Cluster of Stars- Chapter three

3*


Excited chatter filled the mess hall at lunch that day. And they were all saying the same thing.
“Did you hear about that freshie that lifted a space plane on his first try?” Nix said coming to their table to sit. Chaz’s table was the most popular table among the freshies. Everyone that met Chaz, thought he was the coolest guy in the world. He was one of those guys that was everybody’s best friend, he had an aura that drew people in. He sat in one of the booths by the wall, which was already packed with people. In the booth behind them and in front of them, more people sat, turned towards his table.
“Who?” Chaz asked.
“Jesse Stratum,” Osirius said.
“Who?” Chaz asked again, probably the only student on campus that hadn’t heard of him by now. But maybe he had, he just didn’t pay attention. He had problems with that sometimes. Chaz looked up and saw Jesse Stratum far off sitting by himself.
“Why is he sitting by himself?” Chaz asked, “Doesn’t he have roommates?” Chaz was one of those guys that thought with his heart, which meant he ran based on 100% passion. This wasn’t always a good thing, but it had its upsides.
“He does, but they don’t sit with him,” Sianne said, she had taken to sitting with Chaz instead of her boring roommates, even though she’d only just met him today in her Spaceography class.
“Poor guy,” Chaz said.
“Poor guy? The guys a jerk. Nobody sits with him because he thinks he’s better than everyone else,” Osirius said.
Maybe, but Chaz was determined to find out for himself. Somewhere across the mess hall, Callista got up to throw out her tray. Jesse Stratum got up at the same time and they met at the tray dispenser by the door.
“Have I met you before?” Jesse asked, suddenly. Callista looked up and straight into the gorgeousness of Jesse Stratum. He wasn’t a guy you could take in one dose, in fact, he was so good looking, most people had to take breaks looking at him. Looking at Jesse Stratum that quickly was equivalent to getting hit in the back of the neck with a cold fish. Callista felt the blast. She didn’t even know what he said; she lost her entire train of thought.
“Uh…what?” Callista said.
“You look really familiar to me,” Jesse said. Callista thought about it and he did too. Like someone she’d met in a dream.
“I just have one of those faces, I guess,” Callista said, shrugging, turning to walk away.
“Yeah, maybe.”
When Callista got back to the table they were reading horoscopes from the North Star, the Galaxy’s most popular newspaper.
“Do you want me to read yours, Callista?” Zell asked when Callista sat down.
“Sure,” Callista said not really caring.
“What’s your sign?” Beau asked. But Callista’s mind had drifted.
“Huh?”
“What’s your sign?”
“Oh…um…Cancer.”
Azelle searched for it fingers sliding across the screen of her flat panel.
“Ooh. It says, ‘Today you will meet your true love.’”
“Nice one,” Alectra agreed, not really into the horoscope thing.

The top ten started with Quan Nebellum. No one knew too much about him besides that he was the best fighter in school. He was quick and smart able to duplicate his opponents moves and use them against them in a combination. He had a fighting style similar to a cobra, each strike of his were deadly. He hit less and won more. He was from Pluto, though he didn’t have Plutonian characteristics. Plutonians were completely loyal to their planet and extremely prideful. Quan wasn’t too prideful though he was confident. He was quiet. He only spoke when spoken too or if he really had something to say. He preferred to watch and listen then to talk and it worked for him. He wasn’t at all shy.
All the top ten had a trend they second they got called into the top ten they stopped cutting their hair, which is why all of them had long rebellious hair. Quan included, though he didn’t do it for the trend.
Skylar was the second in rank, and the most popular. Each cadet eventually joined a team and Skylar’s team was known as the dream team; the first team ever to have 3 of its cadets in the top ten. Skylar was the captain because of his inborn ability to lead. He was obsessed with sky war battling, and studied formations and tactics on his free time. He was so good at battling they called him Sky War Comet.
Third in rank was Chaz’s older brother and Skylar’s best friend and teammate, Caz Spastik. He was known for his speed, in flying that is. His father was Cade Spastik, a famous space plane racer, in the Red Robin speed team. Fourth was Azul Zalas, a Neptunian. Fifth, Galac, a Plutonian. Sixth was Hydra, a Neptunian and the top girl in school. She was also apart of the dream team. Caspian was the seventh a Neptunian/Plutonian with midnight blue hair. Tristan, a Jupitertonian was the eighth and the next two were Asenath the Venetian and Oberon Charon, a Saturnian and the Editor for the school zine, The Thunder.
“Who is he?” Quan asked. He was slouched back in his chair at Jupiter lounge, the most popular hangout for the top 10. There, at lunch time, the most popular kids at Ganymede went to eat and chill. The Lightning café being the host of their eating needs.
“Some nobody,” Galac said, more interested in tucking his black bang behind his ear then in the conversation.
“He isn’t a nobody, really. His name is Jesse Stratum. He’s the heir to Stratum metal, you know the metal that makes all of our space planes, gadgets, and robots?” Hydra said.
“He’s sickening rich,” Asenath said.
“Yeah and Nat would know, she rates every guy by their price tag,” Skyler teased, playing with a straw in his hands. Asenath made a face and threw a crumpled straw wrapper at him. He simpered and blocked it with his hand.
“At least I don’t prey off of freshies like you,” Asenath said. Skyler half shrugged and continued twirling his straw in his hands.
“Everyone’s saying he’s going to be the next top of the school,” Azul said, fingers in his long sky blue hair.
“So?” Galac asked.
“So they should be talking about us. We should be the subject of discussion. That doesn’t bother you guys at all?” Oberon Charon.
“No.”
“Not really.”
“I worked too blastin’ hard to get in the top ten to be shoved aside in the first week of school as a regular commodity,” Oberon said.
“Who does this kid think he is?” Caspian said, snarling beneath his midnight blue hair.
“Yeah.”
“I know.”
“You guys take yourselves way too seriously,” Skyler said, snorting.
“This coming from a guy who takes 2 hours to do his hair in the morning,” Caz joked, messing up Skyler’s hair. Skyler elbowed him away.
“I’m just saying, who cares if he thinks the sun orbits around him. He’ll either be proved right or proved wrong when ranks go up. What does it have to do with us?” Skyler said.
“Oh and the fact that everyone’s going around saying he’s better looking then you matters none,” Oberon asked, leaning on his arm, waiting for his reaction. The blue boiled in his eyes, his expression died to silent cold.
“Nobody’s saying that,” Skyler said.
“Everyone’s saying it, and they’re right too. He’s luscious,” Asenath said.
“Like your opinion counts. You rate appearance on the size of a bank account,” Skyler said. The two went into a full fledged argument as the rest of them watched, amused and annoyed.
“Haley’s comet,” Azul said, smacking his forehead at the stupidity of their conversation.
“I’ve been the top of the pretty boy top ten since my first year here. No kid can just enter the school and change that in two days,” Skyler argued.
“So was that kid…what was his name...Calas. When you knocked him off,” Caz said.
Pretty boy Top Ten was a thing created by boy crazy girls that is featured in the school zine. The students in school nominate a potential candidate and out of those nominations are chosen 10 guys. Skyler’s been first for two years running.
“Can we get back to the point? What are we going to do about this Stratum kid?” Caspian asked. The table quieted in thought. Quan got up to leave the table.
“Where are you going? Aren’t you going to help us figure this out?” Oberon asked. Quan made a yeah-right face and walked off.
“I say we kill him. We can throw his body into a black hole and no one will ever find out,” Caz joked.
“Shut up, Caz. Get serious,” Caspian said. The bell rung, ending their conversation.
“I’ll take care of it,” Skyler said, getting up with a look of determination. Caz laughed, and flung an arm around his neck.
“You’re ridiculous,” Hydra said throwing an arm over Caz’s around Skylar’s neck. Skyler grinned, forgetting about his momentary problems and ringing his arm around both of his friends.
“And what does that make you guys look like, being my best friends?” he joked.
“I know. I need to stop hanging with you,” Caz said.