“That doesn’t go there.”

A young girl with deep brown eyes turned to glare at the boy who addressed her. Removing her grease stained hands from the tangle of wires and gears, she placed them defiantly on her hips as she stood up to her full height and glared up into mischievous blue eyes. “And you would know better than me, Jassim?”

The boy grinned at the temper-mental girl who thought she could be intimidating to someone almost a foot taller than her. “Of course.” He stepped past her and removed the last wire she’d connected. “We rerouted the controls to the gamma modulator into the sub-random board, remember?” He inserted the plug into the correct port. “You must be tired if you forgot that, Lori.”

“And you must be out of you mind,” she snapped at him, annoyed that he had been correct about her mistake. “You never call me Lori.”

Jassim look at the expression of frustration etched in her youthful features and tilted his head to consider her. She wasn’t beautiful, but she had an air and way about her that made a lot of guys give her the same amount of attention as even the most attractive females. Oh, she was in good shape, as only a few years of gymnastics could make anyone, but her genetics had decided to give her one of those faces that always looked younger than the person really was. Something useful later in life, certainly, but not for an eighteen year old girl who just wanted to able to not have her age misread every time she met someone new. Normally, she was funny and energetic, always bouncy about things in a way that could rub off on anyone, usually forcing even the most depressed person into a good mood. But right now she was cranky; probably because of the stress this project was putting on everyone. Everyone but Jassim, of course.

After a long moment of glaring, she rolled her eyes and punched him playfully on the shoulder. “All right, not never. Sheesh.”

Straightening his neck, he grinned again. “Platt was looking for you. Said he’d buy you dinner if you meet him in the dining hall.”

That made her eyes sparkle, and lightened her mood quite a bit. “Oh?” she asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.

“Yeah. He’s there waiting for you.” Jassim turned back to the open panel and started working through the wires. “I’ll finish what you were doing. The stupid project isn’t even due for another week, so I don’t understand what you’re all so worried about.” His eyes were already scanning down the list of wires that had to be tested as his fingers deftly searched for one.

Moving towards the door, Lori said, “If we get it done now, that’s a week we’ll have to relax while everyone else is stressed out over it. Creating a stable wormhole anchor is something of a challenge for those of us who aren’t geniuses, Jassim. Besides, you know we need the week so we can get it to work.” She stepped towards the door just as she heard him mumble, “If we can get it to work…”

Grinning, she headed down the hall towards the girl’s lav to scrub the grease off and freshen up a bit before going down to dinner. If Platt really wanted to see her, though she suspected Jassim was just making it up to toy with her, then he’d be shown the best she could offer. The best on short notice, anyway.

A group of teenage boys sat around one of the many tables in the school dining hall. It was a group you might not expect to see together since one was tall and lanky, wearing baggy jeans and a well worn tee-shirt, another was short and stocky and dressed in enough fabrics of the latest trends to make you wonder why he was in a public school, no matter how elite it might be, while the third was a rather attractive blend of the other two, looking neither out of place or overly noticeable. The two taller ones were laughing hysterically, almost falling out of their chairs while their shorter companion merely smiled and shook his head. “You guys are crazy.”While the laughter finally died down, the boy with the blue eyes smiled at his friend. “Tell us something we don’t know already, Max.” He reached across the table to pick up a piece of bread. “And where is that waiter? He said he’d be back in a minute about ten minutes ago.”

Wiping his eyes clear of the tears that had accumulated from laughing so hard, the tallest boy shifted in his seat. “Well, you should consider it a good thing. Gives Joshim more time to find Doc.” At this, he looked pointedly at Platt.

Platt colored and cleared his throat, looking anywhere but his friends’ knowing eyes and acting as though his was really bothered by the implications of Cal’s statement. And maybe he wasn’t acting. Finally, he sat still and bit off a piece of bread.

“Yeah, Platt, when are you finally going to ask her out? She’s been eyeing you for weeks now.” Max said, oblivious to his friend’s discomfort.

Almost gagging on the bread, Platt’s eyes watered until he finally forced himself to swallow. A big lump went down his throat. “Ask her out? Why would I do that? You guys know I don’t like her.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah. Crissy. Dude, you’ve been chasing her for, what, seven months? Since the end of last semester before summer break, right? And for all your chasing you’ve gotten…nothing. A date to last year’s formal. Then nothing. Face facts man, and move on.”

Cal nodded his agreement. “Besides, isn’t she with Ron now?”

Platt shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, that’s the latest mount she’s chosen.”

Max looked at him incredulously. “You bad mouth the love of your life? Maybe there is hope for you yet.”

“I don’t know, guys. Crissy is just…well…” he looked at them, knowing they knew perfectly well what he meant.

“Yeah, which is why almost every guy has had a thing for her at least once. I did in fifth year. Cal probably did at some point, too.”

“Nah, never could sink that low. The girl’s got nothing in that gorgeous head of hers.” He turned to Platt. “But Doc’s not bad, you know. She’s got her own version of what Crissy has. And she’s…well…Doc!”

“Definitely awesome in her own right,” Max agreed. “She’s really something. I mean, what other girl do you know that can hold her own in bosherball and likes to hang out at Mac’s in her free time? Hell, I’ll ask her out if you don’t.”

“She’d never say yes,” Cal said, ruining any thoughts Max might have had of being bold enough to actually do such a thing. “She’s too hung up on Jay, here, and you know it.”

“Can’t say that,” Max argued. “You know how unpredictable she can be. And we’re all so much alike that it shouldn’t matter which one of us she’s dating. In fact, we could all trade her off every week, or something, and she’d probably never know the difference.” That got a grin from the other two, as it was something of an ongoing joke between them, and Jassim as well. Spending almost all of their free time together plus the time during school when their classes were shared, for almost the entire three years since they had met, had made them all so extremely knowledgeable of each other’s quirks and mannerisms that oftentimes they found themselves picking up on them and reacting the same way to something. It even had gotten so bad that two or sometimes three of them would say the exact same random comment at the exact same time. ‘ESP has reached a new level,’ they joked.

Platt rolled his eyes after the moment passed. “You don’t know her at all, if you think she doesn’t know that we’re all still very different people.”

Cal threw up his hands into the air. “You’re defending her! You don’t like her and you’re defending her. But you’ll make fun of Crissy. Doe anyone else see the lack of logic in that?”

“Jassim the expert on logic, Monger,” Max said pointedly, “but I can’t fault yours in this case.”

“What’s the logic for?”

All three turned to look at the source of the by-now familiar voice of the latest edition to their squad of close friends. Max and Cal grinned at her, while Platt smiled and quickly looked away despite the fact that in her current get-up, she could probably be Crissy’s match on the catwalk.

“What’s up, Doc?” Max said, giving her an appreciative once-over. Lori didn’t even notice the attention from Max, since her eyes were focused on Jason Platt -Jay or Platt to anyone who knew him- and never left his face for a moment.

“Nothing much,” she said, easily settling into the seat between Max and Jay. As she did, Platt finally looked at her and for a moment they locked eyes. Since he usually didn’t allow this, Lori felt a thrill run through her as though she were able to see into Platt’s soul and wished with all her heart that she could be a part of it. Then the moment passed, and they were back to their guarded defenses. Why he wouldn’t just let her in, he would never say, even when she had asked him about it one time.

        *                *                *                *                *

It was night on this side of the earth, but the earth’s sunlight hours didn’t matter now that they were in a school that was located in outer space. That had been weird at first, to be on a day schedule that was different from their homeland, but all of them had gotten used to it after a few weeks. There were five other schools like this one, six altogether. Each housed the brightest minds that earth had to offer from its young people. There they studied, learned, made friends, and lived.

It was also where they played bosherball.

Bosherball was a fairly new sport, especially since the thought of playing any game in null-g was still a fear factor for many earthlings. But it had caught on quickly enough, and in the past decade surpassed football as the leading sport in viewer preference. Now each of the HighFlyer Schools had its own team, and consequently, its own marching band. The field that would have no artificial gravity during play could be supplied with gravity for the other sports that took place on it, though the Sports Federation had faced quite a lawsuit after failing to put a safety mechanism on the power supply, allowing two bosherball players to be seriously injured when the gravity was suddenly turned on the middle of the Super Bowl. Why it had happened, nobody yet knew.

The only reason any of this was important to the students of HighFlyer 4 was that their music director was an all-for-marching bands kind of guy. Lori blamed him for putting her in a situation that allowed her to fall for Platt.

Platt had never done marching band before, though he’d be a junior that year in school and had been the principal first chair trumpet since entering the school three years ago. But that didn’t matter since the first time Lori laid eyes on him she knew there was a connection between them she couldn’t ignore. And being in his section, both of them playing trumpet, she saw him more than she could have ever hoped. Thus, she fell for him more and more, though she sensed he didn’t feel the same way. The uneasiness he so obviously felt when she was around was testimony to that. Well, either that, or he did feel the same way about her. And there was no way she would ever know unless…

So she decided to ask him one night, while they were in the stands rooting for their school team, the HighFlyer 4 Visigoths. She’d managed to maneuver herself into the seat right next to him, and surprisingly they had been talking quite a bit during the game. Maybe that was way she decided it would be okay to go ahead with her plan of action. Or maybe it was something else.

“You know Platt, I’ve noticed that you act differently around me than you do everyone else.” That was a good start, she figured.

“Oh? You think so?” He looked uncomfortable, but also partly curious. “What do you think makes me do that?”

“Well, I can only come up with two things.” She took a deep breath. “Either you think I like you, or you like me.” There, that part was out.

“Ah.” He looked relieved. “Definitely the first one.” Her spirits sank. So much for him feeling the same way. A silent moment passed, and then he asked, “Do you?”

She laughed, trying not to let him hear the disappointment in her voice. “That’s for me to know, and you to find out.” He looked at her funny, then went back to watching the game. There went those few moments she’d thought they’d connected.

Finally, she just couldn’t contain it. “Yeah, I like you. Guess you kind of figured that.”

He grinned, seeming relieved that she had just come out and said it. “No, you’ve only been trying to be around me constantly the past few weeks and I didn’t notice.” Just great, now he was teasing her. But she liked his smile, and the sparkle in his eyes. At least he wasn’t acting like she didn’t exist, like he had been trying to do the past week.

“So, how come you don’t like me?”

The light in his eyes dulled a bit. “I’ll tell you later.”

Later turned out to be the break time after the band performed their show. She’d followed him outside at his request, almost sort of hoping that he was going to tell her that he really did like her as more than a friend, but knowing that she shouldn’t get her hopes up. Like that ever worked.

“It’s not you, really,” he’d begun. “It’s just…well…” a moment’s hesitation, as though he was struggling against something inside himself that wanted to tell her. “Crissy.”

Despite the fact that she was being told he’d rather have a vacant-headed beauty to someone like her, someone with two cents to rub together, Lori actually felt a little better for a moment. “Ah,” she said sagely, not wanting to give away her thoughts. ‘If all he’s after is a good time, than it might be better that he doesn’t like me that way. But I know he’s better than that. Why does he like her, of all people? Maybe he’s not the boy I thought he was…’

“Yeah so…” He trailed off, and looked off to where the Visigoths were just returning to the field, barely visible from their observation point. “Look, don’t tell her. I’ve liked her a while, but when she finds out, I want to be the one to tell her. The last time I had somebody else do it, things got weird and managed to make our friendship go to hell. So, don’t tell anyone, OK?”

She wondered at how he could trust her like that, even though she knew she wouldn’t have told whether he'd asked her not to or not. His getting over this girl would only happen if he let it happen, and no way that it would if he thought Lori might’ve had something to do with any failure he might encounter. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise.” She looked at him, and saw the relief on his face.

“Thanks.”

        *                *                *                *                *

“Jassim’s finishing up the wiring check. If he gets done by three than we can give the gamma and Orion systems a field test.”

“How can you think of work when there’s food to be eaten?!” That was Max, always thinking with his stomach.

Everyone laughed, and the tension that was almost palpable between Jay and Lori eased a bit. She still didn’t understand why he felt so uncomfortable around her. Her confession had been only a week ago, and it wasn’t like he was responsible for her or something. Sometimes she just didn’t understand boys.

The rest of the afternoon went by smoothly, with nothing really worth mentioning except that Jassim sent them a message saying the wiring was AOK and they could do a full test whenever they liked. Cal and Max kept silent about their thoughts on how Jay should get on about things with Crissy and Lori, which he was grateful for, and so they chatted through the meal about meaningless gossip and world politics and sports. After they finished eating, they split the check -the food wasn’t free unless you ate in the mess hall, and that wasn’t always appetizing- and got up to leave.

Max spoke up. “I say we all go back to our rooms and get ready for a test run on those systems.” Now that food was taken care of, it was all back to business as they left the school restaurant.

The three others of them nodded. “I’ll tell Katerina,” Lori volunteered. Katerina was the newest edition to their science-quad since she had just transferred to the school and theirs was the only team that didn’t have a full six members. In the beginning they had figured it was a fair trade since they had Joshua Jassim, who was a certified genius everyone knew. But in the last week with having Katerina around, they found they got much more done in a very short time since she always kept them on task. Now they even enjoyed having their little clan invaded upon. Lori had become the closest to her, since being a girl helped Katerina feel more comfortable than she’d feel becoming friends with any of the guys. One of those girly traits Lori never understood but did her best to respect.

“Sounds cool.” Jay performed his trademark salute and headed towards the lift that would take him to his room. Lori sighed. He was always glad to be away from her, it seemed.

“See-ya soon, Doc,” Max grinned as he headed after Jay, with Cal not far behind. Lori got into another lift, swiped her student ID, and rode it to the level that Katerina’s room was on. She walked up to the door, knocked and then let herself in.

“Just me, Kat. You up for a test run?”

Chapter 3