Something We Miss

Chapter 5

The Mercurian ships had been a scare, but what really scared Artemisia was the radio silence from Neptune. Her mother hadn't called in days. Neither had Goji. Magnolia had called once, and hung up quickly once Artemisia didn't feel like talking.

She inquired everywhere to figure out why, and people said some phones were down on Neptune because of the scare. It bothered her that so many people believed it.

In spite of it all, she managed to find excitement when the day after a package appeared on her desk. It had an address from Neptune, and she tore it apart hoping it was from her mother. Instead, she pulled out gobs of blue fabric embroidered with deeper blue roses. A note was tucked in the bodice of the massive dress.

Dear Miss McCourt,

We are proud of your accomplishments and hope you continue to achieve. Please accept this handmade Joy Jordan dress. We expect you will wear it to attend the upcoming Orbital Ball, and hope this will be a good opportunity for you.

Sincerely,

King Boxwood and Queen Lavender Edelweiss

Artemisia gave a long, low whistle as Rosa walked in. "What's going on?" She asked.

She pulled the dress from the box and held it up to her as Rosa's grinned. "That's for the Orbital Ball!" she exclaimed. "And it's a Joy Jordan! I love that designer! You know, she's..."

Rosa went on and on about the details behind the designer as Artemisia ran her hand over the front. It fell to her feet and looked small, which meant it was tight. By her estimate, it had cost a lot of money. She felt guilty, then remembered all that was going on. With the pressing rumors, they would want her to look nice.

A switch had gone off at UAA the next day. All anyone could talk about was Neptune, and she noticed people gave her double-takes more often than usual. She set her face to appear aloof and distant. It wasn't hard.

The only other thing discussed was the Orbital Ball. Because no one could talk about Neptune with her, they plagued her with every detail of it.

"All the senators will be there!"

"Playbook is playing for half an hour!"

"I heard Queen Cirrus isn't wearing yellow."

"There's a cover band that's doing Old-Earth songs."

She tried in vain to tune them out. Somehow, those little details got to her. Playbook? The biggest band in music right now? She was going to see them at a private event, and it was real? Was this really how her life was going now? And that massive blue dress hung in her closet, swimming through her dreams like a fog.

And somehow, she didn't feel happy.

She walked to class a few days after the Neptune scare and entered without pasting a smile on her face. She sat down at her desk and began reading the latest edition of the Roar of Clans.

No one else had arrived yet. Professor Greenhue cleared his throat, prompting her to look up.

"Are you alright, McCourt?" he asked, thumbing through a binder.

She paused. "I'm alright," she said. "Thank you for asking. I'm only distressed about Neptune. We had quite a scare."

He nodded. "Our home is mixed up in some interesting news. Have you read article three yet?"

"No," she said. She didn't intend to read any of it with any depth. The Roar of Clans, in her experience, was Venusian and Moon reporters digging up any news they could find. Good articles happened once in awhile, and rarely said anything new.