Shattered Pieces (Book 1)

Nagging Doubt

POV Change: Pidge

It was just a normal day of physics at the Galaxy Garrison. I was bored, mostly because I knew almost all of what was being taught. I fiddled around with my pencil, tuning in to what the teacher was saying every once in a while. I wasn't your typical Garrison cadet. At the age of 7, I was already taking high school level classes. Now 4 years later I'm sitting in a room with a bunch of adults, knowing way more than anyone in this room. Being half Altean must be part of that. 'I really just want to get back to my laptop.' I thought. Days at the Garrison were long. And they were even longer for me, because I had to stay up late and wait for Adam to come home. "Your homework will be-"

Crap! The teacher is already assigning homework! I take out my agenda and scribble down what the teacher is saying. The bell rings, and all the students get up and file out, me being the first one out the door. I headed down the hallway to my next class, engineering.

"Hey, Pidge! Over here!" I hear Krolia's voice from across the room. She's sitting with Luna and Keith, and I scurry over to sit down next to them. Keith ruffles my hair, laughing when I shove his hand away. I grin devilishly at him, planning on how to scare him at break.

"Hey gremlin, how was physics?" Luna asks, her voice shy, as she didn't know me very well. I laugh. "It was boring. Didn't learn anything." I rolled my eyes. "I still can't believe you haven't gotten busted yet!" Krolia explains. "It's so hard not to get called out at least once!" I shush her as the teacher walks in. I sigh and take out my binder as the teacher starts talking. Today is going to be a very long day.

POV Change: Krolia

The bell rings for lunch break, and I couldn't be happier. I gather all of my things, and slip out the door, wondering where Pidge has gone. Luna slips out behind me and taps me on the shoulder "Huh?" I turn to Luna, who points to someone coming down the hallway. I squint to see who it was, frowning when I recognized Iantha. Iantha was a princess, and she acted as if she owned the place. Pidge always gets ticked off when Iantha starts running her mouth about being a princess, and honestly, I've also had enough of her boasting. Keith starts muttering beside me, and I can't blame him.

"Where's your little gremlin friend?" She asks in her fancy Scottish accent. I roll my eyes, not wanting to start an argument. I tend to start yelling when I get into arguments, Keith hates them, and Luna has sensitive ears, so I don't want to hurt her. "Why won't you answer me?" She seems to be getting annoyed. 'Good' I thought. Keith pulls his skinny frame to its full 5'8 height. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He glared at her, spun around and stalked down the hallway, Luna following close behind. Never get on Keith's bad side. You'll regret it. I looked at Iantha and shrugged my shoulders and ran off after my friends. She wasn't annoying, she was just... different.

POV Change: Pidge

I sprinted down the hallway to my father's office. When I had gotten out of class, there was a message from Adam, telling me to go to Takashi's office when I was got out on break. When I got there, I slid, smacking my head on the door frame as I tried to stop myself. I heard a quiet laugh come from Shiro as I stumbled around blindly, looking for my glasses. I found them and put them back on. I walk in and see my father smiling at me. I walk over and sit dow next to him. "You doing okay, dad?" I ask. I was worried about him, as his gaze was unfocused, and he was shaking slightly.

"Honestly? I haven't been doing that great recently. My nightmares are getting worse, and I'm starting to have panic attacks during the day." He sighed. "And I can't do much, unless I can get medication for this, which I doubt I can." I hugged him tightly, not knowing what to say. "I'm sorry, Pidge." I looked up at my dad's face, confused. "Why? You don't need to apologize for anything!" I wanted to say more, but Shiro cut me off. "You're right, but I can't shake the feeling that these nightmares and panic attacks mean something. I've been having the same nightmare for a week now." I sighed. I knew my dad was having nightmares, but I didn't realize that they had gotten to the point where he was starting to have panic attacks. "Well I'm here for you, and so is Adam. You can talk to me whenever you need to, dad." I said, hoping that he would calm down.

Someone knocked on the door. "Takashi? Pidge? Can I come in?" Adam sounded worried, and a bit sick, if you ask me. "Yeah, you can come in." I said. Shiro looked up with a look of relief plastered on his face. I watched as the door slid open and Adam walked in. Shiro gently pulled my hand away from my hair, as I had started fiddling with it, a thing that I do when I'm nervous. Adam came over and hugged Takashi, muttering about how worried he was when he didn't answer the phone. As we sat in silence, I kept thinking about what my father had said. I knew something must be going on, but what exactly? I jumped when Adam got up to leave, as he had to go back to work.

My dad turned to me. "Now, would you like the rest of the day off?" His question caught me off guard. I smiled. "Alright, I'll give you the rest of the day off." I ran over to my bag and pulled out my laptop and walked back over, settling myself on the couch. As I worked, I still couldn't shake the feeling of something was happening to my dad, based on the nightmares. It was scary, seeing him like that. I doubted that it would get better, and it was probably going to get worse. I shook my head and continued typing in data codes.

(Words: 1075) 'Sup y'all? This chapter wasn't as important, other than the fact that it mentioned that Shiro is now starting to have panic attacks! Next chapter will contain a little more angst, if ya like that. (Don't worry, Iantha ends up being good friends with the team, this is just my interpretation of her) And if y'all were wondering, Pidge's pronouns are They/Them/Theirs