Mike Stellar (11 page)

Other than being
really mad at me for breaking the rules and talking to Stinky via peapod, Mom and Dad seemed to take the news that Nita was missing remarkably well. They seemed upset but … preoccupied.

We were in a tiny room in the back of the ship. It was called a Family Room and was designed for private contact with Earth if someone had news of a family catastrophe. (None of our private quarters had communicators that could reach Earth.) The walls were a kind of rosy color and the floor had soft beige carpet. Mom and I were sitting on a plush blue sofa and Dad was pacing back and forth in front of a small table where the communicator was embedded.

As Dad talked to Gram, he described the clothes Nita had been wearing and the mole she has on her left
shoulder. Mom would shout out something irrelevant every now and then, like “Don’t forget she just had a haircut,” and then go back to frantically writing on her handheld. It was all very surreal.

“What are you doing?” I asked finally, not understanding why Mom was so concerned with her handheld and so
not
concerned with helping Dad give an accurate description of her missing daughter.

“I can’t really talk about it, Mike. The flight schedule has been pushed up, that’s all. A lot of things are going on right now.” She talked to me without even looking up.

“The ship is moving,” I said. “We’re leaving too early for the Fold, aren’t we?”

Mom stopped tapping on her handheld and looked at me. Her eyes looked a little crazy, but everything else about her was perfectly in place. She set her handheld down and put her hand on my knee.

“Yes. The timetable has been moved forward. But that’s nothing for you to worry about, okay?”

“But what about the plasma propulsion? We haven’t had time to generate the power, or …”

She smiled wearily at me and then gave me a spontaneous hug. “I hate that I forget how smart you are sometimes.”

“What is
that
supposed to mean?” I asked, somehow feeling offended and proud at the same time. People
always acted like I was a big dummy, but before … everything happened … I’d had the highest grades in my class. At least Mom never forgot that—no matter how annoying her nagging was.

“I just mean that with all of your detentions and poor grades … Well, I wish you could think of a different way to act out, Mike. You’re just too smart to waste your education by trying to get back at me and Daddy.”

“Get
back
at you? For what?”

“For everything, Mike. For all of the unwanted attention our family has received. For Hubble.” She looked at me intently. “I know you’re still very angry with us.”

“I am not. I don’t even think about it anymore,” I lied.

“Oh, you don’t? Hubble was like a big brother to you, Mike. I know you miss him—and now Nita, too. And I know being on this ship must be creating a lot of confusing feelings for you.”

“I’m not confused!” I shouted, standing up. “I just don’t know what to think. I know that Hubble’s gone and now Nita is gone. And the ship is moving too soon for us to survive a trip through the Fold and … and it seems like the
Spirit
stuff is all happening again.” I stopped myself, knowing that I’d just accidentally proven her point.

There was silence in the room. Dad was listening intently to Mom and me. He was doing his typical doctor thing—observe the situation, then assess, and soon he’d be offering his “cure.” To him everything was like an illness—a problem with a solution. A blister and a bandage.

“I’m here to keep you safe,” Mom said in a low voice. “It’s my job to keep
everyone
safe. Let
me
worry about the plasma propulsion. Let
me
worry about the Fold.”

“What about Nita?”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Mom said.

“How do you know?” I shouted. “Gram is
freaking out.”

Dad sighed. “Nita is nearly an adult, Mike. She can make her own decisions now. Her staying with Gram, well, that was something she was supposed to do. But as we all know, people don’t always do what they’re supposed to do.” He and Mom exchanged looks.

“What Daddy is saying, Mike, is to trust us. Trust Nita. Everything will be fine.”

I didn’t understand any of this. They seemed so … calm. What was going on here? Mom was tapping away at her handheld again.

“Well, I better get back to class. I have a detention,” I said, still irritated by Mom’s preoccupation with that stupid handheld and by the idea of zipping, unprepared, through a Fold that might eat us just like it ate
the
Spirit.
“Plus, I really have to get my speech researched. At least in detention I’ll have some quiet time to work. Don’t want anyone thinking I’m a moron when I present my speech.” I gave Mom the stink eye.

I wanted out of the Family Room. Mom and Dad were smothering me and yet still keeping me at a distance. Though I would never admit it, I could understand why Mom and Dad weren’t spazzing out about Nita’s disappearance. I didn’t really feel crazy worried about her, either.

I knew she’d have no trouble out on her own. Plus, her left hook is so quick no one would have enough strength or stamina to kidnap her. She must have run off somewhere. I hoped this was true. Why didn’t we just call the EFEs and see if Nita was there? I was going to suggest this, but before I could say anything, Mr. Shugabert opened the door and stuck his head into the room.

“Everything okay in here?” he asked, not smiling for once.

“We’re fine, Leslie,” Dad answered. His words said, “We’re fine,” but their tone said, “Leave us alone.”

Instead of leaving, Mr. Shugabert opened the door a little more and stepped one foot into the room. “Would you like an escort back to class, Mike?”

“I’ll take him,” Dad said, coming up next to me and draping his arm over my shoulder.

Mr. Shugabert crossed his arms and smiled that crocodile grin of his. “I’m just trying to do my job, Al.”

I heard my dad grit his teeth. He hated being called Al. He said it made him sound like an old man.

“I appreciate your concern,” Dad said slowly. “But Mike and I are just on our way out.”

Mom hugged and kissed me and hugged Dad, too, and then we pushed past Mr. Shugabert’s hulking presence without another word. It was hard to place the weird vibe between Sugar Bear and Dad. It was like they were dogs sniffing each other’s butts; would it lead to fighting or indifference?

Once we got a few yards away, I whispered to Dad, “What’s the deal with that guy, anyway?”

“He’s just trying to do his job,” Dad said.

“Well, why didn’t you let him?” I asked accusingly. “He’s basically a glorified babysitter, right?”

“This is a time when we need to stick together as a family, Mike. I know you’re feeling confused and scared about Nita’s disappearance and I want you to know that you can always come to me or your mother if you need to express some of your feelings.” Dad had pretty much ignored my question.

“He seems pushy to me,” I said, pressing the point and ignoring Dad’s little speech. “And he is
always
around.”

Dad sighed. “That’s what he’s supposed to do. He’s
here to take care of us, to lessen the load of everyday crap so that Mom and I can concentrate on our jobs.”

I didn’t say anything. We had made it back to the classroom. I held my hand out, palm forward, to wave it in front of the door opener, but Dad put his hand over mine.

“You know your mother and I love you very much, right, Mike?”

As much as I hated to admit it, it was nice to know he and Mom still realized I existed in the same world they did.

Finally I muttered, “I better get back to class.”

Dad shrugged, suddenly looking really tired. “Well, come straight ho—to the apartment after class, then.”

“I have a detention, remember?”

“Right,” Dad said, crossing his arms. “Well, come home directly after your detention. Don’t hang around in the hallways. Just get home.”

“Fine,” I said.

Without warning he grabbed me in a tight, awkward hug. I stood there, arms stiff at my sides. I tried to free my hands to hug him back, but they just sort of patted at his hips, which was embarrassing, so I stopped and just let him hug me. He didn’t seem to mind. Finally he let go.

“Have fun in class, son.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I’ll come find you if we learn anything about your sister.”

“Okay,” I said again. I raised my palm to the door and waved it past the sensor. The door shot open and Mrs. Halebopp appeared, standing in front of the class. She shot me a look that said, “Well, come in or stay out, but don’t stand in the doorway.”

I swallowed hard and walked into the classroom. My brain was twisting, spinning, grappling to make sense of everything. I felt like I was losing my mind.

“It looks like
you’re losing your mind,” Larc whispered to me as I sat down at my desk behind her.

“I’m having a very strange day,” I said. I pulled my handheld out of my backpack and noticed the dreaded stench of burnt coffee beans hovering in my nostrils.

“Mr. Stellar,” Mrs. Halebopp whispered fiercely. “I do believe you have broken the world record for longest walk back from lunch.”

I started to stutter an excuse when she held up her hand.

“Your mother just buzzed down and informed me of your family situation.” Her face contorted into what I could only guess was a sympathetic grimace. “We can postpone your detention for another day. However, I would still like you to work on your research project
until the end of class today. If you would prefer to go to your apartment and study, you may.”

I swallowed. Was she being
nice
to me?

“Okay,” I said, shocked, and put my handheld back into my bag. I didn’t really want to go back to my apartment, but I definitely didn’t want to stay in class, either.

The monstrous blue hair teetered down in front of my face. “If you don’t mind taking Larc with you, you can both study together.”

“S-sure,” I stammered. I figured Mrs. H wanted me to take Larc along so that she could vouch that I actually researched instead of goofing off.

“Oh, and, Mike?”

I looked up into those bottomless eyes. “Yes?”

“I trust you’ve had plenty of time to glean some pertinent quotes from the book I let you borrow?”

“Uh, of course.” Dang! I hadn’t even opened that dumb book yet.

“Excellent. May I have it back now?”

“Well … I don’t really … It’s not with me right now.”

Mrs. H was still towering over me. Her crooked finger arched in front of my nose and pointed into my bag. “What’s that, then?”

I looked to see what she was pointing at. “Oh. That’s just a book my dad told me to have my teacher look
at—not you—the one who was
supposed
to be here.” My voice sounded very bitter—even to me.

“I’ll take that book as collateral, then. You can have it back when I get
my
book back.”

I wasn’t sure about giving Dad’s book to Mrs. H. He was going to want it back now that the original teacher wasn’t here for me to give it to. Unless … No! I tried to banish the thought from my mind, but it wouldn’t budge. Did Dad
know
that Mrs. H was replacing the teacher? Why wouldn’t he have told me? And why would he want her to have a
book?
It didn’t make any sense. I took a deep breath and pushed the thought of Dad and Mrs. H as Weird Secret Book Collaborators out of my mind.

“Here,” I said, handing over the book. “Can Larc and I go now?”

Larc started gathering up her stuff and Mrs. Halebopp said something to her quietly. She patted Larc on the shoulder and then stalked over to another table to yell at some boys for burning each other’s hair with modified laser pens.

“Ready?” Larc’s blue braces glowed as she grinned at me. “My project is on terraforming, too. We can help each other out!”

“Great,” I mumbled, and trudged out of the classroom. I could feel Larc behind me. She was so close on my heels that when I stopped, she crashed into me.

She giggled and smoothed her jumpsuit as I turned
to face her. “You know, I really don’t feel like going to my apartment right now,” I said glumly

“But we have to study,” Larc said. “That’s the only reason Aunt Beebo let us out of class. So that we could study together and I could help you.”

“Yeah?” I said kind of roughly. “Help me? Well, your aunt Beebo is a psycho nutjob who is usually out to get me, so excuse me if I’m just glad to be out of her sight.”

Larc put her hand on my shoulder. “Mike, she told me about your sister. She thinks you and I should study together because it will help take your mind off what’s going on.”

“Whatever,” I said, and started walking again.

“Let’s just go to my apartment, then,” Larc called after me. “We can study just as well over there.”

I ran through the options in my head.

Go back to class and tell Mrs. H thanks for being nice, but no thanks.

Go to my apartment and be accosted by Sugar Bear’s “helpful” recordings.

Go to Larc’s and study.

For the first time ever, studying seemed like the best option.