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2. Death Wish

2. Death Wish

I have my first day of space school today. Hopefully, there are good teachers on offer for this. There are about five hundred people on this ship that are under the age of eighteen. It will be quite a small school, then as in my old school there were two thousand pupils altogether. There is a further three hundred people that should be studying university.

I wonder how they are going to provide writing equipment for us. They surely do not have ten years’ worth of pens, pencils and other stationery.

I have had breakfast and I am back in my room, with fifteen minutes to spare until this ‘school’ starts. If I was still on Earth I would be studying my GCSE subjects, but obviously, the resources are not available. Everyone is to learn the same subjects, which includes Maths, Science, English, Technology, a foreign language, History and Geography.

I hate Geography with a passion, even though I am not bad at it. I remember starting to miss all the subjects I had dropped when I began my GCSE years. I like knowing things and learning new things, and I suppose Geography was a good place to be learning many small facts all the time. So I even missed Geography! I dreadfully missed French, as well, though. Although French was a language I found difficult, I did well in it and loved having conversations with my friends in French, as a joke. So I think I am glad we will have the chance to learn French again.

I remember packing my make up for this trip. I do not usually wear make-up, but maybe I will, today, just to help me feel a bit more confident. If I have make-up on, it does not make me feel as self-conscious.This goes against my entire personality, but thanks to the great parents I have, I am not as self-confident as most seem to see me as. I decide with the lightest appliance of make-up possible.

Captain Tim sounds through the loudspeaker again. “Hi guys, it is Captain Tim again! Just a reminder for all kids and university students; class starts in a few minutes, so if you could make your way to floor seventy eight, the education area. Children under the age of ten should be accompanied by an adult, and there is also a nursery for mothers and children under the age of four. Another note to make is that you must all complete your chores, unless you have a valid reason that has been reported to staff, otherwise. Have a good day everyone!”

I stick a pen and pencil in my pocket and head out of the apartment. I have not seen my parents much at all, this weekend. It has been almost like living on my own, these past few days. I do no mind very much, as I quite like to be alone.

When I enter the lift, there are already some kids and mothers in there. A mother looks surprised that I am going to class on my own. I ignore her and everyone else as we wait for the lift to reach its destination. The lift runs directly through the middle of the entire ship.

We arrive to see a queue of children and parents that snakes around a small room with chairs and tables in the middle. There is a small group of adults registering us into our classes. The people I just travelled in the lift walk to the back of the queue. I follow them, slightly uncertain.

As I wait in the queue, I scan the types of children and teenagers around the room. The adults that are signing them in point to doors around the room that presumably lead to classrooms. I know that the university students do not start their classes this morning until ten o’clock.

I hear a commotion behind me. I turn to see a teenage girl pushing through the queue, ignoring the angry parents and irritated children. She reaches me, and tries to step around the side of me. I step to the side with her. “What are you doing?!” She asks me, glaring. She has blonde ringlets, but wears an unpleasant scowl. Her voice is not high and girly, but she has an American drawl, which is quite unlike her appearance.