Nebula

Avoidance

He led me back through the main hall. People stared at me, probably wondering why I was following the captain. It made me anxious, I didn't want special treatment, I didn't want to be different from the others. But I wanted to speak to Mona.

We reached the back, and entered through a door behind the platform, into a big hallway. There were glass doors leading into rooms, mostly offices. I could spot the instructors from earlier as we walked past all the doors.

"Here." The captain stopped, and opened the door to my left. I peeked my head in, and saw a big screen on the wall. I looked up at the captain.

"What are you waiting for?" he said. I walked into the room, and sat down in the chair in front of the black screen. Suddenly it turned on, and I could hear someone speak.

"Daria? Daria!" I was met with a big sized-up version of Mona's face. She smiled as she saw me. "Mona, I miss you so much!" I said. Her eyes lit up.

"How is it going? Are you alright, have you befriended anyone?" she asked.

"It's great! I've met some new people, they're nice." I told her.

"I'm glad to hear. See, I told you that socializing isn't so difficult." I twined my hair around my finger. "Well, there is this one guy..."

"Oh?" Mona lifted her eyebrow.

"The way he acts towards me makes no sense, he's being rude and doesn't explain why he's mad at me."

"What did you do to him?" she asked.

"He started fighting with this girl, and I just told him to stop. Then he started acting weird, and I confronted him about it - but he wouldn't tell me why. And after that he got even more mad." I looked down at my hands, and up at Mona again.

"Well... Sometimes people just need space and time to think. He probably isn't sure himself why he's mad at you, hence why he isn't telling you."

I leaned my head back. "But it's so infuriating, he's the one starting stuff. He pushed me today, into a wall." Mona looked shocked. "Haven't you told anyone? He's not allowed to hurt you." I shook my head. "I'm fine, it wasn't that bad."

"Well, just don't feed into his anger. Just ignore it, unless you want to provoke him even more." I nodded, Mona always had the right answers to everything.

"Also... I have no idea who knows about me here - I mean like the adults. The captain does, I'm sure. But who else?" Mona sighed. "I'm sorry Daria, but I can't tell you."

What? Why, couldn't she tell me? I didn't understand, wouldn't it be smarter for me to know? "Okay," I said. I knew I wouldn't be able to get answers out of her, she had her secrets.

"Well, I hope your first classes will go well. I'll try to arrange more calls like this, okay? It's nice to keep in contact, don't you think?" I nodded. But I still felt bad, none of the other recruits were allowed to speak to their families yet. Well, I guess technically Mona wasn't my family...

"Alright, I have to go darling. Sweet dreams!" She sent me a kiss before hanging up. I smiled, I felt slightly more relieved.

I walked out the door, the captain was standing right there. Had he heard our conversation? Not that it mattered, we weren't exactly discussing dark subjects. "You should probably head for your dorm, it's getting late." I nodded, and went back the way I came. Through the main hall, the big doorway, and along the narrow path next to the dark abyss...

"There you are!" I heard as I came through the door. Taya came running over, I almost thought I was being ambushed. "You barely made it on time, you gotta keep better track," she said.