From afar

The group sat in front of Sapphire, looking shocked. Then, Phoenix spoke up.

"But, wormholes are just a theory at the moment. They aren't proven real, and many scientists disprove them."

"You're right Phoenix, but what if it was a…what if situation? We'll never know unless we see for ourselves," Jenn replies. Phoenix nods her head, agreeing with her. "I mean, think about it. Scientists can disprove them AND approve them at the same time. We'll never know unless we find out."

"Good point, Jenn. That only means we'll have to wait until training." Phoenix then looks down at her phone. It was now October, the month of September only ending a mere 5 days before.

"Did anyone catch on when training would start for us?" Jenn asked, looking around the room.

"Yeah. January. We have about a couple of months to prepare, really 2 months to prepare. After that, we train for about 2 or 3 years, and then at that time we should all be of age to launch off," Silas confirmed.

"I saw that training is usually for 2 years. They only say 3 years if something huge is happening on ISSAFE, which I'm pretty sure nothing is happening at the moment," Alexander chimed in. Everyone nodded and then proceeded to finish their food, getting up from their bean bag seats. As Alexander went to pay, they all talked among themselves.

"So Sapphire, was your quiz essentially hard?" Jenn asked her. Sapphire looked at her and shook her head no, grabbing her notebook and pointing at it.

"My extreme studying of celestial objects and their features is what helped me ace that. It also helped me do well on the math section, so essentially I don't look like an idiot. When it comes to earth terms, I believe I'd make a great astrophysicist."

"I believe so too! Honestly, I wanted to be a biologist, but strictly study the plant side of it. My mother says I have a green thumb already, even though I'm young."

"How old are you, Jenn?"

"I'm 11 right now. I turn 12 in December. I believe I'm the youngest and Dominique might be the oldest. I heard he was 15 years old already." Sapphire looked at Jenn with a surprised look on her face. She put her notebook back in her bag and sighed.

"Well, that's a relief. I thought I was the youngest. I mean, my sister is 13 right now, and I'm already 12, but now I know that we're technically the same age, I'm just older." Jenn looked at Sapphire and smiled, her cheeks pressing against the bottom of her eyes, making them squint. Through the squint, though, you could see her emerald green eyes.

On the other side of the room, Dominique and Phoenix were talking.

"So, your test was primarily Geology, right? I think you and Jenn will work together a lot. She did say that her test was mostly plant-based biology. Biology and Geology seem to tie together a lot, don't they?" Phoenix said. She crossed her arms and looked up at the boy, who was already relatively tall.

"Well yes, I was thinking about that when she told me. It also fits me that mostly you and Silas might be working together a lot as well, right? I have a bad memory but I believe he said chemistry and quantum mechanics. Particles, things of that nature, huh?"

"Yes. Sapphire will probably work with us too. It seems that Alexander is alone in his field unless he didn't tell us something. You're geology, Jenn would be biology, Sapphire is astronomy and astrophysics, I'm quantum mechanics, Silas is chemistry, and Alexander is mostly maintenance. But his role is still helpful because if we didn't have the tools he'd probably make, we wouldn't be able to study these things."

"You're absolutely right. But there has to be something else about that boy, don't you think?"

"Well of course! They tested us for 2 things--and in the letter, if you pull out the second paper they put on there, they rank which one you're better at. For me, quantum mechanics was my first, and mathematics my second. That's why overall, quantum mechanics will be my field." Dominique nodded his head and then turned around, grabbed a napkin, and pulled out a pen from his back pocket. He leaned on a hard surface and wrote down his number to give to Phoenix.

"Here, we should definitely keep in touch. Give my number to your sister too."

"Sure thing." With that, they shook hands and parted ways. Dominique went back to the bean bag chair and grabbed his jacket, putting it on. Silas and Alexander were talking as Alexander just finished paying, and Silas had looked like he found out a secret that nobody else knew. After that, Alexander had to leave and so did Dominique, and as they walked outside, they too talked. Silas came walking over to the group that was left, which were just the girls.

"Hey…Silas, right?" Sapphire asked.

"Yes! I wanted to come to talk to you guys about Alexander."

"Oh!" Phoenix exclaimed, turning her body to face the boy. They make eye contact with each other and Silas then looks down and up at Sapphire.

"So, he told me to tell you guys this, but his second best score underneath mechanics was also biology like Jenn, however, it's not plant-based biology. It's genetics. So, you two share the umbrella term of biology, but study two different things." Jenn's eyes seemed to begin to glow, her smile that was now plastered across her face radiating happiness.

"That's great! It's like he studies the genetics of new alien creatures we find and I study plant life. We would work together perfectly." Jenn clapped her hands and then grabbed her bag, slinging it around her shoulder. She checked the time and then looked outside, a car that was a bright pink pulling up to the entrance of the cafe. "Well, my mother is here, guys. Auf wiedersehen!" She walked outside, climbing into the car and sharing a smile with her mother. As they pulled away, now only Sapphire, Phoenix, and Silas were left.

"Dominique and I were actually talking about that earlier. I knew there had to be a scientific sub-category for Alexander, but I highly believe that biology could've been his first and they just put him in mechanics because we needed someone like that on our team," Phoenix said, folding her arms yet once again. It was a habit of hers that made her seem like she was a know-it-all and was entitled to everything, but truly she did it because she wanted to know more about a person or what they were doing.

"You're actually right, he did say that he scored better on his bio portion than his mechanics portion, but they placed him in mechanics because they felt like it was good for our team. Alexander himself said he doesn't mind it when people rely on him, and because we'll be in outer space most of the time, we'd have to rely on him a lot." Silas then looked at his phone and reached into his bag, pulling out two index cards and giving them to the girls. "I have to go, but here's my number! We should make a groupchat." With that, he waved to the girls and walked out of the cafe, leaving the two sisters alone. They too, then decided that today was enough and that they have received enough information about their future crew members. It was their time to go home, so they both grabbed their things and biked home.