Chapter 1
June
June wondered if she would ever get to see Earth again, or if she would be floating around space in a tin can for all of eternity. The thought scared her. It had only been six years and June wanted- needed- to go home. See her friends. See Cameron.
Cameron had been June's best friend. The mission had destroyed that and turned Cameron against her. Cameron hated what June's family mission stood for, and June hated what Cameron's mission stood for.
June also wondered what Earth looked like now. She thought that most of the people lived their lives in fear because, by now, everyone had to know that the Earth won't be habitable in ten years. Was there still some trees left? Were animals still alive? How many people had died of pollution in the last six years?
The companies that caused the pollution continued to run. They still fracked oil and they still burned fossil fuels. June thought that they would have learned their lesson by now. But, probably not. Humans were kind of dumb. Not necessarily all of them, just the society as a whole.
Before they took off into space, June's parents had made her take after school classes so that she could learn all of the things that she would be missing out on in space. June wished that she could have gone to Prom or Homecoming. She wished that she could have been a regular teenager and gotten high and drunk at parties and gotten to flirt with hot guys.
"June! June you there?" Aaron, June's older brother, said over the intercom.
"Yeah. What do you need?" June asked.
"The control panel to the basketball court is broken again. Can you come fix it?" Aaron asked.
"I don't know. Can you give me fifty bucks?" June asked sarcastically. Except, she wasn't being sarcastic. If he wanted that console fixed, he would need to loan June fifty dollars.
"Really? Just come and look at it," Aaron said, clearly irritated. After all, they couldn't fight over the intercom all day. June's parents would butt themselves into the conversation.
"Fine. On my way," June called back.
Cameron
Cameron gazed out of his bedroom window. Space was cool until he remembered that he was tracking down his ex-best friend. That part kind of sucked.
He missed June, sure, but he would never see her the same way he had six years ago when they went around running down the street in their bathing suits.
Cameron went back to staring out the window. It was fun to stare out the window until there was nothing new to look at. He could see galaxies similar to the Milky Way and stars that shone brighter than the Sun.
The Sun that he remembered was yellow. These suns were white and pure. It looked neat and clustered at the same time.
Cameron figured that he had to get up and do something besides go to the gym, so he went to the library. Cameron loved the library. He could read and research about the stars he was seeing out of his bedroom window. The library had a huge window that Cameron could see clearly out of. He could see what he saw from his bedroom window. Black and navy with white dots that float like clouds.
The library held rows and rows of shelves of books. They held action and romances. Mystery and non-fiction. All other kinds of books that Cameron had read hundreds of times. He stayed in the library a lot. Cameron had a ton of favorite books. He would sit down and read all day. He wasn't a regular teenager. He didn't like video games and drinking. Reading. He loved reading.
Cameron went to the second row of shelves and picked out his favorite book. He loved Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. He had read and reread it over and over again.
Once he had his book in hand, he walked over to his usual sitting chair. It was a red velvet chair that was comfier than his bed. Sometimes he slept in the chair when he didn't feel like wandering back to his room.
Cameron opened Oliver Twist and started on the first chapter.
June
When June got to the basketball court she was shocked. The console that controlled everything in the basketball court was sparking up, and the lights were out because the console table wasn't working.
"Gosh, Aaron. What did you do?" June asked.
"I didn't do anything! I just walked in and it looked like this," Aaron exclaimed.
"Well you did something," June cried.
"How long is it gonna take?"
"Half an hour. An hour at the most. Hopefully," June said casually.
"That long? Can't you go any faster?" Aaron cried.
"No. Now, where's my fifty bucks?" June asked with a smirk.
Aaron glared at her as he smacked the fifty dollar bill in June's open palm.
