Chapter Seven
Emily was so exciting about climbing to ropes on the ship that she accidently stepped on Jim's hand. She hadn't realized that he was also climbing on the ropes.
"Ouch!" said Jim, pulling his hand away instinctively.
"Oops! Sorry about that!" said Emily, not pausing to look back at Jim. She just kept climbing higher.
"We're all clear, Captain!" called an unfamiliar voice that belonged to one of the crew.
Emily stopped climbing to look up at the solar sails gleaming in the light of the star nearby as they opened. "Wow!" she breathed.
"They are pretty amazing, aren't they," said Jim, using Emily's pause as a chance to catch up with her.
"I'm sorry to say this, but they are way cooler than the sail you have on your solar surfer," said Emily with a smile.
"Ya, they are but- Wait, how do you know about my solar surfer?" asked Jim, a confused crease forming in his forehead.
Emily shrugged. "I've seen you riding it before." Emily thought of how she thought he looked familiar while riding it on the day that they found Billy Bones. "Hey, don't we go to the same school?"
Before Jim could answer, the teens felt a force pulling them up ward. They had been so busy talking that they hadn't even noticed that the launch had already happened. Both clung to the ropes for dear life.
"Mr. Zoff, engage artificial gravity," called Captain Amelia from below. Suddenly, holding onto the ropes was the only thing that kept them from plummeting to the ground.
Emily let out a laugh, and Jim followed with a laugh of his own. "Well that was a little scary," Emily commented.
Jim let out a nervous laugh at the memory. "I'll say."
"What do you think we'll find out there?" said Emily, pointing at something far away. She wasn't even sure what she was pointing at. She was just pointing into space.
The question surprised Jim. "Wow, um. Hmmmm. I'm not sure." He suddenly remembered the question Emily had asked before they were both holding on for dear life. "Oh, and I think we do go to the same school. You're in my math class, right?"
"I think we are in the same art class, too," said Emily casually.
"I remember now! Aren't you the one who does those amazing drawings! The ones of space fairies and odd looking machines? And the people you draw look so real!"
Emily felt her fair skin give way to a blush. She blushed so easily, and her pale complexion did nothing to hide it. "Oh, um, thanks. I just do those to impress the art teacher though. I can draw realism, but I really prefer to draw cartoons." This wasn't something she told most people. Her Aunt Lilly had taught her about realism when she was 6, and it came to be what people expected from her.
"Cool. Could you show me some of your cartoons sometime?"
"Sure. My sketchbook is back in my room." Captain Amelia had converted the holding cell in the crew courters, that was usually used for a holding cell for convicted sailors before their trials, into a room for Emily, because she wasn't "Going to let a young women sleep in the same courters as that questionable crew." Emily took that as the captain's way of saying that she understood that young women needed their privacy.
Jim was about to comment about how he couldn't wait to see it, but Silver cut in before he could get a word out. "Jimbo! Em! I got two new friends I'd like you to meet!" Emily and Jim looked at Silver excitedly. "Say hello to Mr. Mop and Mrs. Bucket." Silver tossed a mop and a bucket at Emily and she caught both easily. Silver then showed Jim were to get a mop and a bucket as well.
"This sucks," said Emily, swabbing the deck next to Jim.
One of the crew walked by and deliberately bumped into Jim. "Watch it twerp!" Spat the crew member.
