In The Orbit (Part I)

49. Azalea

I go to the pool, as Fifi's smartscreen had told me to do. Everyone was relatively quiet, muttering among themselves. I had nobody to mutter with, which was not a new feeling. Then I feel someone slide into step next to me. It's Kellina. She's wearing a black blazer and her hair is up in a high bun. She catches my eye and gives a small smile. I return it, not saying anything. We have gotten closer in the past few weeks, hanging out after classes and stuff.

We enter the pool room thing, and immediately, someone thinks it's funny to push a a bunch of people into the pool. I am one of those six. When I resurface, Kellina is at the edge of the pool motioning for me to get out. I heave myself out of the water, and Kellina grabs my hand and pulls me up and into the little lifeguard office. I close the door behind us.

It's a tight squeeze, so I sit on the desk and she sits on the chair. I am dripping water everywhere. I can feel goose bumps starting to show and soon enough, I am shivering.

"Take off all your wet clothes," Kellina says while consolidating a lot of random crap into one corner. "It'll help you warm up."

I peel off my shirt before realizing how self-conscious I am around her. I awkwardly stand up to take my soaking wet sweats off. She takes off her blazer and puts it around my shoulders. I continue to be silent. Why can't I even form a coherent polite sentence like "thank you?"

Without her blazer, she is wearing a basic black T-shirt and gray skinny jeans.

"If you need body warmth, I'm right here," she says, a note of suggestion in her voice.

"You sound like Karma." It shot out of my mouth before I could think.

Her eyes narrow a bit, clearly calculating.

"You guys share a room?" she asks.

I nod.

"You...?" she trails off.

"I don't do anything with her. Not anymore- wait no, we never DID anything, but like... ugh never mind."

She gives me a small confused smile, then shakes her hair out of her bun and hands me the hair tie. I squeeze the water out of my hair and pull it into a ponytail. She stands up and pushes the chair back. Her face is dangerously close to my face. My heart is racing and I swallow. Our eye contact has gone on way too long, but neither of us does anything.

Then I close my eyes, and then an unnecessarily loud siren wails. We both jump, and my heart is racing two times as fast and I start panting. Kellina grabs my hand and yanks open the door.

"What is going on?!" I yell. She doesn't answer.

She drags me to the elevators, and we find that two of them are disabled. Then a third is disabled. The sirens have stopped by now, and Kellina whips her smartscreen out and looks at her messages. A few seconds later, a notification appears and says that we must proceed to through the doors marked with red lights and go up and into the roof, where we should all be rescued from the satellite that is now slowly filling with poison.

I inhale sharply when I see that the last part of the message. Harold and Khan are responsible for this. If somebody dies, they will be at fault. I wonder which one thought it would be a good idea to drop it down the elevator shaft? At least that's what I assume they did.

Hand in hand, Kellina and I take off down the hall, and go into the door that has been recently marked with red lights and run up the stairs. I hear people following us.

At the top, both of us are panting heavily. We open the door, and Kunley is there.

"What-" I start to ask.

"I'll explain later. We have to locate Harold as soon as possible and get out of here. Hower has Fifi, and Kesselhof is after the other three. Young lady, go to the other end of the room. You will be picked up and brought to a different satellite shortly." Kunley says. I hear other people's voices echoing in the stairwell.

Kellina grabs me and wraps me in a fierce hug, and leaves with the people just entering the room.

Kunley and I wait by the door for Harold.