Interstellar Academy by Kennedy Harkins (read books for money .TXT) 📕

He shook his head. “We uphold the spiritual values of our people.”

“Note to self: sarcasm does not exist on the planet Kalid. What's it mean to be in the third order?”

“It's the lowest of the orders, Unua being the highest. As you grow in your dedication to the universe, you go up in the order.”

I thought that over for a moment. Probably not for me. I needed heated water and the instant, unlimited movies on my holo.

Just then, an announcement came on. “Welcome, new and returning students alike! Upper classmen, you know the drill. Freshmen, please exit your compartments and introduce yourself to the students in your hallway. These will be the other tenants in your apartments.”

When Kavi and I shut the door behind ourselves, about twenty students were in the hall. A handful were human and an equal amount were Tundrian. There were quite a few Syrenies, most looking like literal fish out of water. Kavi was the only Animarian, and I didn't see any Parvulians, at least not in our hall.

I didn't shake any hands—you could rarely count on the commonwealth to bathe regularly. But I was practically a ray of sunshine otherwise. I even told one upperclassman human that I liked her hair, which looked like seaweed. It rolled off my tongue like a pound of Calamari.

Our two missing roommates were in the corridor, as well. They stood over by the other Tundrian's. Drusus, the tall, Kver looked at every outstretched hand as if it was a personal threat, flinching whenever someone approached him. The girl, Maeve, had light, caramel hair and dark skin that held rippling muscles. She shook hands, but her face never changed, seeming bored by the whole procession.

The only student of any real interest was a blonde upperclassman from Kalid named Kai. I wasn't sure what I liked about him. He was good looking, but utterly too respectful. There was nothing about him--apart from the gills-- that would make Igor wince, make my mother go stony, cause Dad to ground me until the second coming.

I moved on pretty quickly after coming to that conclusion.

The voice that had ordered us into the hall came back on. “We'll be taking off momentarily, so please steady yourself and hold onto any personal items.“ I couldn't see any speakers, so I resolved the sound must be coming from the walls.

The upperclassmen all had similar looks in their eyes. It ranged from smug to amused to downright malicious. They stood with their legs arm's length apart and gripping the railing on the wall . I pursued my lips as my fellow freshmen chattered on, oblivious and excited.

I walked over to where Kavi was bouncing around Drusus and Maeve, practically wetting himself over the fact that we were all going to share a room. I didn't share his enthusiasm by any means.

The ship lurched powerfully, sending us all crashing into each other. At the same moment, the anti-gravity switched on, giving us the feeling of really being in space. The younger kids drifted around aimlessly, bumping into things and people. The older ones moved their bodies in slow increments, using their surroundings to keep from bouncing out of control.

I watched all of this upside down, hanging onto the railing, and feeling the strongest sense of deja vu. The only difference was that I wasn't about to crash into a statue and get sentenced to a year at Camp Get Along.

A kid drifted towards me, and I kicked out with both my feet, sending him flailing through the hall, bouncing from wall to wall like the ball in a pinball machine. I laughed, my mood suddenly lifting.

Maybe this school wouldn’t be so bad after all.

August 30:

This school was going to be worse than I could have imagined.

The human girl was kicking students, sending them crashing into each other and solid walls with bone crunching impacts. She was giggling too. It made me nauseous.

The slightest movement made me cascade into the nearest wall, my wings serving as a catalyst. My head smacked against the railing and black spots dotted all over my vision for a minute.

The anti-grav kicked in the next second, and we were all left sprawling on the floor. Some of the younger kids were a little bloodied up, a few were crying. The upperclassmen were guffawing, slapping each other on the back, and reminiscing with their friend’s about their first Academy warp jump.

I overheard one senior say, “That was a short wait. I wonder where they parked the ship this year.”

“Hopefully not in an asteroid belt! What a year. Hey, do you know what our itinerary is?”

The Syreni shook her head. “No, but I heard they’re letting each teacher pick one destination now. We could be all over the place.”

“I wish we’d go back to the lithium mines. Those sand crabs were the size of my little sister!”

“Shocking resemblance too....”

The students all piled out of the hall, joining people from other sections in a huge migration towards the exit. I stuck with Mae, but even her dull vibe couldn’t soothe me. I didn’t like all these people crowded around me, making it next to impossible to see an attack coming or counteract it. It seemed like any minute my instructor’s or Mother’s voice would ring out, telling me I was leaving my left side open again, and it was going to get me impaled one of these days.

The door out wasn’t that large. It fit about five uncomfortably through at a time. Somehow, without anyone really being conscious of it, the seniors were at the front of the line and the freshman at the back. The girl tapped her foot and crossed her arms in a way that was purely human and annoyed me.

When we got to the exit, all thoughts of the human fled my mind, leaving only a kind of shocked awe. I’d never seen any picture of the Academy campus. As far as I knew, none actually existed. So, seeing it for the first time was indescribable.

First and foremost, it was a ship. It was long and thin with multiple engines. That you could see on the way in, and now if you looked below where the shuttle was docked.

But on top of that ship was a town.

I knew the rough layout of the campus from the stories my aunt told me. It had five apartments for student living, shaped in a pentagon with the classrooms, training fields, and miscellaneous buildings in the center. The apartments looked like enormous sticks with over twenty leaves pierced on. They were supported by a large tube which served as the entrance to all the levels. Each level was separated and was like a wheel lying flat.

I knew all that, but the reality was so much more. My aunt never told me about the sculptors littering the sidewalks, thousands of them at least, all completely unique, forged by a different artist. The field that formed a dome over the top of the campus was clear and showed the farthest expansions of space, casting everything in a surreal glow.

Then there was the grass. I couldn’t stop myself from plucking a strand. The only place on Tundris that is grew was in the Imperial gardens by the Council’s rooms, and even there, it wasn’t this green.

Tiny cruiser soared through the air, piloted by AIs going out their duties. They looked like bugs buzzing about on a lazy afternoon in the gardens. I felt a sharp pang, wishing it didn’t remind me so much of my favorite place at home.

Being one of the last ones off, we had to run to catch up to the seniors, who were already almost out of sight. The four of us ran to catch up, and I shook off my stupor.

“Do you see any of the upperclassmen we shared a hallway with?” The Animarian squeaked at Mae and I.

The human pointed directly straight, through the heart of the town. “Kai went that way.”

The Animarian looked relieved, but asked, “Who’s Kai?”

She didn’t answer, rudely taking off in the direction she’d pointed with the Animarian--Kani?-- prancing happily after her. Mae shrugged and followed. I hesitated, but my need to find our room outweighed my dislike of the girl.

We  had passed the line of the apartments and were walking through the commons. Each apartment, though we were only close to number two with number three far to the right, had an area in front of it with grass and tables. A few upperclassmen were sitting out there already, lounging in their chairs and watching something pocket sized whiz around their heads. I didn’t recognize any of them from our hall, so we kept walking.

As soon as the grass stopped and the pavement began, the town erupted in full force. They had so many buildings I didn’t know how the few hundred students I’d seen could occupy them all, even given a whole year. No two buildings were the same either, one shaped like an orb and the other a strand of DNA stretching up towards the sky. They were made of varying materials too, gathered from all over the universe.

Walking past a dome shaped building made entirely of glass, the girl shouted, “Hey, they have a zero-grav Tak Raw court!”

A couple of students were in there, floating around and kicking the ball from foot to foot and person to person.

“I’ve never played, “ the Animarian said.

The next apartments (one and four) that we saw were even farther off in the distance than three, forming the two points of the pentagon.

“Maybe we’re in one of those,” I said.

“Maybe,” Mae said, yawning.

The Animarian piped up, “Astra said Kai went straight.”

“And then he could have turned to go to one or four,” I said.

The girl came over to us, putting her hand on the Animarian’s shoulder. “It’s alright, Kavi. You can’t force people to be right.”

I grit my teeth, but followed when they took off towards the top point of the shape, number five. I thought about sharing a room with those two and wanted to hit my head against something.

We reached five after a couple minutes more of uncomfortable silence. It looked exactly like the others, with the tube going straight up and the dozens of wheel shaped rooms impaled on it. Up close, I could see that the rooms were completely surrounded by window’s gone opaque.

Annoyingly, I recognized a few of the senior hanging outside in the artificial light. They waved and motioned us towards the dorm, saying that our stuff was probably already in our room.

We stood outside the entrance to the tube, just looking at each other. Even the smug, Earth girl seemed at a loss.

“There aren’t any buttons