In The Orbit (Part I)

33. Azalea

Karma and I get to our room and Kela opens the door as soon as we sit down.

"I am sorry girls, but you need to clear out," she says.

"Can we please just stay?" I ask.

"Yeah, don't you need a search warrant or something?" asks Karma.

"No, it's school property. You don't own this room," Kela explains. "Now please, we are all tired and we just need to find Strom and get some sleep. Now please get out before my patience runs out and I stop being nice."

I try not to roll my eyes as I stand up and walk into the hallway. I sit down on the floor with my back against the wall. Karma sits next to me, our arms touching. We sit like that for a bit in silence. Then she puts her arm around me and pulls me closer to her.

"I really miss my boyfriend," she murmurs.

"Yeah," I say. I'm in an awkward position. I adjust a bit, and we wait in silence for a little while. Karma eventually falls asleep on my shoulder. I do what I normally do when I let my mind wander, I think of physics. I think about what would happen if I tried to light a fire in space. It would have to be in a little enclosed space with oxygen flow. And then what would happen if I poked a little hole in the enclosure. Would the fire get sucked out first or the oxygen? And when would the fire use up the oxygen?

Karma's head falls onto my lap and interrupts my train of thought. My heart leaps into my throat and not because I am scared.

Kela walks out and says, "All clear!" into her little screen. "Go in!" she tells me and sleeping Karma. "Be ready to go in three hours, and wear comfortable clothes. We will text you."

I poke Karma's cheek. "Wake up," I hiss. She twists her head off of my leg and it hits the floor.

"Owwwwww," she moans.

"Come on," I tell her. "You can go back to sleep in a minute." I pull her up and drag her into our room and she sits down on the bed. We both drowsily take our shoes off and curl up together.

I dream about explosions in space and Strom's dead body floating to Venus.

I wake up not very long after because of someone banging on my door. I get up and look through the peephole. It's Fifi. I open the door.

"Hey, I hate to bother you guys, but they are taking a really long time searching my room. Can I come stay with you guys for a while?" There is a repetitive twitch in Fifi's left temple.

"Um, yeah, I suppose."

She walks in. She takes one look at Karma and murmurs, "Ohhh I am sooo tired. Can I pleeeease borrow your bed?"

"Um, excuse me?" I blurt. "I was sleeping there."

Karma turns her head towards us and slurs, "We got room. Come 'ere. Azalea doesn't like me spooning her anyway."

Fifi kicks off her shoes and climbs in on the other side of Karma. Karma wraps her arms around her and goes back to sleep.

A flash of anger shoots through me as soon as this happens. I make as much noise and cause as much disruption as possible as I climb back into bed. I accidentally-on-purpose kick Karma twice in the butt and once in the thigh. She grunts but doesn't do anything. I can't tell if she is awake or asleep anymore.

I can't sleep with so little space. I grab the blanket and take it to the couch. I want to stick it to them and have them be cold. But they just burrow closer together and I clench my teeth and fall asleep. In this dream, I am the one causing explosions in space and it is Fifi's dead body floating off to Venus.