e i g h t ;

It seemed that with Indy joining the team and Ciel becoming close with Raven, the members of group 12191 were starting to get along. With only about a year before lift off, the instructors added mission simulations to their daily training schedules. That reduced an hour of strength and endurance from their schedules, as well as an hour of intelligence training so that they could do mission simulators once a day. The seven members had their meals together every day and walked to their classes together. Raven still picked Roseanne up from her dorm every morning and dropped her off at night, after their homework sessions in the private study rooms together. Sometimes the others joined them, but for the most part it was their time to be alone with each other.

The first day of their last year training, their instructor told them about the mission simulators they'd be working on. They were to be placed in a training room with virtual reality helmets in a room that had the same layout of their ship for the mission. They would wear their space suits, complete with helmets with each of them wearing their designated color so as not to confuse each other with someone else. The instructor would then have them navigate the ship and complete tasks, troubleshooting any problems that might arise. 

During the practice missions, everyone formed their own little groups. Indy and Ciel did their tasks together. Scarlet, Seville, and Mauve did their tasks together. Raven and Roseanne did their tasks together. They'd meet in the hallways of the training area, whenever they were on their way to check the med bay or electrical. Their instructor sometimes messed with the lights or oxygen levels on the ship. That had all the members of the team scrambling to fix whatever was wrong on the ship. Then they had a space in the cafeteria where they could have their emergency meetings or any kind of meetings to discuss the progress everyone had. 

Raven and Roseanne spent their time for the most part doing their own thing. The others on the team were calling meetings every ten minutes to check for progress reports. As Raven and Roseanne sat down at the table for the meeting, Roseanne heaved a sigh. She had been in the middle of a task, with Raven watching her when the meeting was called. It was Scarlet who called the meeting and she sat at the head of the table. "Someone's not doing tasks. The task bar hasn't moved since the last time we had a meeting. I personally think its either Raven or Roseanne, since they're probably in some corner holding hands or making out."

"That's not true--" Roseanne stared, but was cut off by another crew member.

"That doesn't make any sense." Ciel told her, pointing something out to them. "Both of them are being watched to see who will make captain of the expedition. I don't think they'd throw it away like that."

"Let's just get back to it. We only have seven crew members on board and there's not enough of us to get the tasks done." Indy said, with evident frustration in his words. They had two hours to complete the mission, but if they didn't finish their tasks before then, they would fail. As the elite team in the garden, their instructors had stressed more than enough times that this would be unacceptable. The tasks were for about ten to twelve members to complete. Since they only had seven, each member had a long lists of tasks to get done. "There's only a little more than a half hour left and we're barely at half of the completed tasks."

"That's because Instructor Heaven keeps messing with oxygen levels, comms, and lights to throw us off." Ciel said with a roll of his eyes, already growing frustrated with their first simulated mission. He and Indy had been trying to get their tasks done but it was difficult when their instructor kept throwing them off by making them hurry to another part of the ship to do other sudden tasks. Their instructor Heaven Cyan was from the same province as Ciel. All of their instructors had names of their own. Their instructors were former crew members who had been on missions as young adults. When they returned, the top performers had been asked to become instructors at the facility, to prepare the younger generations. Usually, the captains and co-captains were asked to remain in the garden.

Since both Raven and Roseanne were top picks to be captain of the mission, the other instructors had informed both of them that most likely upon their return, they would be offered permanent teaching positions in the Garden. "So you won't have to go back to the poverty of your home provinces." Instructor Hemlock had informed them, crinkling up his nose. "I mean, you'll be living in gated communities upon your return. But living in Province of Mines, or Province of Flowers is nothing compared to what your life could be if you stay in the Garden." But of course, Roseanne thought to herself. He didn't know anything about living in poverty like they did. He was from Province of Lumber, which was middle class. They weren't exactly rich, but they weren't exactly poor either. They were the middle of the spectrum.

When Instructor Hemlock left them alone with their thoughts, Raven immediately gave a shake of his head. "There's only one compelling reason to make me stay in the Garden for the rest of my life, and even then I'd really think about it." He eyed her from the corner of his eye without her even noticing. He then continued. "I've always wanted to go back to my family though."

Roseanne nodded her head in agreement, but she thought that she wouldn't be entirely dissatisfied with staying in the Garden. She wanted to see what became of her parents, her sister Blossom, and her other sister who had not been named yet when she moved to the Garden. But a part of her slightly resented her parents for giving her away like that. She understood that Raven's mother had to do it, since she could not support the home on her own. Raven seemed to really miss them though. From the things she had told Roseanne, his family was close. Roseanne's family, on the other hand, was more well off when they sent her away. She thought that they could have declined if they really wanted her to stay with them. But then didn't. They ended up letting her go. 

They completed their first simulated mission within the two hours, with about two minutes to spare. That first simulation was comprised of a series of problems which could arise while on course to their destination. They would be in a space ship with each other for three and a half years. Upon landing, they'd spend a whole year on the asteroid Vesta for a whole year searching for and collecting a series of samples. From there, they would spend the last three and a half years of the mission returning to earth. The mission was to provide evidence that an asteroid could be inhabitable. The group would have a series of minerals to collect from the ground there, as well as they would have to search for any possible water source.

-

Several practice missions later, the instructors were no closer to determining who the leader of the mission would be. Things soon started to grow hostile between the team members again, mostly with Scarlet and Seville who were constantly bullying Raven and Roseanne. Since Raven had been accepted by most of the other members as part of the team, Scarlet resorted to trying to turn both the top two members of the team against each other. As they had been leaving the locker rooms in their physical training uniforms, Scarlet walked side by side with Raven and Roseanne. It had been rainy for days and outside it was still pouring, but their physical training instructors didn't want them to miss even a day of conditioning. As they walked together, Raven seemed to trip on a tree root by the running track.

Roseanne grabbed his arm to steady him despite him being a whole head taller than her. She looked up into his coal black orbs and asked him with concern. "Are you okay?"

He nodded silently.

Scarlet then rolled her eyes at them before bellowing loudly. "Oh my gosh, Roseanne! Don't try to act like I didn't just see you do that on purpose."

Both Raven and Roseanne eyed their crew mate with confusion. The others who were on the side stretching nearby and getting ready for their jog watched everything unfold with curiosity. She grabbed their attention when she started yelling like that. 

"What are you talking about?" Roseanne asked her.

"I saw you push him!" Scarlet accused with her index finger, her voice still loud enough for the entire field to hear them. Normally, two sets of students shared the training field at a time. They tried to be out of each other's way, so they had the older kids train at the same time as the younger kids. At the moment, the four year olds were with their instructor on the grass, warming up with jumping jacks. The little kids watched the older ones in awe. They admired them, thought they were so cool, and wanted to be like them one day. "You pushed him, and then you tried to act like you were worried about him or something." Then looking to Raven, she added with a look she tried to pass off as pity. "Why do you let her bully you like that? Just because she's older than you doesn't mean she can do what she wants. You're way taller and stronger than her."

Raven, who wasn't much for words, gave a shake of his head and spoke up. "That's not true. She didn't push me, and she never bullies me. I tripped on that tree root over there." He pointed to the tree root a couple of feet back. "She grabbed my arm and asked if I was okay. If you didn't really see what happened, then why are you talking? That's literally just a waste of your breath, as well as everyone else's time."

The other boys--Mauve, Ciel, and Indy covered their mouths trying to stifle a laugh. Seville only stood by, not finding the ordeal as amusing as the other boys. Scarlet shot her crew mate a glare, crossed her arms across her chest, and stormed off to join Seville in his stretches before their warm up run.

There had been several more instances like that. Like when Seville asked both Raven and Roseanne to just admit they were fucking already one time during lunch. To which Scarlet had replied to with an obnoxious laugh. "Raven and Roseanne? While its true that they both grew up in poverty so they have a lot of things in common, they would never happen! I mean--back me up here guys--" She said, looking to the other boys sitting at the table with them. "Roseanne is my best friend, but Raven is far too good looking for her. I think he'd look better with someone from the elite districts."

Everyone around the table was dead silent as her words seemed to register in their brains and the seconds seemed to drag on for hours. Roseanne shot up from her place at the table, tears stinging her eyes and she bolted for the exit without saying anything to any of them. Everyone else in the lunchroom watched as Raven shot up as well. He was debating whether to immediately chase after her, or to stay and give her a piece of his mind before going off to find her.

He decided to stay, and he told his crew mate, words full of anger. "That really crossed the line. What the fuck is wrong with you? And you call yourself her best friend. I think you're actually just jealous of her." He didn't wait for her response as he dashed off to find Roseanne.

The other boys at the table looked down at their food before one by one they slowly started speaking up. "That actually went too far, Scarlet. I think you should apologize to her." Indy said to her.

Ciel nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Plus, I think all of us think Rose is really cute. We just don't say anything about it because we respect her thing with Raven."

Mauve was the last one to speak. "Since you all know I had a crush on her, I'm pretty sure you know I think she's beautiful. But either way, its fucked up to bash someone based on their looks."

-

since these characters are inspired on real people in my friend group, for legal reasons, all of this didn't happen. but it did. except in real life our group of friends acted like they accepted raven right away, and were shady behind his back. and then scarlet claimed she was my best friend, and then she would do things like this. i genuinely think she was jealous that raven and i would hang out.

because before i'd spend all my free time with her and then raven and i became friends and we started doing everything together. so she'd make up rumors about me and she'd constantly tell him and our other friends that i was bullying him.

and then she had a sister (who will join the story later, but as a character from another province) who she constantly tried to set up with raven, despite knowing that i liked him. and despite knowing damn well that her sister had a boyfriend and had been with this boy for over two years. and the sister was even worse than scarlet. she likes messing with boys' feelings for fun.

but anyway, those are tea for another time. 

-clary