n i n e ;

Raven had been unable to find Roseanne after she left their table at lunch time. He had tried knocking on her dorm room's door to get no answer and he also checked their private study room where they completed their assigned homework together every afternoon. But he didn't find her and he waited until lunch was over to go to their next training activity which was physical training. He changed into his training uniform and waited outside the locker room for her. She was the first to emerge, and he stopped her in the hall, grabbing her arm as she tried to walk past him. She had been hiding in the restrooms right outside the lunchroom in the main hallway and stayed in one of the stalls until the bell announcing the next activity rang.

"Hey, I want to talk to you." He said in a bit of an urged voice, trapping her between himself and the wall behind her. He was relieved that he found her, since he thought she would maybe skip their afternoon activities for the day and find some quiet place to be alone. She kept her head low and her eyes down as she heard him and felt him walk up to her.

"I can't right now. I'm just trying to get to afternoon training." She said in a mumble, her index finger pointing towards the empty hallway. Now she realized how much they seemed like they were something more than friends. Instructor Violet, who had been the first to talk about them about that issue, constantly asked them if they had something. It had become something like a game to her, trying to catch them in the act. Trying to catch them acting like boyfriend and girlfriend to each other. She had even told Roseanne countless times that as girls she could trust her, and that you don't look at each other the way friends look at each other. Those are eyes full of love, she said to Roseanne. She told her student that she could trust her. She could see that Raven was interested in her. She had gone back to her Province for a while after coming back from her own mission. Things didn't work out for her when the man she fell in love with turned out to be married and with children. So the moment she received an offer from the Garden, she packed her things and left. Currently, she was seeing a few instructors from her province, since that was the only thing allowed for her at the facility. But none of them really caught her attention.

Roseanne tried to go around him, and he place a hand against the wall on either side of her face to trap her there even further. "Please move out of my way, Raven." She could barely hear her own words over the harsh beating of her heart against her chest.

He heaved a sigh that was laced with hints of frustration. He couldn't understand why she didn't want to talk to him. He stood up for her after what they said and tried to find her afterwards. He just wanted her to know that he had her back and he wasn't going to let the others talk about her like that. As he mentioned to her before, she was there to defend him when he most needed it. Now he was strong enough to do it for both of them. He looked down, trying to meet her eyes, but all he could see was the top of her head since she was holding her head down. "Why are you mad at me though?" He asked, trying to get an answer out of her.

"I'm not mad." She told him with a small shake of her head, but he could hear it in her voice. Or perhaps she wasn't mad, she was just hurt and didn't want to see him or talk to him.

That was the way she handled feelings of anger or hurt. Whenever anyone hurt her feelings or made her angry, she took time alone to relax, closing herself off from the world around her. She didn't want to say anything that could hurt the other person, something she didn't mean that could potentially hurt his feelings in turn. Right then, the last thing she wanted was to see Raven or any of the other crew members. She would have stayed in her dorm room for the rest of the afternoon, but she knew her instructors would question her absence. They wouldn't like to hear that she didn't make it to her last class of the afternoon because her feelings were hurt by her crew members. They would think she was weak and emotional. But perhaps it was the last push they needed to choose Raven as captain of the expedition, since she knew well they were leaning more towards him anyway.

"I know you." He said to her, trying to get her to talk to him. "Something is bothering you. Are you upset because Seville said that you and I are--" His voice dropped into a low whisper for the last bit. "Fucking? " His voice then returned to its normal volume. "We both know that's not true, and I'm pretty sure our crew mates don't even think that's true. He was just being stupid. And if you're upset about everyone thinking or asking us if we're dating, its also not true. So I'm not sure why it would bother you so much."

"It wasn't that." She said with a shake of her head.

"Was it what Scarlet said, then?" He tried another guess. Maybe she wouldn't tell him, but she'd agree if he guessed right and then maybe they could talk about things. In that sense, they were opposites, despite having almost everything else in common. Raven liked to talk about things right from the start and get everything out in the clear. He could talk to Roseanne now about how she was feeling so that they could fix the problem. She, on the other hand, preferred taking  a step back to calm down before approaching the problem. Both were valid ways to solve them. But the more Raven had to wait, the more Raven started overthinking about things and he hated overthinking. "If you're upset about what she said, everyone thought she crossed the line."

She gave another shake of her head. "It wasn't that. I honestly don't care about the opinion of anyone else as long as you and I know the truth." But Raven didn't have anymore guesses for her. He merely stood there, waiting for her to continue. This time, she tilted her head up to meet his eyes, her pink irises glassy with tears. "I'm hurt that you didn't come after me. I wanted someone to hold me and tell me everything was okay, but you stayed with them." As she said that, her small body shook when she started to cry again.

He felt his heart melting into a puddle for her. He hadn't thought of it like that. He thought that it was better if he stayed and defended her honor from Scarlet. But that wasn't what she wanted at all. She wanted someone to follow her and let her cry, offering reassurances. Though it was much later than she wanted, he still went and pulled her into his arms.

"I'm sorry." He said to her with sincerity. "I just didn't like what she said to you so I had to speak up. Then I tried to find you, but you disappeared."

As they stood in the hallway alone, holding each other, they only pulled away when they heard the other boys emerging from the boy's side of the locker rooms. Scarlet emerged soon after and she instinctively rolled her eyes at them. Her arms were crossed over her chest as he approached. She stopped right in front of Roseanne and Raven. "I'm sorry." She began, offering her room mate a half assed apology. She crossed her arms over her chest defiantly and didn't even look Roseanne in the eyes as she spoke. "If I had known that you can't take a joke, I wouldn't play with you like that. Since Seville and I always joke like that, I thought the rest of you weren't as sensitive. I guess I know who I can joke around with now." She finished as she shot Raven something of a glare.

She didn't wait for her response before she walked away to join the others who were walking out of the building into the field. 

Roseanne sniffled, her nose red from her crying and her eyes puffy. She then heaved a tired sigh as she watched her room mate leave the building. "At least she apologized."

Raven gave a shake of his head. "That doesn't count as an apology. You can tell she didn't even mean it, and she practically told you it was your fault for being too sensitive." Taking a step towards the exit, he told Roseanne angrily. "I'm going to make her come back here and apologize properly."

But Roseanne placed a hand on his arm gently to top him. As he turned towards her again, he saw her give a shake of her head. "Even if she offered me a proper apology, I'm sure she wouldn't mean it anyway. I'm happy with what I can get. Besides, I already told you it wasn't even about what she said. Their opinions don't matter to me. Only yours. That's why I was hurt that you stayed with them in the lunch room, but now that I know you tried to find me I feel all better." She offered him a bright smile that sent his heart into overdrive. His face always gave him away and a blush tinted his tanned skin.

She then giggled and walked ahead of him. Raven trailed behind her as they made their way out to the field for practice.

The eighth person to join their team was a girl from Province of Harvest. She had straight yellow hair slightly past her shoulders, and her eyes were a soft honey color. Her skin was mahogany and she was slender as a willow, thinner than both Roseanne and Scarlet. She was around the same height as the other two girls on the team, but she was only seventeen years old, turning eighteen a month after taking off for their mission in space. She hadn't been named yet, just like Indy when he joined the team, and the others asked Roseanne to come up with a name for her. With her honey colored eyes, Roseanne thought that would be the perfect name for her. From then on, their yellow girl from Province of Harvest was Honey. The group then went around exchanging holo phone information so that they could text and keep in contact. The new girl immediately changed her name from Yellow as her screen name to Honey Yellow. 

Now they had a Raven Black, Roseanne Pink, Scarlet Red, Seville Orange, Mauve Purple, Indigo Blue, Ciel Cyan, and a Honey Yellow.

With only five months before the start of their mission, they now had eight people on their team, which was almost a complete team. Most of the teams that went on missions in space had between ten to twelve members. Simulation missions became much easier for them, since they had one more person to share the load of tasks. Their group of pairs doing tasks together also shifted. Honey and Seville started doing their tasks together, and everyone noticed the way they both seemed to take a special liking to each other. Though in the back of their minds, they were all not entirely sure if they were comfortable with their relationship. They quickly started getting too comfortable with each other, and did everything together, despite the fact that she was seventeen and he was twenty two. 

Roseanne chose to only focus on the fact that if they formed a friendship or whatever it was they had, it would take some of the attention off her and Raven. She also didn't want to judge them, since she and Raven only behaved like friends, and people thought otherwise. She also wasn't sure how Scarlet would react at first, since she and Seville were close after Roseanne started spending all of her time with Raven. But she seemed to be happy for them and very accepting of Honey in Seville's life. Roseanne couldn't understand then, why she was so horrible to her and Raven, when it was basically the same situation. She seemed to hate Raven for taking Roseanne's friendship from her, but she didn't hate Honey for taking Seville from her. Or maybe she was looking at things all wrong and she hated Roseanne for taking Raven from her. Perhaps she was interested in him romantically and resented Roseanne for taking him away.

But things didn't change much, other than that. Ciel still did his tasks with Indy, Raven still did his tasks with Roseanne. That left Scarlet and Mauve to do their tasks together. 

They continued with only eight members for a while, until it was very close to lift off for their mission.

-

also for legal reasons, honey wasn't underage when seville and her started dating. even though she totally was. she was sixteen and he was twenty one. they're still going out now, but she's a legal adult. and in real life, scarlet was really accepting of them bc seville is actually her cousin. but that wasn't going to fit in with my telling of the story, so i couldn't do it. 

and that kabedon moment didn't happen like that exactly. it happened in my car. all the dialogue is real. except it happened after we all went to the mall together and scarlet said in front of all our friends that raven would probably never date me because im ugly and he's handsome. and then we went to the mall where we split up into groups and i was hurt bc i thought raven decided to go with scarlet, and no one went with me to the adidas store. but as it turned out, raven went to target bc he was out of deodorant. then he ran to the adidas store to find me and i was gone. 

but anyway, i hope you're liking the story. 

i just thought i would base the characters after my group of friends bc some of them are so problematic that it makes our lives and our outings seem like a fanfic. 

-clary