Chapter Six

“Beep, beep, beep,” Devon’s datapad chirped. It immediately woke Devon, Flim and Jacinda. Devon wiped his eyes, yawning.

“What time is it?” He asked no one in particular. The datapad chirped again.

“Check your pad. Did you set the alarm?” Flim said

Devon picked up the pad and scanned the readout.

“It’s 3 o’clock. The preliminary partner list has been posted.” Devon accessed the list. “It’s official Flim, we are partners.”

“Have they assigned me a partner yet?” Jacinda asked expectantly. Devon fiddled with the datapad. He frowned in concern.

“Yes, they did.”

“Well, who is it?” Jacinda asked, her voice filled with concern.

“You’re not going to like it.” Devon shook his head. Flim jumped to his feet and peered over Devon’s shoulder. He immediately began to snicker.

“Who is it?” Jacinda insisted, anger creeping into her voice.

Devon looked straight at Jacinda. “It could be worse.”

Jacinda finally had enough. She reached out and snatched the datapad out of Devon’s hand. Right there in black and white it sealed her fate.

Merrell Gustav, the datapad showed. She had been paired with one of Terry Jameson’s toadies. He was the youngest, and the biggest.

“I guess it could be worse,” Jacinda said in a resigned voice. It could have been worse. Merrell had been the only one of the brothers that had not been angry at being sprayed with fizzup. Also, at least she had not been paired with Terry. That would have been the worst outcome of all.

“Maybe you can ask Deke to switch you,” Flim suggested. He had stopped snickering when he realized how much the news had upset Jacinda. Although he had not been there when it happened, Flim had heard about Jacinda’s run-in with Terry and the Gustav Brothers. It had sounded really funny at the time, but he was not so sure anymore.

“I won’t do that,” Jacinda replied. “If I complain it will just give them something else to tease me about.” Putting on a determined face, she nodded, as if making a silent agreement with herself and checked her unitard. It had dried during their nap so she began to put her coveralls back on.

“You are nicer than I am,” Flim commented. “I would be screaming, if I were you.” Devon and Jacinda both glanced over at the alien boy when he spoke. They did a double-take when they saw that he had already dressed. They wondered how he could have gotten dressed so quickly without them seeing him do it.

“What?” he asked when he saw their confusion.

Devon started to speak, “How in the world did….? Oh, never mind. We had better start getting ready for dinner tonight. We all need to review the information Mr. Jacobs uploaded to our datapads.”

Flim immediately retrieved his datapad from the bag he usually wore over his shoulder and sat under the tree, reading the information on Forrestal. After dressing, Devon and Jacinda joined him under the tree. They wore serious faces as they studied, intent on learning everything they could about the alien planet they would soon be exploring.