“So the first hydrogen powered ships were built in - Moss! Moss, are you paying attention?” asked the teacher. To be honest, I wasn’t. “Yeah sure, the square root of 26 is -” “This is social studies, Moss.” How long was I asleep? The days are too short here. Even with the 3 day cycle, things still don’t work out well. Lucky for me, the bell rings just in time to escape. Lunch period. Must not have been out very long. Again, good for me. I synthesize a meal, and catch a table before it rises into the air. The tables float around the cafeteria, each steered by a student. My table is small, and empty, until I see someone heading my way. A boy, one I saw in my math, or social studies, or whatever I was just in. Synth, lunch in hand, grabs onto this table’s bench before it flies off. “Phew. Managed to grab a table. Do you know how to steer one of these? I need you to fly us away from those jerks” he explains, pointing at the Earthborn kids, whose table seems to be getting closer. It’s been three days of the school year and this guy’s already made enemies? Wow. “I’m going to assume this is bad, and I can’t steer a table either!” the Earthborn table collides with mine, everyone on it looking very angry about something. The boy who hopped onto my table is terrified of them, looking like he’s going to jump to the second floor balcony. This can’t end well. “I already told you, give us credits, we won’t hurt you as much as if you didn’t” says a large Earthborn. “That seems like a bad deal. What if I just do this?” the boy at my table grabs the joystick and rams it into another hovertable, breaking the plastic top. All three tables start ramming into each other until others see it, and someone declares “Bumper tables! Heck yeah!” Now it’s really a table fight. Everyone starts ramming into each other, with full out war ensuing. As our table shakes, I stand up to try and reach the balcony, which is a really bad idea. With the opposing table about to send me straight to the ground, I hold my breath and jump off. Surprisingly, no one is dead. The kid the bullies wanted money from follows me, meaning I’m not safe either. Fast forward a few hours. Everyone’s sitting in the droid’s office, with a hologram replaying what happened. “They did it. Totally their faults. Hey, why don’t you just let us go and put the kid who yelled ‘table fight’ so you can put him in the tubes?” asks the boy from my class. The droid thinks for a while, until saying “Calculation: The ones from Earth shall be put in suspension tubes.” what a relief. We exit the office relieved, as I head back to the dorms. “You’re Moss, right? I’m Leo.” I really wish people would call me by my first name. I don’t know when the whole ‘Moss’ thing started. I go to my room, while Leo just stands at my door. “Yup. This is the right room” he says. Hundreds of dorms line the wall, but my late roommate finally shows up. “Great, you can get me in even more trouble. What did those guys even want with you?” I ask. “They decided they wanted money, and that I was the one to get it from. Especially since someone from a low gravity planet is easily beaten up” he explains “I’m from Armstrong City. You know, city on Luna. Really historical place. You?” I don’t even know what planet I came from anymore, with all the moving around. “I honestly don’t know what to tell you. The Colonial Mining Corporation kept moving my parents around, a new planet every year or so, but I’m pretty sure I came from somewhere on Mars. Anyway, we were headed to Jupiter when my parents randomly dumped me at a boarding school on Ceres,” I explain. “Nice, real air. The cool part of being from Luna is that we think different air has different tastes. That’s why I brought so many air fresheners. Most of us find evergreen ones delicious,” he responds. “Why are you late? Everyone just kind of thought you wouldn’t show up,” I ask. “Warpdrive malfunction. I actually arrived last night, and just kind of stood here. You really didn’t hear me banging on the door for you to let me in?” I was wondering what that noise was. Great, now I feel guilty. My PocketHolo starts ringing. Ten minutes until Zero Gravity Athletics. “Come on. We have a thing to go to” no one’s actually been to ZGA yet. Supposedly the school had trouble getting the equipment working. “Looks like an airlock. Well, we don’t know how this is supposed to work, but I for one am not doing this in outer space” Leo remarks, pointing at a door labeled ZGA. Hesitantly, we pull the door open and enter. Inside is what must be a spaceship’s passenger bay. “I have to get back on one already? Space travel makes me nauseous,” We must be late, as there are already at least 30 kids in the seats. I sit down next to a blue-haired girl, hoping no one throws up. At the front of the passenger bay is an old man with a Colonial Navy cap. “Alright, now that everyone’s here, we can begin. My name is Sergeant Boyd, and this is my class. I’m sure some of you thought that the Ceres Academy is all just building robots and dissecting aliens. But it isn’t! This isn’t like other planet’s ZGA, with those antigravity chambers. Everyone on this ship is here to play REAL ZGA. We are about to fly you into the asteroid belt, turn off the gravity, and most importantly, experience real space sports,” the man explains. The entire room shakes, which means we’re taking off. Outside the window closest to me, I can see all the way to Saturn. Of course, Leo throws up. Sergeant takes us to a massive room behind the passenger bay. In between the massive room are suits, and laser guns. Then, the gravity turns off, and the laser’s lights turn on. “Let the games begin!”
Crossword Puzzle By: Jordan Herd
The First Game By: Trey Ponce It was a hard game, the Dragons versus our home team Chameleons. It was a hard first half. Coach said that we couldn’t throw much in this game because who knows what the wind will do to the ball in the air. While the football players were eating drinking and resting the coach was giving them a pep talk, everyone felt down besides we were losing 31 to 18. Suddenly things changed, Jordan herd felt pride and confidence in his heart he got on a stool and said, “ yeah they may have a good defense and a pretty good offense but you know what we got, team work!” the clock buzzed Jordan was going to say more but instead he just said “Lets go out there and do our best today and hey if we lose to day then we will beat them next time in the playoffs”. The Chameleons got out there and made a comeback 25 to 31 10 seconds left on the Chameleons have the ball coach said go with a run play setting up, “Set Hut! Hut!” he faked passed it to Dillon and tossed it left to Jordan. Jordan had out run every one but 3 competitors the clock buzzed “It's time,” Jordan said. He trucks number 41 spin moves around number 28 but number 11 went for the legs Jordan was stuck! The other teams players were getting closer to him there was only one thing to do he took off his shoes and bolted to the in zone final score 32 to 31 that night as a team together.