Disclaimer: I don't own them! I don't own anything! Even my identity! (that belongs to the government!) Teehee ;)

Chapter 2: Conspicuous Smirk

"I hear that the Interstellar Academy is the most prestigious school in the galaxy."

"Sure Kiley but like any real school it's only 'prestigious' because those kids' parents shell out money like its dirt. Ain't that right Cameron?" The weight of Peter's arm draped across her shoulder drew her back into reality.

"Yep, yeah." She leaned into his solid chest, a motion that she'd eased into over the past year. Outwardly appeased Kiley flickered her head in acknowledgement before turning on her heels to get another classmates take on the school they would be competing against.

"You all right?"

"Yeah why?" Her eyes, a rich amethyst at the moment flitted back and forth from the Interstellar Academy campus, engorging into a fortress as the ferry drew closer- to Peter's emotionally concealed face.

"Well you've been kinda spacey the whole ride." Truthfully, she had that stupid yet undeniably cute smirk and blank stare on her face the whole six hours from Montressor. In fact he could recall that look as far back as three weeks, when the seven of them were told they would be partaking in a contest that, if their best efforts were put forth, they would receive enough credits to graduate. He wasn't sure whether to be ecstatic about seeing an old friend and to be graduating or to be jealous that his girlfriend was paying more attention to a guy she hadn't seen in years.

"I'm fine, really." He shrugged away his concern, his arm simultaneously gliding around her concave stomach as he circled her.

"But are you sure you don't want to freshen up before you see Jim?" Her dark cheeks burned scarlet. Wonderful, even her fake boyfriend could tell she was still hung up over one of their oldest friends. It probably didn't help that all she ever did was talk about him.

"Shut the hell up." She lightly shoved him.

"I know that you did not just do that." He cocked his head from side to side, his voice high like the diva he was trying to impersonate.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"Something inventive. Depends on whether you want to scream my name over and over again- or laugh. Haven't quite figured it out just yet." She dodged to the left and he counter-acted. To the right- saw her move a mile away. She tried to go through him... bad idea. In half a second he tossed her onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"Peter Nichols?" Ms. Lipton, the supervisor for the M.H.S. students, peered around the deck for her trouble making charges.

"Here." She nodded swiftly despite that, from what most could see, she had no neck.

"Cameron Imrie?" Again the peer over a tacky pair of cat's eye glasses for a student no more than two feet in front of her. After all, who couldn't see a teenage girl strung over her boyfriend's shoulders?

"What's up- oww!" Peter brought his hand down over her bum with a resounding smack. Laughing too hard to maintain his hold on her he let her down feet first, hands gingerly running over what was sure to be an inflamed hand print.

"Max Green-"

"Ms. Lipton none of us ditched a'ight? We're all f'ing here." Saliene, Max's cat eared girlfriend of 6 months, cuffed him hard in the ribs.

"Since we're all accounted for, according to Mr. Green, let's proceed to the docks." Ms. Lipton fanned her students toward the exit and as well as she could manage, tried to line them up. Unfortunately their line bore more resemblance to a beaten in semi-circle.

"You shouldn't have been so hard on her." Cameron whispered taking an empty space beside the interspecies' couple. "She doesn't know who she's dealing with. I think she might actually be afraid of us."

"Well all I want to know is where the hell did she expect us to go? We were on a boat?!" You couldn't put a simple task like escaping from the dilapidated ferry past any one of these students. Unlike all their competition M.H.S. didn't boast to enriching the galaxy's finest, in fact it harbored the galaxy's most troublesome cases. For most of the students Montressor High was their last chance to evade juvie or a potential jail sentence. The charges ranged from public drunkenness to theft to attempted murder; in other words it wasn't escaping the ferry that would be their greatest feat. The real magic trick was how so many of these kids had managed to evade prison.

Peter handed her the strap of her faded green duffel bag. "Excited to see Jim?"

"No." She hated when he teased about that. "I just want to get this stupid competition over and done with and get my credits. Without seeing that-"
"On the behalf of the Interstellar Academy, welcome. I'll be your tour guide for this evening and if any questions or problems should occur on the remainder of your stay just ask for me and I will do my best to resolve the issue."

"That's very charitable of you Mister..."

"Hawkins. Jim, Hawkins."

Damn it!

___________________________________________

Thanx's for reading!