The Mars Experience

Chapter 4: Donna

I am woken up to the sound of some obnoxious idiot knocking on our door. Frowning, I open it to find Hugo. He looks past me to Athena, still sound asleep on the floor.

"What?" I growl. I know my hair's a rat's nest even though I don't have a mirror to confirm it. I am able to put that aside, even though I'm pretty mad knowing I could've gotten up at least three hours later. Athena is scared awake then just collapses back to the floor, mumbling something.

"Good morning," Bree smirks. I flash her a look that says if you weren't my sister, you'd be dead by now. I nudge Athena in her ribs with my foot and she gets up, ditzy, confused, but with hair in two perfectly pretty braids.

Jedrek quietly steps out of Emma's room, with her cradled in his arms as he sets her to the ground and quietly bumps the door shut behind him.

On the floor of the crowded hallway, Emma stretches with a long, loud yawn. We all turn to face her as she blinks wearily and stands up without the use of her arms like a dancer. Her hair looks just as bundled up as mine feels. She scratches her eyes, fully opening them for the first time this morning. To break the serenity, when she spots Athena she lets out a short yelp, which is silenced by me grabbing her arm to calm her down.

"It's okay," Bree whispers. "That's Athena, she'll be joining us for a while."

"Who? Why?" her soft, hoarse, gentle voice replies.

"Athena," I reassure. "She needs our help to get to a safe haven. She'll stay with us while we decide to help or not."

Emma acts as if Athena is not there. "Why wouldn't we help her?" her already soft voice whispers to reach an almost inaudible pitch.

Brianna, Hugo, Conner, Jedrek, and I all stare at each other. She's the only one in our group that's never experienced a chase, we've all shielded her from that for as long as I can remember. She has a type of light radiating from her, innocence, and none of us are willing to dim it.

"She..." Hugo's voice rasps. "Was just a little mean to us. She called us poor one time and we didn't like that."

Emma looks concerned. "Oh," she frowns. "That's really mean. She shouldn't make fun of us for that, even if it was only one time." While everyone's busy staring at Emma, I glance at Athena, who caught on to the lie quickly.

"But, um," Athena speaks up, awkwardly standing up next to him. "It really was only one time, and I meant it as a joke. I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings." She kneels down and holds her hands, staring up at her. While Hugo seems thankful for that, it just makes me even more suspicious. I run my ring finger around the outer right half of my jeans and frown. The girl is a good liar.