Hannah stared languidly at the snow piled more than a foot high above the school steps. In November, winter had howled into Sault Sainte Marie; in December it settled in, a constant, wet blanket. Now that it was January, Hannah just wanted it to leave. The never-ending blankness of white and the constant grey skies turned the world into a colorless existence for months on end. This morning, she'd decided it was time to rebel. She'd come to school decked out in red—red sweater, red pants, red earrings, not to mention her own natural red hair. Perhaps that was why everyone gawked at her as she climbed the narrow tunnel carved out of the snow on the steps. She gleamed red in a world of white.

Hannah ignored any snide comments sent her way. She pranced to her locker, dropped off all but her English books, then sauntered to English class. She hated English. Classics and writing, the two subjects I couldn't hate more, she complained inwardly. When she entered the classroom, she observed Mrs. Gallo at the lectern, already punching in the code for today's lesson. Hannah glanced at the screen at the front of the room where a broad title proclaimed, "Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." Even better, she thought, a romance. Please gag me now.

Hannah tromped over to the table she had sat at last term. Each table had room enough for two people, but the chair next to her remained empty all last semester. Everyone had a partner but her and she was just fine with that. It wasn't that she didn't like people; they just didn't seem to like her.

Hannah sat down, opened her bag and pulled out her data pad. She clicked it on, her attention immediately drawn to a flashing phrase mimicking Mrs. Gallo's lecture title. Her finger hovered over the title, then defiantly tapped the tab labeled "Private Reading" instead. Up popped her latest reading material. Two minutes before the chime sounded for class to start, a hushed twittering passed over the room. She looked up to see what was causing the commotion. A boy had just walked in the door. He was obviously new to the school. He was tall and lanky and completely nondescript. Hannah turned her eyes back to her reading. Unlike everyone else, she didn't care who he was.

"I guess I can take this seat? It's the only one open."

Hannah forced her eyes off her data pad. The boy stood gazing down at her. "I guess." She began reading again. So, now she had a partner. The question was, was he an idiot? Would he contribute to making her grades better or would she be forced to simply put up with him during partner projects? She figured time would tell.

The chime sounded. Mrs. Gallo tapped the lectern and began her preliminary introduction to Romeo and Juliet. Hannah knew she should go back to the school tab on her data pad, but she already knew who Shakespeare was—some guy that authored a lot of plays a long time ago that didn't matter anymore. The world is so much more exciting now than in Mr. Shakespeare's time, she thought ruefully. She kept her data pad open to her own private reading.

Several minutes passed by then she heard a whisper next to her. "You don't like Shakespeare?"

She turned her head to the boy. Why did he care? But the look on his face was friendly rather than condescending.

"Not really."

"It's good stuff once you learn to read it."

"I can read it just fine. It's just stupid."

"Have you ever seen one of his plays in person?"

Hannah shook her head.

"It's much better. Lots of action, sword fighting and stuff."

Hannah didn't see how watching a bunch of people spout Shakespeare would all of a sudden change her opinion. She shrugged, sending the message "So what?"

"Seriously, you've got to see it sometime."

"Mister…" Mrs. Gallo's voice raised several notches. Hannah looked up. Mrs. Gallo's stern face was directed towards her new partner. The teacher paused, looking over the student list on her data pad. "Mister…Shepard," she said once she'd found the right name. "It might be wise not to get off on the wrong foot at your new school, don't you agree?"

"Yes, ma'am," the boy next to her answered confidently. He said it like a soldier saluting a general. Mrs. Gallo resumed her lecture. The boy turned his attention to his own data pad, this time following along and taking notes when appropriate. When the chime sounded, Hannah left without a second thought regarding her new partner.

After math, a subject she excelled at, and foreign languages, she'd chosen Chinese to begin with, Hannah found herself at lunch. She squirreled herself away in the atrium—a place as anti-winter as it could get. The atrium maintained a constant 75 degree temperature and sported trees from all over North America. As she ate, she continued to read her data pad. Several other students also occupied the atrium, but they rarely talked. They understood they all mutually wanted peace and quiet. So when she heard a voice, she was startled.

"For a girl who hates English, you read a lot." It was the new boy's voice.

"I don't hate reading," Hannah spoke sharply, flashing an annoyed scowl at the boy, "I just hate Shakespeare." She paused, then added. "And most other fiction."

"Can I eat with you?"

"Why?" No boys ever wanted to eat with her.

"I don't feel comfortable with anyone else. There were these girls that wanted me to sit with them, but I didn't like the hungry looks in their eyes like they wanted to eat me for lunch."

Hannah couldn't help but giggle. "Sadie Sellars and her posse."

"Oh, that's the one girl's name? Blond, tall, skinny?"

Hannah nodded.

"She's pretty," the boy admitted, sitting down next to her on the bench.

Hannah sighed. "You boys are all the same, especially when your raging hormones turn on at this age."

The boy laughed aloud. "Like yours don't. You aren't any older than me. We're in the same grade. Thirteen?"

"Almost."

"Almost? How old are you?" The boy stuffed half a sandwich into his mouth.

"You need table manners."

The boy smiled while he chewed. "Grams says that, too." He swallowed. "How old are you?" he repeated his question.

"Twelve."

"Twelve? Really? You don't look it."

She shrugged, wondering again why he cared.

"You smart, then?"

"Why do you care?" Hannah voiced her inner thought.

He didn't directly answer her question. "You must be smart since they put you ahead a grade."

Hannah didn't want to talk about this. The answer to his inquiry was one of the reasons her peers didn't take to her. She was smart, too smart.

"Okay, look," she finally stated, ready for the boy's rejection, "I'm a nerd, a geek, a person who had the unfortunate gift of intellect poured down on her." She took a breath, then went on. "And let me clarify, I hate fiction, and I could get the grades if I wanted to, but I don't want to. It's boring."

The boy put his hands up. "Okay, okay. Got it."

Hannah figured the boy's next move would be standing up and leaving, but he stayed put on the bench, just chewing a banana and gazing at her. Hannah looked away, uncomfortable, and tried to focus on her data pad and ignore the boy's eyes focused on her.

"I came to sit with you because you seem like the only interesting person I've met in this place," the boy spoke again, quietly. Hannah turned from her reading, her curiosity peaked. She was interesting?

"I saw what you were reading," he explained. "Arthur's Luna, Mars, Saturn and the Contemporary Age of Exploration."

"You've read it?" Hannah sat up straighter, her eyes fixed on the boy.

He bobbed his head, downing the rest of the banana. "I want to live somewhere out there someday, in space."

"Me, too," Hannah stammered. Most of the other kids in her school thought she was crazy. They didn't understand why she had a burning desire to get off a planet so well suited to the needs of humanity.

"My dad's in space," the boy went on. "He's actually on assignment now, working on the construction of Gagarin Station."

No way, Hannah mouthed. Space explorers had been hailing the station all over the news, explaining and touting its mission to create faster-than-light travel.

"He sends pictures when he can. I'll have to show them to you sometime."

"Great!" Hannah exclaimed. Then a thought occurred to her. "I guess you don't get to see him often." She knew a trip out that far and back still took a long time.

The boy nodded his head and she detected sadness. "I live with my grandmother," the boy said.

"Oh," she returned, not knowing what that meant about his parents exactly, but not having the guts to pry farther.

"Have you read An Argument for the Unequivocal Existence of Aliens?" The boy asked, perking up.

"Yes!"

"So, you think we'll meet them someday?"

Hannah eagerly launched into her opinion on the matter, chatting away as the boy finished his lunch. When the chime rang announcing the return to class, she reluctantly stood, not wanting the conversation to end.

"I have Basics in Aeronautic Engineering next," she informed the boy. This was the one class she'd been waiting for all day.

The boy's eyes sparkled. "Me, too!" They walked down the hall together, Hannah directing the boy towards their classroom. When they walked through the classroom door, the boy pointed to two seats next to each other in the front. Hannah took the one on the right, with the boy sitting on her left. As Hannah reached into her bag for her data pad, the boy held out his right hand.

"By the way, I'm Daniel Shepard."

Hannah shook his hand. "Hannah. Hannah Collier."

For the next whole term, Hannah and Daniel were inseparable. Rumors flew around the school regarding their relationship, but Hannah blew them off as ridiculous speculation. Daniel was more perturbed than she was by the gossip mill. She learned early on that he hated being misunderstood. He couldn't stand people thinking something about him that wasn't true. But it didn't curb his desire to spend time with her. Wherever she went, he went with her. No one else shared his own love of science and space like she did.

When summer came and school let out, Daniel convinced his grandmother to let him go along on the Collier family camping trip. They took a large speeder out to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness Park, right next to Lake Superior. Daniel had never been camping, so everything was new to him. He didn't quite comprehend why people would chose to use rudimentary tools to camp (making an actual fire by hand, cooking over it and fishing in the lake), but he played along good-naturedly.

The best part came when Hannah's dad pulled the trailer attached to the speeder into the water and unhooked two Aqua Racers from the back. Daniel had also never used an Aqua Racer, a fact that shocked Hannah. When the two Racers were set out on the water, Hannah's mom and dad took one. Hannah climbed onto the front of hers and Daniel straddled the seat behind her.

"Hold on to my waist," Hannah told Daniel, "Or you'll slide off."

"Right." He linked his arms around her waist and she took off on the Racer. They skimmed over the water, Hannah whooping into the wind. The Racer zigzagged and circled in various patterns under her control. After a while, she glanced back to find Daniel grinning, the wind whipping through his tousled dishwater blond hair.

"I kind of imagine this is what it's like to zoom through space," she yelled back.

"Space is a vacuum," Daniel protested.

"I know. But I can imagine it like this, can't I?"

"I guess you can."

"There's a small island out here, not far from shore. Want to go see it?"

"Sure."

Hannah drew up close to her mom and dad on the other Racer and pointed to the island. Her dad gave her a thumbs up and she took off towards the small chunk of ground peeping above the water. The island was peppered with pine trees. She slowed down when they got close to the shore and let the Racer ground itself. Daniel let go his hold on her and they jumped off. They spent some time combing the shore, pointing out various water life and turning over rocks to see what would appear. Eventually they settled under a pine tree. The world was quiet except for the occasional twittering of birds in the trees.

"Hannah, do you ever think about your future?" Daniel asked her.

Hannah twirled a stick in her hand. "All the time. You know that. I'm gonna get into space. It's gonna happen. It's my destiny to do something great out there."

"Yeah, I know. But I meant, thinking about getting married and having children and stuff?"

"Never. You sound like a girl, Daniel. Like Sadie and her bunch, always making up the names of their husbands and children."

"Well, I'm not Sadie, trust me. It's just weird sometimes to think that in the future we'll be getting married and having families."

"Well, I'm not getting married. I'm gonna be a single space engineer. I don't need a man in my life."

"What about me in your life?"

"Yeah, you're okay," Hannah consented. "But I'm not going to marry you."

Daniel chuckled. "I didn't mean get married. I just hope you don't resent me right now."

Hannah flung the stick in Daniel's direction and he caught it deftly. "You're weird. Why are you even thinking about getting married and having kids? You're fourteen." Daniel's birthday had been less than a month ago.

"I don't know. Just thinking. I think I'd like to get married someday, so I'm not alone. But…" Hannah realized Daniel had gotten quite serious. His head lowered.

"But what?" she prompted.

"I live with Grams because my parents…they divorced. That's why I never see dad. I think that's why he left for Gagarin Station. And mom dropped me off at Grams cause she couldn't take care of me by herself. She's never been exactly stable job wise."

Hannah took a breath. Daniel had never explained his parents before and she'd never asked. She wondered here and there, but never wanted to rock the boat with her best friend.

"Sorry," Hannah muttered, not even knowing if she uttered the right response for the situation.

"Yeah," Daniel mumbled, but he looked up again, his hazel eyes intently gazing in her direction. "I guess I wonder if getting married is even worth it, you know."

"My parents are still married. Maybe that means there's hope for marriage?"

"Maybe," Daniel answered, looking up, considering her "evidence."

"Anyway," Hannah went on, "Just don't get married if you're worried about it. Look at Romeo and Juliet. Their relationship was horrible. Stupid idiots, killing themselves over love. That's just dumb. They could have saved themselves the trouble by not falling in love in the first place."

Daniel smiled widely. "I still haven't convinced you to like Shakespeare, have I?"

Hannah shrugged. "I don't know. Macbeth wasn't bad. All that murdering and stuff. More action."

"Your dad's waving at us," Daniel informed Hannah. Hannah could see her dad on the other Racer, waving them in. She stood and moved towards the shore.

"So, you gonna try piloting back?" she asked when they pushed the Racer back into the water.

Daniel jumped onto the front seat. "Yep!"

"Good!" Hannah sat in behind her best friend and put her arms around his waist, as he revved the Racer and sped back towards the campsite.

The summer was just coming to an end when Hannah received the worst news of her young life. School loomed on the horizon, just one week away, when the chime rang at the Collier family home. Hannah's dad called her to the door. It was Daniel.

"I'm kind of busy," Hannah told him. "Mom wants me to organize my school supplies." She rolled her eyes, expressing her opinion of her mother's over emphasis on orderliness.

"I really need to talk to you," Daniel implored.

"Mom!" Hannah called out. "Can I take a walk with Daniel? I'll be back soon."

"Just don't be too long!" her mother yelled from the kitchen.

Hannah walked out the door and it slid shut. When they'd strolled far enough away from the house, Hannah looked to her friend.

"What's up?"

"Hang on a sec," he answered. "Let's go over there." He pointed to a local park, mostly deserted at this time of day, a little after dinner time. Hannah followed Daniel to a bench, surrounded on three sides by tall bushes. As he sat, she recognized the heaviness in his eyes. His emotions were transparent to her.

"Something's wrong," she stated. She felt her stomach lurch. She sat down next to him.

Daniel turned somber eyes on her. "Mom's coming to get me. She's taking me to Georgia."

"No!" Hannah shouted loudly. No. She finally had a best friend. This couldn't be happening.

"I'm really sorry, Hannah. I begged her not to come. But she said Grams is getting too old and she's my mom, so I have to."

Hannah felt her eyes sting. She furiously rubbed them, angry at the tears threatening to well up. "But…but…we were gonna train together. Go to space together."

"It might still happen," Daniel tried to reassure her. "I'll write you."

"No you won't," Hannah declared angrily. "People always say that then they never do. They get busy and forget."

"I will write you."

"Yeah, right," Hannah spoke sarcastically. She folded her arms across her chest and slumped against the bench.

"Look, I'm leaving in a couple days and I know your birthday's in three days, so I got you a gift. Here." Daniel shoved a small package into her hands.

Hannah looked down at the gift wrapped in bright red wrapping paper. She tore the paper off slowly, revealing a hinged box. She lifted the lid. Inside was a silver chain with a small object attached. She picked it up and dangled it in the air, taking a closer look. The object was a tiny space rocket.

"Just a reminder that you'll get to space some day. I know you're not really into lots of jewelry and stuff, but, I thought you'd wear this one maybe."

Hannah smiled sadly. She unhooked the chain, then reattached it behind her neck. The rocket moved up and down as she breathed in and out. She looked back at Daniel.

"Thanks," she muttered, grateful, but still unhappy.

"I have one other gift," Daniel said. Hannah gazed at him expectantly. "Don't get mad," he warned her. He leaned over to her and before she knew it, he pressed his lips into hers. She didn't exactly kiss back. She didn't know what to do. At first she felt shocked, then her heart fluttered, then she all of sudden pushed him away forcefully. She stood up quickly.

"I can't believe you just did that, Daniel Shepard!" she admonished angrily.

"I may never see you again. I just had to once. Hannah, I really like you. I mean, like like you."

Hannah shifted back and forth on her feet. No boy had ever like liked her. Ever. Well, not that she knew of. It felt kind of good. Right after that thought a wave of guilt assaulted her. She threw her hands to her mouth.

"Oh my goodness! My parents will freak if they find out I kissed." She turned this way and that, trying to see if anyone had observed the kiss. "I'm not supposed to date until I'm sixteen!"

Daniel stood up and lightly touched her shoulder. "Sorry. I guess I shouldn't have."

"Let's just, walk back," Hannah stammered out. When they reached her house, Hannah paused at the end of the drive.

"I'll miss you," she said quietly.

"Wait for me?" Daniel suggested. "Don't date anyone, not even when you turn sixteen?"

"I'm not dating. You know that. I don't need boys!"

"Yeah, yeah, but you might change your mind. Just wait."

"You aren't coming back, so why would I wait anyway."

"Just promise."

"Fine. I promise."

Hannah walked to the door, then turned back and waved as her best friend walked down the street towards his own home. She entered the house.

Hannah waited for months, but no e-mail or letter ever came.