Spectator

Chapter One: Now

The shuttle smelled faintly of booze, sex, and sweat. Considering it was packed with thirty teenagers, it wasn't that much of a surprise.

Kali tried to find the source of the alcohol. It wouldn't be anything more than Jack Royal, a pompous name for repulsive moonshine, but it was better than nothing. Regulations said no intoxicants before space flights, but most of the instructors looked the other way when it came to adolescents wanting something to take the edge off. Except for General Grouch, but he was in the cockpit. They were safe from his perpetual antagonism. For now, anyway.

Kali found where the scent of sex came from without trying; across the aisle and two behind, Augus and Kadent had their hands on each other as much as their safety harnesses would allow. She had to applaud their flexibility, even if she wasn't into the whole public thing. She guessed by their tongues in each other's throats that they were back on again, and wondered if their relationship would last until the end of the flight.

There was less than an hour left. It was anyone's guess.

She averted her gaze, unlike Hona in the seat directly across from them, his green-modded eyes watching them intently. He smirked at Kali's wrinkled nose and mouthed 'free entertainment' as he continued unabashedly. Ignoring them all, she caught the flash of a chrome flask four rows behind her. Calwin, a stout boy with olive skin and hair shorn so short he was nearly bald. Another surreptitious sip and it was tucked back into the breast pocket of his flight suit, the same dark blue one piece they all wore.

She was sure he would share, but they were no longer allowed to walk around as they shifted into deceleration mode. Directly behind her, Nari was on the left, who already looked annoyed at all the twisting. But then, her face was always like that. She was pretty, with a rosebud pink mouth beneath a small nose, delicate features offset by glaring dark brown eyes. Her bangs were cut heavily across her forehead, but the rest of her hair was pulled back, tucked into the collar of her flightsuit. The school wasn't so militaristic that they weren't allowed to have long hair, but it did need to be manageable. Kali's copious amount of black curls were tucked away in a braid as per usual, already itching for escape, stark contrast to Miss Sleek-and-composed.

Yeah, Nari was definitely not going to be a willing collaborator. They'd been in this same program for almost three years, and they'd barely spoken beyond what was necessary. Just the Incident, where they all almost died.

But next to her was Jae. Kali smiled. Those two were polar opposites: Nari was reserved, competitive, icy. Jae cared as little for the Academy as Kali did, funny to the point of insouciance. It didn't hurt that he was attractive too, matched with a sharp jaw and a straight nose. Jae's eyes were narrower, more likely to crinkle with laughter, although his mouth was just as soft and full as Nari's. He was balanced with disparities: sharp and delicate. Slim frame, but she'd seen him - and everyone else - stripped down often enough to know he was muscular. After all, it would have been a challenge not to be fit with all the mandated physical classes they were put through. His hair was silver with a natural black root but it was the lopsided grin always on his face that Kali appreciated the most.

"My, If you don't have a mischievous glint in your eyes, Kali."

"Calwin has goods," She told him.

"Say no more, darling." It didn't seem to matter how often he called her - and everyone else - that. It never failed to make her stomach flip nervously. His silver hair flipped as he turned abruptly around, persuasive enough to cause Hona to finally break eye contact from the entertainment.

It was another teamwork exercise, but this time Kali had considerably more patience than usual. It wasn't one engineered by their teachers to test their limits and teach them positive attributes.