There aren't too many people in the classroom. When I walked in, I see about five people. One of them is doodling in a notebook, the other one is watching someone play VR on their HoloPad, another person has their head down on a desk, another might as well be asleep, and the last is drawing on the desk they're sitting at.
When I sit down at my desk, I understand why that last person was doodling on their own desk. I could see that there was an interface on it, and one of the buttons was where you could choose your own art that would show up on the desk. That guy chose the option to create his own.
After a few minutes of sitting around, twiddling my thumbs, and reading an article on space on the desk, the instructor finally came inside.
The dude that had his HoloPad out quickly put it away and the instructor looked at him for a second while walking up to his podium.
"So," he said, "I see that there are very few people in this class this year. Only six of you guys?"
There were indeed only six people in the classroom.
There are a few things I'm going to need you guys to know and understand about this class. For one," He puts his hand on his chest, "My name is Mr. Gonzalez. I would like it if you called me by that name." He lowered his hand.
"This class won't just teach you how to be a proper Intergalactic pilot," he continued, "and I understand that most of you call it an 'InterG.'
"You people are going to need to adequately know about space in and of itself."
Someone groaned.
"And you," Mr. Gonzalez points at the person who groaned, "Might as well drop out if you don't want to learn about space.
"Continuing on, space is very important to know about if you're going to be flying through it for the rest of your life, or at least most of it. Take out your notebooks, please."
"We were supposed to have a notebook?" The guy that was playing on his HoloPad asks.
Gonzalez sighs and takes out a notebook from a conveniently placed shelf near him, and tosses it perfectly on his desk. "Open that, then."
I pull out my pencil and notebook, chuckling lightly, and open the notebook to page one.
"Today, I'll teach you about one of the most dangerous bodies that you may or may not come across on your travels; black holes."
I title the top of the first page 'Black Holes" and draw a line down the paper to prepare to take two-column notes.
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Class is finally over. It’s about two hours a day, and then I get the rest of the day off. Which means that I have the whole day to do whatever I want.
I ride home on my bike, bring the bike in the garage, walk inside, and flop down on the couch.
After about five minutes of lazing around, I pull off my backpack and take out my notebook. I look at the notes to see how they look.
Of course, I wrote down as much information as I could, I really did not want to forget any of the information. All of it is useful for when I’m legit an InterG.
Most of the notes are just bullet points and highlights from the class, nothing you’d want to see.
I close the notebook, return it into my backpack, and walk upstairs to play some Minecraft on the xBox 900x.
The base that I have on Minecraft so far is pretty decent. I’ve got a large storage system based in a ravine, a nice cozy house with a triple bed, a few cats and dogs, and a work in progress skybase. Said skybase will be used for villagers so that I can collect emeralds and further upgrade my gear with enchantments they can sell me.
I spend most of my day working on the skybase until I get bored of playing Minecraft and shut off the xBox.
I pull out my HoloPad and lie on my bed to play some mobile games. About half an hour later, I get a call from Crystal.
“I thought that your college day would last longer,” Crystal says when I answer. “Was the class really that short?”
“Yeah, it was. All we learned about today were black holes and why we should avoid them at all costs.”
“Sounds nice. Hey, guess what? I decided to not take college. It’s nice to just hang around and play video games all day.”
“I almost get the same thing,” I say. “I just have to go to class for two hours and then I can do whatever I want.”
“Yeah. You wanna play something?”
“How about you come over? I’ve got a few improvements made to my Minecraft base.”
“Let’s see it,” Crystal says, then hangs up.
________________________
I return to class the next day and see that the instructor arrived early that day. The student that was watching videos on his HoloPad yesterday didn’t even have it pulled out today. Instead, he was watching something on his desk, which is literally the same thing.
I pull out my notebook and pencil and wait for Mr. Gonzalez to begin class.
About a minute later, Mr. Gonzalez starts the class with:
“So I can see that the groaner has dropped out of the class?”
I look around, and sure enough, the one person that did not want to learn about space is not here. Someone clapped as I returned my attention to the instructor.
“So, I feel like you people have learned adequately about black holes from yesterday’s lesson, so I figured that today, I’ll quiz you about it.
“This quiz is worth a total of twenty points, with ten single answer questions and five true or false questions.
“This grade will be the catalyst of your grade for the beginning of the year, so choose the answers wisely. Please come up to collect an assignment. You may use any notes you have written.”
After everyone (including me) picked up the quiz and sat back down at their seat, the teacher said: “You may begin.”
The first question read ‘What occurs when you pass the event horizon of a black hole?’
I write down ‘You are sucked in and are lost forever’ as my answer.
The next question was a tad more difficult, but still relatively easy. ‘Why are you unable to see the body of a black hole?’
My answer is ‘Because the gravity of a black hole is too high for even light to escape, so none is able to reflect.’
The rest of the quiz is relatively easy. Once I finish, I flip over the paper and put my head down while waiting for everyone else to finish up. I’m pretty confident that I got an A on it.
“Time’s up! Please hand in your papers!” Mr. Gonzalez says about ten minutes after I finish.
I get up and hand my paper to Mr. Gonzalez and walk right back to my desk. I pull up the interface on my desk and begin watching some muted YouTube, while he takes a look at the assignment. I hear him mutter “Nice job, Max.” As I’m watching, and I grin to myself.
“So, now that you all are finished with your quizzes, I believe that we should start learning about quasars and pulsars. Please pull open your notebooks to an empty page."
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Quasars were quite simple to learn, much like black holes. I had already learned lots about them, since I've been fascinated with space and how clean and beautiful it is. Most of the books I read when I was little were rented books from an online library about our planets, and other things in space. My favorite was "Space: For Kids."
Over the next few months of the school year, my notebook has gradually been filled with more and more information about space, and stars, and many other things that would really be useful to know while being a space pilot.
I'm still in contact with Crystal, of course, since she's my best friend, but I haven't been able to talk to her as much as I used to since I've been caught up in studying, and doing homework. It's all really complicated, and definitely a lot more complicated than I thought it would be when I first dreamed about exploring space as a third grader.
My notebook is about halfway full, and every day when I work on homework assignments, I read through the notebook for useful information to help with homework, instead of doing my usual of looking it up on my HoloPad.
I feel like I'm gaining a really sturdy grasp on the ideas of space, and it really showed on my most recent test, which I aced.
However, one of the most exciting days of my life was today.
I walked in the classroom, expecting the same thing of taking notes and learning some interesting stuff about a far away Earth-like planet (which we name any planet that can support life) or something.
But this time, the instructor surprised us with something so much more exciting. We're finally getting to learn how to fly the damn spaceship. I thought that it would never happen.
Mr. Gonzalez leads us to a training ground (which was really a holodeck like those from Star Trek) and through the intercoms, told us each how to fly a ship. It wasn't really that hard. The steering wheel was somewhat similar to my bike. I felt like I understood what all of the buttons were for. I felt like I was meant for this.
Very quickly Mr. Gonzalez noticed my proficiency with being able to fly a ship, and said: "After a week or so more, you're ready for becoming an actual pilot, Max."
I've never felt so excited in my entire life.
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