'This SUCKS!' Michael threw his baseball at the wall with a resounding thump. Emily poked her head through the door. 'Don't start all that again! Go finish your packing!' 'Yes, ma'am,' Michael said viciously. Emily sighed and retreated. I would appreciate it sir, if you stopped throwing me around so much. 'Shut up!' Michael roared, throwing his baseball again. As you wish sir. But may I recommend a cup of iced tea to soothe your temper? 'How am I supposed to leave him with Judy like this?' Michael yelled. 'And I hate iced tea!'

This time Millie popped in. 'I've been worrying about that too.' 'Good thing, since it's your fault.' 'Don't you go blaming me! We're in the same boat right? I'm not leaving Trypard here either!' Michael flopped face-first onto his bed. 'Well, got any ideas? 'Sort of... could I come in?' Michael looked up and stared at her. Millie blushed. 'I mean, if you don't want me to, it's okay, I just -' 'No, it's okay. Come in.' Millie tip-toed around the various debris on the floor and sat on the edge of Michael's bed. 'So what's your great idea?' Michael asked as he sat up. 'Well, we were kinda going to nick Trygle from you to figure out what was wrong with him and so you wouldn't know, we made a copy of Trygle to be a substitute.' Michael blinked. 'Okaaay... so you're saying I give that instead?' Millie nodded. 'Yeah, that might work!' Michael said with a smile on his face. Then it faded. 'But what about the rest of you guys? I mean, Eddy and Steve are pretty attached to their Beyblades too. Steve sings "Rock-a-Bye-Baby" to Tryhorn every night.' Millie started. 'Seriously?' 'I swear.'

'I can't imagine Steve singing at all!' Millie giggled. 'Oh, you should see him with a karaoke machine,' Michael laughed. 'Eddy and I nearly died!' Michael and Millie were so busy laughing they didn't notice the door open a crack and shut again. Finally, Millie remembered Trypard. 'But what are we going to do about the Beyblades? I'm seriously stumped.' Michael sighed. 'Yeah, me too... how about we ask Emily?' 'Yeah, let's do that.' Millie got up and opened the door. She gasped. 'What are you doing?' Michael jumped up 'Who is it?' Then he saw. 'What the-'

Emily, Eddy and Steve stood there, with sheepish looks on there faces. Snacks were piled up to their ankles (in Emily's case, her knees) like they'd gone and raided a dozen vending machines. Eddy swallowed. 'Uh... hi' 'Hello?' Michael asked incredulously. Emily gingerly lifted up a bag. 'We came, um, to show you these.' Millie looked at the floor. 'What, Pop Tarts and Cheetos?' Emily sighed. 'No, I mean, the answer to our problem.' 'Emily's made us all fake Beyblades!' Steve crowed. 'What?' Millie and Michael asked in unison. Emily turned the bag upside down and shook it. Five Beyblades fell out. Millie picked the blue one up and examined it. She looked at Emily with starry eyes. 'Emily! It's perfect!' Michael picked up the pseudo-Trygle. 'You guys could really have fooled with this one.' Steve frowned. 'Wait, we're not going to drag him out of his room at fourteen hundred hours and all that?' Emily waved her watch in his face. 'Steve! It's already four o' clock! Besides, there's been a change of plan – we're solving Trygle's problem at camp.' 'Aw man!'

Emily turned back to Millie and Michael. 'So that's what we're going to do. We give these duplicates to Judy and sneak our Beyblades out in our backpacks. Easy!'

Millie's brow wrinkled in confusion. 'Wait a minute, if you took so long to make a copy of Trygle, how'd you manage to make these so quickly?' Emily flushed in embarrassment. 'Er, I actually finished Trygle in, well, two days. I just wanted to complete the rest of the set!' 'Ah...' Millie looked down on the brightly colored packets at the floor. 'Well, we'd better get this cleaned up, right?'

Two hours later, the All-Starz stood at the entrance to the research center, toting an assortment of backpacks, handbags and suitcases. A PPB bus pulled to a stop in front of them and to their surprise, Judy stepped out. 'You're... you're coming with us?' Michael stammered, his shock echoed on the faces of his team mates. 'But of course! I'm your coach, aren't I?' Judy responded, stooping to pick up a shiny suitcase from the pile. 'When did that get there?' Michael whispered to Millie. She shrugged.

Judy pulled out a small clear box from her suitcase and flipped it open. 'Put your Beyblades in here.' She pointed at the five shaped indentations in the gray foam at the bottom of the box. Michael, Millie, Eddy and Steve immediately looked at Emily. Hesitantly, she placed Trygator in the right-top corner of the box. One by one, the rest of the All-Starz placed their Beyblades in the box. Judy snapped the box shut and placed it in her suitcase. She stepped onto the bus. 'Hurry up and load your bags. We're leaving in two minutes!' Then she disappeared inside.

Emily let out a sigh of relief. 'It worked!' 'Great job Emily!' Eddy grinned. Michael shouldered his backpack and stepped on the bus. 'All aboard guys! Next stop – Basic Training Camp!' Millie and Steve mockingly saluted him. 'Aye aye Captain!' Michael swung his backpack at them. 'in case you're forgetting, underlings, I am the captain!' Millie picked up her bags and climbed on after him. 'Whatever you say sir.' Michael smirked as she pushed past him. 'You got that right.' Then he replayed her words. 'Hey, wait a minute-'

Millie shivered in her bunk and pulled her sheets tighter. 'Which moron insisted on having the air conditioning at full blast?' Emily poked her head down from the upper bunk. 'The "moron" in this case is Judy, you know.' Millie sniffed and sneezed. 'Look, I'm cold, miserable and sleepy, and this bus ride is going on forever and I feel a cold coming on and my back is starting to hurt and I'm stuck in a place where I can't call anyone a moron for justifiable reasons... just how should I feel?' Emily shrugged, which looked weird given the fact that she was hanging upside down. 'Cold, miserable and sleepy. huh? Well, you've already listed out a couple of feelings already, so-' Millie sniffed again. 'That was a rhetorical question actually.' 'Whatever, Now try get some sleep okay?' 'Yeah, fine, good night.'

But twenty minutes after the conversation, Millie was still lying on her bunk with her eyes wide open. Must sleep, must sleep, must sleep, sleep, snooze, rest, dream. Sleep. She sat up, flinging her blankets off. Argh, I'm never going to sleep! What's the point of trying? Millie extricated her MP3 player from her bag and briefly caught Trypard's feline snore. She hesitated a moment, then zipped her bag shut. I won't disturb her now. Millie slipped on her earphones and parted the window curtains. The landscape was flat and unchanging but the sky above was ablaze with stars.

"Speak to me, so I can understand your tongue, you seem rather fragile..."

Millie sighed and drew her finger across the glass, drawing lines between the stars to form constellations.

"It's been said, it's cold beyond the sun, have you ever been there?"

Orion, Taurus, Canis Major... she tapped her finger on Sirius, the Dog Star. Mom... I miss you. Memories were flowing back - sitting on a hill with her parents, clutching Trypard tight, and her mother pointing out the different constellations. When was the last time she'd looked up at the sky?

"Communicating thoughts of ways, to never have to speak again."

Her mind was racing now, going through images faster than she could process them. Her mother standing at the door, holding an envelope in her hands, looking faintly shocked. Her seven-year-old self in her pajamas, peeking through a crack in the door, scared by her parents' angry voices.

"Let me be the fire in your head."

And finally, her mother standing under the Departure sign at the airport, the pain in her eyes visible across the sea of people rushing by,

"Bring what's yours, I'll take what's mine and meet you on the other side."

Mom. Millie felt tears spilling out of her eyes. I shouldn't be here, why am I here? I should be with Mom and Dad back on the hill, why am I here? Without thinking she grabbed her bag and pulled back the curtains around her bunk. I'll tell the driver to let me off somewhere, and then I'll figure out how to get home.

"We'll leave a sign so anyone can find us, a better place, a sweeter time, we won't need any wings to fly, a place beyond the sun."

"Millie, what are you doing?" Millie turned around slowly. "Eddy?" He had poked his head through the curtains and was looking at her curiously. Millie was at a loss for words. 'I, er, well, I thought-' Eddy raised an eyebrow. 'You thought?' Millie sighed and sat back down. 'Okay, a sudden wave of nostalgia gave way to questioning my being here and finally culminated in a case of extreme homesickness. I think.' Eddy exhaled slowly. 'Okay, I didn't exactly get all that but... um... I understand.' Millie gave a wan smile. Eddy opened his curtains and sat facing her. 'Well, we all kinda felt that way when we came. It's seriously weird. I mean, one day you're shooting hoops with the neighborhood gang and then you're hooked up to a machine with a bunch of people in lab coats analyzing you like some specimen.' He shrugged. 'You'll get used to it.' Millie still felt downcast. 'But why get me here? You guys aren't like, hopeless. You don't need me?' Eddy leaned back. 'Well, Judy's always got a plan. You'll figure it out sooner or later.' 'I guess.' They subsided into silence for a while. Then Millie spoke. 'How'd you guys end up here?'

Eddy ruminated for a while. 'Well... I was just picked out of my neighborhood. Judy saw me playing and she offered me the chance to come here. That's pretty much the same way all of us came here. Steve was part of a football league but he got kicked out for too many fouls.' Millie glanced nervously at the curtains of the bunk above Eddy. 'Michael was the star pitcher in his district games. Emily got through because she's some alien the PPB picked up in Area 51.' Millie snorted, and tried to disguise it as a cough. Eddy grinned. 'Just kidding. I honestly have no idea how she got here. She's been with the PPB the longest really.' Hmm...' Millie leaned against the window. 'I wonder what camp will be like.' Eddy smirked. 'Knowing Judy, it'll definitely be a shocker.' Millie laughed. 'Yeah, me too.' 'Over your homesickness and nostalgia and everything?' Eddy asked. Millie nodded. 'Most definitely!' Eddy yawned. 'Great. Because I'd kinda like to crash out right now,' Millie blushed. 'Sorry for keeping you awake.' 'No problemo. That's what team mates are for.' Eddy dragged his curtains shut, yawning as he did. 'Night!' 'Good night,' Millie whispered, tugging back her curtains too.

Millie lay down in her bunk, looking out at the sky again. Orion had sunk below the horizon and Millie could see Canis Major's paws touch the edge of the landscape. The bus didn't seem so cold anymore. Good night Mom. Good night Dad. Millie's eyes slowly drifted shut. Her MP3 player shut off and its blue glow faded slowly into black.