After the Drift

Chapter Thirteen: The Shower

A day later, our shower broke.

Now normally that wouldn't be a huge deal. But being at a new dome with a bunch of new people, half of which looked at me like a science experiment gone wrong due to who I was related to and the other half decided I was a punk kid who didn't deserve to be where I was.

So, I was pissed. Lucie shrugged it off and said the pilot showers on the floor above ours were pretty nice. How she knew that already, I didn't want to know.

I stomped down the hall to the dome's main maintenance office. I needed hot showers to cleanse the volatile thoughts from my mind daily.

After knocking on multiple doors I finally found Roger. Roger was older than my dad and probably the most curmudgeon-y man I have ever met.

I was told by Roger that there were many more important things happening here and that my cleanliness was very low on his priority list.

I almost slipped out who my parents were but I just couldn't be that bratty.

I did, however, yell "If I kill anyone, it's on you, Roger!" As I stamped my little feet back to our room.

I was a smart woman. I should be able to figure something as simple as basic plumbing. I could rewire a conn-pod to show movies for movie night in Sovereign's head, I could do this.

And don't tell anyone about the movies. My butt is still healing from the last butt chewing.

I pulled some books from the library that I thought would be helpful. Trucking those back to my room, I saw a familiar face.

"Ruby Roo!" Carlo shouted at me as I neared him. I cracked a smile instantly. God, he was a goober.

"Carlo! When did you get here?" He gave me a side hug due to all the books.

"Just two days ago. Seems the guy who was doing maintenance on Stryker Eureka messed something up good and got canned. So I was flown here and given a promotion to be head officer all in the same day."

I whistled, "Dang, you go big, huh?" He chuckled along with me. "So your sister around?"

There it was.

"She's somewhere around here. Not sure what she's been up to today." I shrugged.

His face fell a little, poor guy must have missed her.

"You know anything about fixing showers?" He gave me a raised eyebrow. "Not what I was expecting you to ask me, Rube. Gotta say."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought you'd ask me something about Chuck. Seeing as I now work with him daily. Ya know, since you two were all lovey dovey back at the Academy." He ran a hand through his jet black hair.

My eyebrows raised. "Oh... we weren't... aren't... lovey." My hand made weird motions in the air. I shot it back down to my side.

He looked at me, amused. "So him being a real dick head lately has nothing to do with you?"

I shook my head. "He hasn't even given me a side glance since I got here."

Not the whole truth, but he didn't need to know that.

He nodded sagely. "Must be caught up on someone else then. He's a real drag to work with. Even his dad's staying out of his way. Thank the lord looks can't kill." He rested his hand behind his neck and smiled.

"Glad we can hang again, Rube. I'll see you soon for lunch, sound good?"

I shook myself out of the little trance I'd been in since he said Chuck was caught up on someone else. "Oh, yeah. Lunch soon, Carlo. Good luck with... Chuck."