Disclaimer: I don't own Treasure Planet. If I did, I'd have money and spend my time making a sequel that included Kiera.
Rebel of My Dreams: Thanks for all the reviews!
All the stuff about trigonometry, I got from wikipedia. I'm not that good at math, so I've never taken trig.
Chapter Three: Crash
Kiera couldn't stand it. She flipped around in her bed, trying to find a comfortable position, but still felt restless.
She and Jim had barely spoken for week since their kiss. They would hang out together, skipping school, but didn't talk much. They mostly flew around the planetoid on the solar-surfer.
"Hey, what's up?" That's what I'll say to him tomorrow, just to see if he'll talk. Her father stumped in from a hard day at work; she heard his heavy work boots thump on the floor as he collapsed on the couch, probably in a drunken stupor.
She tossed and turned as she listened to the ruckus at the Benbow next door. Some travelers must have gotten in a fight. Mrs. Hawkins could handle it, she was a strong woman. But where was Jim? He usually came down to defend his mother. Maybe he wasn't feeling well?
Kiera rolled over again and closed her eyes, trying to sleep, thinking of how soft the pillow was and how much better she feel with a full night's sleep. She turned on her digital Victrola, which played soft, peaceful music. Sleep came, but she felt anxious.
Instead of meeting Jim at Deadman's Point that morning, she hopped on the shuttle that took her to school, thinking that she best throw the school off her trail, so she didn't get in trouble.
As she wandered the surgically clean, crowded white halls, she looked for a skinny rat-tail and metal braced boots that said Jim was here at school with her. Though highly unlikely to be, her hopes raised when she whispers about him being at school during her third period astronomical navigation class.
Someone tugged at her long skirt as she hurried off to her history class. She turned, surprise plastering her face.
"Hey spitfire, what's up?" asked Jim.
"Jim!" she squealed, and threw her arms around his neck, scattering her books on the floor. "Why in the galaxy are in school?" she whispered, leaning back and looking at him.
"I was bored; you weren't at Deadman's Point this morning," he said simply. "Did you know that your skirt matches your eyes perfectly? Did you do that on purpose today?" She eyed him carefully, his eyes flickering back and forth from the professor nearby to her.
He's up to something, I know it. He suddenly bent down at gathered her books.
"That's awfully nice of you to notice, Jim, now if you'll excuse me," she said coldly, taking her books and turning to head to her classroom.
"Hey, spitfire! Why are you so cold? I thought we were friends!" he shouted, chasing after her. There was a slight moment of electric shock when his hand touched hers and clasped it. She melted.
"Sorry, I think I just had an out of body experience at that moment," she simpered. He smiled and led her to class.
Together, they ate lunch outside, drinking their sola-berry juice and Zelledron root vegetable pie. (A pathetic excuse for a lunch, but when your school pent most of its money on talented teachers, it was sort of worth it, even if you didn't care.) Occasionally, one of the rough-looking boys that Jim would hang out with when he was at school would come up, nudge him, and make a snide remark.
"So, Jim," said sandy-haired Wesley, for instance, "How's it shagging the pierced wonder?"
"Shove the fuck off, Wes!" Kiera felt close to tears.
Wesley rolled his eyes and walked away with a Machiki boy she vaguely recognized as being called Cardonis or Car for short.
"I'm sorry about them, they're sort of immature." Jim gave her an apologetic look, made only look slightly sinister by the tiny scar under his eye.
"It's okay, I mean, it wasn't for him to say that, but I'll get over it." He smiled, reached out, and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
"Is there any reason why you've got so many piercings?"
"I got more when you got yours." She flushed slightly, looking down at her lunch.
"And the belly bar is just 'coz you like it, right?"
"You read my mind."
"What's your favorite color?" One of his thick eyebrows twitched above his blue-gray-green eyes.
"I…I like blues, and grays, and greens."
"What about red? Your pajamas are red, and so is your blouse today," he observed.
"Well, I was just seeing if you were watching me closely enough to know that red is pretty high up on my list of preferred colors!"
"I'm sure, spitfire; I'm sure that was it. I watch you close enough as it is."
"'I hate stalkers, even if they are cute!'"
"Don't use my own words against me!" he snapped playfully, flicking a bit of paper at her. He stretched out over the back of his chair a moment later, sticking his legs out lazily. He scratched his face, sighed, and rubbed his neck boredly. "Y'know, you wanna bust outta this place? I'm getting bored."
"Sneak out of school!? You're joking, right?"
"No, come on, let's break out." Kiera planted herself firmly in her seat, wrapping her arms and legs together so tightly that she hoped they'd never come undo, but Jim grabbed her wrist and he was a lot stronger than she was.
Jim pulled her back into the school through a throng of students trying to get to lunch and they crept through the deserted main corridor, Jim's metal-braced boots making heavy clunks on the marble-like floor. Kiera was forced to look upward at the high, cathedral-like ceiling for a moment as Jim led her past a room packed with teachers, thinking that she heard voices.
"Ssh!" he hissed as he wrenched open his locker. He placed a small bit of steel on the magnetic lock mechanism. Throwing his pack over his shoulders, he whispered, "The damn thing always gives me so much trouble. I hate magnets and I can never remember the stupid combination. Go get your stuff; and hurry!"
She padded silently to her locker in her leather soled slippers and removed her sling full of books. He franticly waved at her to hurry, watching the door of the teachers' room. She scurried, her heart racing, but slid on the slippery floor.
She landed with a muffled thump, scarcely noticeable, but she watched in horror as time passed in slow motion again and her sling fell, her trigonometry book slid out and fell to the floor, splitting open.
"Certain equations involving trigonometric functions are true for all angles and are known as trigonometric identities. Many express important geometric relationships. For example, the Pythagorean identities are an expression of the Pythagorean Theorem. Here are some of the more commonly used identities, as well as the most important formulae connecting angles and sides of an arbitrary triangle. For more identities see trigonometric identity…" the slow, dark voice called out, pictures of triangles flashing from the pages. She slammed it shut as Jim flew out, grabbed her 'round the waist and pulled her out from the middle of hall to a niche behind a trash compactor as the door of the noisy room opened.
"I wonder what that was? I could have sworn I heard one of the sophmore trigonometry books a moment ago," said the voice of what Kiera recognized as her trigonometry teacher. Jim tightened over her, his body practically covering hers completely, crouching behind the bulky trash compactor. Her body tingled as…certain parts touched her. Her breath quickened as the excitement of being caught erased most other thoughts. She could feel his heaving chest, practically see the smirk, and she clasped her hands to his as his arms tightened a little further around her.
"Miles…forget about it…teaching all those lazy wretches all day…and knowing that you're the only one listening…is just making you hallucinate," said the wheezy voice of…maybe one of the secrataries? Kiera wasn't sure.
Her trig teacher shut the door and the talk resumed. Kiera and Jim emerged from behind the machine and gave a sigh of relief.
"That was some rush, wasn't it, spitfire?" he whispered, a wicked grin spreading across his face. She nodded breathlessly and Jim grabbed her and they ran off down the hall, where Jim had left his solar-surfer.