Our Hope

33 - Cole

One Month Later - One Month Until Finals.

He sat in Dr. Kain's class. The professor had spent today teaching about one of Mars' moon, Phobos. A hologram of it resembled a large ball of clay that someone had hastily smashed together, waited for it to dry, then rolled it down the street, breaking off little pieces every time it collided with the ground. The alarm rang to signal the end of the class.

Professor Kain told them he would test their sample before they left. He twisted it and shined his light through it.

Cole rose from his seat and hurried to grab Hope's crutches, which were leaning against the wall at the front of the classroom. The metal arms of the crutches were cool. He handed them to her and then helped her stand. She did most of it on her own, which was an improvement.

The first week, he had to do all the lifting. But the more time passed, she became stronger and realized that there still was a path to victory.

"Thanks again, Cole."

"That's why I'm your best friend. I'm totally raking in the best friend points." He patted himself on the back and smirked.

"Yes. You are."

"Let me add these to my total." Cole counted to five on his right hand, "Hang on, I wanna make sure I'm doin' my math correctly, because at this rate by the time you recover," then he finished counting to ten his left. "I will never have to do anything for you, ever again."

"Whatever. You feel guilty because this is your fault."

He chuckled. He was glad to see her joking because she was angry and depressed the first two weeks and unproductive. He needed to keep her spirits high. When this happened, she took a lot of her anger out on Maria, which he still did not understand. He had, unsuccessfully, tried to arrange calls between them to patch up their differences.

He grabbed a carrot from his pack and bit into the crunchy sweet vegetable. She also knew he received the blame with her parents because they were irate. Even though he thought that they were equally responsible.

"The first thing you will do to repay me is finish my homework. Starting now."

"Nice job." Professor Kain stated. "Very impressive solution." He held up their film.

"What percentage?" Hope asked, eagerly.

"Sixty-Five. Although, I still need to put it through more tests."

"Yes!" Hope shouted and attempted to hug him but lost her footing.

He caught her, held her in air, and spun her.

"That was all you," Cole declared.

He gingerly placed her back on the floor.

"I have plenty of free time while you crash every night from overexertion."

They entered the hallway and made their way to Professor Petrov's class.

Hope ambled like a turtle, so he tried to keep busy by checking the rankings.

She saw him and said, "I already checked last night."

"Of course, you did."

The semester and final trials were most of their grade. So, performing at half capacity every day still gave them a chance. At the final, they would need to perform the same level they did when they won. He worried about that because they took four months of training to get to that level. He was still there. But she was now at level zero.