I wake up and am laying on a bed in the nurse’s room. When I open my eyes, the lights in the room are so bright that they burn my eyes, and I have to quickly shut them again. After a few seconds, I open my eyes again slowly making sure not to look at the lights on the roof. I hear someone moving around the room, and I carefully move my head and see the school nurse moving around the room. I carefully sit up on the bed, and the nurse turns around when she hears the mattress rumple.

“Ah, Miss Capone, you’re awake. How do you feel?” Nurse Jackson asks as she bustles over to check me for any signs of a concussion.

“I feel fine,” I tell Nurse Jackson quietly, as she shines a light in my eyes. “How long was I out?”

“Just five minutes,” She tells me seeming happy. “You have no signs of a concussion. So you are free to go to lunch and then the rest of your classes for the day but come back if you start to feel dizzy.”

“Thank you,” I say before leaving the room quickly.

I jog to the cafeteria so that I can get some lunch before my galactic communications class starts. When I get to the cafeteria, I select a ham and salad sandwich from the lunch system, and it appears on my lunch tray within a matter of seconds. I look around to find where Hera is sitting and sit by her.

“So, I heard what happened to you in sports,” she says by way of greeting as I sit at the table. “Did Colton seriously knock you out of the air in hoverball?”

“Yes, he did but it was a complete accident,” I say, wondering how quickly this bit of news has gotten around school.

“I also heard that cute Colton carried you all the way to the nurse’s office,” she says in a teasing voice.

“I went unconscious within a couple of seconds,” I tell her truthfully.

“Don’t you have any details to tell me?” she asks me, around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

“No, because I went unconscious within a couple of seconds,” I tell her before taking a bite of my sandwich.

We sit quietly for the next couple of minutes, and I have just finished my sandwich when the warning bell goes off letting us know that we need to go to class. I say a quick bye to Hera and race off to my galactic communications class. Galactic communications is my favourite class because we get to study cultures from different planets and galaxies and learn to communicate with them. When I get to my class, I see that Colton is waiting outside the classroom for me.

“Lavender, I’m so sorry about what happened. It was a complete accident. I’m” Colton says when I reach the door.

“Colton, stop, I know it was an accident,” I tell him before he can say sorry a second time.

We quickly enter the room making sure to swipe our wrist over the attendance screen and then take our seats at the front of the room. As we wait for the rest of the class to arrive. I keep sneaking peeks at Colton, and I catch him looking at me a couple of times.

“Colton?” I say his name like a question.

“Yeah,” He says and looks at me intently like he sees something that he hasn’t noticed before.

“I heard that you carried me to the nurse’s office after I passed out,” I tell him trying to sound casual, but I don’t think I quite manage it the way I would like.

“Yeah, I wanted to make sure that you were all right but the nurse kicked me out as soon as I put you on the bed,” he tells me, sounding slightly upset.

Just as I am about to reply our teacher walks in and we both turn around to listen.

“Good afternoon, Class,” our teacher says as he hands out a small holo-tablet to certain people around the room. “This is your assignment on intergalactic customs. Each of you has a partner to work on this assignment with, and you must both do an equal amount of work. You have all the information you need in your assignment holo-tablet and your schoolwork holo-tablet.”

Once he is finished handing out the holo-tablets he tells us who our partners are going to be for the assignment. "Now get to work."

I look at the holo-tablet the teacher has handed me and it tells me that I have been partnered with Colton and that our assignment is on the planet Pluto. I now understand why I have been partnered with Colton when everyone else has been partnered with someone of the same gender. I see Colton trying to look at the holo-tablet on my table, so I show him what it says.

“This one is going to be hard because there it is completely ruled by the males of their planet and there are very strict rules in place for any females whether they live there or are visiting,” I say with a sigh. “Finding a way to navigate all those rules is what is going to be hardest for us.”

“We have the two highest grades for this class,” Colton says, trying to reassure me. “We can handle this.”

I carefully move my chair over so that we can both easily see the holo-tablet and we meticulously start outlining what we want to do for our assignment. At the end of the hour, we have the whole thing outlined.

“So, would you like to meet up tonight to work on it some more?” Colton asks.

“Sure, but it’ll have to be at my house,” I tell him. “How does four thirty sound?”

“That’s fine,” he says before we go to our separate classes.

By the end of the school day, I am feeling slightly giddy with the prospect of studying with Colton. I walk home from school with Hera like I always do, but I am quieter than I normally am.

“What’s wrong?” Hera asks, trying to draw me out of my shell.

“I’m just thinking about an assignment that I got today in galactic communications,” I tell her, hoping she doesn’t push any further.

“Oh, is this a partner assignment?” she asks and when I don’t answer she takes my silence for confirmation. “Who is your partner?”

“It’s Colton,” I tell her reluctantly. “We are catching up to work on it later.”

“Are you serious?” she asks slightly shocked. “Will your parents even allow him to come over?”

“I know they're strict, but I’ll tell them it’s for school and that we’ll study in the lounge room,” I tell her, with a sigh.

“I hope it works,” Hera says, trying to sound sympathetic.

Just then we reach my house, and I tell her bye before I go inside. I live in a lovely two story house painted blue with a white trim. As soon as I walk through the door, I see my mum come down the hallway to greet me.

“Hey, Sweetie, your father has to work late tonight. How was your day?” she asks, wiping her hands on a tea towel.

“It was good. I have an important partner assignment for Galactic communications,” I tell her, a bit weary but wanting to jump straight in. “I was hoping they could come over to study later?”

“Who is your partner?” she asks, getting straight into the inquisition I knew would come.

“It’s a young boy named Colton James. He’s in my class, and you’ve even met his parents,” I tell her. I’m not even lying, she has met his parents. “We are working on customs and cultures for different planets, and we were assigned Pluto.”

“I suppose,” she says, carefully. “However, you have to study in the lounge room and only work. Do you understand?”

“I know,” I tell her. I take off my shoes and leave them inside the door on the shoe rack.

I quickly go upstairs and head straight to my room. It is neat, tidy and organised. The bed perfectly made. My desk has my spare holo-tablet styluses in a stylus holder, a computer sitting in the centre and everything organised. My bed sits on the wall directly opposite to my window with a white quilt with flowers on it. I hang my bag up on the hook next to my door and grab out my holo-tablets. I get changed out of my school uniform into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. I set my holo-tablets up on my desk and set to work on my maths questions. After what I believe to be a half hour, I hear a knock on the front and quickly pack up my holo-tablets and head downstairs. When I get downstairs, I see that my mum has already opened the door and is greeting Colton.

“Hello, Colton,” I say when I get to the door.

“You two head to the lounge room and I’ll bring you some afternoon snacks,” my mother says before heading back to the kitchen.

“I’m so sorry,” I tell him as I lead him to the lounge room. “She’s a little strict, but my Father is way worse.”

“It must be hard having such strict parents,” Colton says with a smile.

“It is,” I tell him as we set our holo-tablets out on the table. “We better get started.”

I quickly and deftly set my holo-tablet so that it connected to the TV and started pulling up all the information we have on the customs and traditions on Pluto.

“Okay, so this is going to be a hard one,” I say, with a smile.

“How about we start with the greetings and then we’ll work on traditional clothes and so on,” He suggests, with a smile.

“Sounds like a plan,” I say, returning his smile.

Just then my mother brings in a tray of celery, carrot and cucumber sticks with homemade onion dip, two chocolate cupcakes and a jug of orange and mango juice. “Here you go,” she says putting the tray on a side table next to the lounge. “I’ll be in the kitchen just call out if you need anything.”

I grab a chocolate cupcake off the tray and pass it to Colton before grabbing the second one for myself. “They’re fresh,” I tell him before delicately taking a bite of my one.

He takes a bite, and as soon as he takes the first bite he moans like it is the nicest cupcake he has ever tasted. “This is good,” He says with a groan.

“Mum, makes everything fresh,” I tell him, as I finish eating my own. “Let’s get to work.”

I carefully start working on an outline of what we are going to do for the assignment and then set to work going through all the information we have until I find the information on the traditional Plutonian greeting.