“Well, I still think it’s exciting,” Ethan said. Things would be so much easier if some of his attitude would rub off on me.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “Everything’s so … weird.”
Ladhi winced. “I’m so nervous, I know I’m going to screw up.”
“Just relax,” Ethan told her.
Charles frowned. He kept looking around like he expected something to happen. When his gaze finally focused, I looked to see what he’d spotted.
Three of the Earth kids approached our table, closing us in and staring us down. If they looked big from a distance, they looked like giants sitting next to us.
“Welcome to Earth,” said the one next to Ethan. He had brown skin, close-cropped hair, and appraising eyes that made me want to look away. He put his elbows on the table and leaned in, like he owned the place. “I’m George Lou Montes. This is Marielle Ella Kent and Elzabeth Lea Rockney.”
He said the names like we should have recognized them. I wasn’t even sure I could understand him; he had a thick accent, rounded, that made the words run together. I had to listen closely and still wasn’t sure I got it. When we all stared blankly at him, he smirked. Like he’d scored a point.
“Do we have to remember all those names?” I said.
“Ethan,” Ethan said, extending his hand to shake. Which George didn’t, and Ethan let his hand rest on the table.
“Just Ethan?” Marielle asked, and she and Elzabeth bent their heads together and giggled.
Marielle had the most amazing golden hair, tied in a braid over her shoulder, making her look rugged, powerful. Elzabeth was pale, round, curvy, gazing out through half-lidded eyes, like she was always just about to laugh at something. They all filled out their uniforms, which suddenly seemed to hang on the rest of us like sacks.
Ethan continued, unperturbed. “Ethan Achebe. But just call me Ethan. This is Ladhi Bijanai, and Polly and Charles Newton.”
“Newton,” George said. “Are you really from Mars?” He glanced at us both, gaze narrowed, like he didn’t believe it.
“Yes,” both Charles and I said at the same time, like a computer with two speakers. We glared at each other.
“That makes you the first Martian students ever at Galileo Academy, isn’t that right?”
“That’s what we’ve been told,” Charles said.
“Though not surprising, I suppose. As I understand it, the Martian education system just isn’t up to standards.”
I could punch him. And probably break my hand doing it. Right, then. I could glare at him.
“The standards,” Charles said, “are entirely dependent on the desired outcome, or the context in which that education is required. I might question, for example, whether an exclusively Earth-based education would prepare one for surviving a week on a survey expedition across Utopia Planitia. What standards are you referring to, in this case?”
George gave a huff—a laugh or a dismissal or both. “Earth’s a little more complicated than your colony, I imagine.”
“What do you know about it?” I shot back. “You ever been to Mars?”
“Polly…” Charles said in a tone of warning.
Marielle leaned forward next, glancing between me and Charles. “Are you two brother and sister? Really?”
I was about to answer, when Charles said, “We’re twins.”
“That’s so weird,” Marielle said. “I mean, no family has more than one child these days. It’s so, well, primitive.”
And on Mars, people were encouraged to have all the kids they could manage so we could actually build up a stable and productive population. But I wasn’t going to say that when it would only make me sound more weird.
I had about lost my appetite. “I don’t understand what the problem is. Are you trying to intimidate us? Scare us? Bully us into treating you guys like some kind of king of the hill? Seriously?”
Marielle and Elzabeth fell into another giggling fit.
My face flushed, burning almost, even though I had no reason to be upset or embarrassed. They were the ones being idiots. And there wasn’t a thing I could say that they wouldn’t laugh at. Ladhi had slouched, shrunk in her seat, gaze locked on the tabletop. Ethan was eating toast like nothing was wrong. At least Charles was glaring. But at me. What had I done?