Chapter 2

Orion rose early to talk to his dad before he left for work. It was a restless night of sleep or better described as no sleep. He couldn't shut off his thoughts that the new class was so Terraforce could evaluate him.

"Hi, Orion!" Dad greeted. "Ready for your new class?"

"Was I supposed to prepare something?" he said worriedly.

"No," Dad said with a bemused chuckle.

"Do you know what kind of class it is, Dad?"

"Probably an excellence class because you are smart."

"Could it be something else?"

"You're not remedial."

"Is it Terraforce? You have to be smart for them"

Dad laughed and said, "I doubt it. They just look for certain talents. You could be dumb in everything except for what they are looking for and get in."

"What do they look for?"

"Who knows? I'm just glad they are good at finding the right people. The latest news says we are beating the Gruus back." He took a sip of coffee then looked at the clock. "Better go. Have a great day, son!"

"You too, Dad."

Orion sighed. The conversation was useless. He should have stayed in bed.

He ate breakfast then started up Ground Racer to kill time before class began. He played poorly.

He was happy when it was time for school. He couldn't remember the last time he was happy for school.

"Connect!" he said.

"Something wrong, Novia?" Dad asked, seeing it on her face.

"I don't want to be in this new class."

"You'll meet new friends. It will be good for you."

"But they're not really there. I'll be all alone."

"Most students go to school alone. They don't even leave their house."

"I know," she said. Most of the world did it that way but it didn't appeal to her at all. She like being at school with real life friends. "I don't even know what kind of class it is."

"When you are selected for an excellence class, it is always a good thing. Someone thinks you're special."

"And you are," Mom chimed in.

"But what kind of class is it?" Novia whined.

"Stop worrying," Dad said. "Maybe they want to see if you can handle your own farm?"

"Did you take an excellence class?"

"I did," Mom said, "but I was only in it for a few weeks. I don't think I was what they were looking for."

"It could always be Terraforce," said Dad.

"What would they want with me?" Terraforce appealed to her like it did to anybody, but what would they want with a farm girl?

"Who knows? They have their mysterious ways. I doubt it's a Terraforce class and you wouldn't know it if it was. I'm sure it's just a company trying to find the right person to fill a job opening."

Dad was probably right. She hoped it wasn't a city job. She loved the countryside.

At school, Mr. Sanchez showed Novia what room she was going to use. She was sad when she saw Stasya and her friends go to their regular room.

"Whenever you are ready, Novia," Mr. Sanchez said and left her.

Novia took a deep breath. She would never be ready.

"Connect!"

The classroom materialized before Orion's eyes. There were only a few students already connected. A man and a woman were at the teacher's desk talking but they were on mute so he couldn't hear. This was obviously a different kind of class. There were only twenty-five student desks.

Orion surveyed the instructors. They looked disappointedly like any normal teachers. He didn't really except to see an emblazoned banner saying "Welcome to the Terraforce Evaluation Class" but he sure wouldn't have minded.

A new message on his tablet caught his eye. It read "Terraforce class?" and was signed "Perion". Orion looked up and a boy gave him a nod.

"Don't know," Orion replied.

"Will you ask?"

"Why don't you?" He was curious, but he wasn't going to straight out and ask. Besides it was Perion's idea.

"I will."

It was now only a minute before class started so students started popping in. Orion looked at every person with interest and as possible competition. One girl stood out because her image wasn't as sharp and clear as everybody else. She had to be on an older connection.

The room was nearly full when Novia connected. It was a much smaller virtual class. She did an immediate scan of who was there. There were a couple more boys than girls but the numbers were fairly even. She quickly noticed she was dressed differently than the other students. She was dressed in her typical country attire and everyone else was dressed in city wear. She didn't like that she stood out, but there was nothing she could do about it. It didn't matter anyway. Everyone was the same deep inside.

A few students initially stared at her which made her uncomfortable. She looked down at her tablet, but there was no lesson available yet. She looked up and the fleeting curiosity of other students had passed. She looked at each person trying to determine if there was a thread that connected each one to the class, but she could tell nothing.

She glanced at the time. It was a few minutes after official start up time and the two teachers at the desk were still talking to each other muted from the students. She hoped her break times and lunch time would be the same as her previous class or she would barely see her friends.

She felt lonely.

"Good morning class!" the male teacher said. He waited for the smattering of responses. "I am Mr. Forcee and this is Ms. Solomon."

The woman was using a computer. She lifted a hand quickly and resumed inputting. No one could see what she was doing.

"Welcome to your new class," Mr. Forcee said.

Perion shot his hand up.

"I'll get to questions in a little bit," Forcee continued. "You will see that this class is very similar to your old class, but it is simply at an advanced level."

Advanced grammar? Orion wasn't pleased. He wished Aldara was here so he could send her a gripe message.

The news that this was an advanced version of the students' normal class didn't go over well with anyone. Perion raised his hand again.

"Thank you for volunteering," Forcee quickly said, pointing at him. "We'll go around the room and introduce ourselves. Give your name, your favorite school subject, your favorite hobby, and what your first thoughts were when you connected to the class. Go ahead."

"Can I ask a question?" Perion said.

"Later," Forcee said.

Perion was frustrated. He wanted to know if this was Terraforce. "I'm Perion. I like math and science. I like to play Star Fighters on GameNet."

"What ship do you like to fly most?" interrupted Forcee.

"Space Storm."

"What is that?"

"It's a Terraforce fighter. They are way cool." Perion's voice lifted. It was a topic he was excited about.

Orion slumped in his seat depressed. The teacher didn't know what a Space Storm was so there was no way this was a Terraforce class. This was only an advanced studies class. He wondered how long it would take to get himself returned to his old class if he acted stupid.

The introductions passed through several students until it came to a girl a few students before Orion's turn.

"My name is Lyra," she said. "My favorite subject is Terraforce, my dad was in Terraforce, my hobby is Terraforce, and my first thought was this is what a Terraforce evaluation class would look like."

Forcee laughed then said, "And do you have any other interests?"

"Is this a Terraforce class, sir?" Lyra asked earnestly.

"You are gifted students," he answered. "That's the only reason the education department needs to put you in an excellence class."

"So that's a 'no'?"

"I'm not going to answer that. If you all think that this is a Terraforce class then it's going to help me guarantee your best behavior. I know some of you have a problem with behavior."

The statement confused Novia. Why would someone with poor behavior be in this class? Wasn't it considered not smart to be misbehaved?

Orion straightened back up. If this class was Terraforce then of course they would deny it. The class might NOT be Terraforce but it was smart to treat it like it was.

When it was his turn to talk, he said, "I'm Orion, I like math and logic, my hobby is being better than all the other students, and I absolutely sure this is not a Terraforce class."

He smiled broadly. The last was a lie, but if he could convince some students that this was only an excellence class then he would stand out if this was indeed a Terraforce evaluation class.

Ms. Solomon looked over at him then resumed entering data.

"That's an interesting hobby," said Forcee.

"It's not my fault that everybody else is a bunch of losers."

"I see."

Novia immediately didn't like him. Such arrogance! Almost all city kids seemed a bit arrogant to her. It was probably because they were only children so he or she grew up self-centered, but this Orion boy had arrogance in excess. The rude boy ended up making belittling comments about every student's introduction.

Orion loved how he made each student uncomfortable. He was telling the others that he would be tops in this class and Mr. Forcee had shown no interest in stopping him.

Novia was one of the last to make an introduction.

"I am Novia. I don't know if I have a favorite topic. I like them all."

"Suck up!" the Orion boy said.

She frowned at him and said, "I don't really have a hobby, but I do like shooting rats around the farm. They look a lot like Orion."

Students laughed.

Orion was briefly rattled by the comeback but then retorted, "So you're a farm girl? I guess to be an elite student you just have to be smarter than the chickens."

Novia became angry, but she controlled her tongue. What kind of class was this? Why didn't the teacher say something? How did this jerk get into this class?

The last of the twenty-five students made their introductions.

"Thank you," said Mr. Forcee. "Now look at your tablet and let's get to work on writing composition."

Orion groaned. Writing! Grammar! It was the worst!

Two weeks passed and Orion felt morose. School was more challenging so he liked that aspect, but it was only school. Mr. Forcee taught every subject so it was different in that way and Ms. Solomon sat there not saying a thing and constantly inputting into her computer. She occasionally looked up when a student said something, so she was listening. Orion messaged Aldara over the weekend to see if they could meet up, but she was unavailable. He worried that because he was no longer in her class that she would become interested in another boy. This class sucked!

Novia connected into her class. To her displeasure, Orion was already there. He had waned in his attempts to display class dominance, so she was glad for that. The girl Ceres had finally verbalized what many students felt about Orion, but Mr. Forcee said they were an excellence class and they should be able to handle things. Novia thought Forcee's words only encouraged others to join in on the insulting of other classmates.

"Good morning class," said Mr. Forcee. He waited for the polite responses. "Today we are going straight into GameNet."

"GameNet?" excitedly said Perion.

"Yes."

"What are we going to play?"

"Star Fighters. You're going to fly Space Storms."

"Cool!" Perion would clean up against the other students.

"Mr. Forcee?" said Orion.

"Yes?"

"Ground Racer is a more challenging game because one needs to account for friction against the ground."

"That's old stuff," said Perion.

"Modern ships are too easy to drive," countered Orion.

Novia listened to the argument. She would love to see both boys go down and somebody else win. It would be even better if she was the one who brought them down.

"This is an unreleased beta version of Star Fighters," Mr. Forcee said, "so there are some different features and not everything is functional yet. Connect!"

As expected Orion found himself in a Space Storm, but curiously it was a two-person fighter. Did such a version of the Storm exist? If so, why? The original one-person Storm was so efficient. The little fighter was supremely maneuverable. It could bring destruction with its powerful weapons yet evade because of its small footprint. It made no sense to increase its size.

Novia could immediately feel that this simulated Storm had a bigger engine and quickly ascertained why. It was physically bigger. She fleetingly wondered about the purpose, but her thoughts were primarily on doing well. She wanted to win.

Mr. Forcee said, "I have different competitions for you today. First off the one hundred sector dash."

"Dash?" questioned Perion.

"Yes."

Orion said, "If everyone has identical ships, isn't the race determined by who gets the best jump?"

"Of course, so I suggest you get the best jump."

Orion frowned. A dash didn't sound very fun.

Mr. Forcee said, "If you jump early, you will be disqualified. Ready?"

Every student was on alert because suddenly the game was on. The light was about to change from red to yellow to green.

The light turned yellow.

A louder buzzer went off and the ships were frozen. A student had jumped the start. Novia saw that person went dark on her sensor screen.

The light turned yellow again and was about to go green when the buzzer went off once more. Another student was disqualified.

Mr. Forcee said, "I hope the rest of you know what green is. It means go."

Novia's reflexes were heightened. She was ready to hit the throttle. Orion was focused and eager.

The light turned green.

Orion jumped out fast, but a quick glance at his screen showed one fighter got out before him. If he was going to win, he was going to have to distract the pilot.

"Hey, farm girl!" Orion called out. Novia didn't respond. He tried something else. "Hey, breeder! Doesn't it seem wrong that your parents had six kids. Your family eats up all the Earth's resources. You wouldn't even be here if your family stuck with one child like normal people do."

"If it wasn't for us, you wouldn't have food!" she angrily retorted.

"Breeder!"

"All of us work the farm!"

Orion smiled broadly. She had let up just a little. He would be ahead of her before she was back up to full speed.

Novia mentally kicked herself. She had let the jerk distract her. He was going to get ahead if she didn't do something. He was only five ships to her starboard. She veered over.

"Hey!" Orion protested. "Stay in your lane." He was forced to let up on the throttle.

Novia's maneuver allowed Perion to take over first while Orion fell back. Novia finished second and Orion fell to seventeenth out of the twenty-three racers who were not disqualified.

"I protest Novia," Orion said.

"What for?" Mr. Forcee said.

"She didn't stay in her lane."

"I was trying to figure out why more of you weren't blocking. She took you right out."

"But it's not fair!" Orion said.

"Whiner!" said Novia laughing.

Orion hated that he lost, but he also hated that he just whined. He knew better than that.

"Alright," he said.

"If you had brothers and sisters to race against, you'd be a better pilot," she taunted.

"I don't need siblings! I can play GameNet anytime."