Year E2996

Beck

"Okay, now finish the last question, and we will spend the rest of class at the tracks," Mr. Yellow said while walking between the desks.

He leaned over mine, looking at my notebook. "Beck, did you finish the questions?"

"Yes." I covered my drawing of Kat with my chicken scratch notes. I wrote a list, Men Of Suits, chips, and Dr. Coachman. I left my other notebook on the ship, so this one only had one drawing in it. Now that I had drawn on paper, I didn't want to return to my tablet. Despite my mom thinking I'm baffling.

Mr. Yellow straightened his back, walking to the front of the room. "Beck, please explain your answer to the last question?"

Rolling my eyes, I stood up with my school tablet of questions. "What does the E in our calendar stand for?" I scanned the class, seeing nobody cared. "E means expired. Which stands for when the sun died on Earth, and our new home became Nus."

"Good, and the bonus question?" Mr. Yellow added, pulling off his glasses and tucking his hands under his armpits.

"Um, bonus question?" I asked back, swiping the page of my tablet. "Oh, yeah, of course, the bonus question." I read it out loud. "What unique, valid fact do you have about our home?"

I swallowed hard in a panic, knowing Mr. Yellow hoped to pull a fast one on me. His foot tapped on the ground like a teenager with zero patience. The class turned to look at me.

"Well, my sister Ray told me the engineers that made the Nus pulled a fast one on their boss. They wrote sun backward on the paperwork for the ship, and nobody changed it, so that is where Nus came from."

"Ah, yes, Nus spelled backward is sun." Mr. Yellow pointed at the door. "Okay, everyone, to the tracks for the rest of the time." He grabbed his computer. "But don't forget to turn in the assignment on your way out."

I typed my answer to the bonus question and stuffed my notebook in my backpack. The girl next to me, Leanna, kept peeking over, and when I made eye contact with her, she looked away, tucking her dark curly hair behind her ears.

With my backpack on, I turned the daily assignment in, leaving to the tracks. While in the hallway, Leanna ran up to me, tapping my shoulder.

"Hey Beck, where have you been?" she asked.

We kept walking. "Oh, I got sick," I lied but didn't, knowing Safforia was a well-kept secret from everyone on the Nus.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she replied, pulling on her backpack straps. "I'm surprised they had allowed you with us already." She hopped a little. "The last time I was sick, they quarantined me for a month."

I eyed her, biting my bottom lip. "What did you have?"

"Oh, they told me it was—" she said, but my mind went elsewhere as a girl down the corridor caught my attention.

She had an orange tutu on, with ripped jeans underneath. Her striped, long-sleeve shirt had a pink lace spaghetti strap over it. A brown buckle belt wrapped around her waist while she tucked her hair into a camo beanie.

"Who is that?" Leanna said, confused by the girl's attire as well.

The girl glanced up from a map cube of Nus in her hand, making eye contact with me. Her purple eyes lit up as she smiled, but quickly glanced around at the surrounding students.

"Kitty," I said under my breath.

"You know her?" Leanna asked.

"Yeah." I looked around, then at her. "Hey, can you do me a favor?"

"Ye-ah," Leanna replied nervously.

"Could you cover for me?" I glanced down the hall to see Mr. Yellow locking his classroom. "Say that I wasn't feeling well." I ran backward, away from Leanna, watching her fidget with her fingers.

"Sure," she replied, causing me to turn around.

I ran up to Kat, grabbing her wrist and pulling her away from the tracks. With nobody in sight, I pulled her into a janitor's closet. While in the dark space, it smelt of cleaning supplies and mud. Clicking on the lights, I placed my hands on Kat's shoulders.

"Kitty," I whisper-yelled. "But how?"

She smiled at me and then put her head into my chest, wrapping her arms around me. She squeezed me tight. "I'm so happy you are okay."

"Of course I'm okay," I said as she leaned away.

"I heard you got sick." Kat tucked her loose strands of hair back into the hat.

"Yeah, the grass stuff we walked through." I waved my hand at hip level. "It was pretty tall."

"The rust grass?" Kat questioned.

"Yes. Well, it's highly toxic to humans." I glanced at her outfit again. "What are you wearing?"

She spun around and then bowed to me. "I researched human outfits and found all this in a closet." She raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't it look good?"

"What?" I laughed, but stopped when I noticed her facial expression. "When have you ever seen me wear something like this?"

"Well," she said.

The door to the closet opened quickly. Mr. Yellow stood there with his arms crossed. His eyes glanced at Kat and then over at me with anger.

"Beck Doxon," he said. "You and your friend need to follow me."

Kat grabbed my arm, hugging it tight. She looked at my teacher with fear. Mr. Yellow opened the door more for us to exit into the hallway. We followed him to the tracks while the rest of my class walked around.

Kat's eyes widened at our community park. The glass wall we walked by showed most of the tracks. A walking path circled the lake. Our fake sun rose and lowered with the moon. Kat placed her hands on the glass with her face against it.

"Wow," she said. "This is cool." Kat looked at Mr. Yellow. "But how did you get all that on the ship? Is that ah- what type of tree is that?"

Mr. Yellow looked at her with a confused expression. "Miss, no joking. You two are in a ton of trouble."

I watched Mr. Yellow as his widened head turned red. His bald front reflected brightly from the light above him. His foot tapped against the floor while my attention went to Rob running past our hallway down the way. Rob must have noticed us because he rounded the corner, talking into his birdroid.

"Rob!" Kat yelled loudly, with more eagerness than I'd like to admit. "Look at this," she said, pointing at the tracks. "They have the outside on the inside."

"Kat, we told you not to leave the room," Rob said.

I glanced at Kat's outfit, realizing she was wearing Ray's clothes from when she was young. The tutu was a Halloween costume, and the striped shirt was part of her uniform for the private school on the Nus. I always hated that Ray got to go to the private school, and I did not, but now I knew I did not place academically into it.

"You also told me you would bring Beck over, but you didn't," she said while removing her hat.

Mr. Yellow stepped back with his mind running a million miles. His face tensed up when he glanced my way. My class noticed us, prompting them to walk to the glass and watch. With Kat's hair down, her eyes brightened to a glow. Her slightly non-human facial features had been more pronounced than I remembered.

"What is she?" Ted, a kid in my class, asked on the other side of the glass while the rest of the class whispered to one another.

Kat stepped behind me, placing her face against my back. She's kind of similar to the girls in my class, but the safforians were slightly different.

"Beck, is that your girlfriend?" Ted added, laughing. "Freak like you."

"Okay, you little fuck," Rob said with anger. He walked to the entrance of the tracks while Ted took off running. Mr. Yellow went after Rob while I pulled Kat down the corridor.

"Let's get back to Ray's place," I said.

My class followed us along the glass until they couldn't. Leanna stood there while the rest of them went to watch the entertainment with Rob and Ted. Kat noticed her and pulled away from me.

Kat walked to the glass, putting her hand on it. Leanna mirrored her with a widened smile. Kat glanced my way, removing her hand. She flattened her palm, creating a purple fire. The tiny flame stood still with no breeze while Leanna stepped closer.

Moving next to Kat, I pulled on her tutu. "Come on, Kitty," I said while both girls looked at me. "Let's get to Ray's."

Leanna knocked on the glass, causing us to look over. "You are beautiful," she said to Kat. The thick glass caused a muffled voice, but we could hear her perfectly.

"Thank you." Kat straightened up taller. "As are you," she added.

We ran down the corridor. Ray's place was on the nonfamily level. She moved out when she turned eighteen. I've only been to her room a handful of times, but I remembered how to get there.

We entered the elevator, letting the doors close. Kat danced with her shoulders, then pushed every button on the panel.

"Kat." I laughed. "Why?"

"Oh, you don't know?" she replied.

"Know what?" I pointed at the lit buttons. "That we are going to be stopping at every level now."

Her eyes became brighter. "That this box is magic," she said. "You enter and push one of these buttons, and then when this thing opens." She looked at me. "Boom! Different location."

I slowly laughed until my laughter became louder. The door opened, then closed, lowering us to the next floor. I held my stomach while it hurt from uncontrollable giggles.

"Ki-Kitty," I barely said, out of breath. "What?"

Kat read my face, straightening her expression. "Oh," she said, playing with her tutu. "Yeah, not magic box." Her eyes looked at me. "I knew that."

Her serious tone slowly squished together while she tried to hold back a smile. She stretched her jaw, causing me to laugh. Kat punched my shoulder, laughing loudly as the elevator door opened to Ray's floor.

"Ha, magic box," I said, stepping off.

I watched Kat push all the buttons on the elevator before following me. We walked quickly to Ray's door, knocking quietly. Ray swung the door open, grabbing Kat and me.

"I told you—" Ray said, but Kat interrupted.

"To stay put." She walked to the couch, sitting down with a huff. "I know." She pointed at me. "But you also told me you would bring Beck to me."

Ray let out a breath. "I know," she said. "And that was the plan and also why I had invited someone over to discuss our next action."

My mom walked around the corner from the kitchen. Her eyes stayed on Kat while she walked by me, ignoring my existence.

"Oh, you are a beautiful little one." Her hand was out. "I'm Isa Doxon, but you can call me Isa." She sat next to Kat. "You must be Beck's little girlfriend from the alien planet."

"Mom." I protested her.

"Yeah, Mom, if anything, we are the aliens to them," Ray said, ignoring the girlfriend part and complaining about the irrelevant bit.

Rob burst into the room, out of breath. He glared at me, then let out a deep sigh.

"Where have you been?" Ray asked Rob, prompting him to wave his hands in the air.

"Some fucktard pushed all the buttons on the elevator, so I ended up taking the stairs," Rob responded.

"Language, young man," my mom said, standing from the couch. "We have young ears around us."

"What?" I deadpanned my mom. "Who's the young ears?"

Ray put her hand over my mouth. "Okay, we don't have time for extras." She walked over to the couch and sat in front of Mom. "We brought Kat here so you can meet her, and she can convince you to let Beck return to Safforia."

Isa stood up quickly. "No!" she yelled, then covered her mouth. "Sorry, he almost died."

Ray grabbed her hands. "Mom, this is a great opportunity for Beck."

"No," she replied, shaking her head.

Rob stepped forward. "Mam," he said, causing my mom to step back with her hand blocking her face.

I stepped in front of Rob while Ray pulled him away. He did nothing wrong, but the trauma will cause anyone to flinch away from a big man. Plus, Rob doesn't give off the friendly vibes.

"Here, let's start over." I grabbed my mom's wrist, bringing her next to Kat. "This is my safforian friend Kitty. She became my first and only friend when she introduced herself to me on Safforia."

Kat smiled at me while my mom watched her reaction.

"I know it is dangerous down there. I will not lie to you about that, but the life I have here on the Nus is not what I want," I said, hoping this would work.

My mom played with her short hair, not making eye contact with me. Kat leaned in, whispering something to her. She pulled away while Isa's face showed pure love. They both looked over at me.

"What?" I asked Kat. "What did you say?"

Ray paced in front of us. "This would be great for—"

My mom stood up from the couch, collecting her things. She was silent in her thoughts. Stopping at the door, she talked to her hands. "I want to talk to Lucas first, but Beck can go," she said, shocking all of us.

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