The War of Elevens| Book 1 of the Space Thief Chronicles

Chapter 3| Happy Pills

All afternoon exams were postponed until the next day.

It was supposed to be the last day of school before summer break, and the extra-preppy eager-to-impress students that made up ninety-five percent of Eldnac Prep's population seemed thankful for an extra night of study. Vatakai had called a pest control team to filter out the rest of the butterflies yesterday afternoon, but butterflies do not like to be caught and Vatakai was only willing to pay the pest control team for an hour's worth of service anyway, so there were still many beautiful winged creatures floating lazily through Eldnac's halls. 

That morning, the halls were hectic. It was as if the previous morning had duplicated itself perfectly...hands shook as they shoved study guides into backpacks, cold sweat erupted across foreheads, teachers were irritable, and Lilly overheard many hilariously delirious things on the way to her science exam to prove that the ninety-five percent of hopeful brainiacs had officially lost their minds:

"Sine, cosine—ugh, tangent sounds like something I'd puke up."

"Is my brain melting a physical or chemical property?"

"The quadratic formula is the one with Napoleon in it, right?"

Buzzing beneath all this anxiety was pent-up summer energy, ready to be released at the bell. While ninety-five percent of Eldnac wanted to ace their exams, one hundred percent of Eldnac wanted exams to be over and to be released into the warm sunshine gilding every available surface outside. 

Many eyes flew to clocks during that exam session.

Lilly was having a hard time thinking during her science test. It wasn't the curious glances she kept getting from the other students or the white-hot glares Mrs. Siotang shot her, or the staccato tick-tick-tick of the stupid clock above the SMART Board, or the overwhelming smell of graphite on paper. 

It was stupid Maya Sturnly that liquefied Lilly's mind.

Before the exam, Maya sprinted through the classroom door, crashed into Lilly's desk, and panted, "I have...something really...bad to tell you."

Lilly had opened her mouth to ask her what was wrong, but Mrs. Siotang shut the door to start the exam and snapped, "Anyone else who speaks will be asked to retake the class next semester."

Maya, wide brown eyes glittering with gossip, ruefully slid away and slunk into her seat across the room. 

Finally, the exam was over, and Maya didn't waste a second as she rushed over to Lilly's desk. Lilly said, "Don't hurt yourself," because Maya was trying to close her backpack, fight through the crowd of eager classmates, and speak all at the same time. 

"Okay," Maya started, still yanking on her backpack's zipper. Lilly had known Maya and her backpack from fourth grade long enough to know that that zipper was like a stubborn child. When it decided it didn't want to close, no one fought it. "Hailey—"

The zipper popped off. Due to gravity and Maya throwing up her arms in frustration, the bag slipped from her shoulder and gutted itself on the crook of her elbow. Pink pens, crumpled paper, binders, and notebooks spilled in a pastel array across the floor.

Lilly bent down to pick them up. Maya bent, too, but Lilly said, "No. You talk. I've got these."

This was the way they'd become friends last year. Lilly had ignored a CAUTION: WET FLOOR sign and took a nasty fall. Her half-open bag vomited up school books and pens; the pens exploded into puddles of ink, covering her books and Lilly's uniform with wet black stains. Maya happened to be passing by. Always desiring to help someone, she helped Lilly get to her feet, clean up the mess, hide the more noticeable ink blotches on Lilly's uniform, and they were still two minutes early to social studies.