Page 31 of Bound By Stars

“On stairs? Fine, I’ll use the main stairway across from the dining room.” Weslie starts to make her way back across the arboretum, but the porter grabs her by the wrist.

I peel his hand off of her. “No need for that. Just tell us what’s going on.”

A bead of sweat runs down the side of his face into his thick beard.

The elevator dings and the doors part. Inside, the mirrored walls are splattered red.

Chapter Thirteen

Weslie

Thirty days to Mars

Racing down the hall, I swing around the doorway into the classroom as Calypso calls for silence. I slide onto the open stool next to Asha before everyone’s settled. My stomach growls loudly enough that she looks concerned. ILSA kept warning me I needed to get out of bed, that I was going to be late, that I would miss breakfast, but I was wide awake long after I was escorted back to my room last night.

A couple of tables away, Jupiter looks up from his sketchbook, grinning like he’s happy to see me. Like we’re friends now.

Calm down. We managed one civil conversation.

His right eye squints a little more than the left when he smiles, making his face less symmetrical, but somehow more perfect.

I shake off the thought.

“Let’s begin with updates on Earther Experience reports,” Calypso says.

I lay my head on the table and close my eyes. Those dripping red letters from the elevator flash across my memory again.Hands off our planet.By the porter’s expression, I’d thought it was blood, but the sharp odor of paint filled my nostrils before Jupiter and I were whisked away.

It’s the smaller letters underneath the message that I can’t stop thinking about, though. A dash and initials:E.F.E.I’ve seen them before. A long time ago. The memory tickles my brain but won’t fully take shape.

Maybe they’re only letters, probably painted by an Elysian who will pin it on an Earther just to stir up trouble. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Hale. I wouldn’t be surprised if he blamed it on me. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they believed him.

Even more reason to take Reve’s advice. Blend in. Play their game.

Calypso pats the table next to my head as they wander past, and I sit upright.

They add to someone’s statement. “…leading to a lot of resentment from Earth toward people on Mars and the Interplanetary Alliance.”

Oh, good. They’ve moved on to reviewing a very edited, Elysian-friendly version of Earth’s history. This should be fun.

One of Hale’s friends, a guy with messy hair and a crooked nose who laughed while Hale tried to drown me, smirks like he’s already won a debate. “But the companies on Mars provide jobs and services for Earthers.”

At a cost.Keep your mouth shut, Wes. You are alone here.

“Yeah! Historically, they fully rely on us,” someone near Jupiter in the middle of the classroom adds.

Wrong. I remember my dad’s rants at the dinner table. I know what it’s like on my own planet. Historically, corporations built Mars into their own little upper-class safe haven before things on Earth went bad. They claimed and privatized all the resources they could, turned their company campuses into cities built around factories to make shit to export to Mars, and left Earthers with two options: work or die.

I fold my hands in my lap and hold my lips between my teeth.

“Without Elysian companies, no one would have survived on Earth,” another voice adds.

“Hold up!” The words burst through my restraint. “The world was in meltdown and the only survival option given to them was to become low-paid laborers in dangerous factories producing shit for Mars…and you think they did Earthers afavor?” As soon as I shut my mouth, I notice all the blank stares.

Jupiter and Calypso are the only people smiling. So much for blending in.

“Even dus…Earthers can prosper with hard work. You’re here, aren’t you?” Meridian glares at me from across the room with raised eyebrows and pinched lips, like I’m required to agree.

I hold eye contact and speak slowly. “And with enough nepotism, Elysians can prosper, too. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

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