Second Chance

Prologue | before the big step

I looked around the room as I came in. Everything was white and minimalistic. I walked over to the man behind the counter.

"Hello I'm here for the avatar training?" I asked him uncertain.

"Yeah yeah show me your card." He said not even looking up from his computer screen.

"Oh of course!" I pulled out the card that I received by mail a couple of weeks ago and handed it to the guy. He looked at it and handed it back.

"Third corridor fourth door to your left, training starts tomorrow, your schedule will be in your dorm on your bed." He said in the most monotone voice I ever heard.

I said a small "thanks", I slipped the card back into my pocket and then made my way to my dorm. There were four bunks, four desk and four closets in the room so I presumed I would be sharing it with three people. I looked at the bed to my right 'Tom Sully' I then checked the bed above it 'Moonsu Kim' still not it, I went over to the left side 'Maxence Kelley' that's it!

I sat down on the bunk and picked up the letter that was addressed to my name. I opened it and started reading when I heard the door open. I looked up to see a guy with dirty blondish brownish hair who was wearing glasses looking at me.

"Hello?" He started unsure.

"Hey! I'm probably your roommate, what's your name?" I said welcomingely.

"I'm Norm, Norm Spellman" He said taking a few steps in the room and closing the door behind him. "And you are?"

"Maxence Kelley but you can call me Max" I begun. "You're probably in the bunk above mine since the two others are for a Moonsu and a Tom" I finished before going back to my letter. I heard a mumbled thanks and I could kinda see and hear him get settled in the bed above me but I really didn't pay much attention. I read over my schedule. Breakfast was from 5 to 7 and my first class on pandora wild life was at 7:30.

We were all sitting around at a table in the cafeteria room after a very long day.

"I can't believe it! I just graduated from university and I'm back in classrooms" I sighed loudly resting my head on the table.

"Personally what I can't believe is how fascinating that planet is. And we got a chance to go there can you belive it?!" Said Norm before taking a bite of his pork.

"I'm happy to be here don't get me wrong but I kinda agree with Max, we're back at going to class and following a schedule" said moonsu

"And homework!" added his twin Moon Hee. 

"Pfff your exaggerating guys it's not that bad!" Exclaimed Tommy.

"Stop arguing! I'm excited to get to Pandora too but it doesn't mean that we should slack on training.'' added Mellory, Moon Hee's dorm mate.

"Yeah yeah whatever you say Mel" said Ella the last member of our group. She is a pilot in training and we met her in a joint training session a week ago.

We had formed our own little group and it was amazing. It was nice to have people around you can count on and that can help you with studies and training. We were almost a year in training, only two more to go. Arg this is gonna be long!

We were all sitting in mine and the boys dorms waiting for Tommy to come back from his trip to get snacks when we heard a knock on the door.

"It's probably him, I'll get the door" said Moonsu. He stood up and opened the door but there was no one there. I couldn't quite see but he crouched and grabbed something. When he turned around I saw that it was an envelope.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know, it just says, to the occupants of room 043."

"Open it!" Said Mellory as she jumped down from Tommy's bed.

He did as he was told and opened it. He then proceeded to read it aloud.

"Dear occupants of room 043, we have the regrets to inform you that your roommate, Tom Sully has passed away today at…" as he read his tone started loosing it's joy and his smile began to fade. Mine did too. I was in shock, what could have possibly happened? A million questions came to my head, what happened? how did it happen? where did it happen? when did it happen? The loud silence of the room was broken by the quiet sobing of Tommy's girlfriend. Mallory and her late boyfriend had been dating for a almost a year, they had been flirting since they met and had gotten together two weeks after. They wanted to get married on Pandora, be able to explore and discover new things together. I felt even worst for her then for myself. Tommy was my friend, one of my best friends, but I wasn't as close to him as Mel or even as Norm. He would never admit it but I could see the way he looked at him, Norm had always had a crush on Tommy and I knew this would affect him a lot. He wouldn't show it tho. He doesn't like to share how he feels, at least not the deepest of his emotions.

"I… I have to go" The red head rushed out of the room crying.

"Wait Mel!" Moon Hee rushed after her. She wasn't very close to Tommy but he was still her friend, I knew it affect her just as much as me but I also knew that she would put her emotions in second place to help others. She was that kind of person.

"W- What are we going to do now?" Asked Moonsu uncertain. He placed down the letter on his desk and sat on his bed, his head in his hands.

"I- I have no idea… but, if there is one thing I know is that we can't give up!" Said Norm, a confident look on his face that I knew was false. I could see his eyes slightly watering. "It was his dream and it's ours to, we can't let this get to us!"

"You're right but… it's gonna be so diffrent without him" Ella added as she sat on the floor next to me.

"It will be diffrent but we can get through it, together." I concluded placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

We did got through it, or at least partially, Norm became cold and focused even more then before on his studies and Mellory left the program. Me and the twins finished our training in okayish conditions but we had been the ones less affected by Tommy's death. We had learned he had been cremated and had not been given any kind of funary rites. I was angry when I learned that. I wanted to punch someone's ass but I remembered that it was what we signed for and it was in the contract. We also learned that Tommy's brother, Jake, would be taking his place, I wasn't sure how I felt about that, especially that he was an ex-marine and had not got any training whatsoever. 

Today was boarding day, we would be getting in the ships that were supposed to get us to Pandora and get in a 6 years long sleep like state called cryo-sleep. There were two ships when we boarded. One full of marines and one full of scientist. I wasn't sure how I felt about the fact that we were already separated but we'll see how that goes, right?

A/n: so that was the prologue I hope you enjoyed and comment if you wanna see more!

~1315 words~