To The Moon And Back

Chapter 6

The Earth doesn't look as spectacular as I've led myself to believe. All I see is ruins around the dome. They check our bags and then a bus takes us to Los Angeles Dome Headquarters, where we'll spend the next two months.

It's been about eighteen years since I've last been here.

When we arrive, a woman leads us to two big rooms with many beds and a big, compartmentalized wardrobe each.

"Normally, we would give a room for girls and one for guys but there's only one girl," she says, eyeing me, "so, um, we cannot divide them."

We nod, each person taking a bed and emptying their suitcases. I take the bed furthest from the door and leave my suitcase unpacked, only taking a pajama out.

The guys give me creepy eyes, so I take my PJs and walk towards the bathroom.

"Hey, Aurora," the woman says.

"Hi?"

"Listen, I understand how you might feel uncomfortable. If anything happens, there's an armed guard right outside the common door, call for help."

"Yeah, of course."

"And if you need anything, you can always tell me." She smiles warmly. "I'm Martha, Senior Director of the dome."

Wow. She's pretty humble for someone who holds that much power in her hands. There's only one person above her, the dome leader, whom we'll meet tomorrow.

"Thank you, this means a lot," I say. "Have a good night!"

She nods and lets me change. I drift to sleep surprisingly faster than normal and only wake up when the alarm rings.

Time for my first day of internship. I get dressed, meditate for five minutes, and head for the main hall.

They make us stand in a line waiting for the leader of this dome, Jamie Addison. So far, my impression of him is that his majesty is late. I hate people not being on time.

Then he appears in my vision. He's tall, with golden hair and aquamarine eyes and a perfectly ironed navy blue suit that compliments his eye color.

All in all, he's quite a lovely sight. Except for his smug look, like we should be thanking our lucky stars that he decided to show up.

"Welcome to California, everyone. It's a pleasure to meet you all," he says, hovering his eyes over us and deliberately stopping to stare at me. And then he smiles at me, arrogantly raising a brow. "Our schedule is pretty simple. Breakfast is at 8.30 A.M., work starts from 9 to 1, an hour break, then again work from 2 to 5. Afterward, you're free to do whatever you wish. Everything closes at midnight.

"If you even dare to disobey orders, you'll get locked up in a cell here, and you can kiss your lovely job on the moon goodbye. Are there any questions?"

"Disobey orders? We're not your little soldiers here," I blurt. I regret it as soon as he looks at me, but not really since I hear faint laughs beside me.

"We did not even begin, and you're doing a wonderful job at being an obnoxious child." I glare at him. "And stop looking at me like I killed your cat, it's almost scary."

I'm about to reply but he shuts me up by starting to talk again.

"Anyway, you're all dismissed," he says. Everyone starts to bustle towards the dining room for breakfast. "Except you," he says, pointing at me.

I don't know why but I think I'm in trouble. It takes tremendous effort to remove the smile off my face.

He inches closer to me, till I can see dark green flecks in his eyes. He looks even more handsome up close. He smells nice too, like something minty and fresh. My heart picks up the speed for some reason.