Lessons in the Stars

Chapter 4 - Truth or Dare

They arrived at the recreation deck, where the lights were dimmed. The carpet was thick, but bare of furniture. Rogue opened a cupboard and pulled out a set of pillows. She tossed them around the room haphazardly. She plopped down onto a light blue one.

"Does anyone know how to play?" Rogue asked.

Sam shook his head, "No. How do you even know how to play?"

"I watch a lot of old movies. I learnt to play poker and netball the same way," Rogue replied. She pulled a blanket from the cupboard and draped it across her body.

"Poker?" Jon repeated, "I think Truth or Dare is a much better idea than poker."

"Great. Scarlett, can you please explain the rules for those who don't know them," Rogue requested.

Scarlett rattled off the instructions, "One person starts and they can ask anyone in the group 'Truth or dare'. They then have to pick one. If they pick truth, they get asked any question and must answer truthfully. If they pick dare, the first person can make them do anything. It repeats after that."

Jon gulped. This didn't sound like a good idea to him, but nevertheless he muttered his assent. They all agreed. Jon couldn't decide which of the two options sounded worse to him.

"Great. I'll go first," Rogue began, "Scarlett, truth or dare?"

Scarlett looked nervous as she muttered, "Truth."

"What's the lowest score you have ever gotten in a test?" Rogue asked. The others relaxed. This game suddenly didn't seem as bad or personal as they had worried about on their way down.

"Um, I think that would be a 97%." Scarlett sounded a bit confused. There was a pause as everyone waited for the next person to speak.

"Your turn," Rogue prompted. She leaned back against the wall and watched them.

"Oh right. Sorry. Truth or dare Benny?" Scarlett rushed. The next few rounds passed without anything eventful. They all decided to stick to truth after Sam chose dare with Rogue in charge of it and she had darted off to the kitchens and came back with a glass of murky, dark brown liquid and told him to drink it. Safe to say, it had been disgusting but Rogue assured them that it wasn't poisonous. Still, they chose not to push their luck.

Rogue was the only other person to make the mistake of choosing dare. Sam, gave her the dare to do ballet. She had risen from her seat with a look of focus and did a few moves, really quite gracefully. Jon thought it had looked more like fighting in sequence to a beat than dancing, but had said nothing.

A few more rounds passed before Rogue decided to get her revenge on Sam.

"Sam, truth or dare?" She asked with a small smile.

"Truth." He had decided that truth was slightly safer with Rogue at least.

Rogue leant back, "Why do your parents care if you are part of the fleet?"

Sam froze. It was a very personal subject to him. "Not answering." He muttered.

"By the rules, you have to answer," Scarlett reminded him.

"My parents," he took a deep breath and studiously ignored the looks he received from the others. "They wanted me to take over their company, they have a huge business empire, as you guys probably know. They didn't really want anyone in the family joining the fleet. It's a matter of family pride. They said that if I didn't make a top crew at graduation, I'd have to abdicate my position in the business. Otherwise they wouldn't let me go to the Academy." Rogue cocked her head as he finished. Sam was now embarrassed that he had opened up to them, "Truth or dare, Jon," he said. He decided against trying to get revenge on Rogue. She was better at the game than he was.

"Truth," Jon decided.

"Why do you never take command in simulations unless you are ordered to?" Sam was embarrassed and wanted to embarrass someone else despite him knowing that it was a mean move to make.

Jon decided he didn't like where this was going, but he knew how much courage it had taken his friend to tell the truth so he wanted to do the same, "I just don't want to mess up." Sam waved his hands as if to say 'elaborate'. "People expect me to be a perfect captain because of who my dad was. I always feel that I'll let them down, if I do anything differently to what he would have done," Jon continued. Before letting anyone dwell on his words, he decided he wanted to get revenge. "Rogue." He picked her because her eyes were riveted on him. She had looked at him like she understood. At least more than others ever did.

"Truth." She chose with a tight smile.

"Why do your parents never come to visit on the holidays or visitation days and why do you never go see them?" The smile slid off her face. Everyone else leant forward, they wanted to know as well. It was extremely strange to not see your family at all after coming to the Academy. Rogue was the only person he had heard of who hadn't been an orphan who didn't see them at all.

"My dad's dead." She shot.

"And your mother?" Jon asked, unfazed by her declaration. After all, his father was dead as well.

Rogue stood up suddenly, anger clouding her face. "None of your business!" She snapped. "See you tomorrow!" She stood and stormed out, slamming the door. There was silence. That had been a very violent reaction to the question. They had all answered personal questions already and they had been civil. None of them could understand what could garner such a reaction. It wasn't something that truly made sense to any of them.

"Well, I guess the game is over. Who wants to watch a movie?" Benny tried to defuse the tension.

Jon barely noticed them picking and starting the movie, he was still focused on Rogue, because there had been something else on her face other than anger. Anger he could understand. There had been many times when he had hated his family and wanted nothing to do with any of them but Rogue had had something else on her face. Something he couldn't understand in correlation to the question. To the situation.

Fear.