Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I shall say this foremost and only once (coz I'm sick of mentioning it every chapter) Treasure Planet © Disney and Dolphy the OC © dolphy dolphy (dot) deviantart (dot) com

Mondays. Dolphiana hated getting up on Mondays, let alone getting up for a school day. Tempted to point her laser gun at the alarm clock and shoot it, she instead fought the temptation and slammed against the clock instead, hard. She moaned softly and turned slightly, allowing her mind to slip back into oblivion a bit before her solar phone also began ringing as an alarm. Wait, solar phones can't be set into alarms, unless it's the latest model, which Dolphy's isn't.

"A promise is a promise, my friend," the voice from the other end said when she answered it.

"James. Pleiades. Hawkins," she groaned. "You took that offer of being an human alarm clock just to bug me out of bed, didn't you?"

"I know it isn't my usual routine. But damn, girl! It's the first day of senior year. It's our turn to be the ones who would lead the juniors the way, and dominate them too!" Jim mocked an evil laugh.

"I should've gotten Liana to do the honors of waking me up instead," Dolphy still had her guttural I-just-woke-up voice.

"Get up, Dolphy! Don't forget to wash your face, brush your teeth, pack your stuff, eat your vegetables and don't talk to strangers!"

"See you at school, Hawkins," she put down the phone and rolled out of bed.

Canolin had her things packed up: 3 sets of uniforms, 7 sets of casual wear, 5 PJ's, toiletries, textbooks and notebooks, gadgets, and a knapsack to carry books, all of them packed neatly – courtesy of her neat adoptive mother – into a big luggage bag. She had her fill of bread and telumino sap jam. She was anxious of her first day as a junior of the Interstellar Academy all right. She used to have a preconceived assumption that they would brainwash the students into forgetting they had a personality and a life, but meeting the sophomores during her previous voyage made her reconsider. Jim was an extreme sports guy, Seth was a big brother and athlete, Frieda was a dancer, Ross was a gentleman (actually a gentle leopard anthro,) and Dolphiana was an artist. So, she'll still be the lutist that she is alright, perhaps even form a musician band with some like-minded students too.

She hugged both her adoptive parents goodbye, and they both exchanged how Canolin should behave like a lady, and shape into a fine spacer through the school.

She took the shuttle bus to Crescentia Spaceport, and then took the ISA shuttle to the manmade building in space.

As soon as she stepped into school ground, she heard chatter coming from other juniors like her, except there was a problem – she was one of the oldest at her year. The 2nd year students were around 14 years to 16 years, whereas she was already 20 coming to 21 soon. For Neo-Sidths, 20 years old was the right age to send their children to go into a high school, and she was a human, so she felt really awkward.

But that wasn't her first priority, she wanted to look for the familiar faces, but she was stopped by a tentacled-teacher, who was to be her supervisor during her orientation week in school.

The first year seniors now had new uniform. Their coats were navy blue now, and Frieda was mentally complaining that it made her skin look less bronze. Having Teresa out of the picture was also a problem for her – she doesn't have a "partner-in-crime" to begin petitioning to the ISA board, plus, they'll probably reject it anyway, because uniforms are the least of the school's problems. At least she knew what she was going to do to get Jim to be her boyfriend, and would thus discourage any other new boarders to get into the ISA anytime soon. She carefully heard the gossiping around her in the corridor during her free period:

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe I'm here studying in the same school with Jim Hawkins!"

"I know, me too! He's my hero!"

"Yeah, he's got those deep blue eyes, that sexy smile, and that cute brown hair!"

"Not to mention a hot body!"

"One day he's gonna save me with those so called unorthodox methods he has-"

"And teach me how to solar surf!"

The new freshman girls all screamed in delight with their hormonal drive. Frieda rolled her eyes in disgust and thought to herself, "He'd rather have girl close friends rather than stalker girls like you." That was how she was going to get close to Jim, being herself, and it she's got it, flaunt it.

Canolin also couldn't help but to overhear some juniors talking about Jim like he's some popular idol, she was lining up to get some food.

"Not to mention he saved his own father, and I heard he had a nasty background with his dad,"

The girls in front of her gasped, then another blonde feline added in, "But he single handedly took down the Azarathean rogues after saving his dad from prison, so I heard!"

Canolin cleared her throat and looked downwards at them, "Not single handedly, I was with him, and Seth too! The forefather gave me this awesome band thing on my lute and it helped him out, in fact we may not have been alive at the first place! This was why I got into the school." she stood mimicking a hero pose, proud of herself.

The girls all gave a blank stare. Before finally realizing, "You must be the lutist partner or something?" The other girl tapped her shoulder to indicate it was her turn to order her food. Canolin sighed, and shifted uncomfortably as she continued to overhear people talk about Jim. "I thought people would've been straightened up into not talking about other people as soon as you get in here…" she thought silently.

Jim became the hot topic of the school as soon as he got in when he was 15, due to finding Treasure Planet and such, rumors about how he got in ranged from being recommended to bribing – which was ridiculous in its entirety. Thank goodness it cleared up and the heated discussion died down when he hit the 3rd year. However it piked up again as soon as it was known that he was the Etherium's hero for stopping the Azaratheans from misusing old technology to dominate the Empire. He heaved a sigh and shrugged it off as he took a seat next to Sethor, now that they were seniors, their table was subconsciously branded "reserved." Canolin didn't detect this and just approached them.

"Gosh, who do these people think they are nosing around?" she commented as she set her tray down.

"Uh, aren't you supposed to be with your orientation group?" Frieda cut in, completely aware of the "seniors only rule."

"I think they wouldn't mind me abandoning a while," she answered Frieda anyway. "But have you heard the amount of gossip this place has? I thought they'd knock you down into not talking about rumors in school ground?"

"The Interstellar Academy is just like any school, just that by senior year 2, you're a lot more refined, I guess," Dolphy added as she bit her 12-inch long sandwich.

"Normal…school?" Canolin mentally took a step back, unable to remember the last time she faced the horror of regular schooling. "I…I thought this place was a bit more than that."

"Don't worry, I know it may be a shock to you, but you'll get used to it, although I may not be the best person to say this since I've been here for 4 years." Seth comforted her.

"Thanks," she brightened up a little, "Gee, I just realized how odd I must look like. I'm the only one on this table with a white blazer and you guys have navy blue now!" Frieda stifled a laugh. "And I've just noticed that Jim shortened his hair and cut his rattail off!"

Morph chuckled from inside Jim's pocket, and then shapeshifted himself into a rattail and pinned himself onto Jim's neck, and Jim commented, "happy now?" and earned the seniors and Canolin a good laugh.

The bell rang signaling the end of breaktime. The first year seniors shuffled themselves into their class and Canolin broke apart from them as she searched for her room. She took a look at her timetable and saw the words to her horror – Astrophysics for spacing.

Author's Note: whoa, gee, gossiping about Jim in the ISA? Yeah, I needed a sort of drive to my story, now that I look at it, the mini-series may actually turn out into a bigger sequel though o.o oh well, let the tide ebb and flow the way it wants to.