Aster.
That's my name. It means star. I guess that was why I was fascinated with them. Constellations, meteor showers, all of it. Space became my obsession. I wouldn't do it as a career, but I loved learning new things about the galaxy. It was weird to think we were just specks of dust orbiting through a small chunk of the universe with no knowing what was beyond us.
Us didn't mean the earth, but me and my friends. Sam and Colby. We were the type of friends you'd find in a teen coming of age movie. You know, met in kindergarten, promised to be friends forever type shit. And that was us: Sam, Colby, and Aster against the world.
"What's going on in your head?"
"What?" I blinked, looking over at Colby, his brown hair combed over his forehead.
"You were zoning out. Where did you go?" He asked, a slight smile on his lips, the top sparse, the bottom full.
"Just lost in my thoughts I guess."
"Well come back to me, okay?" He joked and I smiled, rolling my eyes.
The bus stopped and we stood up. "See you at lunch?" Colby asked as we walked down the steps and onto the sidewalk.
"Of course." I smiled, nodding at each other as we parted ways to head to our first classes.
I walked into my first class, English, and sat down next to Sam. "Aster!" He whispered to me. "Do you have the notes from yesterday?!"
I sighed, laughing slightly. Sam was constantly losing things, mainly notes from class. "Yeah I have them, don't worry." I reached into my bag, pulling out my binder. I took out the notes for him, sliding them to his desk.
"Thank you, you're literally the best."
I laughed under my breath once more as the bell rang and our teacher walked in. As usual, I shut off my brain, knowing she would rant about random things for the first half hour before actually teaching us anything.
I doodled some of my favorite constellations on some paper in my binder. Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Orion, Pegasus. I connected the stars, Sam looking over my shoulder. Maybe my boredom was contagious.
The rest of the morning went by in a blur of voices and notes, papers and tests. And then lunch rolled around. While all my classes before lunch were with Sam, all the ones after were with Colby.
I walked next to Sam on the way to the cafeteria, trying to explain to him what a supernova was when Colby walked up beside us.
"What's up?" He said, smiling.
"Well aside from a lecture about astronomy, not much." Sam said from the other side of me
"Let me guess: supernovas? She already tried to explain them to me." Colby replied, laughing as I lightly punched him in the shoulder.
"It's not my fault if they're cool, okay?"
We all collectively laughed, walking into the cafeteria. Getting some lunch, we walked back out, through the hallway, and out the back doors of the school, sitting down on some bleachers. We'd eaten here for lunch every day since freshman year and we still came here everyday for lunch even in our senior year.
"So Aster, we gonna do something for your birthday?" Colby asked, his mouth full with a burger.
"Oh yeah it's like a month away. We can do a party or something." Sam suggested.
"I mean, I don't really wanna do anything too big." I said, as I said every year prior. I wasn't a big people person. Honestly, my prefect birthday would just be Sam, Colby, and I outside somewhere looking at the stars. But I knew that would bore them so I never said anything. "We can watch a movie or something. Colby, you work at the theater. What's new?"
