Lexi pulled the edge of her turtleneck up over the tip of her nose. Fieldwork was always fun and a nice change to get you out of the humdrum existence of the classroom but some work was far more appealing than others. Lying on a blanket in the Owyhee Canyonlands, Oregon could have been fun if you had a case of beer, some smores and a bonfire to keep one nice and toasty. Instead, Cadet Garfield was lying on hardpan cushioned by a thin itchy wool blanket freezing her keister off trying to find what she assumed was something everyone but her on the planet could find.

“God it all looks the same to me,” Lexi said gazing up at the sky. This class was mind-numbingly dull and pointless to her field. She didn’t give two hoots about dust and ice floating in the cosmos. Sure it was this dust and ice that seeded planets with a myriad of life forms but it was not real life. Just organic soup with a small percentage of actually doing something in the right conditions. “And I don’t see the red,” she banged her binoculars against her palm. Everyone is always like ‘you can see the red and that is how you find Mars but it ain’t red. Not that I can see. Maybe mine are broken,” she whacked the small handheld device against the ground she was laying on trying to see if that would help. “Trade with me,” she said to Chris who was lying next to her. She didn’t need to look at his face. She had known him long enough to tell what his expression was. He wore this mesmerized expression for two things and two things only. One was when he saw the perfect ten body and negative two intelligence girls that always seemed to be preening about like peacocks on the prowl. The other was when he was gazing at the stars.

Cadet Lexi Garfield