Smoke billowed from the damaged machine. The fan spun pathetically to a halt. The dented side sat a few inches from the machine, exposing the burnt wiring and twisted insides of what had been a functioning engine just seconds before.
Jim's heart still slammed inside his chest. "Braxton? You okay?"
"I'm fine," Braxton said meekly. The destruction had scared him too.
"V-Varian?"
"Why does this always happen?" Varian groaned loudly as he trudged over to peer through the smoke into the engine. The teacher had hit the kill switch the moment something had gone wrong. Fearlessly Varian poked at the damaged parts for an answer. "I'll have to take this all apart to find the root cause." He started unhooking the machine as he complained. "Jim, Braxton, come help me with this."
Their instructor made some quick notes on his pad as he spoke up. "I would rather you not repair it, Varian, I want to have a look at it myself. Set it over on the table with the others, I'll be inspecting them all tonight." Braxton was the one to take care of that. "Alright class, you are dismissed for the day. I'll need to check my machine over and make sure it is properly calibrated. Those of you who have not gone yet, we'll finish up on Wednesday. Next week we start a new project, so be prepared. Go on then."
The youth did not question their blessing and rushed to gather supplies so they could leave early. Varian pulled his goggles off his head and threaded his fingers into his hair. "What did we do wrong?"
"I don't know." Jim flicked his tablet screen on to check the time as they exited the classroom. "We've got almost a half hour until lunch. I know Matt is in his art class, anyone know where Sy and 628 are?"
"628 has speech and language now," Braxton answered without hesitation. "And we'd embarrass him if we showed up at his class, so that's not happening."
Varian shrugged. "Let's go see Matt. I know that Ms Shimamoto won't mind if we stop in." He led them around a corner.
"Skipping class boys?" Lieutenant Gray stood in the hallway with his hands on his hips. His eyes fell on Varian. "I am disappointed to see you getting in trouble. Though I can not say I am surprised by your cohorts."
The three boys froze. Jim looked to his friends to see who was going to speak up. Varain started to stammer nervously as he searched for an excuse. Braxton glared at the lieutenant. Keeping with his uncaring facade the cyborg swept a stray lock of hair back behind his metal ear.
"I'm assigning all of you two days of service for skipping classes. You better hope your schedule is not full yet." Lieutenant Gray pulled out a small schedule book from his back pocket and started tapping.
"Wait!" Braxton stepped forward. "Varian was sent after us. The teacher wanted to give us a chance to come back before assigning us anything, you know how Ms Shimamoto is. Varian had nothing to do with this." Lieutenant Gray frowned and studied the three. Varian watched Braxton with huge eyes. Braxton lifted his chin defiantly. "You don't believe me, go ask her."
"I shall." Lieutenant Gray turned and headed down the hallway. The three boys trailed after him.
"What are you doing?" Varian hissed. "Braxton, she won't know what you're talking about."
Braxton shrugged. "Just trust me."
"Why don't we just tell him the truth?" Jim demanded.
"Oh, good choice, Rafiki. He'll certainly believe that." Braxton snapped back. "Unlike you, I'm doing what I can to protect my friend." Braxton looked pointedly at Varian. Lieutenant Gray knocked on the door to the art class.
"We are friends, Braxton." Jim answered irritably.
"No, we are not."
"Braxton!"
Lieutenant Gray turned on them and crossed his arms. "Did you say something, Hawkins?" he demanded with a smirk. "Trying to distract me before I can call you out on your lies?"
Jim spoke up. "Sir, the truth is-"
"Can I help you?" Ms Shimamoto gave Lieutenant Gray a smile.
"Yes ma'am." Lieutenant Gray straightened up and sucked in his gut. "I caught three students skipping class. They said you could vouch for the one of them."
Ms Shimamoto looked past them and smiled. "Varian, I see you were able to locate your friends. Thank you dear." Varian and Jim both snapped their heads towards Braxton. Braxton stood in silence with a confident smirk on his face.
"Come in, boys." Ms Shimamoto gestured for them to enter her classroom. Matt stood just behind her, his tablet folded to his chest.
Lieutenant Gray frowned at them. "I suppose that I shall not be assigning any days to you, then," he stated as he looked to Varian. "Your friends shall not be as lucky."
Jim was not about to roll over and take them. "We haven't done anything wrong! We were in our mechanics class and it let out early. We were dismissed for the day."
Lieutenant Gray laughed. "Oh now you've thought of excuses for yourselves, hmm?" He towered over Jim, looking down on him challengingly.
Jim jutted out his chin as he stared up at him, leaning in to accept the challenge. "It's not an excuse if it's the truth."
"I am not going on another wild goose chase to waste my time while you try to find someone to cover the rest of your lies." Lieutenant Gray pulled out his schedule book again. "I'm adding two more days of service."
Ms Shimamoto laid a gentle hand on Jim's shoulder. "I will handle verifying their story, Lieutenant. Remove all of the days of service you gave them. If they are telling the truth, then there shall be nothing for them to contest. If they are lying, I shall assign them five days each." She promised softly. "And they shall serve them with me personally."
Lieutenant Gray bowed his head to her. "Of course, ma'am." He pulled his hat off his head and smiled at her. "So, uh, Lenora, are you busy at dinner tonight?"
Ms Shimamoto smiled at him. "No, I am not. That shall work fine for me. If you come by the staff dining hall I shall let you know the results before I join my coworkers for the meal." She stepped back and started to shut her door. "Good day, Lieutenant."
"But I-" The door closed on Gray's protests.
Ms Shimamoto turned to the four boys before her. "Varian dear, go work on your projects. You may as well do something productive while you are here. Matt, back to work." She turned to the other two boys and frowned at them. "You two shall explain."
Braxton shrugged. "Lieutenant Gray doesn't listen to a word I say unless he can give me more service days for it. Figured you'd take his sails out of the wind."
"Wind out of his sails," Matt corrected across the mostly silent room.
"Not on my planet," Braxton retaliated.
Ms Shimamoto sighed. "Focus, Matthew." She turned her attention back on the two before her. "Please do kindly explain why you interrupted my student's work with a message that you three came from my classroom?"
Jim gave Braxton another confused look. Gray would have called him out in a heartbeat if he'd used his tablet, how had he gotten a message to Matt? Braxton was back to openly ignoring him and did not seem inclined to explain.
"Gray was being a jerk again. I wasn't going to let Varian get service days when he hadn't done anything wrong. Gray wasn't going to just believe that I was innocent, but he most certainly is not coming after my friend." Braxton crossed his arms as he answered Ms Shimamoto's question. "And I knew you'd hear us out before assigning days."
"I was telling the truth about the mechanics class getting out, ma'am," Jim said quickly. "I don't know why Braxton decided lying was more effective when we have a verifiable story." He shot his friend - his former friend? - a glare again.
Ms Shimamoto pinched the bridge of her nose, her forehead pressed against her pointer finger. "I will verify your story. I should give you service days for lying to authority, but seeing as who you were speaking with, I shall forgive you this time. You will remain in my class until dismissal. Braxton, I would tell you to work on your projects, but I know you just sleep through my class and get Matt to do your assignments."
Braxton flashed her his most charming smile. "It's hard to hate your quietest student. I'll go wash paint brushes."
"Thank you. As for you," she turned to study the boy before her.
"Jim," Jim offered helpfully.
"I assumed as much, between your three friends, I have heard quite a bit about you. Either do one of Braxton's projects or go clean something." Ms Shimamoto waved him off with the hand that was not pressed to her forehead. "I have things to do that are not managing difficult youth."
"I'm not a difficult youth," Jim protested.
The look she gave him was enough to kill any further objections.
"I'll just see about those projects then." Quickly Jim turned on his heel and went to claim a space near Varian and Matt.
Matt was working on a detailed topography of a small island. Varian had gotten out a painting of a vase of flowers. Jim didn't think he could recreate either. If he was lucky Braxton's would be much simpler than what his friends were doing. "Where can I get some paper? And Matt, do you know what Braxton's next project is?"
"He's in the basics class again, so shading and shadows. Draw a 3D ball and appropriately illuminate it from any direction you choose." Matt pointed towards the back of the classroom as he spoke. "Paper is over that way. You can borrow my charcoals, don't break them."
"Thanks Matt." Jim wove his way past the various artists on his way to the back of the classroom. One young man was spread out on the floor as he worked on four canvases. Another had an easel out. Two worked silently on sheets of paper similar to Matt's.
The young cadet felt very out of place in the room. With the exception of Matt, Jim was certain that every young man taking the class was a fourth year or older. The smattering of blue jackets mixed among the white confirmed that there were graduates among them. Something about their quiet confidence in their work felt so unfamiliar. Did they never second guess themselves? Even Braxton seemed to fit in with more ease among the silent sounds of creativity, contently focused on the effort of cleaning up.
Jim selected a small sheet of thick paper like the kind in Matt's sketch book. He delicately crossed back over to Matt's table to collect the charcoals he had been promised. Both his friends were absorbed in their own projects. He picked up the case that sat waiting for him and settled in to make his best attempt.