CHAPTER TWO.
the martian and the pilot.

     IT WAS SAFE TO SAY THAT'S DEFINITELY not how Mars expected the school day to end. An insane announcement that insinuates there might be a way she could personally search for her dad was one thing, but actually getting caught for something she had been so sure would work was another. Being expelled for said thing was surely not on her to-do list, either, but, well, it happened.

     She managed to keep KP's name out of it, though. She'd be damned if she was going to actually be the direct reason he lost his chance at his dreams, so she lied and said that she was going in there to change her own grades. She praised herself for covering her tracks with the search history. If only she had made it out that door, she and KP would be going back and forth for hours on what that announcement had really been about. Instead, though, she had come home with the overlooming inevitability that she would have to talk to her mom.

    Standing at her own front door felt unfamiliar, a feeling she didn't think anyone else experienced. She'd looked at this door almost every day for seventeen years, yet it never felt more strange to her than now. Mars stared down at the welcome mat underneath her feet and grimaced. Closing her eyes, she exhaled and reached out to take hold of the doorknob routinely. She opened the door and stepped inside, feeling her heart sink a bit. She wasn't sure why she was expecting it to look any different than it had for the past three years, why she wasn't expecting it to be dark inside, like it had been when she left it this morning. A single light could be seen through the crack of her mother's bedroom door. Other than that, there was little notion that anyone was home, or that anyone had been home within a month at that. Dust collected in the air from the empty shelves as Mars ran her fingers across them, and both the living room and the kitchen looked abandoned as she passed them. It was practically void of life, void of the perfect little family that once inhabited it. It was empty, emotionally.

    She didn't bother flipping any switches on; she'd gotten quite used to the darkness after a while. She headed down the hall to her room, which was unfortunately right across from her parents'. Her mom's. Mars kicked her shoes off at the heels and closed the door behind her, moving to stand in the middle of her room. It was brighter there, since the window was open, the curtains pulled back to let in the bluish sunlight. In all honesty, she felt like laying down right there and just pretending like she didn't exist. At least not today.

    She couldn't, though, much to her displeasure, because she needed to talk to KP like they said they would during. She glanced over at the desk and laptop in the corner of her room, thinking she could just send him a quick message, but she had a different idea suddenly pop up in her head. Mars moved the opposite way, towards her bed, sitting on the edge and opening her nightstand to find a few pieces of scrap paper and useless doodles covering her walkie talkie.

          Holding the junky little box in her hand, she couldn't help but grin at the dumb little drawings all over it, and KP's initials on the back because he insisted he had to put proof that it was his invention on it. He'd given it to her nearly six years ago after they played a game of spies. He wouldn't let the idea go, persisting that spies had to have a form of secret communication. At one point they even attempted to create their own language to keep "outsiders" from listening in. Her fingers subconsciously picked at the fraying duct tape that was holding the walkie together, pretty well too, considering the abuse it had endured during many of their adventures.

    She lifted it to her face and held down the button, staying silent for a moment. She wasn't even really sure what to say to him. Hey, KP, I got suspended for doing that thing you tried to tell me NOT to do? Yeah, she didn't need to hear a lecture about it. She also didn't want to bring up the prophecy thing right away, she hated knowing how much she talked about her dad to him. For nearly the entirety of the first year he went missing, she would come up with ridiculous ideas on how they could go about searching for him. She refused to be a burden like that, to anyone.

           " Mars? KP to Mars, are you there? Over. " She could make out her friend's voice through the crackling static, not realizing she had let go of the button. Well, he made that a little bit easier.

          " Yeah, I'm here, KP. " She confirmed plainly, releasing the button just as she heard a groaning noise.

          " You have to say 'over' when you're done talking. Over. " He persisted, and Mars rolled her eyes and hoped he would just assume she did so.

          " Okay, nerd, how was the assembly? " She inquired, trying to sound the least suspicious she possibly could; a small 'ahem' came through the static before she sighed drearily, adding, "  Over, happy? "

           " Well, now you have to say 'over' again - oh, forget it. " KP trailed off, and Mars could practically hear him roll his eyes before continuing (which meant that he had definitely felt her eye roll earlier), " It was weird, I guess.. I don't know. You wanted me to fill you in, though, right? "

    " Uh, I actually listened to it..while I was in Navan's office. " She admitted, chewing anxiously on her lip and KP made a noise of surprise at the revelation.

    " Damn, Mar, lounging in the principal's office is risky, even for you. " He chuckled as she bit back a small smile. His laugh could end wars, she was convinced. " Did you at least fix your grades like you were going to? "

    That hit her like a brick wall and she automatically dropped the smile, clearing her throat heavily before holding down the button to respond as casually as possible, " Uh, yeah, I did. I actually wanted to talk to you about that, so, could you come over later? "

    She released the button briefly, resting the back of her hand against her cheek as she turned her head, exhaling through her nose before straightening again to add something that might make it seem a bit more realistic: " That and, well.. I could use your nerdiness as a distraction. For today, you know. "

    " Oh, yeah- I mean, yeah, of course. Is your mom cool with that? " Mars let out a strained laugh at that, nearly choking on air itself. It was hilarious yet baffling that KP would still ask for her mom's permission when he knows she's been less than 'there' for the better half of the past three years.

             " Yeah, no, she couldn't care less. You're literally my only friend, KP, she should be glad you even want to hang out with me. '' Mars reminded him, not saying what she really wanted to; she should be glad anyone wants to hang out with the fatherless, crazily overprotected girl with a criminal record, let alone someone with as much potential as KP.

               " Well, you're my only friend, too, Mars. " KP responded, but the teen could only snort at that. She was at fault for that, too, she decided. How selfish of her to keep KP indirectly to herself by letting him stay friends with her after everyone else decided it was too risky.

    Still, she played along, " Right, I'm sure you don't have a whole bunch of friends in the classes we're not in together. " Correction: he had friends in different classes that were unaware of their closeness, or their association together at all.

        " Yeah, but you're the only one I actually like. "

         " That's what I like to hear. " Mars commented jokingly, grinning through her words and moving to stand near her window as the sun began to set, " Better finish that homework and get your ass over here before I die of boredom, nerd. "

        " Oh, you know me too well, Mars Argo. Over. " He ended, and Mars just set her fist under her chin as she stared outside at the bright blue sun falling under the horizon, turning the sky from a pinky orange color into a deep purple one in mere minutes.

    Her door opened with a loud creak, causing her to jump and drop the walkie on the floor. She instantly looked down and groaned before bending over to pick it up, seeing the neat, plain black flats walking towards her.

    " Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. " Her mother apologized, crossing her hands together in front of her as she watched Mars straighten back up.

    She shrugged, not bothering to look at the walkie or check its condition as she insisted, " It's fine.. It's been through worse. "

    Her mother nodded at that, a ghostly smile on her tawny face. Mars nearly dropped her eyes from her mother's appearance, she hated looking at her like she didn't see her every day. Looking over her features to make sure nothing was too out of line, that everything was relatively normal. Or, at least, what normal had become. Sure enough, her mop of tight, brown curls was pulled back into a loose bun, and she was still dressed in her work clothes from earlier: a wrinkled pencil skirt and a frilly blouse. She worked as a data analyst for the Council Building, specifically Delia Kane. She calculated everything from asteroid belts to the Sun's radius, and anything in between. She knew practically everything scientifically possible about the Andromeda Galaxy, and what she didn't, well it wasn't because of a lack of trying, which was exactly what annoyed Mars the most. She knew so much about the galaxy and planets, yet she'd been terrified of the idea of her daughter visiting them or even learning about them herself. She'd rather try to keep her in a bubble sealed tight than lose her daughter the way she lost her husband.

And, because of that, Mars had very little knowledge of the other planets and people in the Andromeda Galaxy that didn't come from KP or other kids at school. Her mother, on the rare occasion that she did talk of another planet or race, it usually was to try and influence Mars' opinion on them to try and make her uninterested in them; it didn't work. Her attitude towards the rest of the galaxy had only gotten increasingly worse over the years, and so did her health.

            Her father had been missing for three years, and many people that knew of Louis Argo referred to him as dead, whereas Mars and her mother still called him missing. Mars had recently begun to think that maybe they were just in denial, still, and that they needed to get over it. He wasn't coming back, she had drilled that into her head once three weeks had passed without him. It was hard, especially since she was only a child, barely fourteen years old, but it got easier. It was easier, not waking up to a rushed, goodbye kiss in the mornings. It was easier, not seeing the almost-permanent grin on his tanned, wrinkled face every night before bed.

    However, it didn't get easier for Calliope Argo. At first, Mars had thought she was mourning for her daughter who no longer had a father, but it became more noticeable that her mother didn't have the time or energy to mourn on Mars' behalf, because her own mourning was taking over.

           The first Christmas without him was the hardest day, for both Mars and her mother. Calliope had tried to be strong for her daughter, but when they had woken up that morning, she had read the child's letter to Santa, asking that he return her father to them, rather than those fancy, new space boots she had been hearing all about on the news. It broke the older woman's heart, and she spent the rest of the holiday in her room, leaving Mars to dwell about alone. Since that day, Mars had felt truly alone. She started spending time on the roof, staring up at the stars and sky hoping to see her dad's ship flying across or trying to recall happy memories of him, but with little to no hope. While her mother would sulk in the darkness of her empty house, Mars found herself trying to comfort herself by thinking as if her dad was still there in spirit, telling her about all the places he would take her when she was old enough to be in a spaceship.

             There was one big one that he had promised her she would see at least once in her life, if he had anything to do with it. In the books they read at school, there was this thing called snow that apparently happened on Earth every winter. Snow didn't fall on Ceren, and most other species had never even heard of such a thing, but her father used to tell her that the Eol people had special powers, and that some of them could even conjure things like snow and rain, and made her promise to never give up on the idea of seeing snow; he had always said that was his biggest dream, hoping that he could bring Mars and Calliope along with him, to experience it together. He and Mars would sit outside on the roof every night, and he would describe what snow would look like so that she could imagine it falling from the sky and collecting all around them in fluffy piles.

            Mars wondered if she could still see snow, someday. Her father had made her obsession with the galaxy outside of just Ceren skyrocket, and, even before he had vanished, she had always wanted to go explore the other planets in Andromeda. However, it wasn't a likely plan, more like a pipe dream, because her mother had been petrified to let her go anywhere ever since her father mysteriously disappeared those three years ago, afraid that, somehow, what happened to her husband would happen to her daughter, that the last thing she cared about would be stolen from her, leaving her with nothing.

           Mars sometimes pondered the idea of what her mother would do if she was left alone for too long. She didn't like thinking about it a lot, because it usually ended badly. They never spoke of things like that, together, at least, so Mars relied on her own curiosity and mind to remind her that she could never let that happen. She couldn't let her mother go through that, not again. She had to protect her, but it was getting harder everyday. It was harder to protect her mother and keep her own front up. It was getting harder to want to protect her mother.

                " Hey, kiddo, everything okay? " She asked, her voice light and brittle, like she was afraid of her own words; she seemed to be afraid of everything, Mars was starting to realize. She wasn't always like that, Mars was sure of that.

    She was a little taken back by her concern, but guessed she must've zoned out. Mars spotted a piece of paper clutched in between her hands, knuckles turning white from her tight grip. The girl nodded, slowly looking away from the letter and up to her mother's face to tell her she saw it, if she was trying to hide it.

        " Yeah. " Mars said rather stoically, pressing her back against the headboard of her bed as she remembered her predicament with school. She hoped her mother wouldn't ask about it; she'd tell her eventually, but preferably not today. " KP's gonna come over later, is that cool? "

         " Y-Yeah, of course. He's a good kid. " Calliope commented, and Mars could just feel the awkward tension building between them, which always happened when they tried to have a real conversation. It was why they strayed to their own rooms every day. " I never did understand why he goes by his initials. "

         " He's already a big enough dork without the name Kenton Phineas. " Mars remarked, and saw the ghost of a smile appear on her mother's face, which was a welcome but rare sight that gave Mars a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

          " He was always a bit. . different. Obsessed with flying, like your father. . . " She trailed off, and Mars felt her eyes drop, not wanting to have another one of these talks, one where someone mentioned her father and then they'd sit and try to have a calm conversation about it, inevitably ending in one of them storming off, and the other in tears. Conversations like that on this day, especially, were ones to be avoided.

           " That reminds me. . " She continued after a moment, causing Mars to glance up at her, big, brown eyes meeting those of a similar shade; her mother gently pushed the door further open, so that she could walk into the room, slowly trudging over to Mars' bed.

           She did something that was very unexpected, and sat down on the edge of the bed. It was small, but it was a gesture that Mars hadn't seen for years, since she was a little girl. The teen found herself moving across the sheets until she was sitting next to her mother, now seeing how her hands were shaking lightly around the paper in her grasp.

           " This was from your father. " She stated, staring down at it a little longer while Mars gave her an incredulous look; then, she held out the letter, the younger Argo quickly swiping it from her hand, unfolding it quickly as she continued, " He said to wait until your 18th birthday, but. . . something came up. I had to give it to you today, instead. "

           Mars' birthday was in a few weeks, but that didn't really matter to the girl now, as she tore her eyes away from the old, crumpled piece of paper, finding her mother's saddened, tired face. She didn't even need to read it, what was written on it didn't matter at the moment when she felt a burning hot anger building inside her.

           " Why didn't you tell me about this before? Why didn't you. . " Mars' voice was calm, but the wide eyed look on her face showed she was anything but, waiting for a viable answer as her mother only shook her head gently.

           " Your father said to wait- "

           " He's gone! It doesn't matter what he said- I can't believe you've held on to this for three years! " She exclaimed, rising from her spot on the bed, waving the letter around wildly as she put another hand on her head in shock.

            " Please, Mars, just- "

            " No, what the hell, Mom?! " Mars cut her off, an angry expression etched onto her face as the woman across her stood as well, seeming almost frozen. Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, and, in all truthfulness, Mars wished she would have a reaction, yell back at her, do something other than just cry. " This is the only thing left of him and you hid it from me, too? Why would you-- ..just get out. "

    She didn't budge, still staring at her daughter with a peculiar look that Mars couldn't pin, but at the moment she didn't care all that much. Mars pointed at the door with her free hand, frowning deeply at her mom as she spoke much calmer yet louder, " Get. Out. "

            " I'm sorry, Mars, but I wasn't going to go against your father's wishes. " She insisted then, walking slowly towards the door and, as she placed a frail hand around the doorknob, she added, " Just read it, please. . It's what he wanted."

            Mars watched her as she shut the door with a small, melancholic smile. The teen felt as if all she had known was going to collapse on her. If she was hiding a letter, what else could she have? Mars had tried to get over her father's disappearance, and just when she thought she was making the slimmest progress, she got a slap to the face, a lousy piece of paper with the potential to break all the walls she had rebuilt.

             " What does that even mean? " Mars muttered to herself as she went back to the windowsill, free hand tugging on the small necklace hanging freely at her chest.

    Her hands were trembling now and she wished they would stop, still feeling the hotness in her face. She laid the letter down on the surface of the sill, raising her hand to her face as she tried to understand the situation. She didn't have to read it, she knew that. She could wait until her 18th birthday like her dad had intended, but she wasn't entirely sure if she had the self control for that. It took a split second to make a decision, and she swiftly moved to grab the paper once more, eyes scanning over it quickly, frantically, scared of its contents.

              It was her father's handwriting that's for sure. The wildly curvy letters and dark, hard pressed ink was evident of that. The fact that there wasn't a traditional, proper introduction to the letter only added to the evidence.

              Hey, Martian,

             If you're reading this, that means it's your 18th birthday, so, happy birthday, kid! That also means that I wrote this down a long time ago, and that something has happened so that I couldn't be there to tell you this myself. Don't be mad at your mom, I made her swear to me that you wouldn't lay your hands on it until you turned eighteen. I had an idea something like this was gonna happen.

             I've always told you that you were born for greatness, but that wasn't just some bullshit that parents tell their kids to make them feel good. I meant it.

             The Council of Elders held a meeting a while ago, on the twentieth anniversary of the Damning War. The Eol Elder, Sibyl, had a vision, she saw a prophecy, the Prophecy. I only know because I snuck into their meeting after they told me I wasn't allowed to listen in. Your old man never was good with authority.

             I didn't hear all of it, but they spoke of a Ceren to lead us out of another oncoming war. You wouldn't know this specifically, since your mom was so set on keeping the idea of war out of your curious head, but I wasn't just involved in the Damning War, I helped lead the fight against the Titans, but I've always had this feeling that they weren't really talking about me, you know? They way they always acted around you, or, hell, even just at the mention of your name recently. . They aren't too good at keeping secrets, and I guess I'm not, either.

    It's not a traditional prophecy, though, in the sense of there's a certain person it was made about, but rather an idea, yeah, I think that's what they said. No chosen ones this time, just the people who want to choose their destinies.

          What I'm trying to say, is that I think it's time for you to follow in my footsteps, Mars.

          Follow the map on the back of this note, the Wolf will know what to do, I promise.

         P.S. I hope you haven't lost your necklace yet.

           Love, Dad. 2092.

            Mars felt frozen as she finished reading, staring down at the last two words as she leaned back against the window, feeling the coolness of the glass on her shoulders. She had no idea what his letter meant, or exactly what she should do in response to it. He was referring to the same prophecy the emergency announcement was about. It could be about anyone that was born a Ceren, so why would he think it was her, a seventeen year old that makes impulsive decisions that usually end up bad for all parties involved? She wasn't any more spectacular than her neighbors next door, but her father clearly didn't think the same.

             The Titans had been trying to take over the Andromeda Galaxy for as long as Mars could remember. The Damning War had been a few years before she was born, back when her father was lean and didn't have patches of gray hair on his head. He had told her stories of his fighting in the war, but he'd never told her anything about the Silver Wolf. Her parents had tried to keep her from hearing about the war as much as they could, and she never really knew why, so all the details of the war she had gathered were from school. She could piece most of them together to make a timeline of her own, but it was hard to tell what was a farfetched truth or a wild rumor made up by bored kids. She did know that the Titan Army had been rebuilt after two years of peace amongst the planets, but as far as Mars had heard, they were nothing to worry about, just a few escapees from Damnation and rebels, at least until the announcement and now, the letter.

She, along with the rest of the galaxy, had no idea of an impending war.

A sharp knock on her door made Mars nearly jump to her feet, the letter still clutched in her hand. There was no hesitation or wait for an answer, for as soon as her mini-heart attack was over, the door pushed open and KP walked inside, in the midst of talking.

            " Hey, I'm starving, is there still that nasty, week old lasagna in your- " He stopped short as he saw the pale look on her face, eyebrows furrowing together as he questioned, " Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost. "

              " I- " She hesitated, moving across the wooden floor quickly, shutting the door behind him as she only commented, " That was quick. "

           " Homework isn't hard when you're a genius. " He insisted, forgetting his own concern, a goofy grin on his face, bright white teeth contrasting deeply against his dark brown skin and equally as dark, buzzed hair.

            " Arrogance is not a good look for you, KP. " She advised, locking her door, then racing back to the window, glancing around at the outside as if someone was watching them, like someone knew about the strange letter she had read; she pulled the navy colored curtains together before moving to sit on her bed, looking expectantly at KP.

            " Okay, what was that? " He asked, glancing over at her with wide eyes, " You just went full-on horror movie 'best-friend-who-turns-out-to-be-the-killer-all-along' on me. "

            " I- " She made a confused look for a moment but didn't let it distract her, " My dad wrote me a letter. " She stated bluntly, making his almond colored eyes bug out even more before she held up the piece of paper, gesturing for him to join her.

            " H-How? I mean, where is he? " KP questioned, taking a few, long strides before sitting down next to her, making the bed dip and balance in weight.

             " No, like, he wrote this before he went missing. " She clarified, holding the note out to KP as she added, " He made my mom promise to wait until I turned eighteen to give it to me.

              " But, you're not eighteen yet. " KP pointed out, taking the letter in his hands, eyes quickly scanning over it as Mars scoffed.

    " Not important, KP. "

    " Right, sorry, " He chagrined while reading. Mars watched him with her hands clasped nervously around her necklace, knitted brows and a frown on her face as she waited. If anyone knew what to do after receiving that letter, it had to be KP.

               " Wow. That's. . " KP mumbled as he finished, Mars mildly impressed with how quickly he had read it; he turned it over, then, seeing the blank page, looked up at her, " Where's the map? "

                " What? " Mars asked, having not even had thought to check for it in the middle of the shock, snatching it from him and turning it every which way, expecting to see some encrypted writings on the back to reveal the map. " I. . I don't know. He said it was on the back. "

                " Maybe it's written in invisible ink? " KP suggested, causing Mars to glimpse up at him, eyebrows lowered in confusion. " My grandad used to tell me that's what they did in the Damning War to keep the Titans from intercepting their messages. "

               " Well, how do we see it, then? " Mars asked, twirling the silver band of her necklace unnervingly as KP shrugged.

              " I don't have a clue. " He insisted, and Mars rolled her eyes at that.

             " The smartest kid on Ceren doesn't have a clue? Yeah, figures. " She grumbled, biting the inside of her cheek as she tried to think, KP also looking deep in thought beside her.

              " Maybe it appears under blacklight? " KP thought aloud, and Mars glanced over at him with a side eye.

               " Do you have a blacklight laying around, cause I sure don't. " She pointed out, making KP sulk back into his hunched over thinking position, while she stood, holding the map up towards the rays of light coming through her curtains.

               This is hopeless, she thought to herself, inwardly sighing as she went to sit the paper down on her desk.

                Then, just before it touched the wooden surface, the ring on her necklace caught her eye. I hope you haven't lost your necklace yet, her father had written. Obviously, it was of some significance, he wouldn't just add that in there randomly. She raised a hand to it, gently pulling at it while watching the paper with a dead stare, not blinking as if it would disappear if she did.

               She felt the metal band underneath her fingertips begin to burn, and instantly let out a small shriek before her eyes dropped to see it. KP's head snapped over in her direction, and, upon seeing the glowing bright static surrounding the ring, his eyes went wide.

                " Woah. " Was all he said, but Mars was too busy struggling to undo the clasp behind her neck to make a remark.

                " You-could-help! " She exclaimed at him, each word coming after each failed attempt to take the necklace off; he mumbled a quick "oh, right" before jumping off the bed, rushing over to her.

               The metal touched the exposed skin of her neck, one of the only parts of her upper body that her maroon leather jacket didn't cover, and she immediately felt like it had been fried on contact. She let out a yelp in response, when KP, urged on by Mars, finally undid the necklace, yanking it off her neck and holding it out in front of him.

               " Gods, that burned like hell. " She stated, turning on her heel to face KP, eyes glancing down at her chest, seeing no mark left behind, then finding the small, glowing ring dangling from the chain in his hand; after looking at it for a moment, she suddenly grabbed the letter, flipping it to the blank side and raising it level with her torso.

               " Here's your blacklight. " She declared with a small expression of triumph, grinning at her friend.

                " Hey, lookie there, we've got a smart one. " KP teased, carefully taking the ring in between his fingers, aiming its bright beam of light at the paper. The white glow covered the paper, slowly revealing a hand drawn map, the ink disappearing whenever the light left that spot. " Hurry, get something to draw with. "

               Mars nodded and glanced over her shoulder to look at her desk, but it was empty, of course. Then, she noticed a pencil sitting on the edge, but no paper. Starting to panic a bit, not knowing if the light would disappear or how they would get it back, she picked up the pencil and placed the letter on the desk.

               " Bring it over here, hurry, " She pressed, KP quickly following her orders, shining the ring's light over it as she leaned down to trace the fine lines of the map; it kind of defeated the purpose of hiding it at all, but she wasn't going to let anyone else get their hands on it anyways.

               After a few rushed pencil strokes, the glow began to die out, until it came to a measly flicker. By the time it had completely faded, though, she had finished the sketch. Then, she spent the next minute or so darkening the lines to make them clearer. Mars straightened as she dropped the pencil off to the side, lifting the map up to her torso.

                " Well, " Mars began, sharing a look with KP, " there's our map. Question is. . . "

                 " How, exactly, are we supposed to get there? " KP asked, eyes following the lines leading to a place that he had never even seen; Cave Pearson, named after the last president to have lived on Earth. It was several miles away, and neither of them trusted themselves to go on foot, especially if they needed to make a quick escape after finding whatever her father was hiding in there.

              " Hey, " Mars called, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she turned her head towards KP, folding the map into a neat little square. " Does that lame club you're in still keep their ship garage locked with eye scanners? "

             " Hey, the after school flight club is not lame. "

              " KP. "

     " Okay, yeah, but how is that... " KP gave her a dry look, two drastically different shades of warm brown eyes meeting as he spoke, " No way, Mars, we are not breaking in to the school's garage- "

             " We aren't. " She agreed, placing her hand on KP's tall shoulder, looking up at her friend with a mischievous grin, " I am, you're just a curious student with access to all of the doors on campus. "

             " Not all of them. " He insisted, and Mars waved her hand around.

            " The important ones. " She corrected, taking her necklace from his hand, stuffing it down into her pocket so that she didn't end up burning herself again, if it decided to have another moment.

            KP said nothing to that, and Mars only gave him a look that he knew from experience, being the only friend of Mars Argo was tiring, and potentially dangerous, but, as she always claimed,  " You're still friends with me. "

           And, KP couldn't argue with that.

xxx.