Martians Abroad

Charles sidled up to me. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Beau finally broke up with you, didn’t he?”

I looked at him. “I hate you, Charles.”

“He’s not worth it. You can do much better than him.”

“I don’t want better. He was my boyfriend. I like him.” At least I used to. I frowned hard to keep my stinging eyes from tearing up.

“I heard a new Earth saying. ‘There’s always more fish in the sea.’”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means … there’s always more fish in the sea.” He turned the corridor to his wing of the dorm. And I … I didn’t know how I was going to sleep.

* * *

I didn’t care about the restrictions anymore because the constraints and isolation reflected my mood. If I didn’t have a chance to talk to anyone, that was just fine. I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Other kids screwed up and got put on restrictions. George got caught sneaking out of the dorm after dark. One of the older students had hidden tobacco-based drugs—cigarettes—in his locker. Angelyn had to explain cigarettes to me, and I was baffled, because it was another example of how people on Earth wasted their air. Trying to smoke tobacco at Colony One would get you deported, because it would ruin the air-filtration system for the whole settlement.

Compared to things like that, my stunt with the bike started looking kind of cool. People didn’t give me quite such weird looks.

Sometimes, walking back and forth between the dorm, classes, and meals, my friends would walk with me to keep me company. That was how I finally figured out I kind of had friends here. Usually, it was Ethan, Angelyn, or Ladhi. Charles never did, and that was okay. But I was shocked one day after astrophysics on the way to lunch, when Tenzig trotted up to me and walked alongside. Suspicious, I looked at him sidelong. He was studying me. I waited for him to say something, kind of hoping that he would get tired of staring at me and walk away.

“I could help you, you know,” Tenzig said finally. “That stunt with the cycle—that took guts, if nothing else. You might actually make a pretty good pilot.”

If nothing else—like brains and common sense? As far as I was concerned, I was already a pretty good pilot. I just hadn’t had a chance to fly anything bigger than a scooter. Yet.

“Help me how?” I said.

“Like I told you—I have connections. I could put a good word in for you.”

“You think I can’t do it on my own?”

“I’m just trying to help, that’s all.”

“What are you going to expect in return?”

“You’re suspicious. Can’t I just be a nice guy?”

“Gosh, why start now?”

“You’re kind of a hoot, Polly. Maybe I want to help because I like you.”

I blushed in spite of myself. I didn’t want to blush, or have him looking at me like he really did like me. He seemed amused, but I was afraid he was laughing at me. I could have kept the argument up for hours, and he would have just kept smiling like that.

“How about if I need help I’ll let you know?” I said.

“That’s a deal.”

There went that blush again.

While we picked up our trays of food, Ladhi pulled me aside and hissed, “What did Tenzig want?”

“He was just giving me a hard time,” I said.