Handling a Crisis

Chapter Seventeen: Why Now?

It's been a few days since the attempted attack on Nazi and Germany's house. There's been no other reported attacks, thank God. Everyone, however, was still on-edge.

Alaska sat in his shared bedroom with Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, Mariana Islands, Samoa, Virgin Islands, and NASA, who was already out of bed. Alaska couldn't sleep, but it was for a good reason. The Endeavor capsule was set to land at 10:29 EDT, which would be 12:29 pm for them. It was such a big deal, America was allowed to miss work so he could watch the capsule dock with the ISS and watch the interview with the crew.

Alaska looked at his phone. It was 6:47 am, five hours before the docking. He had one unread message.

Vodka_Man: Hey, congratulations to you Americans on the successful SpaceX launch!

Alaska grinned. He knew that his friend would be getting ready for work, so he could text him back.

UrsaMajor: Thanks!
U gonna watch the docking?

Unbeknownst to America, Alaska did talk to people outside of the house, just like most of his siblings did. Vodka_Man lived on New Pangea with him and did government stuff. What exactly, Alaska didn't know. How did they start talking in the first place? Nevada had bet him twenty bucks that he wouldn't text a random person. Vodka_Man was the person Alaska ended up texting.

It was the best twenty bucks Alaska ever earned.

Vodka_Man would would let Alaska rant on about how he wanted to meet his папа (dad) and sometimes gave him advice. Of course, Vodka_Man didn't know who Alaska's папа was, but he still helped. Vodka_Man would also talk about what it was like, living outside with other people. Alaska told Vodka_Man that he wasn't allowed to go outside because his dad was a very important person and didn't want to run the risk of having people target him.

In return, Alaska would let Vodka_Man rant about anything he wanted. Sometimes, it was letting him complain about things, such as having to deal with annoying people that had pissed him off or how much of a downward spiral humanity was going down. Sometimes, Alaska would give suggestions on how Vodka_Man could handle awkward situations, such as what to do when you've accidentally fallen asleep with a friend in bed at another person's house. Socially awkward people gotta stick together, right?

A buzz snapped Alaska out of his thoughts. He looked down and saw that Vodka_Man had texted him back.

Vodka_Man: What time will it happen?

UrsaMajor: 12:29 pm

Vodka_Man: Dang, I'm still working at that time.

UrsaMajor: Aw, really?

Vodka_Man: Yeah, my lunch break doesn't start until 12:45.

UrsaMajor: That really sucks.

Vodka_Man: Ikr?
One of my friends is missing work because he's going to watch the docking. He's lucky. I can't do that.

UrsaMajor: Rip. At least you can watch it on youtube or something.

Vodka_Man: Yeah. I'm also gonna ask him how it went the next time we meet up.
God, he wouldn't stop talking about it for weeks leading up to the launch, which I don't mind. I find it amusing since he's always trying to appear cool around our coworkers.
It's a little funny how differently he acts around our coworkers
For example, he's actually a big nerd, but don't tell him I told you that.

Alaska smirked. Sounds like Vodka_Man's friend has a bit of a crush on him.

UrsaMajor: Ha, how can I? I'm permanently quarantined in my house and I don't know who he is.
And the same goes for my dad. He's a really big nerd.