The biology teacher, Yalinda Portman, walks faster on the hallway on her short chubby legs to room 163. As she opens the door, panting, the senior year homeroom teacher of class C, George Winston, gestures her to hurry in and close the door behind her. 

Ms. Portman walks across the class with her head bent so as to not obstruct the screen. She stands between the older man, George, and the younger physics teacher, Greg Milton. 

She sees someone setting up the projector at the front of the class and sighs in relief. She did not want to miss the introduction. Then she looks across the students sitting in the room, to check if all twenty-three students of class C are there. They are. Her eyes briefly stop at her favorite student, Samantha Warren. 

This trip will be a great experience for all the students, but even more so for Samantha, Yalinda thinks, since Samantha is the brightest student the prestigious Umber Norman High School has ever seen. 

"It's ready," says the guy who connected the projector. The white screen behind him turns black. 

Other than the teachers and students, there are five more people in the room, including the guy who set up the projector. The five are dressed in all black outfits and each have a golden pin over the left side on their chests that shows the logo of ARDU: Aquatica Research and Development Unit. 

One of the ARDU representatives, a woman in her early thirties, steps forward and stands before the class. 

"Good morning, everyone, my name is Tessa Reagan. I'm a senior executive at ARDU. They are my colleagues: Peter, Irene, Harris and Parker," she says pointing at each of the four behind her. Her black coat and pencil skirt look creaseless, and her hair is pulled back in a bun without a single stray on sight. 

She continues, "I'm sure your school has already informed you of why we are here today, but it's my job to make sure you know everything you need to know about this program. Today is just an introduction. You'll be briefed further on this at the site in two days. By show of hands tell me how many of you know about ARDU?" 

All hands except four shoot up in the class. George looks disapprovingly at four of his students sitting at the last row: Carter Jones, Kim Su Hyun, Philip Manis and Travis Scott. All of them are star players of the school's football team, with Carter being the captain and Kim, his second in command. 

Naturally, these four are also the most popular boys in the school, especially Carter. They never raise their hands in class, even when they know the answers. 

Tessa gives a satisfactory nod to the class. "Good," she says. "Then as you all may already know, ARDU is one of the many subunits of our parent company, Freidman Co. Freidman is a multi-national umbrella company whose operations vary from agriculture, to space technology, to artificial intelligence, to social media. There's no discipline our company has not invested in. And as a side note, Freidman is also the world's richest privately owned company." 

Few of the kids laugh at Tessa's side note. She continues, "You might've heard of some of the most notable technological and scientific achievements in human history by our sister units. A super vaccine for viral infections by Cerobis Pharmaceuticals. Construction of YMOB in Mars — an advanced lab and living quarters for the NASA scientists — by GENK Projects. And the engineering of the microbes, Ethanoscibyllis, by Biocorp Cene, that efficiently transfer excess atmospheric carbon dioxide back to earth, reversing and stabilizing global warming." 

"However, the most notable achievement has been by ARDU when we discovered the existence of an entirely new biological ecosystem, thousands of miles under the seabed in Antarctica, called CORSUN II. The discovery was done a couple of years ago by a group of our researchers who had been scoring the bed of the oceans using our advanced underwater research and travel equipments." 

"You'll learn more about CORSUN II firsthand from our scientists and researchers who are living there. You all will soon enter a place humanity didn't even knew existed until a few years ago."

Samantha breaks into a smile. The pupils in her green eyes dilate in excitement. This still feels like a dream to her. She has been following the discovery of CORSUN II since the day it was announced through a live broadcast by Peter Dantes, the head of ARDU. She remembers the first few photos of CORSUN II the TV showed. Although they were badly pixelated, they displayed a world that no one had ever seen before. 

She tucks her long black hair behind her ear by habit and leans in over her desk a little, intently listening to Tessa. 

Tessa says, "ARDU scientists have been extensively researching on the newly discovered ecosystem. All of our findings are publicly available in order to keep the scientific community above the land informed. ARDU has also created programs where civilians can safely visit CORSUN II." 

"Your school has been selected among hundreds of applicants in the country to be the first to send its students to CORSUN II as part of our educational outreach mission. To be specifically, your class has been selected. Soon, you'll be among the very few civilians who would've seen CORSUN II." 

"Let's see an introductory video to CORSUN II first before my colleague, Harris, briefs you on your travel schedule." 

The dark screen shows the gleaming ice surface of the Antarctic. 

✽✽✽ 

"That was cool," Betty says, taking her seat opposite Samantha and Michelle in the cafeteria. She rips open the ketchup packet and empties it on her hamburger. 

Samantha nods, chewing on her fried rice. After she swallows, she says, "I still can't believe this is happening. I've already read the three books that Dr. Helena Ray had written on th—" 

"Stop right there," Michelle says, throwing her gel-manicured hands in front of Samantha. "You can geek out all you want during the trip. We'll be there for two weeks. So, don't start now." 

Samantha obeys and goes back to eating. Even though anyone would be excited at the chance to explore a brand new world, Samantha knows her two best friends had mainly agreed to the trip because of her. 

Samantha is timid and shy, characteristics of a flawless introvert. Even when she got excited at the prospect of going to CORSUN II, she was also terrified. And when she's scared, she goes to her friends. 

Her friends are the opposite of Samantha: extroverted and shrewd. 

Michelle Lanis is an Instagram fashion influencer. She has over twenty-five thousand followers. She posts her outfit photos every week on Wednesday 12PM. Most of her photos are taken by Samantha who is good at photography. Michelle has even done a few sponsored posts for fashion brands targeting young and new adults. She always gives a cut of her income to Samantha for taking the photos. 

Born to two busy Ivy League lawyers, Michelle grew up with less supervision and more pocket money, which can also be said for most of the students at Umber Norman High. The private school tends to favor admissions from wealthy and renowned families, or students with notable academic strengths, like in case of Samantha. 

Michelle spends all her money on clothes. From boutique to fast fashion, there is no brand she hasn't worn. Her instinctive fashion sense makes the ginger head look like the girl boss she is. 

And just like her fashion, she likes to change her boyfriends, too. She prefers older, good looking boys and is currently dating a college freshman. 

Samantha's other friend, Betty Chadler, is the captain of the swim team and her body looks the part. She wears her impeccably styled afro curls like a crown. She really loves her short hair, only next to her toned abs. Betty shares her sense of sass and sharp wit with Michelle. Even though not as fashionable as Michelle, Betty always manages to look like a diva. 

Betty is passionate about her sport. If she's not with her friends, she's swimming. Her father, who passed away when she was ten, liked to swim. Her mother is a senior cardiac surgeon at REL hospital and her older brother is an F1 racer. 

She and an old friend of her brother have been going steady for the last three years. 

Both these girls are strong and extremely attractive, but ironically, the most beautiful of the three friends is the one that has never dated, Samantha. 

Samantha has a classic timeless beauty. In spite of always wearing straight jeans and plain hoodies, her delicate frame and features manage to bring out her femininity. 

In other words, she did have her fair share of attention from the boys in her school. But her introversion and anxiety over boys, or people she doesn't know in general, keeps her away from dating. 

The only people Samantha feel close to are her family and two best friends. Her dad owns a restaurant and her mother is a housewife. She has an elder sister who's studying filmmaking in college. 

"I'm full," Samantha says, putting down the spoon on her barely touched plate. "I'm so excited I can't eat." 

Betty says, "That maybe. But an hour later, in the middle of the class, you'll say you're hungry. At least eat half of it." 

Samantha knows Betty is right. For someone so thin, she oddly has a big appetite. She starts to eat again when Michelle says, "I still can't believe the whole class is going on this trip. I mean, since when Wendy cares about science?" 

Wendy Morrison is a fellow queen bee of the senior year, so a natural enemy of Michelle. The two never pass a moment to mock each other. 

"It's Carter," Betty says. "He's going, so now everyone wants to go." 

"And that's the most shocking part of it all," Michelle says, blotting her lips with the tissue. "He has never shown interest in anything but football, and now he wants to explore a new biological ecosystem?" 

Betty and Samantha shrug in response.

(The end of preview)

———

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