Jessie looked over to the clock. It was nine. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was bedtime for the kids. She was exhausted from the day. It had been a tiring day. She had promised Ravi she'd watch his end-of-the-year two-hour reptile club. After the first ten minutes, she couldn't stand it. She also had to sit through Luke's dance recital, and Zuri and Emma were "age gapped buddies", a new program the schools had. Each high school freshman and sophomore was randomly chosen an elementary school student to meet over the year, and come up with an idea to fix a world problem or make it better. Jessie sat through their presentation too.
But this didn't distress her as much as what happened after Ravi's presentation. After Ravi had his moment, a blonde-haired man, about Jessie's age, walked up to Ravi. Jessie thought he looked familiar, but couldn't put her finger on it.
"Hello," The man said, "I'm a student at Columbia University. I see promise in you, Ravi. Can I speak to your parent or guardian?"
Jessie had heard him. "I'm right here," she said.
"My name is Cody Martin. I-" he started.
Jessie gasped. "Oh no," she whispered. The memories came flooding back all too quickly. She ran away screaming.
She made sure to avoid Ravi the whole day. It was easy, because Ravi never needed help with anything.
She sat down on the couch, thinking about what had happened earlier. She started thinking about the past.
It was their last day on the ship before Cody went to Columbia, and Bailey went to Yale. They decided to go out at night to say their final goodbyes. They had both finally turned eighteen, and curfew was no longer a problem. The full moon was beautiful. "Oh, Bailey. I'll never forget you," Cody said. Bailey began to cry a little bit. "I don't know why you didn't get into Yale. You're smart. You're awesome. It's not fair to you that I should go." She said in tears. Cody wiped away the tears on her face. "It's OK." He said. "We'll video chat everyday, and I'll visit you whenever I'm off school. We'll make this work. We can." Suddenly, a flashing light came from around the corner.
"Daydreaming about one of your old boyfriends again?" Bertram grumpily groaned. Jessie snapped out of her flashback. "No," she weakly lied.
"Well, hurry up and get to bed then. I need to turn off all the lights." Bertram snapped.
"It's OK, I guess I'll sleep here," Jessie said with a blank look on her face. Bertram just sighed and got back to work. Jessie went back to her flashback.
"What's that light?" Bailey said. "I don't know, but I don't care. Tonight, it's all about you and me, honey." Cody said. His face drew closer to Bailey's, and they kissed. The light flashed again. Bailey drew away. "I need to know what that light is" she said. She got up and walked around. Cody tried to stop her, but she wanted to know, and she couldn't be stopped when she was determined. "It's coming from the control room of the ship!" Cody said. "Let's go!" They slowly crept towards the door, and walked in. What they saw surprised them both. "ZACK!?" They said in unison.
The light suddenly turned off. Jessie snapped out of her flashback again. She decided to go to sleep. For the first time in her life, she felt guilty she was living a lie.