When Alex had told her she would be staying with Sarah for a month, Yulia was more apprehehan happy. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her friends, she did. She was just worried about being away from Alex for so long.

  Yulia had tried to vince him to let her e along, but he wouldn’t budge. And that made her more worried. It meant whatever he was doing in space would be dangerous.

  She tried not to let those feelings show as she attended her first sleepover. Even Cire was here, although, she wouldn’t be staying the entire month like Yulia would be. Her two friends were talking about boys. Yuck!

  “Have you met the new kids?” Cire asked.

  “They’re all entitled core worlders,” Sarah rolled her eyes. “Except Thomas,” she added.

  “Oooh!” Cire stated iement, “Someone’s got a crush!”

  “Do not!” Sarah responded immediately before the pair broke into a fit of giggles.

  “Boys are gross,” Yulia stated firmly, earning another round of giggles from the girls before they pulled her into a hug.

  “You’ll feel differently when you’re e,” Cire said sagely as Yulia tried to extract herself from the irl’s embrace.

  “You’re only a few years older than me,” she said with a huff.

  “We’re both thirteen,” Sarah pointed out, “you’re only nine.”

  Yulia crossed her arms with a huff, “I’ll be ten in two months.”

  “Ooh, speaking of your birthday. Has your dad pnned anythi?” Cire asked.

  Yulia shrugged.

  “You don’t know? How could you not know?”

  “Alex didn’t say anything about it. Then he had to go on this trip.”

  “Worf!” Dog barked.

  Yulia rolled her eyes and patted Dog on the head. “Yes, Dog, I know his trip is important.”

  The girls ughed at the iion. They had instantly fallen in love with Dog when she first showed him to them.

  “What do you think yoing to get?” the girls asked in unison.

  “Get?”

  “Yeah, like a present? You’ve had birthdays before, right?”

  This time, Yulia rolled her eyes, “Obviously. But I was in the orphanage for my eighth birthday, and we just arrived when my ninth came around. It wasn’t like we gave out gifts in the orphanage and Alex was busy st year, so…”

  The girls both stared at her, mouths agape.

  “Your dad didn’t give you a gift for your birthday?” Cire asked.

  “He was busy,” she responded defensively. “Besides, he made the pyground for me and gave me Dog. Do your parents always give you gifts on your birthdays?”

  “Um… yes. It may not be anything huge, especially when we were moving from pce to pce, but I ’t remember any time that I didn’t get something.”

  “Yeah, same for me,” Sarah added. “But I’m sure yift will be amazing. Did you hear what he gave Markus?”

  Yulia paused, Alexander had given Markus a birthday gift? How had she not heard about this until nohat did Alex give him?”

  “It was something called a fizzion crystal or something,” Sarah said.

  Cire giggled, “No, silly, it was a fusion crystal. I saw it, looks a bit like those cards we’re given at school to access the learning modules. Only it was thicker and made of some transparent blue material. It was really pretty.”

  “A fusion activation crystal?” Yulia asked with surprise. She remembered those crystals, mostly because what Cire said was true, they were really pretty. However, she would deny that if anyone ever asked her about it. Alex had showo her after he got them. He said a whole bunch of stuff about them that she couldn’t quite remember, what she did remember was that they were used to turn a spaceship reactor ba.

  “Yeah, that’s what it was called,” Cire hugged her.

  She ehe hug, both girls were very proo hugging, and she had quickly gotteo their affe, even though it annoyed her most times they did it. She o talk to Markus and find out if this was true.

  The day after css, Yulia pulled Sarah off to the side. “I want to wait for Markus, I o ask him something.”

  Sarah smiled like she knew something and Yulia gave her a strange look. “What’s that smirk for?”

  “Oh, nothing,” the girl stated ily. “Did you want to speak to Markus, alone?”

  She didn’t know why Sarah was being so weird all of a sudden, but she nodded.

  “I’ll hang out at the corridor, don’t take too long or my parents will be upset that we are te for chores.”

  Chores was ohing she didn’t miss after being adopted. She had to her room and help with dishes, but Alexander did pretty much everything else. Not that she would pin openly about having to help out.

  Her friend finally exited the , his face buried in a tablet like it was most days now. “Psst!”

  Markus looked around before spotting her. He smiled and walked over. “What’s up, Yulia?”

  Was it weird that she missed the times when he used to call her a pipsqueak? She shook her head at the memory and decided just to ask him if what her friend said was true. “Did Alex really give you a fusion activation crystal for your birthday?”

  “Wh- who told you that?” Markus looked around, a bit of his defensiveness from ba the station rearing its head for a moment. He pulled her farther away from the where the older kids were exiting.

  “My friend did. Stop pulling me around,” she huffed, pulling her arm out of the boy’s loose grip. “What is with everyoing so weird tely?”

  “I don’t want to go around advertising I have it, you never know who might try and take it from me.”

  Yulia scoffed. “It’s just a piece of crystal used to turn on a ship, who would want it?”

  “Who would want it?” he spluttered. “And it doesn’t just turn on a ship. If you have the crystal, it means you’re the owner of the ship.”

  “…Wait… Alex gave you a ship!” Markus muffled her shout, pulling her even farther from the where the mean boy and his friends were n at them.

  “What don’t you uand about me wanting to keep this quiet?” he hissed in annoyance when he finally let her go. “And yes. Sort of.”

  “But why?” she asked, her mind a plete jumble of fusion. The pyground and Dog were amazing but they certainly weren’t a spaceship. Did that mean Alex liked Markus more than her?

  Her friend shook her out of her thoughts. “I know what you're thinking, and knock it off.”

  “I wasn’t thinking anything,” she spoke quickly.

  “Uh-huh,” Markus replied skeptically. “Look, I don’t know why Alex gave me a ship any more than you do. Maybe Eva told him I wao be a Captain when I grew up. And it’s not like I just get it. I have to work for it. I o earn a flight lise, and then a captaincy before I even fly it. Why do you think I’ve been studying so hard tely? You think I like reading and doing math all day, bleh. No thanks.”

  Yulia chuckled at that, remembering how Markus hated math ba Petrov.

  The boy smiled after seeing her smile. “Was that all you wao ask me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ok,” the boy said, looking relieved that the versation was over. This was why boys were weird. She shook herself mentally and began to leave before she stopped herself. “Good luck with your studies.” With that, she hurried down the hallway.

  ***

  He hadn’t spoken to Yulia in a while due to how busy he was with Eva’s new schedule, it was good to see her. Despite how was to see her, Markus was gd the versation was over. A few times during their chat, his voice almost cracked as he spoke. Yulia probably didn’t notice, but it sure made him feel self-scious. Then there was her friend staring at them from down the hall, making the whole thing feel weird and awkward. He wasn’t sure what her friend’s deal was.

  He would like to say this was the first time he felt this awkward retly, but it wasn’t. It seemed to happen anytime he had to speak with girls in his age group in css. He never felt like this ba Petrov Station.

  At first, he thought it was the newness of being on Eden’s End and being around so many new kids his age, especially girls. It wasn’t like he had much experiealking to girls and there weren’t many of those in the orphanage. Cho and Yulia were the only two he could recall, and they had spent so much time together that they were more like siblings.

  The reason for the disparity in adoptions was simple, girls teo get adopted more often and much ter into their childhood than boys did. Yulia would have been adopted a few times before Alex had appeared if she had agreed to it. And this was despite her background. Cho was almost a teenager when she first ehe orphanage, so she had a much harder time initially fitting in. And teenagers rarely got adopted ba Petrov Station. Cho was almost an adult now so getting adopted seemed unlikely for her, but Markus hought anyone would adopt him, so there was always a ce.

  His awkwardness could be from what Eva told him. She said now that he was fourteen, his body would start to ge and he would feel things he hadn’t felt before. Whatever that meant.

  The growth spurt he had was bad enough, he had grown like an ind a half since he arrived here. His dad was rather tall, so it was likely he would be as well. It was the other things that he could do without. The ae, the random sweating, his voice crag at inopportuimes. As well as other things he was too embarrassed to talk to Eva about. Maybe he could ask Cho. It would certainly be less awkward than bringing it up with Eva.

  Markus sighed and pulled up the information packet he had been studying. Eva had given it to him and it covered everything he o do to bee a cadet after he turned fifteen. Sihere was no naval academy out here, he would o find a ship that would allow him to serve aboard. That left very few options, but he wasn’t disced in the slightest.

  As he rounded a corridor, he nearly ran into someone roup of someones.

  “Watch where yoing, spacer trash,” Charlie stated.

  Markus’ Sorian was still rather rough, but he could uand the boy’s tone well enough even if some of the words weren’t clear. The twelve-year-old had never been anything other thao him and Yulia as far as he could tell and he couldn’t figure out why. He could have asked the boy but he didn’t like him enough to actually i with him.

  “Don’t stand in the corridor and people won’t run into you,” Markus replied in broken Sorian.

  Charlie narrowed his eyes at him. The boy may be younger, but he was big for his age. And he had his three little friends with him.

  “What did you talk with Yulia about?” he demanded, earning a look of surprise from Markus.

  “None of your business. Now move. I have stuff to do.” Markus tried to push his way through the four boys, but Charlie khe tablet out of his hand.

  Markus knew a bully when he saw one and the tablet was the st straw, he puhe boy. His attack did little more than ahe boy as Charlie tried to grab him. The pair of them went down in a tangle of arms and legs. Markus did his best to fight back or at least keep the rger boy from pung him. The other boys tried to help Charlie until someone shouted. Theook off running.

  Someone yanked Charlie off of him and then yanked Markus up as well. They both immediately froze when they realized who had broken up the fight. Markus may not have been at Eden’s End very long, but he knew all about Damien Laront.

  “You two have enough energy to throw fists at one ahen you have enough energy to do some work.”

  “But my dad expects me home to work the farm,” Charlie whined.

  Damien smiled coldly. “Don’t you worry about that, I’ll be having a word with your dad.” Then the man turo Markus, making him shiver. “And don’t think just because your mother is off the phat I won’t be tag her either. Now move. There’s a lot to get done, and I’m not releasiher of you mists until I feel you’ve learned a lesson.”

  Markus scooped up his dropped tablet and hurried down the hall o Charlie to keep ahead of Chief Damien.

  He swallowed the nerves he felt. Eva was going to be extremely upset when she found out he got into a fight, even if he wasn’t the one who started it. The work that she would give him wheurned would make whatever the Chief of Security had in mind look like a walk in the park, he just k. There was no ce she would fet this little altercatioher. He had better odds of ving the Chief of Security not to tact her. When he gnced back at the angry man, he somehow doubted that was going to happen.