I Love You Keith

Level up

It's been a few weeks since the beginning of school, and it's the middle of October.

Keith POV

The second my alarm clock went off, I shot straight up. It was October 15th! Only eight days until my birthday! 16 days until Halloween! I can't wait. I rushed to get dressed and ran to the cafeteria, where my friends were. I got my food, and the second they saw me they all stopped talking and went quiet. I as I sat down next to James and Hunk I asked "What? Why'd you guys get quiet all of a sudden?" Lance, Pidge and Veronica just smiled at me "No reason." I looked around the table, and all of them were silent. I looked at Hunk, knowing that if anything was going to happen, he'd be the most likely to tell me. "Hunk? What's going on?"  "Hey, don't try and grill Hunk. If you really must know, we're trying to figure out something for your birthday Mullet. It's in a few days right?" Lance said, and I was surprised "You Know when my birthday is? And you care?" Lance smiled "Of course. We're all friends here. So, what'd you wanna do?" I smiled brightly "Really? That's what you guys were doing?" Pidge nodded, along with the others "We were going to do a surprise party, then Kinkade reminded us that you don't like surprises." Veronica said. I laughed "He's right. One time, Shiro and Adam threw me one, and I ended up punching Shiro in the face." Everyone laughed at that. "Well, what's your favorite thing to do? Or place to be? Maybe we could try and take a field trip. I'm sure we could get Shrio and Adam to chaperone us." James piped in, looking at me.  I smiled "Yeah. " then I got an amazing idea "Ooh! We could go to Six Flags! Or the beach!" Veronica shook her head "It has to be something nearby." I sagged my shoulders "Boo." "aww, come on. I'm sure there's something that we could do." Lance said. The others stayed silent, thinking. "What if we get Shiro and Adam to take a few of us to a nearby store, and we have a mini party in you guys's room?" Kinkade said, looking at me and James. Hunk smiled "Yeah! And then I could make a cake or something! Keith, what's your favorite kind of cake?" I thought for a moment "Vanilla, with buttercream frosting. Can you make it red?" "What part?" I smiled "All of it." Lance looked at me "Why all red? Is that like, your favorite color?" I nodded "Yeah, and my favorite animal is a hippo." Pidge smiled "Well now we know what kind of decorations we need." The rest of breakfast was spent talking about all of our favorite colors and animals. But throughout all of it, James was silent. He said nothing, and just stared at the table.

When we left, I pulled him aside "Hey, are you okay?" I asked, concerned. He'd been pretty moody this year. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired, is all." He freed himself from my grasp and continued down the hall. Something was up with him. I just had to figure out what.

When we got to class, there were new pods. I smiled. Finally, a challenge. They were the second of three different pods. I know, it seems weird to have three different kinds of pods instead of updating them, but each one had different controls for the different kinds of ship or vehicles we'd be flying. "Good morning cadets. As I'm sure you've noticed, we have new simulator pods today. These have different controls, and this time, you'll be controlling drones that are flying in real life." A ripple of excitement spread over the class "Can you believe it? We'll actually be flying something." Hunk whispered to me. "Yeah, but they're really small. If one comes close to crashing they self destruct. Anything within a feet might get damaged." Hunk stared at me "What? How do you know that?" I shrugged "Me and Shiro helped the Holts design and test the pods, which means we worked with the drones. Pidge programmed most of them. It was her idea for them to explode." Hunk laughed "Yeah, that sounds like Pidge. But why?" "To show how dangerous messing up can be. In the simulator, if you mess up you can just start over. In real life, if you mess up, it's over. You're done for." "Wow. That's...uh...dark." I shrugged "It was Pidge's idea. I just came up with a reason for it." "Kogane, since you're talking I assume that you're ready to use the simulator?" Shiro said, seemingly disapprovingly. But I saw a smile in his eyes. He knew i could beat the simulator. Hell, he knew I could beat him. He was giving me a chance to show off, one I would gladly take. "Of course I am Mr.Kogane." "Then step up to the pod and do it. In front of the whole class." Ah, he was giving me a chance to show off for James, Lance, Hunk, and the others. "Yes sir." I climbed into the pod, already scanning the controls. I knew these. They were fairly simple, and similar to the ones we already used. "Beginning training sequence, level 1." I smiled. Easy. I started the sequence, and finished it in seconds. I heard whispers spread throughout my classmates. Shrio smiled "Continue sequences until failure." I nodded and began. 

2...

3....

10....

24........

30.....

I passed level after level with ease.

42...

60...

End of simulations

I had finished? I hadn't even noticed. I heard clapping behind, and turned to see my classmates gathered behind me, staring in awe at my screen. Shiro smiled proudly "Very good. I look forward to seeing you in fighter pilot training next year." My friends walked up to mr and immediately started congratulating me. "That was great man! You've got to show me how to do that!" Lance said, hooking his arm around my shoulders. I smiled "Sure." Hunk swept me up into a bear hug "That was so cool! You did great!" "Thanks Hunk." Griffin hugged me to "That was amazing Keith! You're a natural!" Kinkade high fives me "And you said you weren't that good." I shrugged "Well, I don't like to brag." Lance smiled at me "Well if you won't toot your own horn, I will. Don't you agree?" James smiled "Actually, I do." Then, they picked me up and put me on their shoulders "BEHOLD! KEITH KOGANE,BEST PILOT OF HIS GENERATION!" Lance yelled. Him and the others paraded me around the room, while everyone else laughed and congratulating me and high fiving me. Shiro just shook his head, still smiling. I could tell that I was too. My cheeks hurt, but I couldn't stop. I was on cloud nine.