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staked out, I made a point of sitting next to Rigel, something I couldn’t often do these days. The seat on my other side was empty, but only because Sean had been waylaid by a bunch of other basketball players and a few cheerleaders.  
    I tried not to be annoyed how everyone took it for granted now that Sean and I would sit together. Instead, I took my opportunity to talk silently to Rigel before we got sucked into any of the conversations already going on around us.
    Don’t let Sean get to you, I thought as I opened my milk carton. You know he just likes getting a rise out of you.
    I know. Sorry. It’s not fair to you, especially when you feel everything I feel. I’ll try to do better.
    It won’t last forever, I promised. Maybe once we get to Mars, everything will change and we’ll be able to—
    Don’t! His sudden anguish startled me. Don’t get my hopes up, when for all we know we might have to do this for months or even years. I’m just…taking it a day at a time, okay?
    It helped me to believe things would get better soon, to look ahead to a day when we wouldn’t have to pretend anymore, but I couldn’t force Rigel to share my view. Instead of arguing, I offered him one of my cookies, which he took with an answering smile and a noticeable lessening of tension in his face and emotions. Better? I thought, losing myself in his eyes for a moment, something I used to do all the time before—
    “Don’t you two look cozy.” Sean scraped back his chair and thunked into it. Of course, every head within earshot turned to see what he was talking about, but by then Rigel and I had broken eye contact and were focusing on our lunches.  
    “I just gave him a cookie, Sean. What’s the big deal?”  
    “Yeah, I saw. Very nice of you.” Then, so softly only I—and maybe Rigel and possibly Molly, across the table—could hear, “Everyone else saw, too. You guys aren’t doing as good a job of cooling it as you think you are.”
    I turned to glare at him and noticed Trina standing a few feet away, smirking in our direction. She must have said something to get Sean riled up about Rigel, just like she’d done to Rigel last period.  
    “Look, we’re doing our best, okay?” I whispered back. Then, to Bri, who was starting to look a little too curious, “Did you hear Matt broke up with Alicia over the weekend?”  
    Since Bri had gone out with Matt several times last fall, that snagged her attention immediately. “Really? Did you hear why? I’ll bet she cheated on him, the little—”
    “I heard it was the other way around,” Molly said, giving me a half wink.  
    Then Deb weighed in with her own bit of gossip and I was free to communicate with Rigel some more, though I was careful not to look at him.
    You guys need to stop listening to Trina. She’s just trying to make both of you mad at me.
    Out of the corner of my eye I saw him give a hint of a shrug. Problem is, some of what she says is true.  
    Not when she says I’m over you, it’s not! You know she’s always—
    “Are you going to finish that?” Sean asked, pointing at my untouched roll.
    “No, you can have it. And my other cookie, too, if you want.” Maybe he’d realize how ridiculous he’d been a minute ago.  
    Instead, he frowned across me at Rigel. “No, I know how much you like the double chocolate ones.”
    “Only the ones from Dream Cream,” Rigel shot back. “The school ones, not so much. Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think?”  
    And so it went for the next few minutes, both guys making little digs till I pulled out the big guns. “Let’s talk about our history projects now, okay?”  
    It always surprised me when my “push” worked, but I was grateful when they obediently started discussing how far they’d gotten on their respective projects.

    U.S. History, after lunch, was usually my favorite class, since Rigel, Sean, Molly, Bri and Deb were all in it, but Trina wasn’t. But today, less than five minutes