I'm in with the "In" Crowd

Part 4

"There you are, Cat," Veleria said, standing back to get a good view of her handiwork. "You look like a million credits."

"Like a fairy princess," Kerin enthused.

"Like an absolute dream," Crystal added.

Catalina smiled uncertainly as she took a look at herself in Veleria's mirror. They'd done her hair again, in a particularly complicated style, and slathered on enough make-up to prevent any actual skin from showing. The pink dress Veleria had given her clashed somewhat with the colours of her hair, but looked well-made and expensive (which it was). Whatever I look like, she thought, I don't look much like Catalina.

"What's wrong, Cat?" Kerin asked, noticing her low level of enthusiasm. "Don't you like it?"

"Oh, sure," she faltered, "I … I like it a lot. I guess I'm just kind of tired."

"I know," Veleria said, patting her shoulder, "today's been kind of rough. But tonight should make up for it!"

"Rough" was a good way of putting it, Catalina thought. That morning, she had discovered early that everyone seemed to know that she'd asked Radu to the dance. How, she wasn't quite sure; she hadn't told anyone other than the Crowd, and somehow she doubted that Radu had been talking to anyone. But however the word had gotten out, she had faced a solid wall of hostility in the cafeteria at breakfast. Nobody spoke to her, or even looked at her, and yet a message was sent, loud and clear; she had become an enemy, a traitor to her own people. The sense of a heavy weight of disapproval pressing down on her took away any appetite Catalina might have had, and sent her running from the cafeteria before she'd eaten more than a few mouthfuls.

The rest of the day had been just as bad. No one would sit near her in class; in the halls she was treated as if she weren't there, to the point where several of the larger students had tried to walk right through her, pushing her against the lockers and sending her compupad flying. Several anonymous but nasty notes were sent to her compupad, or left on her desk when she wasn't looking.

In Biology, she'd gotten what would normally have been a lucky break, when Hank Morris assigned Harlan Band to be her laboratory partner. Any thrill there might have been in exploring the inner contents of a dead rat with Harlan was ruined, however, by the contemptuous, yet pained, look in his eyes whenever he was forced to speak to her. She wished she could explain, tell him that things weren't the way they appeared, but she had promised the Crowd not to breathe a word of their scheme beforehand. Besides, neither Harlan nor anyone else spent enough time around her to let her explain anything.

Is this what it's been like for Radu every day since he's been here? she wondered. Even Rosie has to go through this now. It occurred to Catalina that she wasn't nearly as brave as she'd thought she was. The prospect of enduring a whole school year like this would be unendurable.

"Yes," she agreed slowly, "it's been kind of rough."

"OK, then, run along," Veleria said with an impish grin. "You've got a date to meet, don't you?" She turned back to the mirror and patted a stray hair into place. In her pristine white dress, she looked absolutely stunning.

"Sure," Catalina said. "Bye!" The others nodded vaguely and turned their attention to their own appearances.

Outside Veleria's room, Catalina stopped for a minute, and leaned against the wall. At that moment, she would have given anything for a meteor strike on the school, or for a sudden attack of Saturnian appendicitis, or something, anything that would get her out of the intolerable situation she was in. Nothing of that nature happening, she shrugged and was about to move on, when a voice in her ear said, "Well, now, don't you look sweet! Where are they holding the Geek Convention, anyway?"

"Suzee!" she cried in relief. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing," Suzee said, with an evil grin, "I just wanted to see how much of a fool you're willing to make of yourself." Her face grew more serious. "And I thought you might need someone to talk to, afterwards."

"Suzee, I need someone to talk to now," Catalina implored. "I've got to figure some way out of this! Can you think of anything?"

"No," Suzee said, "but remember, I did tell you so…."

"'I told you so' doesn't help," moaned Catalina. "I've got to do something!"

"Well, keep going," Suzee said, her brow wrinkled in thought, "and I'll try to think of something along the way."

"That's not very comforting," Catalina sighed.

"No," Suzee answered, "but it's all you've got right now."

As she approached the main entrance to the auditorium, Catalina looked around, hoping that maybe Radu wasn't there. "Maybe he's forgotten," she whispered to Suzee. "Or maybe he had a really rough time in his math makeup that and decided not to come."

"No such luck," Suzee said. "There he is!" Catalina turned, and saw the young Andromedan waiting by the water fountain. He was standing alone, staring down at the ground, as though he had just about decided Catalina wasn't coming, that she'd stood him up.

"Hi, Radu!" she called out.

"Oh, Catalina!" he looked up and smiled. Then a strange expression crossed his face. "You look different," he said, staring at her uncertainly.

"Yes, I know," Catalina made a face back at him. "Awful, isn't it?"

"No," Radu struggled bravely with the untruth, "it looks ... nice."

Catalina had to giggle at the transparency of the effort. "Some friends were trying to make me look more elegant, but I don't think it worked very well," she grinned. In a way, she was glad that both Suzee and Radu thought that the new look Veleria had given her was hideous - it was nice to know it wasn't just her own opinion. "Anyway, tell me about your math test," she prodded. "How did you do?"

Radu's face lit up. "I got a sixty-two," he beamed proudly; it was the highest mark he'd ever gotten at the Starcademy. "I can't thank you enough, Catalina," he said. "The first question was just like the one we went over yesterday. So, I thought of the rescue mission, and it worked. And then we had a … what do you call it, a ratio? … but I thought of the way you explained the fuel mixture…." He continued, describing his battle with the math test with the same enthusiasm Harlan Band would have used to describe a fight with Spung raiders.

Catalina listened, feeling torn. Part of her was interested in learning how her tutoring efforts had succeeded, but another part of her felt completely rotten, knowing what would happen later that evening. She just wished Radu would stop saying how grateful he was to her; soon enough, he'd see he had nothing to thank her for.

"Come on," she urged, "Let's go in to the dance." Maybe, she thought, when I'm inside the auditorium itself, I can think of something. But the cold reality of the tiny transmitter she'd slipped into a pocket of the pink dress seemed to say that she was trapped.

They walked into the auditorium just as the band started up. Radu turned white, and clasped his hands over his ears. "Are they always so loud?" he asked Catalina, aghast.

"Basically, yes," she admitted, shouting above the din. Talent was hard to find at the edge of the Solar system, and the bands hired at the Starcademy did have a reputation for using excessive volume to compensate for lack of skill. A thrill of hope shot through her. "You know, if it's too loud for you, we can leave," she suggested. "You don't look like you're enjoying this."

"No, it's all right," Radu answered, gritting his teeth. He told himself he wasn't going to let a little noise drive him from his first social event at the Starcademy; especially not when he would ruin Catalina's evening by leaving. He focused every ounce of the formidable Andromedan concentration on damping the noise down to a tolerable level. After a few minutes, he succeeded; he knew he couldn't keep it up indefinitely, but he figured he could stand an hour or two before being driven from the hall.

 "Do you want to dance?" he asked, as soon as he had managed to surmount the skull-splitting noise of the band.

"Um, well, I …." Catalina temporized; she'd kind of hoped that they wouldn't draw any more attention to themselves than necessary. She'd noticed that Radu did have a certain problem with coordinated movements.

"Come on, it'll be fun," he said, pulling her out onto the floor. To her surprise, he wasn't a bad dancer. The steps he followed weren't anything Catalina had ever seen before, but there were so many people from so many different cultures at the Starcademy that this wasn't unusual. To her surprise, Catalina found that it was, indeed, kind of fun, as she whirled and spun to her own Saturnian choreography.

After about half an hour, the band took a break. Catalina offered to go get some refreshments from the stand located near the side door of the auditorium; she was thirsty, but she also needed some time on her own, to keep searching for a solution to her dilemma.

Absently, she took her place in the line at the stand. "Two Saturnian sodas," she told the boy taking orders, then did a double take. "Grozit, Harlan, what are you doing here?" she asked, astonished. "I thought…." Harlan had told her how many girls had been clamouring to invite him to the dance; then why was he working the refreshment stand, a job typically done by the nerdiest students, those with no social life whatsoever?

 "What am I doing here? Well, er … that is, I…." Harlan mumbled awkwardly. "I thought I could earn some extra money, that's all. Admiral Cody doesn't believe in allowances - at least, he says, not until my marks improve. And besides, there were so many girls asking me, I didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings by picking just one." His expression warned Cat that further inquiries would not be welcome.

Catalina didn't know whether burst into laughter, or give herself a good swift kick. Harlan was working the concession stand because it was the only way to get into the dance! He'd been making it all up - nobody, she realized, had even asked him. And there she'd been, too insecure to say anything, convinced that she faced competition from dozens of impossibly popular girls. It dawned on her that if she had spoken, Harlan might very well have accepted her invitation. And if he had, she wouldn’t be in her current predicament.

Bemused, she wandered away from the refreshment stand, and nearly tripped over a small, pink person standing nearby.

"Hi, Cat," Rosie smiled warmly at her. "I saw you dancing back there - you're really good."

"Rosie!" Catalina said, pleased to see someone who wasn't acting as if she were a traitor. "I didn't know you were here!" She looked around. "Who did you come with?" From the way the other students were treating Rosie this year, Catalina was somewhat surprised she'd found a date.

Rosie shrugged. "I asked Bova, the boy who sits behind you in Interplanetary Cultural Studies," she explained.

"I didn't think Uranusians went to dances," Catalina said, surprised.

"They don't normally," Rosie grinned, "but I told him there would be lots of things to eat here." She nodded over to the concession stand, where Bova was struggling to balance three heavily-loaded paper plates of food with only two hands. He looked back and attempted to wave to Catalina and Rosie, the movement seriously threatening the continued stability of the plates. Plutonian vegetable medley, he thought, counting off the delicacies that normally never showed up on the Starcademy menu, Mercurian meatballs, stuffed Tritonian prawns, Uranusian hash. He paused, feeling he'd forgotten something. "Oh, yeah," he said, as it came to him. "Rosie, you want anything to eat?"

"No, not right now, thank you," Rosie called back, pleasantly, "but you could get me some soda while you're there, if you'd like."

Catalina said goodbye to Rosie, as Bova tried to figure out how to add a can of soda to his cargo without losing everything. She was heading back to where she'd left Radu, when she ran into Veleria, Kerin and Crystal, wearing serious expressions. Veleria seized one of Cat's arms, Kerin the other, and they hustled her off towards the girls' washroom.

"Well?" Veleria inquired, as the door swung silently shut behind them. "What's taking so long?"

"I'm getting there," Catalina said, uncomfortably. "I've got to wait for the right moment."

"Come on, Cat, we don't have all night," Kerin urged. "Just dump the guy and get it over with. Then we can enjoy the rest of the dance without an Andromedan around to ruin the atmosphere."

"The longer you take," Crystal warned, as she absently checked out her appearance in the mirror, "the more it will look like you're on a real date. People may not realize that what happens isn't an accident." I'll bet she's chickening out, she thought, noticing Catalina's hesitation. I warned Veleria that Cat doesn't have what it takes to be part of the Crowd.

"OK, OK!" Catalina snapped back. She'd never realized it before, but Veleria and her crowd could nag worse than Miss Davenport. "I'll go back out, and I'll do it."

"Where will it happen?" Veleria asked, coolly curious. "I want to get a good view."

"You know where the blue line for the Undalian stickball court crosses the astrosoccer goal line?" Cat asked. The others nodded, familiar with the maze of markings for various sports that decorated the floor of the auditorium. "That's where the access panel for the garbage recycler is located. If you stand along the goal line, you'll have a grandstand view." She spoke with the confidence of one who'd spent quite some time going over the schematics of the auditorium. She'd studied where every pipe and conduit ran - by now, she could have gotten a job with the station maintenance staff.

"Good planning, Cat," Veleria agreed. "But don't take too long, all right? We have to get back to our own dates soon."

"I said I won't," Cat answered, trying to conceal her irritation. They were the ones holding things up by standing around talking, weren't they? "I'll get started as soon as we're finished in here. About ten minutes, OK?"

"That's fine," Veleria nodded. "Do it before the band starts up again; that way, everyone will be able to see it."

"Yes," Cat replied, with a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Everyone will see."

The other girls left the washroom, but Catalina lingered a moment, staring at her reflection. It occurred to her that she really disliked the hairstyle they'd given her; the hair gel they'd used made her hair feel sticky, almost dirty. She'd have to wash it out before going to bed that evening.

"Suzee?" she asked of the empty space, but there was no answer. Catalina noticed that Suzee had disappeared just about the time Veleria and the Crowd had shown up. She tried to tell herself that Suzee would show up later, with some brilliant idea that would get her out of her predicament, but in her heart, she realized that there wasn't going to be any easy solution. This wasn't like a school test, where the right answers were already calculated, lurking in Miss Davenport's compupad; whatever choice she made, things were going to get messy. Sighing, she left the washroom went in search of Radu.

He wasn't too hard to find; she could see him near the concession stand, ignoring Harlan's ostentatious scowls. He was leaning against the wall, his head down and his shoulders slumped; the enjoyment he'd shown earlier seemed to have evaporated. Catalina wondered vaguely if Harlan had said something particularly nasty to him.

"Hi!" she said, trying to sound normal, although her voice was high-pitched with strain. "I got you a soda," she added, holding it out to him.

He didn't move to take it; for a long moment, he didn't even look up at her. "Radu?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"I heard you," he finally said, his voice low and sad.

"What?" Catalina asked. It was a stupid question, but she couldn't think of anything else to say.

He finally looked up at her; Catalina couldn't tell whether the expression on his face was anger, or pain, or just despair. "I heard you talking to those other girls," he said. "I know what you're planning."

Catalina felt sick with dismay. Of course he'd heard them - why hadn't she remembered the acute Andromedan hearing? Simply going into another room wouldn't have helped. Radu might not have heard enough to figure out all the details, but from the look on his face, he'd heard enough.

"Radu…." she stammered, but he was already walking away from her, gathering speed, almost running through the corridor that led away from the auditorium. "Please … wait!" she called, as she ran after him. Finally, she was close enough to grab his arm.

"What?" he asked, his voice lifeless. He stopped, but still wouldn't look at her. He couldn't - he just wanted to get away from her, away from everyone. Right now, he felt like he'd be perfectly happy if he never saw anyone - human, Rigelian or Andromedan - ever again.

"Radu, please, let me explain…." Cat began, and then found herself unable to continue. What was there to say? She'd taken part in a plan to humiliate him publicly, and, to make matters worse, she'd pretended friendship with him to put the scheme into motion. How could she explain that away?

They stood as if frozen in the empty corridor. "Why?" he finally asked, looking up at her; the expression in his eyes made Cat wince inside. "Why did you do this? I never did anything to you." He looked away again, quickly; he was afraid that if he didn't get out of there soon, he'd disgrace himself still further by breaking down completely.

"I know," Catalina said. "It's … it's just that…." She wished desperately that she could be anywhere else at that moment. All that was left was to tell the truth; a truth that she'd not wanted to face herself. "The others - Veleria's Crowd - had this idea. And they wanted me to help them. If I did, they'd be friends with me." She swallowed hard. "I've never had any real friends here at the Starcademy, Radu; just Suzee. I'm sure you've heard all about her - my 'imaginary friend'? Everybody laughs about it - 'Oh, there's Catalina, talking to the wall again'". She hung her head. "I just thought that, maybe, I could have some friends that everyone could see, for a change. But to fit in, I had to do what they wanted."

She had to admit that when it was laid out like that, it didn't sound very pretty. She'd always considered herself to be brave and independent; when Miss Davenport called her "headstrong", she'd taken it as a compliment. And yet, she'd been dancing to Veleria's tune the past three days. She'd hurt Radu, she'd even hurt Suzee. If anyone's been humiliated by this whole thing, she thought, it's me.

Radu took a deep breath. He'd always felt an outsider at the Starcademy, just as he'd been an outsider among his own people; without knowing it, Catalina had hit upon a theme that resonated strongly with him. Of course, as much as he sympathized with her problem, it puzzled him. Why, he wondered, would someone like Cat, who was clever, and fun, and full of life, be unable to make friends here? To him, having an imaginary friend was a minor eccentricity compared to the generally weird behaviour of the people at the Starcademy. But for the first time, it occurred to him that maybe he wasn't the only outcast in the place; a small grain of comfort, perhaps, but one that did make him feel slightly better.

He looked at her, and felt some of his hurt and anger drain away. "What were you going to do?" he asked. He knew that there was a plan, but he hadn't heard the details.

Catalina closed her eyes, as if she could blot the whole thing out. "We … I mean, I was going to trigger an access hatch to the garbage recycler, while you were standing on it. You'd fall right into the garbage. Veleria thought you'd be so embarrassed, you'd leave the Starcademy."

"I can't leave," Radu said, shaking his head miserably. "It would be the worst possible disgrace to my people if I quit; even worse than if I failed and got thrown out."

Catalina felt the urge to laugh, although it really wasn't funny. Everything in the scheme had been for nothing; it wouldn't even have achieved Veleria's goal of getting Radu out of the Starcademy.

She was so absorbed in her own shame that she didn't notice a thoughtful look that crossed Radu's face. "If you did this," he said, finally, "you'd get the friends you wanted?"

"Yes," she nodded, "and I wanted that more than anything I've ever wanted before." But even as she said it, she wondered if that was really true.

However, her answer seemed to make up Radu's mind. He turned to her, a determined expression on his face. "Well, then," he said, firmly, "we'd better go do it."

"What?" Catalina asked, certain that she'd misunderstood.

"These things … they happened to me all the time here," Radu said, as though the various torments he experienced were natural phenomena, not deliberate acts. "If you don't do it tonight, someone else will tomorrow. At least, this time, I'll be prepared, and you can get the friends you want." To Catalina's disbelief, he managed a strained smile as he explained. "You helped me pass my math test, and Andromedans always repay their obligations."

Catalina didn't know whether to feel relief, or gratitude, or just pure astonishment. At least, this way, she could keep Veleria happy, without hurting Radu too badly. It was the perfect way out, the solution she'd been looking for all evening. She should be ecstatic at such a neat outcome. And yet….

They walked silently back through the corridor towards the auditorium, deep in their own thoughts. Halfway there, Catalina heard a familiar voice beside her. "You can't really be going through with this!" it said.

"It's all right, he knows," Catalina said, absently. "It won't be so bad after all."

"What?" Radu asked, although his mind was on other things as well.

"Oh," Catalina explained, "I was just talking to Suzee - you remember, my invisible friend?"

"OK," Radu nodded. "Um … hi." He couldn't help following Catalina's eyes, but there definitely was nothing in the space where they focused. He smiled uncertainly.

"Cat, I'm serious," Suzee said. She did, indeed, look very serious. "If you do this, you'll regret it."

"Maybe - maybe not," Catalina said, with a shrug much like Veleria's. Suzee fell silent, but to Catalina's surprise, she didn't disappear, walking beside the other two as they reached the auditorium.

Radu looked around the hall, filled with faces that to his eyes were all filled with resentment and hostility. He felt he'd better act quickly, before his resolve failed. "Where do you want me to stand?" he asked.

"Just over there," Cat guided him towards the marking that indicated the location of the access hatch. She looked around; Veleria and the Crowd were nearby, their eyes glinting in anticipation. At Catalina's glance, they moved over towards the nearby goal line. Hordes of other students gathered nearby, having heard of the entertainment that Veleria had planned.

Radu stepped over to the access hatch, with an expression that would have done credit to Sydney Carton on his way to doing a far, far better thing. Catalina felt her heart thumping as she saw everyone in position. She had to do it now, or she'd lose her nerve completely.

Suzee was staring at her. "Catalina, don't," she warned.

"I know what I'm doing," Catalina whispered. "It's my decision."

She turned back to Radu. "Yes, Mr. Radu," she said, her voice raised for the benefit of those around her, "we have dances here several times each semester. They're really quite interesting, aren't they? Tell me, do you have dances like this among your people?" As she babbled on, she reached surreptitiously into the pocket of the pink dress, and pressed a code into the transmitter. There was a creaking sound of machine parts moving, a tremendous splash, and then general pandemonium.

Now, the cooling fluid from the station's power plant had been quietly minding its own business, meandering sluggishly through pipes that ran through the structure of the station. In general, it led a dull existence, circulating through the power plant until it was dark and thick with accumulated dirt, then being pumped off to giant scrubbers that removed the filth, and at last returning, clean and relatively clear, to begin the cycle again. If it had been capable of surprise, it would have been astonished when a valve in the system, located directly about the auditorium, suddenly opened, and it found itself plunging downwards, under the influence of the station's artificial gravity. Approximately fifty gallons of the stuff, black and gooey, scored a direct hit along the astrosoccer goal line.

Everyone stared, stunned into speechlessness, at the sight before them - three of the Starcademy's most popular students, covered from head to foot with what looked like thick black molasses.

"Noooo!" wailed Kerin. "My dress! My shoes! They're ruined!" She tried to seek comfort into the arms of her date, who seemed somewhat reluctant to embrace a girl who was dripping cooling fluid.

Crystal Trent was apparently unable to form coherent words. She sputtered for a moment, then burst into tears, which left pale trails down her face through the coating of grime.

Veleria stood immobile for a moment, with an air of unnatural calmness. She carefully wiped as much coolant from her face as she could, then looked over at Catalina. "What … happened?" she gasped.

Catalina looked at the transmitter in her hand, then up at the ceiling, then back at the transmitter. "I … I guess I got the wrong access code," she stammered apologetically. "I must have keyed in the code for the cooling system, not the garbage recycler. I'm so, so very sorry, Veleria."

Veleria's eyes burned through the black mask of coolant smeared over her face. Her jaw worked for a moment, then she finally managed to speak. "You idiot!" she hissed. "They were right about you! You are a complete … and total … Space Case! "

"Really, Veleria, it was an easy mistake to make," Catalina pleaded. "The codes are very similar. Anyone could have …." She fell silent, as the teachers chaperoning the dance had finally recovered from their shock enough to make their way to ground zero.

"My goodness!" Miss Davenport said, blinking in astonishment. "What have you girls done to yourselves?"

Veleria stared darkly at Catalina, but was silent. She knew, as did Catalina, that saying anything about transmitters or access hatches would get everyone into more trouble than they really wanted. She contented herself with a final basilisk glare at Cat, and allowed herself to be led off by Miss Davenport for whatever assistance could be given.

"All right, Cadets," Commander Goddard announced, looking over the scene as though it were the site of a military disaster, "the dance is over. We need to get Maintenance in here right away to clean this up." There were a few groans, but everyone seemed too stunned to protest strongly. Students started to file disconsolately out of the auditorium.

Catalina turned to Radu, seized his hand, and shook it vigorously. "Thank you, Mr. Radu, for a very interesting evening," she said .Her face was perfectly solemn, but her eyes dancing with mischief. "See you in class on Monday?"

"Yes," he answered, helplessly. They're all crazy, he thought. Some day I may learn how to do things the way they do, but I will never, ever understand them. Still, at least he would be able to escape from his first Starcademy dance with a shred of dignity left, and for that he was grateful. He fled back to his room before his luck changed.

Catalina and Suzee just made it back to Cat's room before they both burst into gales of hysterical laughter. Neither one was able to speak coherently for a good ten minutes. Finally, Suzee pulled herself together enough to gasp, "I've got to hand it to you, Cat, I couldn't have pulled that one off better myself."

"Thanks," Catalina answered. She started scrubbing off her makeup, enjoying an almost unbearable feeling of relief. "I thought you'd like it."

"You know," Suzee said, a slightly more serious look crossing her face, "for a while, I almost believed that you were going to do it - what they wanted, I mean."

Catalina turned to her friend with a twisted grin. "Suzee!" she protested. "Don't you know me better than that by now?"

"Of course," Suzee answered. "You notice I said 'almost'. I'm just complimenting you on your acting skills. Not that you fooled me for a minute."

 "Of course not," Catalina agreed. She'd learned a lot about people during the past week - for example, she'd learned that Suzee wasn't nearly as sure of herself as she pretended to be. Someday, Catalina thought, she 'd have to find out more about what Suzee's life was like on Yensid. Was it actually the idyllic existence that Catalina had always imagined, or did Suzee face the same problems and uncertainties that Cat did herself?

"Why are you smiling like that?" Suzee asked suspiciously, wondering why Cat had fallen so silent.

"Oh, nothing," she said. "I was just thinking about the look on everyone's face. It's too bad no one will ever know what I pulled off, isn't it? If I tell anyone, I could get in real trouble."

"I'll know," Suzee assured her. "And Radu will know. And Veleria's Crowd will never forget it."

Catalina glanced at herself in the mirror. With her faced scrubbed clean and her hair combed out, she looked like herself again. "You're right," she giggled. "At least the people who matter know."

The two girls laughed and talked until they were both too tired to keep their eyes open. "Goodnight, Suzee," Cat murmured sleepily. "See you tomorrow?"

"Of course," Suzee answered. "Don't you always?"

Catalina kept pretty much to herself over the weekend, thinking it best to keep a low profile until things blew over. She read some more about Andromedan mathematics - it would make a pretty good term paper, she thought.

On Monday morning, she rose early, and prepared to face the rest of the school. As she entered the cafeteria, she saw Veleria and the Crowd sitting, as usual, at one of the centre tables. Kerin nudged Veleria, who turned and gave Catalina an icy stare, then turned her back. The others noisily shuffled their chairs closer together so that no one could sit with them.

Catalina gave them her best pathetic, heartbroken look, and turned away quickly before she started to laugh again. As long as they believed that the events at the dance had been just a terrible accident, rather than a deliberate act, she didn't have to worry about the Crowd planning some sort of revenge. Right now, they clearly felt that excluding her from their presence was punishment enough.

Not that Catalina minded - she was quite happy to sit and talk with Suzee. She picked up her breakfast, and was looking for a free table, when someone called her name.

"Cat!" Rosie called from a table in the corner of the cafeteria. "Come and sit with us!" She beckoned Catalina over to where she and Bova were sitting.

Catalina sat down, carefully making sure there was room for Suzee to feel that she was part of the group. "So, how did you like the dance?" she asked Rosie.

"It was fun," Rosie began. Then her face clouded. "Except that I was so sorry for poor Veleria! What a terrible thing to happen. I tried to tell her this morning how awful I felt for her, but she seemed to be in a hurry."

"Probably just the tip of the iceberg," Bova muttered, through a mouthful of pancakes. "I bet the whole station's about ready to fall apart. Any moment now, the atmospheric containment fields will fail, and we'll all suffocate. Or maybe the hull will fracture, and we'll be blown out into space…."

"I wouldn't worry about that, Bova," Catalina tried to reassure him. "I'm sure it was just a fluke accident." Bova looked unconvinced.

"You and Radu were right where it happened," Rosie said, looking at Catalina with innocent eyes. "Did you see what caused the accident?"

"Er, no," Catalina said, trying to ignore Suzee's snickers. "I didn't really get a good look. I was talking to Radu when it happened."

"Oh, speak of the…." Bova muttered, as he saw Radu approaching. Rosie looked up, beamed, and waved him over.

"Hi," Radu said hesitantly, as he approached the table. "Does … does anyone mind if I sit here?"

"No, come on, sit down!" Rosie answered, enthusiastically. She had somehow never managed to understand the cold shoulder so often shown Radu, or even to recognize it in most forms. This sometimes put Radu in embarrassing situations, when she insisted that he join groups of other people who clearly objected to his presence.

Radu sat down cautiously, half-expecting Bova and Catalina to get up and leave; it was the kind of thing he had become used to at the Starcademy. However, Bova made a sort of non-committal noise as he continued to wolf down his pancakes, and Catalina smiled at him. Radu smiled tentatively back, and would have spoken to her, but just then Harlan Band came by, grumpily reminding Catalina that their biology lab report was due. Catalina got up and joined Harlan at his table, where they finished their breakfast while discussing the internal arrangements of their lab specimen.

Finally, their report was in some sort of order, and Harlan had headed off for class. Catalina looked over to say a belated good morning to Radu, but he'd already left. She sighed. She wasn’t sure exactly what had changed between them, but something had. He was still an Andromedan, a member of the terrifying race that had haunted her dreams for ten years - and yet, he had come closer to being a friend than Veleria and her Crowd. It would probably take her the rest of the school year, she thought, to figure that one out.

Then another thought struck her, and she began to laugh.

"What?" Suzee asked, watching Cat as she giggled to herself.

"Oh, nothing," she said. " I was just thinking…."

"What?" Suzee prodded again.

"I was thinking," Catalina replied, "that I've finally done something that everyone noticed, all right. Even if they don't know it was me. And maybe, in a weird sort of way, I think my parents would have been proud of me."

"It would have to be a weird sort of way," Suzee said. "I don't think the Diplomatic Corp would consider it appropriate to dump gallons of dirty cooling fluid over people."

"They'd understand in this case, though," Cat countered spiritedly. "It was the only honourable thing to do…."

She continued the argument as she headed to class, talking and gesturing with animation as she strove to persuade Suzee of her point. Other students in the hallway, watching her, smiled knowingly at each other. They had Catalina pegged, they thought - a real Space Case if there ever was one.

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