Interstellar Academy

02: Parole

The ship docked at the Academy a week later, faster, apparently, than the crew expected it to. People met the crewmen on the dock, collecting their belongings and meeting up with old friends (if you'd been here awhile) or forming a circle with new friends made on the ship. Nova and Jim stood next to each other, Stav and Ruse behind them, along with Charlotte, Ruse's sister who coincidentally became friends with Nova.

Charlotte came up behind Nova and hugged her tightly. "Don't look so tense, Nova! It's going to be OK, just watch!"

Nova bit her lip, nervous, but nodded at the girl's enthusiasm.

Jim pressed a hand to her back. "Were you worried?" They hadn't seen each other the entire week, since girls and boys were forced to do chores on either end of the ship, and it kept them separated.

"A little bit. But I'll tell you about it later."

Nova was a sunmaid. This alone put her in danger. They were mythical, to everyone's belief, and if anyone had caught sight of one- in Jim's case, rescued one and had one in their midst- they would go down in history. In the past, Nova's panicked tendency to protect the ones she loved made her turn into her original form. She'd saved Jim a couple times from fatality after transforming.

Jim would keep her safe though; his feelings for her were too strong to allow others to grab hold of her. Though his line of thinking was selfish, there was a sense of rationality as well.

They separated again, to the dismay of the young man and woman, but they promised to meet up for the freshman bonfire.

Unpacking and going through the motions of meeting new roommates was difficult, but they both managed. Thankfully, freshman were allowed to choose their first year roommates. Nova and Charlotte roomed with a third member, Helena. She was a sweet creature, pink, shiny skin with bright red eyes.

Ruse had taken an interest in her.

After the sunset, Jim, Nova and their new friends formed a group on one side of the bonfire, which seemed twice as tall as it safely should be.

"Alright, we'd like to try an exercise," said one of the dorm advisors. They scanned over the crowd, finally choosing two random members.

One of them was Nova. At first, she was apprehensive, trying to pull herself away. But with some verbal- and physical- pushing, Nova was in the middle of the crowd. One of the male dorm advisors pulled out an extremely attractive male.

His hair was silver, swept to one side, his skin lean and tanned. His eyes were almost golden, and staring at Nova as if staring directly into her soul. The girl tripped back, as if trying to escape his gaze. She ended up conjuring up laughter from her peers.

All except Jim, of course.

"Now, what we're doing here is simple. Take each other's hands."

Nova didn't seem too comfortable with this idea, and the boy could tell by her body language. He extended his arm to her, his smile gentle.

"Trust me."

Hesitant, she did just that, placing her hand gently in his.

"Move closer together. As if you were star-crossed lovers."

Nova gave a daring glance at Jim, which she instantly regretted. The boy was holding it in, but she knew him well enough to know he was fuming inside.

The peanut gallery gave a round of "ooh's", causing pale cheeks to turn bright red.

"Ready?" said the female dorm advisor. When they nodded at her, she gave a signal, and the fire suddenly danced wildly toward them.

"WHAT?" Nova started to move away, but the boy kept her close. "Are you insane? Let me go, we have to move!"

"No, just watch." Keeping a hard hold on Nova's waist with one hand and her hand with the other, he gestured with his knuckles at the flames.

"It's a trust exercise," he said gently to her, leaning in close to her ear to whisper it. "Trust in me."

Nova looked him straight in his eyes- big mistake- and nodded solemnly, like she was caught in a trance.

The flames danced around them for a few more seconds before dying down.

"I think we found this year's freshman "best couple". Am I right?" The crowd whooped and hollered.

First chance she had, Nova tore herself from the boy and ran back to her friends, unable to make eye contact with Jim. A few others were picked to do the exercise, and Nova at first didn't understand the meaning of it. Then it made sense: when you're in a crew, there's a large chance that you're thrown into a group with people you don't know. You have to learn to trust in those people, or you'll have one rocky voyage.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" The boy Nova was coupled with snuck up behind them, to everyone's surprise.

Though it was evident Jim was less surprised and more annoyed.

"Oh, it sure is," purred Charlotte, winking at Nova. The sunmaid shook her head furiously, not wanting any attention on herself.

Too late.

"So, after the bonfire, do you want to head to the beach? There's an after party, if you guys wanna go?" His invitation sounded open, but those around them could tell he was mainly talking to Nova.

Embarrassed, Nova began stuttering, then collected herself. "I-I can't. My friends might be open to it. I'm just, er, I gotta contact my home. I promised to when I got here, and completely forgot." The girl shrugged. "Too bad."

"Indeed." He bowed to her. "Oh, my name is Roger. I hope I didn't come across as forward."

"Er…" Nova seemed only capable of forming unintelligible sentences.

"Jim," Jim spoke up finally for her. "And she's Nova. And they're…" He jutted his thumb at the gang behind him.

After brief introductions and the large group of freshman dispersed into smaller groups- some heading toward the beach- Charlotte came up to Nova and Jim in the middle of their conversation- or more like argument- and said, "We should tooootally go to that party!" The alien's big black eyes shone like the stars at the thought.

How could Nova refuse those eyes?

"I… I don't want to go without Jim." Nova looked up hopingly at her friend. "I know you don't like that sort of thing, but I would like nothing more than to go with you."

Something in the way she spoke to him, like something lining her words, made him smile secretly, like only he could truly read her words. Finally, he said, "Sure."

"GOODY! I'll tell the others!" And off Charlotte ran off.

"Charlie is so sweet," Nova said softly. "And thank you. I couldn't imagine going to some party without you there." She thought about her words, tried to back track.

He grabbed her gently by the chin and forced her to look him in his blue eyes. They stayed locked like that for some time before he said, "You talk too much."

"Yeah, well, if I'm not using my mouth to talk to you, I want to use it to-" She halted in her words, thinking carefully about her sentence. She shook his hand off her chin and looked down at her feet, chagrin. "Sorry."

"I'm not. I've been waiting three months to hear you say something like that."

She looked up at him hopefully, but before she could respond, Roger came up and pulled her to him, dragging her down toward the beach.

"Uh, wait! My friend!" She ripped her wrist from Roger's grasp and reached back, wanting to hold Jim's hand instead. Jim gladly obliged, squeezing her small hand tightly in his own.

"Ah, so he's that kind of friend," Roger said, his golden eyes growing dark. He had evil intentions, anyone could see that. "That won't last forever, you know."

And he walked away.

"Let's go to the less crowded part of the beach, shall we?" Jim said, gently tugging her alone the shore in the snow white sand toward an area where almost no one inhabited- and those who did were kind of occupied with certain business of their own.

"J-Jim. I know that we, uh, we are together, I guess, but I'm not ready for…for anything yet." Nova tried to sound as determined and firm as possible, but nothing worked.

She wanted to do more than simply hold hands, but she couldn't bring herself to do it just quite.

"That's fine. I'm OK with this." He stood still next to her, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "Because I was waiting for this, you know? Just you."

"Hey, love birds!" Charlotte and Ruse came to interrupt their moment. "We know you two are having a moment, but we kinda have a problem!"

Charlotte pointed up the beach, where flashlights were frantically streaming over the beach.

"This is an unauthorized party, isn't it?" Jim sighed. "Great."

"Parole?" Nova said, eyebrows furrowing, but she tried to be playful by shoving him lightly.

He smiled wanly at her, then began walking away, the others following. "Well, I can't afford to stay much longer, lest I get arrested. So let's go on back to our dorms."

They managed to sneak away from the FED's and were now safely back at their campus. Jim walked Nova to her dorm, not sure how to part, and definitely not wanting to.

"Jim?" Nova said, bending down to look at his face; he was holding his head down uncharacteristically low.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" Jim finally looked up, his eyes trying to avoid her gaze.

"Did I do something?" Nova looked worried, which made Jim feel guilty.

"No. I'm doing something wrong." And with that, he bent down quickly to peck her lips before parting from her, waving and rushing away.

The jolt that boy sent through her was honestly out of this world.