Martians Abroad

If I’d acted a little more hurt—if I really had gotten a concussion, maybe, instead of just having to pick dirt out of my skin—I probably could have stayed in bed all day. Maybe next time.

When I entered the dining hall, everyone went quiet and stared at me. Who knew what kind of rumors were flying about me? I didn’t want to find out, but I didn’t see how I could avoid it. I scanned the tables, and found Ethan, Ladhi, Marie, Tenzig—and Charles. He nodded at an empty chair next to his. Chin up and shoulders straight, I went to the counter, picked up my tray of food, and joined the rest of the offworld freaks.

As soon as I sat down, conversation started again in a wave of hushed whispers. I could guess what every single person in the room was talking about.

“Oh, my gosh, Polly, what happened?” Ladhi studied me and my gauze bandages with wide eyes and gaping mouth. “When we got up and you weren’t in bed—we thought you’d died or something!”

“If she’d died she would have still been in bed,” Marie said. “We figured you ran away.”

“No. I just took one of the cycles out for a ride, that’s all,” I said casually, shrugging off the episode.

“Wow, you really did it,” Ethan said. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah, I just got a little scraped up.” I’d have to be careful not to wince every time I moved … I glanced at Charles, waiting for him to say something snide, but he was entirely focused on his food.

“So how much trouble are you in?” Tenzig said.

“I don’t know. Stanton was pretty unhappy.”

“How could you tell?” Ladhi asked. “She always looks so … so pristine.”

“Oh, I could tell.”

“You fell, didn’t you?” Tenzig said. “Pretty much everyone falls the first time they take out a cycle.”

“Have you ever ridden one?” I said.

“Yeah. They’re a lot of fun, but you really have to know what you’re doing. You should have asked me for advice.”

“I did fine,” I said. “And you’re right, they are a lot of fun.”

“This is really going to mess up your record, though,” he added. “Flight school doesn’t much like reprimands.”

I hadn’t thought of that. Of course, I hadn’t intended on getting caught. Best not to think about it.

Breakfast ended, and everyone filed out to go to classes. Charles stayed at the table, though, and I lingered, waiting until we were alone.

“So,” he said, “what really happened?”

“I had to get out. I had to go for a ride, so I did.”

“You hacked security on the doors?”

“No, I hacked maintenance to cut power on the cameras. But I had to tell Stanton about it so it probably won’t work again. You know, if you were getting ideas.”

“I’m almost impressed.”

“Gosh. Thanks.” I smirked.

“Polly, this isn’t Mars. You can’t just … carry on like that. In case you haven’t noticed, they don’t trust us here. They don’t trust anyone.”

“I wasn’t hurting anything,” I argued, and he frowned at the bandages on my arm. I added, “Much. I wasn’t hurting anyone else.”

“That’s not the point,” he said. “What are they going to do to you?”

“I’m grounded. Extra study halls, extra work, extra monitoring, and no social time. I thought Stanton was going to send me home,” I said, then sighed. “If I do something even crazier next time, maybe she’ll send me home.”

“Don’t do that,” Charles said.