Cam brightens. “Yes, I’m now Cameron Chao.” He grins.
Kai grins back. “I finally have the sibling I always wanted,” he teases.
Mr. Chao laughs. They all talk for a few more minutes. I lean against Kai and just listen to their voices. The whole adoption thing still feels weird and I’m having a hard time getting used to it. Kai elbows me and I focus back on the conversation.
“Good luck tomorrow,” Mr. Chao is saying.
I nod. “Thank you.”
Kai and his father bow to each other and the vid goes dark.
I sigh, not moving. Kai gathers me in his arms, and I let the warmth soothe me.
“You all right?” he asks.
I pull away so I can focus on his face. “I think so. It’s just hard to get used to.”
“I imagine it is.” He lifts both hands to cup my face. “You know I love you, right?” His face tinges pink, but he keeps eye contact.
My heart swells. I wrap my arms around him. “I love you too, Kai.”
He kisses me until we’re out of breath. When we pull back, his million-dollar smile makes my body tingle all over again. “It’s a wonder I’ve gotten any schoolwork done with you around.” I’m pretty sure I’m grinning too much.
“Speaking of which, we probably should join our groups for the final day of adjustments to our ships.”
I pout. “We need just one full day of just you and me together and nothing going wrong around us.”
He kisses me on the forehead and pulls me to my feet. “I agree. After graduation before our summer intern cruises start, we’ll take a day for just us.”
We grab our packs and head upstairs.
“I forgot about the summer cruises. Do you think we’ll end up on the same space station?”
“I sure hope so. I think after what we’ve been through, the commander will place us together. Twenty students can intern on one station, so there’s a good chance.”
The lift door opens, and we get on, followed by a few other students.
“You know what I just thought of?” I whisper.
He grins. “Kissing me again?” he whispers back.
I punch him playfully in the arm. “Great idea, but not what I was thinking at that moment.” I smile up at him. “I was realizing that since Cam is now both my brother and yours–” I stop there, letting that sink in.
Kai’s eyes go wide. “Good thing they have different last names than I do now. Otherwise that might look kind of weird for our future.”
The lift opens then, giving me time to process what he just said. In the corridor I pull Kai to the side. “What do you mean our future?” My heart is thumping in my chest.
He steps close and looks down at me. In the most toe tingling voice he simply says, “Our future together. You and me.” He studies my face.
“I really haven’t had time to think about the future. With everything that has gone on, it seems we’ve had to just live day to day.”
He grabs both of my hands and squeezes. “With things finally settling down, it’s time we thought about our future. I hope you feel the same.” A bead of sweat forms around the edge of his hairline.
“Yes, of course I do, Kai. It’s just–” I try to look away, but he reaches up to gently cup my chin so I can only stare into his eyes. I try again. “It’s just I’ve always seemed to be in survival mode, having to take care of Mom and Cam. I know I want to work in space, and I know I love you.” My face warms. “But I haven’t thought about what that all looks like once we leave here.”
He grins and pulls me to his chest and holds me tightly. “I want to go wherever you are.”
My stomach flip flops. I pull away. “What if we want different things for our futures?”
“I think we’ve had enough late-night talks to know although we have different strengths, we both want the same thing.”
“You think so, do you?” I grin up at him.
He grabs my hand and pulls me down the corridor. “Yes, I do. Now let’s get to class. We’ll have plenty of time to discuss this later.”
I’m sure we both look like we just ate the last cookie in the cookie jar. My grin never leaves me as Kai and I go to our separate classes. The afternoon is productive, and I share a lot of laughs with my team. When we’re done, we put our project away and head out to meet the others for dinner.
Dinner is laid back and uneventful. Rand is the only one who saw Josh all day, and he says he was very quiet during work on their project. Although Rand wasn’t able to modify their spaceship for recycling, he says they still built a solid project.
We don’t see Josh at all the rest of the night, which provides me with a sense of relief, but I’m also a little worried. Josh doesn’t seem like the type to just let things go.
“Are your parents coming tomorrow?” Rand asks Kai. We’re walking slowly toward the dorms after a very filling dinner.
I shake my worries about Josh out of my mind as Kai answers Rand. “No, their flight won’t get back in time.” He shrugs. “That’s all right. Tomorrow will be a busy day as it is.”
“Yeah. Half our grade,” says Rand grumpily.
Katrina catches up to us. We stop in the common room, none of us really wanting this night to end. It’s been nice not having to worry about Josh. Or my father.
But the lights dim twice just then, and we all say good night. I follow Katrina but hesitate as I glance over at Kai as he grins at me before disappearing into his own dorm.
“You guys,” Katrina teases and shakes her head.
The door closes behind us and we make our way down the hall. Sam is leaning against her door and straightens when we walk up.
“Hi,” she says quietly to us. Her gaze skitters to Katrina, then lands on me. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry for acting the way I did.”
“Thank you,” I say. I’m not sure what’s going on with Sam, but it’s nice she’s at least talking to me now.
Katrina smiles and hugs both of us before bouncing off to her room. In the silence left behind, Sam and I say an awkward goodnight and go into our rooms as well.
I take time to get everything ready I need for the next day and get into my pajamas. Before I turn out the light, I send Kai a message saying good night. He pings back and we end up messaging back and forth for another hour. It’s nice being able to just talk, and not have to be reacting to something happening around us.
In the morning I wake up with butterflies in my stomach as I realize this is the day. Our projects will either fail or they will succeed, and we’ll pass Year One. I quickly meet the others in the common room. Our regular group has grown from three to over a dozen. We eat quickly, nervousness felt by all of us.
I fidget as we ride the lifts upstairs. I’m not sure where the commander is taking us to launch the rockets, but he must have a place on the academy grounds somewhere.
Kai grabs my hand and squeezes. “It’s going to be fine, Anja. We’ve put all the research and work we can into these projects.”
“I know. I just keep thinking of all the ways they can fail. I hope they work.”
“They will.” He pulls me out of the lift as we get to the top. We split off to our classrooms to get our projects.
Katrina and I are the first to open our door. As the lights turn on automatically, we both gasp and stop in our tracks.
Our room is a disaster. Pieces of metal and tools lie scattered everywhere. We look at each other. We both turn and run toward the cabinet that holds our project.
Katrina beats me there and swings the door open.
Our project is there, but it’s battered and broken.
I put a hand over my mouth and Katrina starts sobbing.
“What in the world happened here?” Carstair roars from the doorway.
We turn toward with him pieces of our project in our hands.
He stomps over to us, kicking debris out of his way. Tod follows in his wake, his face pale.
They take the pieces out of our hands and over
to the workbench. Katrina and I silently follow.
“Oh, no!” We turn and I spot Philip standing in the doorway. He covers his mouth as he surveys the damage. Behind him we hear running footsteps, and soon Rand and Kai are behind him.
The three step into the room. Rand’s face is stormy as he looks from the broken shards in front of him to me. “Josh,” he states.
Katrina starts sobbing again, and I have to take a deep breath. I can’t say it’s not Josh, because he’s the first person that came to my mind as well. “Not sure. It was like this when we got here.”
“What are we going to do?” moans Philip as he stands frozen staring at the parts in Carstair’s hands.
In the background the muffled voices of the other students in the adjacent rooms reaches us. I look at Rand. “Was Josh in your classroom?”
He shakes his head. “No. We were kind of hopeful he wouldn’t show up. But now,” he waves an arm at our room, “we need to find him.”
I step forward. “Not us. We have launches to prepare for. We’ll let security know and they can track him down. We don’t have any proof this was him.”
“Really? We need proof after how he acted yesterday?” asks Tod next to me.
Kai steps a bit farther into the room. “Anja’s right. I’ll call security and let them take care of Josh. Now, is there anything we can do to help?” Kai asks as he steps over the debris to stand next to me.
26
Moving Forward
I smile gratefully at Kai then turn to Carstair and Tod as they first stare down at the broken spaceship in their hands and then around at the room.
Tod speaks up. “If you guys have some extra parts in your classrooms that aren’t broken, I think we can fix this well enough to launch.”
Carstair glances at Tod. “You don’t think it’ll be able to return?”
Tod shakes his head slowly. “The solar panels are all broken.” He holds the top of the “octopus” to show us the slivers of what remain of the panels.
“And none of the other classes used solar panels,” I finish miserably.
“Tell us what you need, and we’ll go find the parts,” offers Rand.
Tod and Carstair turn the spaceship over and rattle off a list as they poke and prod the electronics hanging out. They pull off the parts of the hull that are broken.
Katrina dries her face and goes with Rand to scavenge.
I clean away the debris around the worktable, so we have more room. Kai helps me pick up the metal and glass strewn all over the floor. Soon we can at least walk through our room without stepping over sharp metal pieces.
Carstair and Tod have the spaceship torn apart. My heart sinks as it looks like we’re back to day one of our project.
Kai and I rummage through the cabinets until we find rolls of untouched wiring and new computer interfaces that Josh hadn’t destroyed.
Rand and Katrina come back with their arms full of parts, and several other students wanting to help. We crowd around the table and within a half hour we have our spaceship back together.
We step back to look at it.
“Not quite what we planned,” says Carstair darkly.
“But it’ll do its job. It’ll get up into the atmosphere,” says Katrina. A hint of a smile plays across her full lips. She waves a hand at the crowd around the table. “Thank you all for helping. We couldn’t have put it together so quickly without all of you.”
I smile as the others shuffle out of the room grinning. Kai grabs me up in a hug. “It’s awesome seeing them work together, isn’t it?” he whispers into my ear. His breath tickles and I pull away still smiling.
“It’s beyond words. I just can’t believe Josh would do this.” I shrug.
“He was in a very dark place. You can’t always predict how people will react when faced with their shortcomings.”
I nod and we join my teammates. “Are we ready?”
Tod is smiling. “I think so.”
The lights dim twice, and I tilt my head at Kai.
“I know. I’d better get back to my own group. See you all downstairs.”
He plants a kiss on my forehead and I watch as he hurries out of the room.
Katrina elbows me to get my attention. “Do we know what to do once we get downstairs?” she asks.
I stick out my tongue at her. “All I know is that we’re supposed to meet by the main security doors.”
We gather up the spaceship and place it carefully on a rolling cart. We head toward the lifts.
“Speaking of security, how come they didn’t come up here?” Philip asks.
I look around the corridor. Only our classmates are here, everyone pushing their projects on carts. No security or professors or the commander. I shrug. “I don’t know. They could be just pulling up the vid footage to look.”
“Maybe they’ll see whoever did it that way,” says Tod.
“I hope so.”
We can only fit one team and their cart on a lift at a time. It takes quite a few trips to get everyone downstairs.
At the main doors we finally encounter security. A few dozen of them line each side of the doors, their black uniforms starkly contrasting with the academy’s bright colored walls.
I get goose bumps as I see them all there. Someone leans close to me, and I glance sideways. Katrina is standing there with wide eyes. “Why are they all here? Are we in danger for some reason?” She shifts her gaze to me.
“As if I know everything bad that happens around here?” I tease.
She keeps looking at me.
“Seriously, I have no idea this time.”
A murmur goes through the crowd. When I turn, the commander has arrived, followed by the academy board members. Ms. Germain is among them, and she looks sad and withdrawn. Seeing her normally cheery disposition broken like this makes me shiver.
I grasp Katrina’s hand and look for Kai in the crowd. “This isn’t good,” I whisper to her.
“Attention please students,” says the commander over the noise. Everyone quiets down.
Kai steps next to me and squeezes my other hand. I give him a quick smile.
“We had something horrible happen overnight as most of you probably already know.” He looks straight at me and my team. Katrina wilts next to me.
“From vids we’ve been able to identify the person who destroyed Team Seven’s project and ransacked their classroom. The board has reviewed the footage, and in taking into account his previous offenses, they have decided to expel Josh Archer from the Earthlight Space Academy.”
Murmurs circulate around the room as our hunch is confirmed. My emotions are stuck between relief at Josh finally being held responsible for his actions and pity for him. Beside me, Katrina sways, and I release her hand so I can wrap an arm around her. She’s sobbing quietly again.
“I know this has been an emotional morning, but I want all of you to remember that you’re here for a reason. Getting through tough times is part of learning and growing. This is just one of those times you need to push through and learn from.” He pauses to study our faces crowded into the entry. “Now, I want you all to do your best getting your projects prepped and launched today. This is a big day for you, so try to enjoy it.” He waves his hand toward the main doors. “The busses are waiting to take you all to the launch pad.” He grins as several students whistle and others cheer.
As we file out past the security guards, the commander gets my attention. “I’d like to talk to you and your friends.”
I look blankly at him. “Which ones?”
He laughs. “Rand, Kai, and Katrina will do for now.”
The four of us follow him off to the side. We watch as the board members disappear back into the academy and we’re left alone with the commander. And the guards stiffly standing at attention.
“I just wanted to let you know that the academy board has also made a ruling in Rand’s case.” He turns to face Rand.
Rand pales and seems to shrink. “Already?”
The commander nods. “In light of what happened with Josh, we wanted to take care of everything now. We were frankly impressed how much you’ve helped your friends despite possibly facing expulsion from the academy.”
“Thank you, sir.” He glances at us.
“The board has decided to allow you to remain at the academy. You may graduate with your class next week.”
“Thank you.” He pauses, a grin frozen on his face. “Next week, sir?”
Kai and I look at each other. We should have another three months left before the summer cruises start for our internship in between Year One and Year Two.
The commander puts his hands behind his back. His expression darkens. “We also feel that after all your class has been through that we’ll have you all finish last quarter of classes on the summer cruises. The space stations and ships that you’ll be stationed on have been notified and the remaining curriculum uploaded to their educational databases.”
Our mouths drop open and for a minute I think maybe I should pinch myself. I must be dreaming. Then my brain clears, and a weight is pressing in on my chest as I remember where we are and what we’re doing.
I clear my throat. “What if our project doesn’t function, commander? We did have to piece it back together fairly quickly this morning.”
He looks down on me, a twinkle in his eye. “We watched as your classmates selflessly volunteered to help you. They gave you parts and helped your team put it back together. It’s not the end product we’re looking for here, Miss Toland. You’ve seen the odd spaceships built by past teams.” He chuckles. “What we train for here, and what you seem to naturally have an inclination for, is true leadership. Motivating and helping others no matter what you’re personally going through, and inspiring others to genuinely want to work together as teammates. Those are all qualities of the best spacers.”
“Thank you, sir,” I whisper.
“You are very welcome Miss Toland. One more thing before we join your classmates.” He glances at his tablet. “Once you return to the academy this fall, you’ll be leader of your Year Two class.”
Earthlight Space Academy Boxset Page 39