Chapter 1

Celine

"Don't you care that they're missing?!" I yelled at the headmaster of Garrison. He looked at me, his one eye hard.

"They left, they didn't go missing" He argued. "They couldn't handle the Garrison's rules." It all seemed too suspicious, like they were rejecting the fact that three boys were missing on their watch.

"Are you telling me that they ran away?" I snarled, knowing that the headmaster was stupid to think as such. He didn't know the boys like I did. They wouldn't just run off like that..

"It wasn't like it was a loss to us" He typed something on a keyboard on his left and it brought up the three pictures of my best friends. "They had no special skills, and each one are easily replaceable. See? This big guy here?" I locked eyes with the picture of a gentle kid. Even though, he was bigger than most of the other cadets, it never really bothered him; as far as I knew, he liked being big.

"His name is Hunk" I snarled dangerously.

"Well, he gets sick every time he flies. This one, the small one." The big face was replaced by the more petite one, I knew the secret, yet this friend was pretty convincing.

"Pidge"

"Other than brains he can't fly the ship, what if there was an emergency with the pilot? And don't get me started on this flunk"

"That's why I'm there, I'm the co-pilot" I argued back, a statement that was ignored. "And he's not a flunk, he's here isn't he?"

My eyes locked on my third and final friend; his lop-sided, cocky grin as he took the most impressive photo.

I somehow felt agitated that everyone at this stupid flight school seemed heartless and uncaring. All they cared about was the book and nothing else.

"They wouldn't have made it in space anyway, I'm glad they realized that before we kicked them out." He got up from his chair and turned his back on me, clearly done with the conversation. I decided to leave before I lost it.

"Awe, are no search parties being allowed to look for your three boyfriends?" I stopped as I almost ran into the red-haired freckled girl, her nose high in the air so that she had to turn her head slightly to look at me.

"Leave me alone Carol" I snapped, pushing between her and her two cronies-Millie and Marco.

The hallway was crowded with talking students. Each pushing closer and whispering as I walked by. Their glares told me they were talking about me.

A few hours later, I found myself in the very spot I saw my friends leave me behind, watching the sand swallow them towards the action that suddenly erupted from the desolate land.

I should've gone with them.

My fingers found the key at my throat. The smooth metal cooled the palm of my hand, my pulse pumped against it, as if calling for home.

I looked out into the distance, the different colors of the sunset stretched around me, beckoning me to the horizon. I knew I had to answer the call.

I revved the engine of the hovercycle that I kept in the abandoned garage in the back of the school. I reached back and pulled the mess of my blonde hair into a ponytail, then jerked the helmet on.

I felt nervous, sitting there waiting for the garage door; the bike vibrating underneath me. I knew my fear was growing, reaching a fever pitch as I shifted forward, sending the hovercycle into motion.

"Lance" I whispered, almost inaudible to my ears. "You better not have gotten you and the rest of our crew killed."

After a while of riding, the night's darkness crept in, making it hard to see. I hadn't thought about what I might be looking for. The sand was impossible to find things in, especially if you were trying to find three people. Nothing really struck my attention.

I finally had to stop. Pulling the cycle to a stop near a shack, I cut off the engine and slid off the seat. I pulled off the helmet to better see where I was. I pulled my grey sweatjacket into a more comfortable position and made sure that my black ankle boots didn't sink into the sand. Somehow, I made it to the door without tripping over myself.

I was about to knock on the door when headlights made me face my own shadow.

"What are you two doing here?" I snarled, shielding my eyes from the light of the hoverbike Marco was driving.

"We saw you tear off into the distance, so we decided to follow you" Millie explained as the light cut out, silence filling between the three of us.

Marco and Millie were the kind of siblings that seemed to do everything together, even though they were a year apart, they acted like they were twins.

Marciano, Marco, Accosi was tall with dark hair that curled unruly on the top of his head. His eyes were always a hard blue that always took his surroundings. His skin had always been pale, splashed with freckles here and there. His black leather jacket made him look cool, but he knew that it was some sort of protection if he fell. Marco had always been a cautious one.

Mirella, Millie, Accosi had always loved her hair cropped close to her chin. Her bangs were dyed a bright pink and she always seemed to notice what everyone else was doing. Unlike her brother, she had an olive skin tone that seemed unflawed by anything and her blue eyes seemed carefree and lax. Millie had always been the type of person to sniff out what a person was feeling, even if she hated you.

"Okay, but why chase after me? I thought you would be happy that I would be gone" I glanced over at Marco, who had leaned against the handlebars of the cycle, opting out of sliding off like his sister did.

Millie giggled, as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. "Of course we don't hate you, Carol does; that's a given, but we don't"

I narrowed my eyes. The two showed no sign of trust.

"Yeah, right" I said, crossing my arms and shifting my weight to my left foot, glaring at Millie as she shoved her hands in the pockets of her camo jacket.

"We're serious" I looked at Marco, who had his chin on the nook of his arms, he was staring at me, calculating my every move. "We've never said anything mean to you, have we?"

My mouth opened to respond, but he was right. Even though Carol got my blood boiling, the siblings had always stayed quiet.

"See? Not everyone hates you" Millie walked past me to the door, she looked through the grimy window that was next to it. "Do you actually think someone lives here?" I heard her push open the door and spun around, following her inside.

"Hey!" She walked over to a lamp and clicked it on, light pooled around the tiny space, glinting off all of the paper that was pinned to the wall.

"Woah" I said, mesmerized. "What is all of this?" Heavy footsteps came up from behind me and I could feel Marco at my back, standing just in the threshold.

"It looks like someone was trying to look for something" He pointed out.

"Thank you Captain Obvious" Millie said to her brother. "Hey look, it's a blue lion" Millie reached up and plucked a picture off the wall, showing it towards me. "What was this guy? An archeologist?"

"Millie, put it back!" I snapped, taking the picture out of her hand and pinning it back on the wall. "The owner of this shack could be here any minute, what would they say if they saw their stuff all touched and rearranged?"

"I don't think the person living here has been here for a while" Marco said, examining the room around us.

I looked too and noticed no sign of life. Every book in the room was closed and seemingly untouched. Some type of equipment to my left had gathered unkempt dust bunnies on it's top. Yet, if I looked at the cot, it was neat and uniform.

He was right.

"That's weird, how long do you think the person's been gone?" I looked around again and something that was somehow familiar. Curiously, I walked over and grabbed the book the thing was wedged under. "A Garrison student" I said, looking at the ID in my hand.

I didn't know the boy in the picture; though I've heard a lot about Keith from Lance. Lance had always been competitive, but nothing like he had with the guy that was staring back at me.

Lance would hate to hear me say that I thought that he was cute.

"Find anything?" I jumped and spun around, hiding the ID card behind my back. I didn't know why I was so flustered, I just thought the guy was cute.

"No! I didn't find anything" I said, pocketing the card in my back pocket. She was too close for me to put it back without her noticing, and I promised myself that I would put it back after she was done scrutinizing me.

"Hm…" She cocked an eyebrow and eyed me suspiciously. "Alright, if you say so…" She said, though it was clear that she didn't believe me.

"Oh calm down!" I laughed out nervously. "C'mon, we might want to leave; I'm sure the owner of this shack will come back soon" I pushed Millie towards the door, Marco gave no attention to us, his eyes scanning the pages before him.

Just then, a bright flash made all of us snap our eyes to the window. The small lamp flickered before it snapped off. In the light of the moon, all three of us looked at each other; unsure of what to do.

"We should go check it out!" Millie yelled, pulling the door open. She ran out into the desert, leaving me and Marco by ourselves.

"Millie wait!" Even though I was the one to yell, Marco beat me out the door, his length beating me in speed. I gave chase, following the two out into the sandy night air.

Hi Everyone!

This is my first fanfiction, I hope you guys like it as much I liked writing it. Please feel free to leave a review on your way out!

Thanks,

CH