In The Orbit (Part I)

19. Azalea

Does Karma expect me to sleep like this? She is spooning me, her arm around me and her breathing on the back of my head. But what really makes me uncomfortable is that her boobs are pressing into my back.

She tucks my hair away from her face and whispers, "I really miss my boyfriend."

I want to roll onto my back and fall asleep, but I don't want to disturb Karma.

There are thoughts running through my head that I don't want there. Karma could just scoot back a little bit and it would be okay. Her boyfriend must have been a lucky man. BOYFRIEND. I have never had a boyfriend. Karma PLEASE MOVE YOUR BOOBS! AND EVERYTHING ELSE! I HATE SLEEPING ON MY SIDE!!!

Karma falls asleep. I can't sleep on my side. After a while, I try to slip out of her grip and she wakes up.

"Where ya goin?" she slurs.

"Bathroom," I whisper.

When I come back, I lay down on my back. Karma wraps herself around me again and falls back asleep.

I finally fall asleep, and when I wake up, I am back on my side and Karma's leg is wrapped around me as well. I am totally disoriented and confused and I shove Karma off of me. She snaps awake and yelps. I get immediately cold. It turns out Karma is a great heat source. I pull Karma back towards me and we curl up together. She falls asleep, but I don't.

Soon enough, there is a ringing and the screen on the wall turns on.

Karma jerks awake, yelling, "TURN IT OFF!!!" I find the remote and tap the turn off button. Then a message pops up.

Report to cafeteria for breakfast in 30 minutes.

"Ah, more time to sleep," Karma sighs with delight. I lay around and mess with the remote for a while, setting alarms for when to wake us up and changing settings.

With fifteen minutes left on the clock, I nudge Karma awake and I get out of bed. I brush my teeth, which Karma thinks is weird to do right before breakfast, and put my hair into a ponytail. I put on some jeans and my least-faded shirt. I don't need Fifi making snide comments on my clothing choices again.

Karma blearily puts on a black tank top and jeggings. She is very buff. She clenches her muscles as she looks at herself in the mirror and grins at her reflection. I wish I was that pleased with how I look. Then she grabs my hand and pulls me out the door.

Over breakfast, the Kunley and Dipper explain our schedule. We will be having class in the morning with the other kids, and in the afternoon, we are doing specialized physical training. My heart sinks. Physical training. I am the least physical person here. Except for maybe Harold, but he comes from Montana. Over the last few years, Montana has really become the capital of football.

After breakfast, they send us all back to our rooms to get our new computers. I think they are SmartScreen brand but I didn't really take a good look.

Karma and I grab our computers and we are in the elevator she hugs me. She buries her face in my neck and says, "I really miss my boyfriend."

I don't know what to respond to that so I just awkwardly hug her back.

When we get down to the cafeteria, Dipper and Kela are there. They lead us to an area that feels like it's outside, but isn't. There is grass and trees and concrete sidewalks and the sun is shining in. When I look up, the sky is blue. I wonder how they pulled that off, because we are outside the atmosphere.

We go in a set of big double doors and we are in a big lobby.

"This is the academic wing of the satellite," Kela says. "And here are your schedules." She hands us pieces of paper. It says I have four classes, computer science, orbital science, Earth science, and physics. I get a flicker of excitement in my belly. These are great classes.

Dipper leads Fifi, Khan and I to our first classes. Fifi and I have computer science together. When we walk into the classroom, every head turns to look at us. I am really uncomfortable with the attention. Fifi smiles and walks over to an empty seat in between two very pretty girls. Dipper says hi to the teacher and walks off. I stand there, with everyone staring at me and I don't know where to sit.

"Sit down," the teacher growls. "We got stuff to do."

I wander over to a seat next to the wall. The girl on the other side stares wide-eyed at me. She has sleek dyed-red hair pulled up into a high ponytail. She has a shaved patch on the back of her head with waves on shaved into it.

"Hi! I'm Addison! What's your name?"

"Uh, Azalea."

"Cool, very cool. You are so lucky. I'm so jealous that you get to go to all the satellites. And boy, do I miss Earth. I'm from Toronto! What about you?!"

"Chicago." I log onto my computer, trying to ignore her.

"Why are you wearing such a dirty shirt? If I were you I would wear my best outfit! See, I wore my second best because of you guys coming!" Addison gestures at her outfit, a white and gold shiny shirt and a white mini skirt with fringe, a stupid fashion trend. I should have known all of these people would be tacky trend followers. And my shirt isn't dirty. Is it?

I don't answer her and I try to listen to what the teacher is saying. I got stuck in the beginners computer science class because of my ignorance of the latest technology.

Addison doesn't shut up for the whole hour and I have started to hate her. What makes it worse is that Fifi is chatting it up with the girls around her and having a jolly good time. I am starting to hate Fifi too. She made another unnecessary comment at breakfast about my deformed, too-short jeans. Whatever. They have a mall somewhere on the satellite. Maybe I can get some new stuff. That isn't tacky mini skirts with fringe.