Keith ran a comb through his hair, getting out all the knots, then hurriedly shook his head to make the hair spring back to his normal mullet. Slipping on his Garrison uniform, Keith began to get giddy, taking deep breaths to calm himself. Today, on the first day of school, all the individual students would be given different tests to find out what level class they were at, whether it be math, science, or piloting.

Keith took a deep breath, rushing over to the secretary's booth. She gave him a schedule, and he left the room feeling confident. He checked it, and, after seeing his first test didn't stage for another hour, decided to stroll the Garrison premises while he tried to sooth his frazzled nerves.

He found himself, as he often did, in the same room as the simulator, wanting to fly it like all of the world(except James)depended on it.

Shiro and Commander Boone bustled around, doing their best to get ready for everything before the first group of kids arrived.

"Hey, Keith." Shiro waved, his face tired. He obviously had been up since the early hours of the morning preparing for this moment.

"Hey, Shiro." Keith greeted him, looking into the simulator. "Wow. This looks exactly like the real thing."

"That's the advanced simulator." Shiro informed him. "You'll be taking the test with your crew in it. It's tough, even for us who have already graduated, to man your crew as well as a ship."

"Yipee." Keith grunted unhappily. "Great. Teamwork."

"Chin up, Keith. I'm sure you'll do fine."

"I want to do great." Keith huffed. "A team will slow me down."

"When you get a good team that you get along with," Shiro told him, looking down at the pad in his hand as he quickly typed something down, "you'll find that they don't slow you down, they actually help you get better, and become more cautious. You'll find out that when you put yourself at risk, you're putting everyone at risk."

"See? They'd be holding me back."

"Maybe. I have discovered that, for myself, a team helps me think my moves more seriously though. They also help with things you can't do yourself. For example, see that device over there?" Shiro pointed to a large metal-spool like thing that looked way to heavy got one man to carry, buttons and screens adorning the top.

"Yeah." Keith nodded, unsure where this was going.

"I had to get it from the storage closet to right there. I couldn't do it alone, so I had to have Boone help me. See? I had help, and then I could accomplish the task."

"I'm a team of one." Keith straightened his back proudly. "I get where you're going with all this, but I believe that anything that can be accomplished with several players can be done with one person."

"They say that there is no 'I' in teamwork."

"But there's an 'm' and an 'e', that's me."

"You can't have teamwork without individuals."

"On that, we can agree." Keith admitted. "But I still think anything two people can do, I can do better by myself."

"Keith, I would love to go more in depth into this conversation, but I have to finish up here." Shiro told him. "We can talk more on this later, if you want."

"Maybe." Keith grunted. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Um…" Shiro glanced around, one eyebrow raised. "I think I'm all good…if you ask Commander Boone, I'm sure he'll have something for you to do."

Keith nodded, rapidly hurrying over to Boone.

"Hey, Keith!" Boone waved, then, without even waiting for him to respond, pointed to a screen. "Can you help me move that to the front of those chairs?"

"Um. Yeah. I'm down for anything." Keith replied, taking hold of part of the screen as Boone room hold of the other.

Keith, in fact, supported most of the weight, and Boone eventually gave up in helping and let him take the entire TV, setting it on its stand with ease.

"Shiro, what in the fricking world do you feed this kid?!" Boone asked, standing akimbo.

"Hmm?" Shiro glanced over at Keith inquiringly. "Mostly McDonalds. Why?"

"He just muscled a hundred-pound television set by himself." Boone smiled, waving over to Keith. "I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it for myself. The kid will bless the Garrison when he gets old."

"I believe it." Shiro grinned, returning to the data-pad.

Keith, feeling awkward at being the main topic in their conversation, crossed his arms slowly.

"By the way, Keith," Boone said, giving him a confident thumbs-up, "I vouched for you."

"Thanks." Keith was eager to get himself out of being the center of attention. He had been fine while he was being tested, 'cause it made sense. Now it just seemed weird. "Anything else I can do?"

"You could help me finish up with the chairs." Boone suggested, glancing at him.

"Okay. Hey. What's the TV for? Safety lesson or somethin'?"

"Not exactly." Boone chuckled. "It's actually for the advanced simulator. It records what happens inside the shuttle and projects it so the people outside can watch their struggle and tell what they did wrong. They learn from their mistakes. Also, the Garrison likes reviewing all the things they did. Especially Mitch. You'll have to do everything perfectly to earn HIS respect. Oh, um…we can send your video feed to the pad in your room. It's hanging-"

"Next to the door on the left. It also serves as the alarm in the morning."

"Yep! Little bit of advice on all the simulators, they're connected. The advanced simulator, gets feedback from the first, box simulator. It records what you did right and what you did wrong, then makes in even harder for you in the big deal. So…don't die."

"Got it." Keith thoughtfully excepted his suggestion. "I'll do that."

"Good plan." Boone returned, a gigantic smile on his face.

"Uh-huh." Keith agreed, frowning slightly as he helped Boone finish setting up the chairs.

'Oh, Lord above,' He prayed silently. 'Help me do the best I can in these tests!'