Space School - November 6, 2010

“Students please sit down and fasten your seatbelts,” Mrs. Rushford said.

I quickly fumbled with the seatbelt for a while and finally got it on.

“We will soon be leaving earth. The gravity in this room will be gone shortly, so brace yourselves. Don’t panic though. Artificial gravity will be turned on shortly after leaving the atmosphere,” Mrs. Rushford continued, “Do not take off your seatbelts until instructed to do so.”

I looked around. Everything looked like a normal boarding school classroom, other than the fact that everything was bolted down to the floor and our seats were padded and more comfortable than regular school chairs, like chairs in a car. The seat belts all of us had on were more like harnesses that had four straps that connected at a buckle at the center.

I suddenly felt my stomach feel like it was going to go up my throat. We were currently in zero-g. “We are going to keep the artificial gravity off for about thirty more minutes, so that you can get used to this feeling,” Mrs. Rushford explained. I felt like I was going to throw up.

Suddenly I saw a boy floating in the air.

“Help! Help!” he shrieked. The two boys that sat by the empty seat tried not to laugh.

“What is going on here?” Mrs. Rushford asked. “Gravity: On!” she commanded the computer. The boy fell with a thud to the ground. “Get back into your seat immediately! This school doesn’t tolerate misbehavior.” He quickly got back to his seat and snapped his seat belt into place. Mrs. Rushford then said, “Gravity: Off,” and I felt that weird feeling in my stomach again. “I’ll be right back.” She walked out the door.

“Guys that wasn’t cool,” the guy who was just barely in the air said.

“Come on Greg. Can’t you take a joke?” the boy to his right said. The boy on his left just stayed quiet.

Mrs. Rushford came back in, “Because of the misbehavior we will sit in silence for the thirty minutes of getting used to zero-g.”

By the end of the thirty minutes I was no longer sick. “Gravity: On,” Mrs. Rushford said. Suddenly the amount of gravity on the Earth was in all of the large space shuttle. I now felt very heavy. Would I ever get used to this?

“You may take off your seatbelts,” Mrs. Rushford said, “Go and find your room and meet your room mates. Then you are free to go outside and explore as well.”

Outside?

I looked at the student ID card I had received. It had my picture, full name, and password key on it. My picture showed my long brown locks of hair. It also had my room number. I looked at my room number, 385. When I walked out of the class room with all the other students pushing and shoving, there were many floating glass globes about ten feet tall. They all had a small set of stairs leading to the door. I watched kids pile in them and then they floated off. I kept walking down until I saw Girls 300-600. I watched about five girls go inside and then stepped in my self followed by one other girl. Inside the globe was a flat floor ten by ten feet and the roof was curved like a dome. The only thing in the globe was a small touch screen that extruded out of the wall. I watched a girl go up to it and type something in. After that all the girls had typing something on the touch screen.

“We’re waiting,” a tall girl with blonde hair and brown eyes said staring at me like she was in charge.

“Oh.” I walked up to the touch screen. On the screen it said, Please type in your destination. I touched the three, eight, and five button and then enter. The globe started to move, and being unprepared I fell down. I looked up to see all the other girls holding the railing that was welded to the interior of the globe. I stood up slowly and staggered to the railing and held on.

“What’s her problem?” I heard one of the girls whisper loudly to another girl.

The screen above the door beeped as the globe stopped and flashed the number 308. The tall blonde girl started to walk off. “I hope I see you guys later!” she seemed to be talking to everybody but me.

I was soon at 385. I put my ID card under the small scanner by the door. It beeped and then a red light flashed in a panel up and down my body. A small green dot flashed on the door knob and the door opened.

There was another bed on the other side. The room was symmetric. Both beds were at the wall of the room with a desk with a computer on it, a dresser, and a closet. Everything in the room was a weird brown color. I lied in the bed. It sure wasn’t that great compared to my nice comfy bed at home. I heard the door open a girl walked inside. I could tell she was a bit shorter than me and had short, thick, black hair every strand about two inches long that stuck strait right out of her head. She had an olive complexion and dark green almond shaped eyes. She wore bland green shirt and pants. She looked at me for a little bit and then walked over and examined her side of the room.

“Um…Hi, I’m Keanu, you can call me Nu-nu,” I said, “I guess we’ll be roommates for a while.”

She continued working with her stuff and then looked up at me. “I’m Benjiaga.”

After a while of dreadful silence she stood up in her large hiking boots. “I’m going to go look around.” Then she left.

I looked at our room. The bland colors had a weird affect on my mood. I guess I should look around too. I stepped out of the room onto a small tile that was surrounded by railings. The huge room was the size of a football field. The globes were all going in different directions, bringing people to and fro. I looked across and up to see hundreds of rooms stacked on top of each other. I was in the three-hundred halls so I was on the third floor. I counted up on the rows of rooms. I counted fifteen. It must have been the same as the side my room was on. I pressed the button that said, Travel Interface. A floating globe came and the railing opened up and small stairs came down from it. I walked up in it. I was the only one inside. I looked at the touch screen panel. It had two buttons: Room and Outside. I pressed the Outside button. This time I held on the railing as it glided. I watched at the other globes. They all went so fast and sometimes I was scared at how close they came to touching each other. They all went in different patterns so fast but never seemed to interfere with another. It went out a large door. My mouth dropped open. A large grass field with kids playing on it covered the ground. The sky was blue with a few clouds. The globe lowered and I got out. Everyone seemed to be playing a certain game. Everyone was wearing metal shields that covered their eyes. There was one lying on the ground. I picked it up and put it on my head. I heard, Keanu, Welcome. It was a computer voice and I could see all the people, but they didn’t have their metal shields over their eyes anymore.

Everyone around me was holding some kind of weapon. I looked into my own hand to see a wooden staff. It was weird because I could just barley feel it. Everyone had a number floating above their head. A lot of people with numbers from zero to ten were chasing a blonde boy with a holographic 56 floating above his head. He was holding what looked like a red sword.

Destroy someone else; before someone destroys you,

I heard the computer voice coming from the device on my head say. Suddenly I felt a weird sensation go through me and I saw a red sword sticking out the front of my chest. It was weird how I could feel it inside me, but no pain came, and it didn’t brake the skin, it just went through.

“Yes! 57, baby!” the blonde boy ran off while the other kids continued to chase him.

Negative Five,

I heard the device tell me; keanu you’re not doing your best.

I realized that every time anyone got someone they got a point, and every time someone got someone lost five.

I ran over to some boy who also had a zero over his head. He was turned around I guessed he was new too. I swung my stick right through his stomach. His number turned to negative five.

Negative four, it said.

-Erised