s the whole supermodel look you have going on.” I reach up and push a lock of his choppy dark hair out of his eyes, running my finger over his soft skin.

  He’s staring at me intently. His eyes are so dark brown I can hardly see his pupils, but I swear they’re darker than usual. I lower my hand quickly.

  We finish the rest of our lunch in silence.

  The rest of the day I avoid both Kai and Rand. I don’t want to think about Mom, or about Kai’s intense look. I shiver every time I think about it.

  I push myself harder during every physical test until I can barely walk. I know I’m going to regret it tomorrow when I wake up aching, but right now I’ve got to make sure I can keep my concentration on these tests.

  Our teacher congratulates us all on our hard work and sends us home with the warning we only have one more day before the testing starts. That gets makes my hands clammy, and I fumble to put everything back in my backpack and head out the door.

  Kai catches up with me before I can jump up on the flatbed.

  “Anja, I have something for you.” He slips me a small metallic object. He looks around to make sure no one is close to us. “Don’t let anyone see you with it,” he whispers.

  I shove it in my backpack without looking at it. “What is it?”