Chapter Two: Marc

Marcus Stormer Avendale Earth 5 May 19th

“C’mon, Marc!” My friend Jaz pulls me down the sidewalk. “We’ll be late for the field trip!”

“Slow down, Jaz, the bus doesn’t leave for ten minutes,” I assure her, checking my watch. Jaz slows, but only a little. We reach the school seventeen minutes and twenty-three seconds before the bus is scheduled to leave. Jaz sighs with relief, and we sit down on the steps. We’re the first two there, so I pull out my phone and start playing an ancient game called Minecraft. Jaz rolls her eyes at me.

“That game is, like, hundreds of years old. No one plays it anymore.” She blows a bubble with her gum, and it pops super-close to my face. I struggle not to blurt out something about germs or something. Instead, I go back to my game, killing pixelated monsters with a sword. Sighing, Jaz pulls out her own phone and scrolls through MyProfile, a new app to customize your profile for basically any social media. Satisfied, she clicks into what I’m assuming is RPG Alive, a new game where you can interact with real people and travel all over, basically like this game Sims I heard about, that was in the same era as Minecraft. What can I say, I love the old games.

“Alright, people, let’s go,” A teacher that I don’t recognize stands by the hovertrain's doors. “Mrs. Hudson can't come, so I’ll be your substitute, I guess.” The class groans. They must’ve arrived while I was immersed in my game. Shrugging, I gather my stuff and allow Jaz to pull me onto the bus.

“Marc, pay attention,” Jaz pulls something out of her pocket. A list? “I wrote down the top five most popular slang words for Venus 5, our destination. Number one is ‘Wontastic’, a combo of ‘wonderful’ and ‘fantastic’. You got it?” I nod, though to be honest, I can't care less about the slang of Venus 5.

“Great,” Jaz says enthusiastically. “The next one is--”

“SSHH, the teacher’s trying to talk,” a boy near us interrupted. Jaz shoots him a withering look, but shuts up and turns toward the front of the bus.

“Alight, um, class,” the teacher begins, but I’m already losing interest. “Uh, we’ll be at the launch station in, uh, ten minutes,” she continues. She keeps talking, but I’m not listening. Jaz yawns loudly, causing the whole class to laugh. She grins sheepishly and acts innocent, but I know she did it on purpose. She’d do anything for attention, which is why I sometimes wonder why she’s friends with me.

“We’re here, Marc, c’mon!!” Jaz exclaims, grabbing my arm and dragging me into the aisle before the bus even stops. I stammer something about vehicle safety, but follow. Not like I have much choice in the matter. We follow the class to the launch station, where we will board a shuttle and fly to Venus 5 for our field trip. Some kids nervously fiddle with their clothing, probably wondering if it’ll be in style on Venus. One kid asks to use the bathroom six times before the sub says “Fine!” Another kid chews his thumbnail every seven and a half seconds exactly. I know I’m nervous too, because I start noticing everything.

Finally, we clear the check-in (though some kids have to leave stuff behind) and make our way to the shuttle. Made of practically indestructible metal, it rises approximately one hundred feet into the air, the bottle-nose pointing toward the sky. The class files in, climbing the seats like a ladder to get to the ones they want. I sit in the back, with Jaz between me and the aisle. The sub calls for one last bathroom break before we take off, but everyone is too excited to listen.

“Do you think they even have MyProfile on Venus???” Jaz asks suddenly. “Or wi-fi access??”

“Jaz, do me a favor,” I say as the engines hum to life.

“Yeah?”

“Be quiet.”

“Okay.”

To my surprise, she actually stays quiet until we touch down on Venus’ surface. I shakily unbuckle my seat restrainer, and realize that the shuttle is hovering slightly above the track.

“Stay in your seats,” the sub warns. I quickly re-buckle my seat restrainer and struggle to keep my lunch down. The flight weas turbulent, and I’m prone to flight-sickness. The hovering shuttle slides slowly across the track, then faster, then faster, until we’re flying across the track so fast that I can barely see the buildings, like a train. It’s all a grey blur. Finally, the shuttle stops, whooshes as it pulls backwards on whatever mysterious forces push it forwards. Wobbly and unsure, we exit the shuttle. I see a group of Venus kids staring. Probably the class that’s supposed to give tours our class.

“OMG, there is wi-fi!!” Jaz squeals, clutching her phone. Sighing, I look around at the people gathered to meet us. They wear the standard Venus fashion, and I see one guy staring at me from inside what looks like a hovering bus. He has tan skin, sandy brown hair and bright green eyes. He meets my eyes, and smiles slightly, as if to reassure me. I smile back, strangely feeling welcome, almost like I'm at home.

That’s the first time I saw Lucki.

Author's Note

FYI, if you're wondering how a space flight can be turbulent, think solar winds and meteor showers. Just the usual, nothing to worry about!