"I don't know…"

The 11-year old Athena squirmed uncomfortably, avoiding eye-contact. "My head hurts."

"Where does it hurt? Your ears?" Her mother laid her hand on Athena's forehead. "Or here? What kind of a pain it is?"

Athena shook her head, breaking the contact. "It just hurts all over."

"How's school?", her mother tried.

"It's okay."

Metis sighed. "It's obviously not okay. How's Juniper?"

"She's okay."

"Come on, Athena, doesn't school sound fun?" Even someone without Athena's exceptional hearing could have spotted the false cheerfulness in her tone.

"Ponco told me."

"What did Ponco tell you?"

"She told me something important is going on today. You don't just want me here, I guess."

The woman gave her a smile.

"It's nothing you'd find interesting. If you stay, you need to stay in your room the whole day. They are doing very important work in the center today, so you can't just go wandering around the place like you normally do."

Truth be told, Athena hadn't been interested in the big experiment, but now that she was specifically told she wouldn't care for it, her interest was piqued. She had been ready to go to school today, but now she'd stay and-

Just then the phone rang.

Metis answered, telling the reception they'd take the call.

"It's for you."

Athena took the phone. "Junie?"

"Thena? Are you coming to school today?" The fragile voice of her friend asked.

Athena glanced at her mother. "I dunno."

"Please, I'm going to hold the presentation on the history of agriculture today."

"I thought you were going to ask if you could just submit it in writing?"

She could hear her friend coughing. "I was. But then I th-thought, that I could do it. I've been feeling better lately, and I was thinking I could go in front of the class and-"

Her voice faded away in coughs.

Athena felt bad immediately. I totally forgot about that. I just asked the teacher if I could get special permission not to give the presentation, because I'm not well and he said yes.

Her mind made, she nodded to herself. "I'm coming to school today."


"It went really well, Junie."

The brunette blushed. "I messed up. You heard Jimmy interrupting me, saying the back row couldn't hear anything I said."

"Non-sense. It was great, and Jimmy is a jerk. I didn't even have to do my presentation, but maybe I'll-"

"Miss Cykes?"

Startled, the two girls turned towards the voice.

"Principal Graphs?"

They were both familiar with the Principal Callie Graphs, a neat but plain lady in her late 50's whose most eye-catching quality was her slightly paint-brush-shaped auburn hair. She usually had very little to do with the students, though.

Something is wrong.

"Athena, I need to talk with you. Could you come to the Principal's office?"

"Why?"

Athena was overwhelmed by dread and the knowledge that if she went with her, something would change, that some part of her world would be irreplaceably damaged.

"Please, it's not something you'd like to hear middle of a hallway-"

"I don't want to hear it at all!"

The woman was taken aback by the girls' outburst.

"It's-" She trailed off, uncertain.

Somehow seeing the woman Athena had only ever seen as a strict authority-figure who always knew what to do being so unsure made it even worse. She bit her lip, trying to will away the chaos of negative emotions that were engulfing her.

"It's okay, Thena."

Athena turned to her friend. Her head hurt, but even through that she could feel the worry in her voice.

Didn't I just decide to be as strong as Junie? She can do all these things despite being so ill. I'm just being silly.

She wiped away her tears and took Junie's hand, doing her best to look mature.

"I am extremely sorry, Principal Graphs. Shall we go?"

How bad can it be?

Graphs nodded. "If you'll follow me…"

Athena saw her glance at her friend and instinctively squeezed her hand. "Junie is coming with me."

The Principal nodded. "Very well."

They followed her to her office in silence.

After being seated, the principal finally spoke.

"Athena, did you know they were conducting a rocket-launch today at the space center you live in?"

Athena nodded, guessing this was the important experiment her mother had talked about.

The woman stopped, unsure how to continue.

"There has been an accident."