Usually, I’m the one that wants to start the reading lessons. That night I was distracted. All I could think about was the Free Spacer taking us away.
“You’re daydreaming again,” Hank said in his beautiful deep voice. No wonder he was training to be an opera singer. I even loved the way he told me I was wrong.
“It’s possible,” I insisted. “I know a way to get into the hanger -- and then on board the ship.”
I was beginning to convince him when I heard my parents activate the door. Ten kilosecs early! We weren’t ready. I quickly switched off the light. Hank and I tore off our clothes and hid the bookdiscs under them. I threw a glass of water at Hank so it would look like sweat. We hid under the covers as my parents came up the stairs. We hoped that the covers would hide the fact that we were still wearing our underwear.
Hank and I were kissing as Mom and Dad shifted through the door to my room. I sat up a bit as I said hi to them so they could see my breasts. For once I was glad that I don’t need to wear a bra yet. I didn’t have time to extricate myself from one. Hank said “hi” too, and they frowned a bit as they acknowledged his existence. There was that little embarrassing silence before they apologized for interrupting us. We forgave them and promised to see them in the morning for breakfast.
When the door shifted shut behind them we got out of bed, stripped away our underwear and carefully concealed the bookdiscs. We fell together on the bed, laughing and relieved. I’m sure it sounded like we were still pairing. Good.