ASA Episode 1: The End of Summer
[image error]
EPISODE 1
When will Summer Break end? Lacey asked herself as she put away her books on her shelf. She waved at some of her friends as they passed her room and lugged their suitcases down the hallway. Mostly everyone she knew was still at home visiting with their families.
Lacey would have gone home except that she was taking extra courses this summer so that she would be able to skip a grade. Her professors had suggested it because they felt she was working at a higher level. If it meant she got to graduate minor academy that much sooner, she was all for it. Besides, her parents, little brother Finn and her Grandmother had already gone to a tropical getaway without her. She had no where else to be.
“Are you coming?” Her roommate and best friend Bay Miles asked. Bay stood at the door with her white blond hair hanging down her back in a long thick braid. Her pale blue eyes glittered with excitement. Lacey envied Bay’s golden looks. There wasn’t a guy in the academy that could pass Bay by without admiring her. She was everything Lacey wasn’t.
Lacey was a little bit on the heavier side. Not fat but not model thin like Bay or her other friend Caroline. But Lacey was also full human which meant she had to constantly watch what she ate where as her friends were mixed or some other species, which usually meant they had a high metabolism. They could eat anything that they wanted without the worries. So not fair!
Lacey glanced in the mirror at her appearance. She was pretty despite not being super thin. She had long brown hair and hazel eyes. In her mind though she saw average. She was average weight, average height for a human, average brown hair, and plain brown eyes. She thought she was cute but nothing exotic or special.
“Lacey Venus Clark!” Bay asked again with frustration.
“I’m coming!” God she hated whenever anyone called her by her middle name. Who the in the universe would name their kid after an old Goddess? Her parents, that’s who. She quickly pulled her hair up into a long ponytail and turned to follow Bay out.
It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining bright and there was a very pleasant breeze blowing across her bare arms. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved t-shirt. She shook her head at Bay. Even during Summer Break she insisted on wearing the usual school uniform skirt. It came down to right about her knees and showcased her long legs. Yeah, If Lacey had those legs she’d show them off too.
“Look! There’s Blayne, Trevon, and Rigs. Hey guys!” Bay yelled and waved her hands to get their attention. She actually attracted a lot of other attention from the guys pasing by.
Lacey tried not to look in the direction where her other friends were waiting. She really did. But she could not stop her eyes from seeking out the hottest guys in minor academy. They were also older, almost ready to graduate and move on to Graduate Academy. How she ended up being friends with them Lacy had no clue. Maybe it was pure luck.
The older ones would soon go off to Graduate Academy. After two years there they would get their commission to work in the Alliance fleet. That’s what Lacey wanted more than anything. That’s why she had worked her ass off to move up a grade.
She watched as other girls passed her friends lingering to look their fill. Some even stopped and flirted. She held her breath as Rigs turned and looked in her direction quickly before turning back and flirting back with the girls. She would do anything to have Rigs flirt with her. But he never saw her for anything other than a seventeen-year-old kid.
She walked beside Bay as she stopped to talk to her brother Blayne. Blayne Miles was Bay’s twin brother. They were eighteen years old. Blayne, like his sister, was all kinds of blond hair blued eyed goodness. Then there was Trevon Fuller the jock. He stood there proudly displaying his muscles wearing no shirt again, which was against the Academy’s rules. He wasn’t much of a follower of rules. He was also the oldest student in minor academy at twenty-one years of age. Then there was Rigs.
Rigs Lawson, nineteen-year-old heartthrob. The boy Lacey had been in love with for forever. But he didn’t seem to notice her at all. Lately he had been acting strange, barely talking to her and never looking at her directly. It felt like he was pushing her away and that hurt.
“Hi Lacey.” Blayne greeted her with one of his gorgeous and perfect smiles. His light blue eyes flared with some kind of emotion that she had never seen before.
“Hi Blayne, Trevon, Rigs. Did you just get back?” She asked fighting not to look over at Rigs. She felt her heart racing faster. Hopefully no one else noticed it.
“Yeah me and Bay came back early. It was boring there.” Blayne told her moving to stand closer to her. “Did you stay here all summer by yourself?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Yep, I got a lot done.” She turned to look at Rigs but he was starting at Blayne for some reason.
Lacey turned to Trevon. “What about you? I thought you would be somewhere tropical hitting on a bunch of graduate academy girls.”
Trevon snorted. “Me and Rigs were halfway there when we got the call that our last two classes were incomplete. We have to come back and take them all over again and get our grade point average up or we won’t graduate.” Trevon told her.
She couldn’t help it. She looked up and her eyes caught on Rigs's beautiful dark blue eyes with the strange silver rim circling them. The silver rim around his eyes was common for all Gammons and Rigs was as Gammon as you could get. He was tall at six feet eight inches and had red and brown hair. He was impressive to say the least.
“Where’s Caroline?” Rigs asked looking away. He couldn’t keep looking at Lacey without reaching for her or blabbing out loud how he felt. Did she know how she looked at that moment with the sun shining down on her hair bringing out strands of gold? She seemed clueless to how others saw her. He liked that about her. Fact was, he liked her more than he should. But he realized over the summer that life was changing and his time with Lacey would be up soon. He wanted her to know how he felt. He needed to find the perfect time and place for that. Preferably somewhere where they could be alone.
Lacey almost felt like he had slapped her when he ignored her and asked about her other friend. Rigs and Caroline had dated once. It was way before Lacey came to the Academy and met Rigs. Bay had told her that things didn’t work out for them and they broke up. As if saying her name had made her materialize, Caroline was suddenly there.
“Hey misfits! What’s going on?” Caroline asked flipping her bright red hair back behind her shoulder. It wasn’t as long as hers or Bay’s. But it was unique which fit Caroline’s personality perfectly.
“We’re just figuring that out with everyone coming back early. What about you?” Bay asked her.
“Well I had nothing else waiting for me at home so I got me a job and stayed with a girl I met. Turns out that my full scholarship didn’t come through. I have enough to pay for tuition and books but I can’t live on campus. The girl I met over Summer Break is going to let me rent out a room in her apartment. So you know what that means?” Caroline raised her eyebrows up and down.
Trevon laughed, “It means that it’s party time at Caroline’s!”
Caroline laughed. “Don’t you know it. What about you nerd girl? I didn’t see much of you this summer.”
“I was taking extra classes and studying.” Lacey told her.
“Of course you were. All you care about is school.” Caroline commented.
“Hey, I took those classes so that I can skip a grade and graduate early.” She defended herself.
“All that work so that you get to graduate early and be sent off to Graduate Academy for even more boring studies. Ugh.” Caroline made a face that had everyone laughing except Lacey. She blushed and turned her head away. Sometimes Caroline was a jerk.
Blayne sensed her being upset and put an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t listen to Caroline. She has to keep failing just to stay in the Academy so she doesn’t graduate and have to get a real job.”
“Hey! I resemble that remark!” Caroline said with a half smile.
Lacey breathed easier having the tension leave her. Blayne was good at easing tensions. She looked up at him and gave him a dazzling smile.
“You want to go get some ice cream?” Blayne asked her.
“Sure, are we all going?” She looked around but everyone else was walking off except for Rigs. He stood there watching them.
Blayne turned her and started them walking. “Naw. They can get their own ice cream. Catch ya later Rigs!” He called out without looking back. He could feel Rig’s eyes boring into his back. Too bad, Rigs had three years to make his move on Lacey. All this time Blayne stood back watching and waiting. But it never happened. Now was the time. He had always liked Lacey and she deserved to have someone that would take good care of her. He was just that person.
___________________
I hope you liked the first episode of Alliance Space Academy. Let me know what you think. Come back next Thursday for the next episode.
Author KD Jones
