Laura and Dot squealed when they got their room numbers, they were roommates in room 573! Tom's spirit began to sink yet again, he didn't quite want to be roommates with anyone he knew, but he wouldn't be unhappy about having a familiar face to room with either. He took his key room and let out a nervous breath. Well, he was going to have to just deal with it, whoever he was roommates with.

"Hey Tom." Tom turned. There was Mike Samson. "Johnny and I are rooming together, but we don't know who the third guy is. What's your room number?"

Tom's spirits began to rise a little, he did like hanging out with Mike and Johnny, even though they had just met. "Um, room 424."

Mike winced. "We're a level above you, in 556."

Tom's spirits sank. "Oh, darn."

"Yeah, man, but, uh, good luck with your roommates. If they don't work out, I think they'll change your assigned room at request, but you should double-check that, just to be sure."

"Thanks Mike."

Mike smiled. "No problem! Let's check in together at lunch."

Tom grinned. "That sounds perfect. See you then!"

"Great! See you then!" Mike walked off and was joined by Johnny, off in search of their third roommate, or at least their room. Tom sighed and began walking around aimlessly. He listened in on a few conversations, even heard that Ralph was in room 506, which was a relief in a way. But he didn't hear about any other people in room 424. Shrugging, he figured it best not to look any further and get up to his room. He would probably meet them when they came in. He went to gather up his luggage and went to the student hall. He was all alone in the elevator, giving him time to mull over his thoughts. What happens if he was rooming with aliens? Really, how cool would that be? They got to see space already and traveled through the stars. He could ask them what it was like, he could find out more about life on Venus and Mars. They could theorize about where the colonization process would take them. What other planets could become great for colonies? What technological advances could get them to other planets faster? Heck, even out of their solar system? When Tom stepped off the elevator, he was grinning from ear to ear. Yes, space was vast, but that just meant there was a lot that could be explored. Who knows what they could find out there. The mere thought of it thrilled Tom.

He found room 424 fairly quickly and paused as he looked at the name on the door under the number. Polaris. Tom blinked, that was the name of the North Star. Why would he be in this room? He shook his head. The system had to be random, right? But then, why this feeling that this was somehow planned? He shook his head. No. this had to have been random. Once they had their top team all figured out, then they would give them the Polaris room. At least that's what Tom figured was the most likely scenario. The simplest solution was usually the correct one. Letting out a breath, he unlocked the door and walked in.

The room was nice, clean, and simple. Three beds lined the three walls. Armoires were set at the foot of each bed. A window was over each bed with the curtains open. At the head of one bed was what Tom figured was the door to the bathroom. In the middle of the room were three desks. On either side of the door that Tom walked through were bookshelves. After another quick survey of the room, Tom realized he was the only one there. His roommates might in fact be still looking for him back in the auditorium. He let out a huff, he didn't want to choose beds without them. But now that his luggage was in his room, maybe he could head back down to the auditorium and find them. Maybe everyone else had finally found their roommates and they'd be a lot easier to find. There was only one way to find out.

Tom let out another huff and pulled his bags further into the room. As he straightened up, he glanced out the window of the middle bed. He walked closer to the bed and looked out. Those brick buildings in the distance had to be the arts college, Cedar Ridge College. The two colleges had a playful rivalry that could get a little out of hand, but it was all in good fun. He glanced down before turning away, but paused and looked down again. On the ground below was a black car, and it looked like one of the students was leaning into the driver side. The student paused a couple times and glanced around the vicinity, but didn't look up. From this distance, Tom thought it looked similar to Rod Harger, the fourth member of Mike Samson's team. But then, why was he acting all suspicious? Tom blinked and turned back towards the door. Someone had inserted a key and was unlocking it.

"I can't believe you made me do this!" shouted the taller of the two men who walked into Tom's room. He had tanned skin, auburn hair, and hazel eyes. He was lugging several suitcases. The other guy, who had sandy blond hair and grey eyes, just walked in nonchalantly, but paused when he noticed Tom.

"Ah, I see our roommate got here first and has claimed his bed," he said, a little sharply.

Tom blinked before moving away from the window. "Oh no! I was just looking out the window!"

"What could be so interesting?" said the same guy, sounding uninterested.

"One of our classmates was talking to a guy in black vehicle." That peaked their interest. The tall guy dropped the luggage as both dashed to the window to look out. Tom pointed and they glanced down. The conversation was ending and the black vehicle drove away, while Rod, if it was Rod, went back into the building. All three shared looks.

"Well, that was certainly odd . . ." mumbled the tall one.

The other guy shrugged. "Maybe it was his dad, or something. Some of these guys coming here are pretty darn rich." Tom noticed the ice in his voice when he said 'rich'.

"That's certainly a possibility, and most likely is the case. But if that is the guy I'm thinking of, I don't want to be on the same team as him. At all."

Tom backed away from the window. "Well, I guess it's safe to say that's one thing we all agree on. I didn't like the looks of him either."

"Well if it's Rod Harger, you were hanging out with his team leader from the base, Mike 'Mars' Samson," said the shorter guy.

Tom blinked. "Wait, how do you know that?"

"Oh, it was easy. We all saw him sitting back there with you and your two girlfriends."

"Ok, first off, those two are like sisters to me, nothing more."

The guy scoffed. "Yeah, sure."

"And secondly, I was referring to how you knew that Rod and Mike were on the same team. The rest of the team was talking to us and Rod looked like he isolated himself."

"It's called eavesdropping, dimwit."

Tom blinked then crossed his arms. "Then I don't need to introduce myself, you already know my name. Will you introduce yourselves please?" The guy just stared at Tom

The tall one sighed. "Yeah, sure, I'm Astro, from Venus. And before you ask, we don't have surnames on Venus, and no, I don't know why that is."

Tom held out his hand, smiling. "Pleasure to meet you Astro. And don't take this the wrong way, but I was kind of expecting you to look . . . well, a little different? You just look like a regular human."

Astro scoffed. "Well I am."

"I know, I know, but I was thinking that being on a different planet would give you, I don't know, different hair colors, or something?" Tom shrugged. "Sorry, that sounded really bad."

Astro chuckled and shook his head. "Naw, you're fine. Maybe we will at some point, just not right now."

Tom smiled. "Fair enough." He turned to the other guy. "And you are?"

He let out a soft growl. "Roger Manning, Mr. Smartypants."

Tom waved his hand. "Oh no, you got it all wrong, that's not my name. It's Tom Corbett. Guess you weren't paying that much attention, else you would also know my friends' names too."

Astro chuckled as Roger let out a soft growl again. "Would you tell me your friends' names?"

"Stick with me for lunch, and I'll introduce them to you."

Astro grinned. "That sounds great."

Tom grinned. "Perfect." He turned to Roger. "What about you? You coming along?"

Roger scoffed and shook his head. "Nope, not happening. Aren't they a bunch of rich kids too?"

"Oh, so you paid enough attention to learn that?"

"Didn't have to, they look like a bunch of rich kids. You don't though, so how did you end up with that crowd?"

"My dad works on a ranch," said Tom softly, "and his boss was kind enough to pay for my classes. His daughter came over often and was more like a part of our family than her own."

"Oh, good to know," mumbled Roger. He went to his luggage and picked up his backpack. He placed it on the bed nearest the bathroom. "Listen, since we're choosing beds, I'm taking this one, for now. I don't want to be roommates with you, any more than I'm sure you want to be roommates with me. I shall put in a request to move as soon as I can." He crossed his arms. "Unless the both of you want to move?"

Tom shrugged. "Whatever they decide to do. That is, if we don't mind being a team here soon."

Roger scoffed. "You're definitely not the types I'm looking for in teammates."

"Then what are you looking for in teammates?" asked Astro.

"Certainly not you two."

Tom and Astro glanced at each other. "Uh, that doesn't answer his question."

"Listen, I don't have to tell you anything. Let's just get through this until the transfer, alright?"

Tom rolled his eyes. "Fine." He turned to Astro. "Which bed do you want?"

Astro pointed to the bed opposite of Roger's. "If you don't mind, I'll take that one."

Tom chuckled as he placed his backpack on the bed he had been standing near. "Guess I get this one after all."

At noon, Astro and Tom went off in search of Tom's friends in the cafeteria. Tom found out along the way that Astro did not have any friends. The two were chatting away while they looked and Tom found that he liked Astro a lot. The Venusian was an orphan and began working on spaceships when he was sixteen. He had only entered a scholarship on a whim and was pleasantly surprised when he won it. He was glad that Mr. Colton paid for Tom's classes, otherwise they would have never met.

Tom smiled. "Me too." And he meant it. Astro was quickly becoming the best friend Tom never had growing up. Sure, he had Linda, and the two of them were close, but it just wasn't the same, especially since Linda did a lot with her two closest friends, Dot and Louise Haydock. Louise was going to Cedar Grove though, so they wouldn't get to see her as often, but at least she was still close.

"Hey Tom!" Tom beamed when he saw Laura and Dot waving to them. He also recognized the third member of their group.

"Hi Laura, Dot!" He turned to their roommate. "Fancy seeing you again, Martie!"

Martie Sherrod laughed. "I guess it was just my luck running into you again."

Tom chuckled. "We're like boomerangs, we keep coming back." The girls chuckled.

"So, it looks like you're getting along quite well with one of your roommates," pointed out Martie. "Where's the other one?"

"Oh, Roger's all high and mighty, says we're not the right teammates for him," muttered Astro.

Tom chuckled softly. "The guy says he doesn't like spoiled rich kids, and then kinda starts acting like one. But I'm glad that one roommate is pretty awesome." Astro beamed. Mike and Johnny showed up right then with their roommate and introductions were made. Mike's and Johnny's roommate was Orin McMahan, a Martian with fair skin, brown hair, and green eyes. Mike was never happier.

"My calling card is Mike Mars," explained Mike, "because of my initials, my full name is Michael Alfred Robert Samson, and it's one of the reasons why I've been working towards getting into space. I've been wanting to go to Mars."

Johnny chuckled. "And now he's got something of a heads up by being roommates with a Martian."

"So what about your other teammate from the base, Rod Harger?"

Mike shrugged as he glanced around. "Haven't seen him."

"Good," muttered Johnny.

Mike shot him a look. "Johnny."

"What? Come on Mike, open your eyes! You found your acceptance letter in his room!"

"Say what?" Martie exclaimed. Tom and Astro shared a look.

Johnny nodded. "Yes! Mike was telling us that he was just wandering around our empty rooms when he saw an envelope on Rod's floor. Of course Mike, being the neat freak he is -"

"Hey!"

Johnny ignored him and continued, "He picked it up and saw his name on it. So he went right away to Major Killinger and the Major sent him here in the jet!"

"Good ole Killinger!" cheered Martie.

Mike chuckled. "Yeah, but I was cutting it real close there."

Johnny scoffed. "No argument there. If you hadn't walked into Rod's room right when you did, you wouldn't even be in the program now!"

"And Rod's probably not showing his face because he's so disappointed!" said Martie.

"Now Martie," began Mike, but he was interrupted by Astro.

"Or it's because he's planning something else!" Everyone looked at the Venusian.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Johnny slowly.

Tom and Astro told them what they had seen out of their window. "Though, to be honest, Roger could be right and that it was just his father. Besides, we can't exactly be sure it was Rod, we couldn't exactly see his face."

"Oh no, I could tell, it was definitely him," said Astro with a firm nod of his head.

"But he said his dad was away on a business trip," said Johnny slowly, sharing a glance with Martie.

She nodded. "Yeah, he did."

"So then, who did we see him talking with?" asked Tom as he and Astro shared a glance.

Mike quickly stood. "Alright you guys, enough with the conspiracy theories! We're here to become astronauts, not astro-nuts. We're going to have to be at our best physically and mentally, conspiracy theories have no place in our brains if we're going to pass. So this talk ends here. Who's with me?" The others answered in the affirmative, but the looks that they shared showed that it wasn't going to be far from their minds. Even surprisingly Mike, who saw Rod walk past. Mike shot him a questioning look, and got a quick, icy glance in reply before Rod disappeared from view. Rod Harger seemed to be up to something, and they all had a suspicion it wasn't good.

(Author's Note: Hello my rosy readers! I'm back with a couple of updates finally! It's been nuts over here, and the internet has not been much help. I'm posting this now while I have a few bars left before I lose it yet again. We are moving into a brand new house, my parents placed a bid on it and won it over the other bidders. We will be moving in the beginning of November. I'm going to try and only upload the chapters of my Phantom of the Opera/Heroes of Olympus/Poe crossover in the next few days for Halloween, provided that, again, my internet cooperates. It's really been nuts. Anyways, thanks for being so patient and I hope you like this chapter! have a wonderful day and thanks for reading! God bless!)