My Little Lesbean™

20: "Let's get you home."

It was yet another stormy day. This morning, there was a thunderstorm. Pidge sighed and slumped into her history seat, Lance and Hunk both being oddly quiet. She shrugged it off for a second, taking out her notebook and placing it in front of her on the table. She didn't bother taking a pencil out—the notebook was just to pretend Pidge wrote notes down in class. Pidge looked from side to side at the boys' melancholy looks. Pidge groaned, crossing her arms on the table and resting her chin on her arms. The awkward silence continued. Pidge sighed.

"So, you're both just going to be quiet all class?"

Lance gritted his teeth and clicked his tongue, refusing to look at Pidge. "You shouldn't be here."

"Come on, Pidge! You have the opportunity to skip class! With no penalties!" Hunk beamed, trying to put a fun spin on the situation. He then awkwardly added, "Isn't that an offer you should take up?"

"Guys," Pidge sternly scolded, glaring specifically Hunk down. "I'm all good. Stop worrying so much." She grinned, trying to ease Hunk. She then looked to Lance, who still wouldn't look at her.

The second bell rang, beginning the period.

"Alright everyone, settle down. We have a lot to talk about today," Shiro announced as he got up from his desk and walked up to the Smartboard. He picked up one of the pens and glanced over his shoulder, catching Pidge's gaze. Shiro's face dropped in that split second before he looked away and called, "Pidge, can you turn the lights off for us please?"

"Gladly," Pidge loudly responded, getting up and walking over to the ease with a massive smirk displayed across her face. She was going to show Shiro, Lance, and Hunk that she could handle it. "Go time," she whispered to herself before flicking the lights off.

There was a pause of silence as Pidge made her way back to her seat in the darkened classroom. Shiro sighed as Pidge sat down, looking her straight in the eye with a frown before clearing his throat and tapping the useless end of the pen to the presentation up on the Smartboard. It displayed pictures of the 1997 ship compared to the 2017 ship, both years listed above the pictures.

"The Hanson-Holt expedition of 1997 was run by two men: Eric Hanson, a rocket scientist, and Samuel Holt, one of the most intelligent astrophysicists in the U.S.A."

Hearing her father's name made Pidge's stomach drop, though she made an effort to ignore it. She was determined more than anything to prove she could handle this. There was another pause from Shiro before he continued.

"Because of the black hole miscalculation that tore apart the ship in 1997, they took an entire twenty years to continue attempting ways to maneuver around the black hole in the hopes of someday sending a manned ship out there. They consulted an outside source in January of 2017 to help calculate the parameters of black hole."

A frog caught in Pidge's throat, Pidge needing to swallow as her hands formed into fists and her breathing quickened.

"The Hanson-Holt expedition of 2017 began its course soon after the calculations were finalized. The ship was built with the help of both Hanson and Holt while the two men also got astronaut training. They were to be the people manning the expedition ship."

Pidge tried her best to stop her heart from nearly jumping out of her chest with every rapid beat while suppressing tears and continuing to clench her fists harder and harder.

"Finally, June 11th, 2017, the ship took off. It was a momentous occasion for G.A.S.A. and all of Garrison. Almost all of town showed up to watch from a hill G.A.S.A. set up for watching. With their new, faster ship, it only took them a few hours to get near the calculated parameters of the black hole."