If I could wave my magic wand...

I am made from the dust of the stars And the oceans flow in my veins Here I hide in the heart of the city Like a stranger coming out of the rain - Presto, Presto, Rush

The walk did not take as long as the day before. Nervousness or the general busy energy of the morning throngs getting to their own work must have carried her along. Stars End was not an area she had frequented much of her life. It just did not have the same pull, and there were things she did not understand all around her " electronic type things. The school was not very far in the Sector, and she made her route as direct as possible.

Halstead looked a great deal larger when her parents weren't walking with her. The sculpture that hung from the ceiling in the lobby was plan one of hiding places if things went wrong. The plants that clung to it would offer plenty of coverage. She walked beneath it, clutching the straps of her messenger bag. The students poured through the doors, filling the lobby with noise. The receptionist watched on with a patient smile, and Lirssa studied her to see if the woman were hard of hearing or had ear plugs. Not a shout made her flinch.

Lirssa, however, nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand touched her arm. "Unholy freakin" pete!" She gaped at the girl standing there.

Girl was not a completely accurate term on second observation. Her eyes were bird-like, large round black with the barest rim of yellow. White hair of a tuft nature was cut short to the ears that were tiny things almost completely flat to her head. She had three fingers forward and a thumb jointed at an angle back from what a human hand would have. "Lirssa al Amat." She did not ask, tapping at something on the tablet in her hand with one finger. "I am your first week mentor." Her voice had a trill in the back of it. "My name is Rillia ip Thetrel, senior student here. We have Literature of the Muliverse together this afternoon, but first I'll see you to your Algebra class."

And without a further word, she turned and started through the throng. Lirssa scrambled after and caught up easily enough. Once she was in stride, Rillia continued, "Welcome to Halstead. I know it will be a bit overwhelming at first, but that's why I am your mentor. We will have lunch together, and I am here for you to ask questions. And," the girl smiled, her teeth small and her tongue narrow in the small mouth, 'don't worry, you aren't being singled out. All new students above the first few grades get a mentor. I've had three students under my wings since I was a sophomore student, and I haven't lost one of you."

Lirssa chewed on her mouth to avoid adding the word "yet' to that statement. Instead, she smiled and nodded. "Thanks." At each turn, she looked for the exits she had plotted out from the map of the school.

"If you are looking for escape routes, through the janitorial staff's room is fastest, but it smells." Rillia grinned and then stopped at a door that slid open into a room that looked like a miniature theatre, with cushions on a terraced floor and a small half oval stage near one wall. "Algebra. Have fun. I will find you after your ZGPE class for lunch." And Rillia was gone.

Lirssa stepped in the room where several other students, she counted thirteen so far, were all finding cushions to sit and pulling out their tablets. Lirssa took a seat nearest the door and copied the others just as a squat man with a jet black beard to his knees and a top knot swept in, the long sleeves of his blue silk robe flapping behind him. "Good morning, class. Algebra begins today, a grand adventure into the mysteries of the multiverse by numbers. I expect you to give every effort to this adventure, as I, your guide, will give my every effort to advise you."

Certain she was being made fun, she looked around waiting for the snickering and teasing to start. It did not. There were no faces peeking in the windows of the door, all the other students were set with stylus at the ready, and so Lirssa watched the instructor, Professor Hu, punch at his own tablet with a screen descending from the ceiling.

It was going to be one interesting day.

All this time I've been workin' them angels overtime Riding and diving and flying Just over the edge Workin' them angels - Overtime... Workin' Them Angels, Snakes & Arrows, Rush

"Right then, line up along the side of the room," Coach Amberfall motioned with a wide sweep of his arm.

Lirssa followed suit like all the others in her Zero Gravity Physical Education, ZGPE, class, leaning back against the softly padded and lined in white microfiber wall. She tugged at her jumpsuit. The under-suit was snug like her acrobat leotards she used to wear, but the jumpsuit was nothing like her motley. It went from wrist to ankles, zipped from navel to neck, and was a uniform dark blue. Achievements were earned later that could be stitched to the sleeves. A few of the students had ribbons of bright red or orange on their left sleeves.

"What do those mean?" She whispered to Tabitha at her side.

The girl was not elven, but she could have passed for one. Her nose was pert with the tiniest turn up, eyes a crystal pool blue, and hair like dark amber. She checked around them before leaning into answer. Up close, Lirssa could see the sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose splashing across her cheekbones. "Red is for high marks on finals, orange for midterms. Higher levels get other badges for achievements on tests."

Lirssa looked back to the stripes and noticed most that had the red also had the orange, but not always the other way around. She smiled, she was always fond of ribbons on things. She was going to get those.

"If Tabby and Lirssa are done with their discussion, we will get started." Coach gave a lopsided grin, tapping his table against his leg. Tabitha ducked her head, but Lirssa just beamed a smile at him. "We have done half gravity, and we have done quarter gravity. Those of you from other worlds or colonies might have been right at home."

Lirssa looked up and down the line, but did not see anyone who looked like they agreed. She knew for a fact that Vander had not. He had vomited at quarter gravity something that looked like shredded wheat. That had caused a chain reaction of little globs of vomit exploding out of a few more mouths and slowly dropping to the floor. It had been a short day in ZGPE that day, but Lirssa had helped clean it up. With a frown, she thought she really should have gotten a ribbon for that.

"Today, zero gravity." And Coach held up plastic bags. "Take one and pass it down."

As the students passed the bags one to another, laughing and blushing, some already turning a pale sort of green, Lirssa watched Coach punch on his keypad the codes to start up the room.

It was a tall room with rounded walls until the top where it twisted out into a square. There were handles of different shapes, sizes, and angles along the walls. "Ready' Here we go."

Whatever weight Lirssa felt on her person, unconsciously, lifted off of her. She, along with other students swayed a little to get used to it, and some who were not careful over compensated and sent themselves the other direction with no real way to stop until they got to the wall or handle.

"Don't just stand there. I need twenty laps. Go!" Coach's socks had gravity compensation sensors he could turn on and off, so he stood just where he was. The students' socks had none of that. Some still hesitated, but at the word go, Lirssa pointed her toes to give herself a gentle boost off the ground.

Aberforth, another student who managed to keep his stomach contents inside, followed suit. He had given a larger push and went gliding up past her with a superior grin. Fire in her belly, Lirssa reached to the side at one of the passing handles and pushed at just the right angle to give her momentum but not send her sideways. She passed Aberforth and touched the ceiling first, then pushed a bit harder in the twisting turn on the way down.

"This is not a race!" Coach yelled up at them.

More students were on their way up as Aberforth and Lirssa surged down to the floor. Using the same trick she had, Aberforth increased his momentum. They touched the floor at the same time, and bounded off back to the ceiling, soaring past some trailing students.

"Slow it down, Aberforth! Lirssa!" Coach warned.

Aberforth ignored the coach, and Lirssa was not going to be outdone. He shoved off the ceiling, and she did the same, they were plummeting to the floor. Lirssa was pulling ahead of him and prepared for the twist to push around, but was bumped by Aberforth panicking and flailing his arms. She went one way and he the other.

A whistle careened through the room. "Get to a handle!" Coach yelled and turned off his gravity socks.

Lirssa twisted and pushed off the side wall as other students clung to their handles. She saw Aberforth heading out of control to one of the corners without a handle. She used the harmony of her acrobatic training to twist at just the moment, zooming faster than the controlled rise of the coach, to grasp Aberforth's ankle, jackknife her midsection, and loop her foot around a handle slowing Aberforth so he could gain control again.

"You two, down to the floor." Coach frowned and pointed at the floor past students huddling, and some few vomiting in their bags.

Lirssa pushed her way down and contorted her body to land in lotus position, just to prove her point. A point that was not lost on Coach when he raised a brow at her. Aberforth joined her. "You all keep doing your laps. Twenty in all. And I will know!" He tapped his tablet.

"Now, you two. This was not a race. You could have gotten yourselves or others in serious trouble or harm."

Lirssa doubted she would have gotten in trouble, but the harm to others, yes, that might have been true. She sighed and her shoulders dropped. "Yessir. I'm sorry, sir."

"She started it," Aberforth cut in at the tail of her apology.

Lirssa opened her mouth to retort, but then she thought of how disappointed her parents would be if she was in trouble. She sulked.

"I don't care," Coach responded, but he seemed to have lost his anger. "The two of you owe me 30 laps. Slow. I want you counting to thirty on the way up and the way down each time. And you," he pointed to Lirssa, "have to do that jackknife foot hold each time up and each time down. See how your belly likes that."

When the coach turned away Lirssa smirked. Her belly would like it fine.

Science, like nature, Must also be tamed With a view towards its preservation. Given the same State of integrity, It will surely serve us well. -Natural Science, Permanent Waves, Rush

Lirssa and Robbie, official name Roberta Morgan, leaned over opposite sides of the screen. "Have you found it?" Robbie asked, her eyes darting over the rotating diagram.

"Not yet. I think it must be one of those trick questions." Lirssa grumbled. The first few weeks of MAM, Multidimensional Architectural Manipulations, had been theory. It made Lirssa's head swim. Infinite possibilities leading to other infinite possibilities, and the wysebox given to her by Zahra and upgraded by her father, was one of the few devises constructed that applied, in finite applications, those theories. Lirssa always had a headache by the time MAM was done. She was convinced today was not going to be any different.

"Maybe we should draw it out," Lirssa suggested, pausing the diagram with a touch of her finger. Robbie took up her stylus as well, and they both went to work on their tablets, constructing information cubes as Dr. Greene had told them at the beginning of class, and filling in the possibilities. Lirssa felt her frustration starting to bubble, but she took it a line at a time. Take it slow, she told herself, and just work through each step " just like algebra. Stop trying to jump to the end.

Robbie paused and reached over to tap Lirssa's arm. "I got this. What'd you get?" She turned her tablet around.

Looking between that and her own incomplete drawing, Lirssa nodded. "I hadn't gotten that far, but I think you're right. Looka that there, see?" Pointing between the tablet and the diagram she set rotating again with another touch. "You found that connection. That's gotta be it. Raise your hand." Lirssa encouraged, but Robbie still looked skeptical.

It wasn't just her name, Lirssa thought. Robbie was afraid of anyone really paying attention to her, because if she was wrong it was just another thing for the kids to make fun of her. Lirssa had coaxed her out with talking about her wysebox, Sumar. If there was something Lirssa knew how to do, it was make younger kids feel comfortable. Robbie was three years younger and tested into MAM level 1.

"You gotta raise your hand, or I won't tell you about the flying bicycle I'm buying," Lirssa grinned, tempting Robbie into doing it. "Or, I'll raise your hand for you." Darting her hand toward's Robbie's.

The girl jerked back, rattling the desk they shared. That drew Dr. Greene's attention. He smiled on Robbie, "Everything all right?"

"Go on," Lirssa hissed, trying to cover her mouth with her hand.

"Yes, sir. I think, I think I found it." Robbie glanced back to Lirssa. The girl had to learn to speak up. Well, Lirssa was going to embrace looking stupid if she had to for Robbie's sake.

"I'm pretty sure she has, sir, but you know me, I'm a leaf all bein spun around on a whirlwind in this class. But I think you should take a look." Lirssa liked Dr. Greene. He was friendly, enthusiastic, and made Lirssa believe she was just on the edge of understanding.

He walked over and looked at Robbie's work. "Very nicely done. Glad you two decided to draw it out. Helped?"

That was a relief, and Lirssa sighed through her smile. Robbie's own smile was as much relieved as Lirssa's own. The two girls grinned and leaned back over the tablet with the spinning diagram while the other students kept working out the problem in the last few minutes of class. "Flying bicycle?" Robbie prompted.

"Oh, yeah,? Lirssa felt the giddiness of excitement take over the pounding at her temples and proceeded to tell the tale of the gnome tinker and the bike with wings.

If we burn our wings Flying too close to the sun If the moment of glory Is over before it's begun If the dream is won Though everything is lost We will pay the price But we will not count the cost -Bravado, Roll the Bones, Rush

"Which planet, time period, and author was the tale of Icarus?" Colonel Yancy Ribelow brushed a slender finger across his white mustache.

Lirssa's hand shot up in the air. She nearly wiggled off her cushion in trying to get the Colonel's attention among all the other raised hands. Everyone in the class knew the answer, but it was the follow up question that would be the worst of it. The Colonel picked the student to answer the first question, and then that student had to answer the follow up question in order to get the credit. Figuring the odds were in her favor if she just raised her hand to all of them, she was bound to at least get one follow up question right.

This plan had not yet succeeded.

The Colonel was not going to give her too many chances either. He saw her stretching her hand up and his round, brown eyes moved on to Jasper two seats over. "Jasper?"

"Earth or Terran, Greek mythology pre-common era most associated with Ovid, but the myth existed before his time." Jasper rolled his pencil between his fingers, fully relaxed with his beret a little more rakishly set than others. Rillia thought Jasper was everything and a slice of bread. Lirssa's only problem was she could not disagree as much as she wanted to do so with Rillia's opinion. Jasper treated everyone even handed, was handsome, and intelligent. Everyone was sure he would get into the academy with the highest entrance marks ever.

"And," the Colonel smiled making his whiskers roll like a cat arching its back, "what is the Hathrian corresponding tale?"

That Jasper paused at all caused the students to tense. Surely Jasper knew it. Lirssa knew it, but she could see others were not so certain, whispering to their seatmates. But Jasper nodded and answered, "T"ithin mau Truliwi, or translated as Searing the Sun."

The Colonel smirked and nodded. "Right." He took in a deep breath and held it a moment. The quiz was over. The Colonel always did that when he was changing to a new subject.

"As most you know, the examinations for entrance into the Multiverse Flight Academy which serves as recruitment for many of the flight institutions serving this region and others will be in two weeks. I know many of you are looking to take those examinations. If you are, I will be providing extra study sessions in preparation. Sign up through the school's Lynx system, and I will see you there. For this class, however, we are going to be going over the first two acts of Chrysalis. Please be sure your copy is translated into basic and the translator is Geraldine Parsons. You'll get lost otherwise, and I'm not drawing you a map. Dismissed."

Academy was supposed to be Lirssa's goal. She doubted she would have heard anything about the exams if it weren't for her being in the upperclassman's literature course. None of her other classes had said anything about it. It could be just because it was the Colonel, and he was giving the extra study courses. Lirssa, however, felt an excited tension in her chest. It was the same feeling when she had just performed a new acrobatic move to perfection. The same feeling when Bubber had given his grudging praise at an act.

"Rillia, is there an age limit on the test?"

Confusion brought a trill out of the older girl's mouth. "What test?"

"The academy."

The trill came again, but light as a song and full of merriment. "Lirssa, don't tell me you plan on taking the exam already? You still can't finish your algebra homework without looking like a bewildered puppy."

That thrilling feeling in her chest collapsed like a house of cards. Lirssa knew Rillia was right. But what if she could" What if she was so special?"

"Lirssa, I'm going to start calling you Icarus. Stop trying to fly so high. Enjoy school for a bit. It really isn't so bad.? Rillia's voice faded away. When Lirssa looked up at her, she could swear that the older student looked a little sad as she gazed over the hallways where they walked.