Starcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Interstellar Explorers ❯ Crεω fσr τhε Sραcε Vσγαgε ( Chapter 9 )

Now we find out who is going to be in the same crew together. I guess it's actually pretty obvious... but if you don't want to spoil it for yourself don't read the crew list first!

~ Crεω fσr τhε Sραcε Vσγαgε ~

There was a scramble as the students started gathering around the teachers. The adults tried to spread out and sort through the sheets of paper. Sayuri sprang into action along with most of the others, Milo and Amelia followed her more leisurely as she headed for the crowd forming around Mr Whitley. He was the nearest teacher and combed a hand through his short dark hair as he tried to organise the papers. Students started receiving theirs and then moving away excitedly to read them.

"How frivolous," Amelia muttered. "We're not going to ascertain our team colleagues more promptly by crowding our instructors. Let's sit aside."

"Yeah, I guess so." Milo muttered in agreement.

Mr Whitley licked his thumb and started flicking through the papers, reading the names while trying to ignore the excited crowd. Ms Jennings could be heard from a distance shouting angrily at the students who weren't giving her enough space. Mr Whitley looked up and started scanning those around him. His eyes fell on Amelia and Milo watched him return to his sheets.

Milo nudged the girl next to him "I think he's got yours."

Amelia looked up and Mr Whitley was leaning over, a sheet in his hand.

"Amelia," he said and she took the paper. He returned to the crowd. Sayuri noticed and jumped over immediately.

"Oh my gosh! Amelia who are you with? Are we together? Show me!" she bounded over and the three at them peered at the sheet Amelia held out in her hands.

Team 7A

Amelia Lenore

Juno Nash

Milo Flynn

Lauren Solis

Paige Brewer

Sayuri Tanaka

Elliot Harper

Willow Greer

Nolan Keller

The two girls had fallen silent. Milo read through the names a few times just to be sure.

"This is awesome! We're all in the same crew! Juno must have been right about it being based on who we did group projects with. Space camp is going to rock!" the two girls didn't respond and Milo studied their faces. They were staring at the names blankly, he didn't understand what they were so shocked about.

"Fuck." Sayuri snarled bitterly. Amelia scrunched up the paper in disgust.

"What? What is it?" Milo asked.

Sayuri turned away and crossed her arms. Amelia took a very controlled breath before she started speaking, her voice full of contempt.

"He's on our team. That guy."

"That guy?" the only person in their crew Milo didn't know all that well was "Nolan is the guy you hate? But he's crippled and can't even run? What could he have done that makes you hate him so much you won't even say his name?"

"Now is not the time or place, although I guess we should disclose in you if you're going to be embroiled with this now..."

"No he won't," Sayuri said suddenly. "This is not happening. He's not going to sabotage us, I'm putting a stop to this now!" she stormed off and Milo watched her go with surprise. He'd never seen Sayuri in such a huff before.

"Where is she going?"

"To Ms McDowell in order to plead our case." Amelia muttered. "It won't work. Let's egress, the others will want to discuss this incident."

She headed off and Milo followed uncertainly. What did this mean for their expedition? It was the most important assessment they would face. Milo didn't know what had happened between their group in the past but he really hoped they'd be able to put everything aside to complete their missions. Suddenly their space journey was looking a lot more troubling, he hoped this discussion would make the outlook less bleak. Amelia sat cross-legged on the footpath at the edge of the circle in view of the tunnel leading to the Education Dome. They waited for a while in silence while watching the diminishing pile of students, they spread out and away from the teachers getting better acquainted with their crews. Milo wandered around Amelia in thought before noticing three figures approaching. One of them, visibly furious, walked ahead of the two girls who followed. Juno reached them and stopped to stare, Amelia said nothing. Milo was too off-put by the barely restrained rage in Juno's features to start speaking right away.

"Juno-"

"FUCK!" she screamed and dropped down, punching the walkway with her metal fist. She pounded it with a continual rhythm, the cement splitting apart as she started burrowing a hole.

"Cripes! Enough of that, Juno!" Paige ran over while Lauren slouched, looking despondent. Juno started punching with her normal fist as well, and blood was appearing on her knuckles. Paige moved forward and restrained her normal arm "Enough! We all knew there was a chance this would happen. It's no good being emotional!" Juno stopped and her head lowered, she remained on her knees looking defeated.

"Maybe we can think of this more like an opportunity," Lauren suggested. "We just dump the rat on a foreign world and then I'll sniper him from afar."

"No one is shooting or killing anyone." Paige spoke resolutely. "If one of us dies we will all fail."

"Indeed." Amelia chipped in. "And one consumed by the throes of vengeance should consider the impact of their decisions on the entire crew."

"Have you guys seen Sayuri?" Lauren asked.

"She ran off to the head teacher." Milo answered meekly "I thinks she wants to argue the teams."

"Welp, I better go after her. If she starts screaming and crying she might get suspended, then our team will be in a lot of trouble." she put her hands in her pockets.

"Do either of you know the whereabouts of Willow?" Amelia inquired.

"Elliot told me," Lauren began with a sigh "that after she read her list she ran off on her own without another word."

"She's probably in the library." Paige deduced, she looked as if she wanted to check on her friend but stared down at Juno with worry.

"You know guys..." Milo began. "I might not know anything about what happened but... if you feel bad Nolan must be feeling a hundred times worse. He has to be stuck with six people who all hate him, and I don't think he has any friends at all."

Juno's head slowly raised and Milo flinched.

"Serves him right, the cockroach."

"If you wish to pursue Willow, I will supervise Juno." Amelia told Paige. Paige pushed her round glasses up her nose and studied Juno.

"You're not going to do anything rash are you, Juno? You know it won't help anyone if you do, right?" Juno said nothing, but then shook her head once.

"Right then," Paige announced. "I'll go." she headed over towards the Study Dome, Lauren sighed and then made her way to the nearest tunnel and the Education Dome, going after Sayuri.

"Ah," Milo began. "I think I might go look for Elliot now... Juno, you should probably get your hand looked at." he stepped away from the two remaining girls and then left, awkwardly.

This is looking so, so bad. Milo thought as he walked back across the grass looking for his best friend. He was still very tired, too tired to deal with all this. But if memory served it was Thursday Week A, meaning that after Gadgetry with Paige, Milo would be able to return to his dorm immediately as period five he had a study. It was probably because he didn't get any sleep, but he was already feeling like today had gone for an abnormally long time. Elliot was trudging away from the crowd by himself going who knows where, Milo made his way towards him.

"So..." he began and Elliot turned. "Did Lauren fill you in on things?"

"Not really, but I got the gist of it myself."

"Oh, how?"

"Willow ran off and left the sheet behind her after reading it, then Lauren wanted to know where she was and after I told them, she ran off after Paige and an angry Juno. I figured only one thing would get them to react like that, Nolan is the guy they hate so much."

"Damn, I was hoping they might have explained stuff to you so you could fill me in."

"Nope," he tugged at his black singlet and then put his hands in his pockets. They started heading over to their next classes. "It doesn't really matter though, does it? Who cares what happened. It's not relevant and finding out won't make the assessment go any easier."

"Yeah... I guess you're right." Milo agreed, scratching his hair.

"It's all really immature, in my opinion." Elliot kicked at the dirt as they walked.

"Well, if we knew what happened we might be able to help somehow. I mean, Nolan doesn't have any friends as far as I know. Maybe he wants to make up with them."

"I hope not. I hated that kid before he started following and hitting on me. Shit!" Elliot stopped.

"What?"

"Nothing," he started walking again "I just remembered I have War Strategy class next. He's in it too."

"Well, I think head-butting him would have given the right message."

"Hopefully."

"I always wondered what War Strategy class was like... I would've taken it with you but it clashed lines with Gadgetry, plus that huge bitch Ms Jennings teaches it."

"It's part history and part psychology, although it focuses only on certain aspects. I think you would've liked it. So you have Gadgetry with Paige next?"

"Yeah."

"Going to try and nab that kiss you couldn't get last night?" Elliot peered at him mischievously with his grey eyes.

"Errrr," Milo groaned "I don't think that would be the best way to go about things, considering everything that's happened. Might have to make my move another time."

"You pussy," Elliot laughed.

"Shut up!"

"Maybe you are gay. Gayer than me."

"I think most of the guys on this ship are 'gayer' than you. But you have no right to judge me, don't you want to date anyone?"

"No," Elliot's smile faded. "I don't date, Milo."

"Well maybe if you got to know someone-"

"I don't want to talk about this." his stare fixed forward.

"...alright then."

Juno and Amelia were still in view of the tunnel to the Education Dome. Milo looked at them but thankfully Elliot wasn't inclined to walk over either. He hopped on the empty trolley and took a seat, dragging his fingers through his spiky blonde hair. Milo took the adjacent seat and yawned. The trolley beeped and then started whirring along its track, the wind whipping past his face gave Milo comfort from his distracting thoughts. Just one more class until bed... and it was with Paige. Hopefully she wouldn't be too crabby with everything that's happened. Milo pondered what Elliot had said about him making a move on Paige, it made heat rise to his face and he crossed his legs to alleviate the pressure in his pants. Half a minute later and the vehicle stopped, they hopped off and then went their separate ways.

"See ya,"

"Laters."

It wasn't period four yet, so Milo supposed he could look for Paige. Where was she going again? To the library in the Study Dome. Oh well, maybe Milo could look for Sayuri and Lauren in one of the administration buildings. He headed over to the first collection of buildings where teachers went for meetings and such. With their rooms, classes and stations all in the one dome they didn't have to travel very far. Surely enough Sayuri was sitting outside crying into her hands while Lauren patted her on the back. Milo hesitated before walking over with a sigh. Lauren looked up at him and shook her head knowingly.

"Cheer up, Sayu. It's not so bad..." Milo tried, taking a seat beside her.

"I'm crying because I'm angry!" she shouted and then buried her face again with sobs. Milo shrugged at Lauren.

"Ms McDowell listened for a while..." she explained to him. "But she's not the type of teacher whose going to take an emotional student yelling at her for long. They all know about the situation, but they're going through with the sorting anyway because if we're to become great captaincy leaders or whatever we need to overcome obstacles and some shit like that..."

"Bitch," Sayuri choked.

"Well," Milo began. "There's nothing we can do now but endure. I really hope everyone else will be willing to do that."

"We don't have a choice," Lauren answered unpleasantly. "Ms McDowell actually already knew how we'd react to the sorting because of her psychic gift, maybe she wanted this for some reason. Although I don't see what good can come outta this. It's just another stick in the fiery maelstrom burning to wreck our collective shit."

Milo frowned and looked away in deep contemplation.

Oh my! What exactly did Nolan do to the girls over a year ago? And the sixth girl Willow, what's her deal? Why haven't we seen anything about her yet? Review if you want more.