Sherry chewed on the end of her hair and stared at the corner of the room. The teacher's voice paused for a second, then continued, accompanied by the quiet squeak of felt pen on plastic. She re-focussed on the notes projected on the far wall, and copied the teacher's annotations onto her copy of the notes.
She glanced at Michi, who seemed to be actually paying attention, then put her chin in her hand and stared behind the teacher again. At least their seats were comfortable, even if not everybody had the best view of the notes, or even table space in front of them.
Science class was going to be very boring with no labs, only lectures. Even if they got a conference room with comfy padded chairs.
A boy a few chairs down jerked upright, fumbled his pen, and tried to look like he'd been paying attention all along.
The teacher capped her pen and shut off the projector, making the larger-than-life picture of leaves disappear.
"Next class we'll be looking at plants native to the colony worlds, particularly Velfard Colony, and how they compare to the types seen on Earth. I gave you your reading assignment with your notes already, so make sure you read them by next class. Dismissed."
Everybody stood up and started talking, suddenly much more awake.
"History next. Yawn." Sherry stacked up her paper, tapping the plasticky sheets on the table and trying not to drop any of them. She lined up the transfer tabs on the corners, and pressed them against her bookreader's transfer port. A second later it beeped, and she folded the now-blank paper and stuffed them in her bag. After a few thumbnail-presses on her bookreader's screen, her science notes were filed away safely.
Down the hall, into another conference room, drag out the paper so the teacher could give them the class notes, and try to find seats together.
"Good morning, class. Now, I believe you've covered general world history and started on the history of whatever country you're from, correct?"
A few people nodded.
"Excellent. Now, 'your country' is going to become Velfard colony, so we're going to cover its history from discovery, through landing, to the present day. As much as we can during the trip out, that is."
Sherry looked at the first page of her notes. A star chart with no labels. Great, this was going to be an astronomy class, too.
"Before the mid-twenty-first century, the only planets we knew about were the ones so big and so close to their star they could either make their star wobble in a way we could see, or could dim its light just enough for us to be able to detect it as they passed between it and Earth. Very interesting to the scientists and astronomers, but not at all the kind of places we could live on."
Sherry tuned the teacher's voice out, and copied on her notes whatever he wrote on the overhead.
#
"Sandwiches again." Michi made a face. "Hot lunches are just so much better."
"I think there's soup down at the end," Cathy said.
"Eh. Hot solid food."
"Well, you could dip your sandwich in your soup." Kara ducked away as Michi swatted in her general direction.
"How were classes?" Jess asked.
"Boring," Kara said, at the same time as Cathy said "Not bad."
"Good to see we all agree on something," Michi said.
Sherry picked up a couple of sandwiches. "I vote for boring."
"Well, maybe if you were paying attention, you would have found it more interesting."
"Oh? What did they say that was so interesting, then?"
"Let's see." Michi pretended to think while chewing a bite of her sandwich. "How about the description of some of the nasty ways trees kill bugs, even though they can't move?"
"Huh? Were we in the same class?"
Michi rolled her eyes. "You didn't seem to be there, that's for sure. How about the way plants try to attract certain bugs, while killing others? Or the way plants store water and food, so they can survive a drought?"
"Are you a science geek too?" Kara asked.
"Yeah, I like biology and stuff. Not so much into physics and math though."
"Well, that explains why you found science class interesting." Sherry wrinkled her nose. "I may be asking you for help with my homework."
"Only if you start paying attention in class. Course, then you probably won't need help."
"Yes, mother."
"Oh shaddap you two." Jess pulled out her schedule and glanced over it again.
Kara and Cathy started arranging study times with each other.
Sherry finished her sandwich, and checked where her next class was going to be, then started paging through her science notes from that morning looking for murderous trees.
Ellen walked past their table and smirked at Sherry just before she turned her back on them.
"Huh, wonder what she's got planned." Kara watched Ellen out the door.
#
"Let's do some basic drills, just to remind our bodies how to play," Mr. Ellis-but-call-me-Theo said, bouncing a volleyball on his right wrist, not looking at it. He missed, and the ball shot off to the side. "Er, oops. See? even people who know how to play should do the drills."
A few girls near the front of the group giggled, and the boys next to them rolled their eyes.
"Spread out, and try to stay in the same spot while you're bouncing the ball. No, hold your hands together, like this." He pushed one of the giggler's fingers around. "Everybody see that? You want to brace your hands against each other, so that your fingers don't get inthe way. And you want the ball to hit right on the heel of your hand." He pulled another ball out, and started bouncing it.
Sherry grabbed a ball when he let them, and tossed it into the air to start the drill.
A few basic moves later, which she remembered from gym classes in previous schools, they moved up to the nets and he demonstrated a spike.
The basketball players were already playing on the other end of the gym, Ellen with them.
They lined up so Theo could throw a ball for them to spike, and took turns jumping, hitting the ball, then chasing after it as it bounced toward the wall.
Just as Theo threw the ball for Sherry, Ellen yelled "Don't jump too high!"
Sherry hesitated, jumped late, and barely caught the ball before it hit her.
"What was--" Theo started.
"Can I try again?" Sherry asked, tossing him her ball. She shot a glare at Ellen, then focussed all her attention on the ball. She would not be distracted. Jumping wasn't high enough to bother her.
Theo tossed the ball, and she jumped and jammed it into the top of the net.
"Dammit!"
"Don't worry. You'll get better." Theo smiled at her.
Sherry jogged to the back of the line, grinning. Even Ellen's smirk from across the gym didn't bother her.
"You can sure jump," she said to Kara. "The net didn't look very high at all when you went up to it."
"Eh, I'm just taller than you. When you can almost touch the top of the net, spiking isn't that hard."
Theo demonstrated the spike as slowly as he could while still jumping to one of the gigglers.
"I'm glad I didn't take your bet," Sherry whispered.
Kara laughed out loud, drawing glances from both the volleyball and the basketball teams.
After everybody had a chance to try spiking, Theo split them up. "Ok, I was asked a couple of times about having a team just for fun, so those who want to be on a competetive team on my right, those who want a fun team on my left."
Kara waved as she jogged to the competetive team.
The group split up, most of the people going to the competetive side.
Sherry looked at her team. "Aw, hell." She jogged away from the gigglers, and went to stand next to Kara. "I think I'd rather the stress," she whispered.
Theo counted the people on each side, split the gigglers into two tiny teams and sent them to the end court, then turned to the 'competetive' group. "I'll shuffle teams so you're evenly matched later, but for now," he pushed his arms between two boys, "you are a team," between a boy and a girl, "you are a team," beside Kara, "you are a team, and the rest of you are a team. No spares so you all get maximum playing time." He grinned and started directing the four teams to their courts.
Two team rotations later, Sherry was starting to get the hang of not flinching when the ball came her way, but was starting to wince every time it hit her arms.
Theo dismissed them, and Kara prodded Sherry into a faster walk. "Let's get those showers before the lineup gets bad," she hissed. "And before Ellen."
Sherry glanced down the gym, where the basketball group was just collecting their balls, and started walking faster. They rushed down the stairs, leaving most of their group behind, and went straight to the showers. The lineup was already out the door, but hadn't started going down the hall yet. It grew fast, and by the time they got to the door, it was nearly to the stairs. And Ellen still hadn't shown up. Sherry and Kara grinned at each other.
#
"So, does anybody want to nominate himself or herself for newsletter editor?" John looked around, and Sherry stifled a yawn. "Ok, who has ever been the editor of a newsletter or school newspaper before?"
A few people raised their hands. Geek-boy was one of them, she saw. She hadn't even noticed he was there before he raised his hand.
"Want to tell everybody what you did as editor on the other paper then?"
The stories started, each person saying a bit, being prompted for more, summarizing their experience with school newspapers. One got a warning for inappropriate content, one took over from a previous editor who had been expelled for inappropriate content, another produced a perfectly appropriate newspaper that nobody in the school ever read.
John shook his head. "I see why none of you wanted to volunteer."
Sherry and Michi looked at each other. "Did you read the editorial guidelines?" Sherry whispered.
"No, why?"
"No 'teacher's discretion' clause."
Michi's eyebrows shot up. "I'll volunteer," she said.
"Thank you. Anybody else?" He looked around.
The former editors looked relieved, and sat back in their chairs.
"Ok, any objections?"
A round of headshaking rippled through the group.
"Congratulations, Miss Allen. Looks like you're the editor for the next eight weeks. Now, according to our publication schedule, we're going to do one issue a week, seven issues total. The sections you want to include are up to you, but on past trips we've had the usual sports, club reports, current events, editorials, reviews, announcements, that sort of stuff. I suggest you talk among yourselves to figure out what strengths and interests you have and what you want to put in your newsletter, because I'm just here for help, not to be your boss." He held up a small sheaf of paper by the transfer tabs. "This is the format you'll get to publish it on; this particular newsletter is the last one from last trip."
Michi nodded, and waved everybody into a circle. "Can everybody say what they normally covered if they worked on a paper before, and what they'd like to cover for this paper? I'll start. I generally reported on the student council and a few of the clubs that went off to competitions outside the school." She turned to the girl next to her. "You?"