Only the Cosmos Knows

CHAPTER I | Blatant Lies

Clutching the file close to his chest, Aquila ran back to his room. The sun was about to set, and he could see it sinking into the ocean through the windows of Starfall Academy.

A part of him still felt a bit disheartened about the news. He was going to miss the friends he had made here. They were practically his family now. Not that he had any in the first place, or at least that was what the supervisors told everyone.

Another part of him thought that this was all suspicious. The supervisors have been punishing anyone for sneaking out since day one of Starfall Academy, and yet here they are letting people out after reaching the appropriate age. What did this all mean?

"It doesn't matter," Aquila told himself, turning the doorknob to his room. "I'll just read this file myself. Maybe all my questions will be solved in the process. For now, I'm just going to stay in my room and have a nice break-"

"Ace of spades!" The door opened to reveal Aquila's friends playing cards. The youngest of them, Apus, placed their card down triumphantly before announcing, "Last card!"

Mensa tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, scanning her cards and letting out a sigh. "I've got nothing. Might as well let them win this one, right Lacerta?"

Lacerta, the girl in question, looked down at her own cards before shaking their head lightly. "Nothing here as well. Take the victory, Apus."

"Let's go!" Apus put their final card on the deck, basking in their victory.

Mensa looked back at the card Apus had placed. "Ah, and we lost to the three of diamonds as well." She turned to Lacerta. "Wanna play for second place?"

"Excuse me?" asked Aquila, who had been watching the scene unfold from the open doorway. "What the hell are you three doing in my room?"

"Oh hey, you're back!" said Lacerta, finally noticing Aquila's presence. "Welcome back. Now we can all play cards together."

"Aren't your rooms halfway across the Academy or something?" Aquila questioned the three, closing the door behind him. "What brings you here? I literally locked the door."

"I don't play by the rules of locks, dude." Apus replied casually. "I just did the usual, y'know? Teleported in, unlocked the door from the inside, let the others in, et cetera. I could have teleported us all in at once but I didn't feel like it. I needed to save my energy for the card games."

"You are a menace." Aquila commented under his breath.

Mensa had given up on playing cards, and began to shuffle the cards instead. "You know they take that as a compliment, Aquila."

"Anyways, how'd it go?" Lacerta asked, their eyes gleaming.

"How'd what go?" Aquila asked her back.

"Oh you know, the thing with the room?" Lacerta followed up. "Are they sending you to the Outside?"

Aquila's expression began to tense. "Ah, yeah, about that-"

The others watched him with a confused expression as he failed to fabricate his sentence.

"It was, uh... It basically went... You know, it..." He continued before giving up completely. "I'm actually not supposed to tell you guys. The supervisors made it very clear."

"Yeah, but they probably just told you not to spill the details." Apus argued. "You can tell us a simple summary of what it's about."

Persistent Apus, always the one to try to try to find loopholes in every situation.

"Lacerta's pretty nervous about it," Mensa pointed out. "You can tell her the less important stuff so she knows what to expect."

Lacerta was, in fact, just one year younger than Aquila. Next year, it would be their turn to go to the room. Aquila watched her fidget with her fingers as she awaited his answer.