Cosmic Collisions (Novel)

Chapter Six

Chapter Six:

The day had come; the birthday ceremony was finally here and Isla, Charlotte and Elliot had been instructed to stay in their respective bedrooms until they were called. It was Isla's actual birthday that day and Luca was at the forefront of her mind. He would have also been 23 that day. Crying out in pain and cursing, Isla slowly turned over in her bed to gaze into the blackness. Sometimes, if she was lucky, she could see the stars far off into the distance. The jellyfish stings and the rope burns across her stomach were hurting the entire night and now that Isla was fully awake it was agony. Moving as sluggishly as humanly possible to try to prevent the waves of pain she was in, Isla reached for her GalacticPhone and opened the text messages. They could only communicate with the people inside their space pod, which luckily for Isla was all she needed, at the moment. Finding a text from Finley she smiled, clicking on the icon.

Finley: Happy birthday, Isla! Very good luck today with the ceremony. I'll be there, mentally cheering you on!

Isla: Thanks Finley :)

She beamed at his message and read some other texts, one from her friend Freya, one from her mum and one from her Aunty. Checking the time, she swore yet again. Isla had lost count of the number of times she'd cursed and it wasn't even 9:00 in the morning yet. Walking to her tiny bathroom to her mirror with difficulty and gasped. The whole left side of her face had gone completely purple and as she touched it gingerly with her fingertips a wave of nausea hit her so forcefully she stumbled.

Things weren't going any better in Elliot's bedroom; his hands were swollen and were a mixture of varying shades of purple and blue. Wincing with every letter he pushed, Elliot typed out a message to Finley who had texted him 10 minutes before. Putting on the suit that both his dads insisted he wore that day took him absolutely ages and by the time he finished, his hands tingled and throbbed in pain. He slumped into his desk chair already absolutely exhausted.

Charlotte, on the other hand, woke up full of energy. She jumped out of bed, startling a dragon who had been watching her from the circular window. She put on her cast for her arm and rebandaged her head. Today was the day! Getting dressed in her simple black dress with colourful jellyfish printed all over it Charlotte sat back down on her bed and felt, for the first time in two weeks, almost relaxed. That was until she remembered what day it actually was; Luca's dead glassy eyes stared back at her in her mind accusingly. Isla and Luca's birthday. She reached for the GalacticPhone and typed a short birthday message to Isla, then checked the time, 9:16 am. She had 14 minutes left and, without realising it she had started crying. Charlotte wished Luca was also coming with them. Somehow it still all felt like a dream and she nearly expected him to knock on her bedroom door any minute and hug her tight just like he had so many times before. Telling herself to stop feeling sorry for herself rather harshly, Charlotte walked to the mirror and fixed her light brown hair in two buns, one on either side of her head.

"I'm ready, I'm ready," Charlotte chanted in front of the mirror. Charlotte sat at her desk, then, and wrote in her little notebook for 10 minutes.

In the Headquarters waiting anxiously was Finley, who ran his fingers through his orange hair. The Headquarters was getting more and more crowded. His cousin, who was more like his sister in many ways, Freya, had just come in gasped in delight and he really couldn't blame her. Once Isla, Elliot and Charlotte headed to bed, the crew and most of the other passengers had helped to create the perfect space for a celebration. The round windows on each of the three walls had been covered in silver shimmery wallpaper that appeared green and purple in different lighting. Rainbow ribbons hung from the ceiling and the small tables next to the velvet orange sofas were each covered with cheerful green table cloths. Once Finley's parents had both died on this very space ship, Freya and his aunt and uncle treated him like their own. She and Finley even looked the same; they both had pale blue eyes, freckles across their cheeks and fiery orange hair.