Starcorp 1: Escape from Sol
The Day After

Sawyer spent much of the night after the award ceremony examining everything that transpired over the past two weeks that pertained to Sharon. He could not help but entertain the thought that she had exploited his attraction to her to get what she wanted, an invite to the ceremony. Despite this suspicion, he could not despise her for it. His mind kept trying to find a stratagem that might win for him her affections. His intellect tried to steer away from this thinking, but it only managed to produce disapproval for the effort. He could do nothing to stop it.

It was after eight o’clock in the morning when Sawyer climbed out of bed. This was a late start for him. He usually started his day between five and six in the morning. There was no particular reason for these early starts on his days off from school. Normally he had no activities scheduled for these days. His usual practice on days when he had nothing to do had been to spend much of it within the sports and recreation complexes aboard the Amaterasu. He had every intention of doing the same on this day. He was simply off to a late start.

On this morning, Sawyer’s mind was too preoccupied with thoughts about the night before to create definite plans for the day. He gave little attention to anything that turned his thoughts away from Sharon. He stumbled his way through the morning out of habit more so than design. Shortly before two o’clock that afternoon, Sawyer strolled into the Amaterasu Arcade Center for the first time that day. The place was nearly filled with people. All fifty-seven game pods had a player inside. Sawyer meandered through the arcade as he looked left and right for his friends. A few minutes into his search he spotted Anthony waiting outside of an arcade game. He was watching the play of a gamer inside the pod via the large monitor affixed to the outside of it. As he turned and started to move towards him, he noted Martin and Rebecca waiting there as well. After a few steps, he saw Oscar and CC waiting and watching outside of a neighboring game pod. Rebecca was the first to notice that he had arrived. She turned towards him with an excited expression and blurted out her greeting with equal enthusiasm.

“Hi, Sawyer!”

Sawyer returned her greeting with a modest “hi.” As he said this, Martin and Anthony were calling out their greetings. Oscar detached his attention from the monitor he was watching when he heard the welcome calls to Sawyer. A second after that he set off to greet his friend. CC was the only member of the group to appear uninterested in speaking with Sawyer. She noted him with a brief look of disapproval, and then she turned her attention back towards the game monitor.

“How was the awards ceremony?” Rebecca spoke as Sawyer navigated his way between half a dozen people to reach her.

“It was okay,” Sawyer reported with a lack of enthusiasm.

Nearly all the game pods had people waiting outside for a chance to play them. Most had a minimum of one player waiting to get in. Seven of the most popular games had between five and ten individuals waiting outside of them. Rebecca, Martin, CC, Anthony, and Oscar were waiting outside of two of these. The two games were identical and the number of people waiting for access to them was nearly equal. Oscar and CC split away from the others to shorten their wait time.

Every new gamer had to make a reservation to gain access to a game pod. This was done by touching their com-link to the game pod’s external control panel. The control panel recorded the identity of this person. If the game pod was occupied, then the control panel would put this person in the queue behind anyone else that may have made a reservation ahead of him or her. When their turn came up, the control panel would notify that person via an alert on his or her com-link. That person would then have one minute to take possession of the game pod. If he or she failed to do this, the control panel would discard that person’s reservation and the next person in the queue would be alerted.

“So, who was there,” Rebecca challenged in an excited voice. “What did you see?”

“Forget that,” Anthony directed with an emphatic tone. “What happened with Sharon?”

Martin showed his agreement to this inquiry with a “yeah” and a grin. Oscar arrived in time to support Anthony and Martin by asking a question of his own.

“Did you and Sharon make out?” Oscar spoke with wide-eyed excitement. “Come on, give us some details.”

Rebecca took an immediate dislike to this line of inquiry and expressed as much with a role of her eyes and a shake of her head. Sawyer exhibited no distaste for the questions. At the same time, he displayed no interest in the subject.

“Nothing happened,” Sawyer declared in a somber voice.

“No, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Anthony argued back in a mocking tone of speech. “She broke up with Joseph and went out with you and nothing happened?”

“She was just my date for the ceremony,” Sawyer countered with a toss of his hand.

“Didn’t you kiss her or ask her to be your girl or anything?” Oscar challenged with an incredulous inflection.

Sawyer had quickly become uncomfortable with this conversation. He hesitated to respond to Oscar’s inquiry. He lowered his gaze and shook his head while his mind searched for an appropriate answer. After a few seconds of this, he spouted out the answer he knew to be the most telling of the situation.

“She doesn’t date teenage boys anymore.”

Oscar, Anthony, Martin and Rebecca were surprised to hear this answer. Oscar cried out a “what!” in response to this report. Anthony bellowed out a “did she really say that” question. Martin exclaimed, almost in a whisper, “what a bitch.” Rebecca was the only member of the four that did not vocalize her surprise. After a few seconds of stunned silence, she turned about and hurried away to CC’s side.

While Rebecca was giving a report to CC on Sawyer’s date with Sharon, Oscar, Anthony and Martin were consoling their friend. They all knew that Sawyer had a deep infatuation for Sharon. They also believed that he, more so than any of them, had a chance of having these feelings returned by her. On top of being Sawyer’s friend, they were all admirers of him. They all wished that they could be as handsome and athletic as he. And they all valued the fact that he was their friend.

It was not long into this consolation that Rebecca came back to the group, gently pulling CC along with her. As soon as she returned Rebecca offered her condolences with a brief statement.

“I’m sorry, Sawyer.”

Sawyer took this with a slight smile and a nod of his head. He then looked to CC and noted that she was not returning his gaze. After two seconds of awkward silence, CC looked up to Sawyer, gave him a phony smile and a terse “hi” before looking away again. Behind this, an awkward silence began to grow between them once again.

They were all aware, to varied degrees, of the feelings that they all held for each other. It was an unspoken awareness, for the most part. Rebecca’s and Martin’s affection for each other was nearly always on public display. When they were not holding hands or each other they were in two separate locations, usually. The bond of friendship between Martin, Oscar, Anthony and Sawyer was strong. Their shared interests and the proximity of their ages made their friendship a natural fit. CC and Rebecca had the same form of bond with each other. Their ages, interests and personalities were the glue that maintained their friendship. But it was Martin’s relationship with Rebecca that bridged CC to the group.

There was no resistance to CC’s association with the group. Other than her sex, Martin, Oscar, Anthony and Sawyer had no discomfort with her membership. The only inconvenience in her presence was the fact that she had turned down respective amorous advances from Oscar and Anthony earlier in their association. After this rebuff, Oscar and Anthony, gradually, adapted to the fact that she was a female member with no romantic designs on anyone in the group. This remained true up until the day that Sawyer joined their number. Shortly into his inclusion, it became apparent to all that CC was infatuated with Sawyer. It was also apparent to all that he did not return this affinity. They all knew this was because of his infatuation with Sharon, and in this they were right.

Sawyer found CC very attractive and was flattered by her affinity for him. But his romantic fantasies were exclusive to Sharon Stewart. He could not imagine dividing these musings among more than one girl. All his spare time for thinking romantic thoughts belonged to Sharon. In his sober thinking, he rationalized that a relationship with CC would be a declaration to others that he was not available. The glances and smiles that Sharon directed his way encouraged him in this thinking. Since their first meeting Sawyer held his desire for her above all others of the opposite sex. This was the first time that he no longer thought himself obliged to consider Sharon before thinking of another girl. However, at this moment his romantic inclinations were on hold to give time to his despondency.

“Hey Dude, come on,” Oscar exclaimed loudly after a moment of silence. “Let’s get into one of these games.”

Oscar’s encouragement incited jubilant agreements from the others, minus Sawyer and CC. Anthony threw an arm over Sawyer’s shoulder and began to steer him towards the game pod that he was attending to.

“Yeah man,” Anthony rallied as he walked Sawyer toward the pods. “You need to get back into Physalia. Yesterday that N. Lazaro person beat your average score. You’re now number four.”

Sawyer had no enthusiasm for playing arcade games. His sole reason for coming to the center was to be with his friends. Despite this, he knew that he would end up playing several of the games before the day was done. The insistence of the others was predictable. They maintained an ongoing contest between them within seven separate games.

Physalia was the most popular game in the arcade. Sawyer enjoyed it immensely and played it near to the exclusion of all others. This devotion to it partially explained his high ranking. Out of more than five hundred participants across the five RG01 starships, Sawyer managed to hold on to a top ten ranking for the whole of the past year. The other reason for his high ranking was simply because he was very good at it.

Within their group, Sawyer was not alone in his Physalia playing excellence. Oscar and CC maintained a constant presence within the top ten to twenty range. Martin and Anthony were regularly somewhere within the top twenty to forty range. And Rebecca’s ranking fluctuated within the top thirty to fifty. This game more so than any other in the arcade bonded them together. Where other games held the interest of only one or two of them, Physalia held the interest of all six. This was true for Sawyer most of all. It was Oscar’s hope that his fall from third to fourth place in the ranking would awaken his fascination for the game and distract him from thoughts of Sharon.

“Come on, guy,” Oscar admonished in a mocking tone. “You’re going to break up the Big Three.”

The Big Three was the moniker that Oscar assigned to himself, Sawyer and CC. It pertained to their repetitive rankings in the top ten of Physalia game scores.

Sawyer accepted the encouragement of the others and picked up the challenge. He chased his lost ranking through five plays of the game. Oscar, Anthony, Rebecca and Martin cheered him on in this effort. But this they did to no avail. Thoughts of Sharon took a heavy toll on his game. Five days later his average score was no longer in the top ten. It took him another month to move back into it. I took another three months beyond that to best N. Lazaro’s average.

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