Frozen Secrets (Europa Academy Book 1) by Myles Christensen

Author:Myles Christensen [Christensen, Myles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moon Zoom Press
Published: 2019-10-24T16:00:00+00:00

The Houston Mesh

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas usually dragged for Max, but on Europa it went much faster. First off, Thanksgiving on Europa was a strange experience. As a nationally celebrated holiday—instead of internationally celebrated—they only got a half-day off. Max didn’t mind that arrangement too much; he usually wasted the day after Thanksgiving watching Z-Ball games anyway. Plus, celebrating other countries’ holidays meant they had gotten half-days off for Mid-Autumn Festival, Día de Muertos, and the Diwali all before Thanksgiving.

Deadlines also had a way of making the time fly by, and Max had three big ones. His Cultures essay about the influence of international competition on space exploration ate up two Saturdays’ worth of free time. His Jump Tube model airplane for Physics barely felt like a homework assignment at all, but he spent too much time on that one because it was fun. And he lucked out getting paired with Elise for the history project about the early terraforming efforts on Mars. She was a terrific project partner—not too talkative or easily distracted, but also not awkward or hard to be around. Max didn’t know what his project would have looked like on his own, but with Elise, the results were amazing.

Even after the semester was over, Max didn’t have time to relax. He spent his last twenty minutes on Europa haphazardly throwing his clothes into a suitcase because he hadn’t packed for their Christmas break back on Earth yet.

Not everyone in Europa City left for the holidays, but most of the families with kids did. The Academy administration felt it was important to let the students have a break back on Earth for a week or two.

The shuttle ride was uneventful. Max spent most of his time staring at the breathtaking expanse of stars, or playing games on the recreation deck. Kelli ruined his vacation when she reminded him that they would need to visit Mindy Baker’s family to return her journal.

The first morning back on Earth, Max awoke confused. For the first several seconds of consciousness, he didn’t know where he was.

Dragging himself out of bed, Max shuffled down the hall.

Was Earth gravity really only ten percent more than Europa City pseudo-gravity?

It felt more like ten times.

His mother walked by. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

“Mrrng,” was all he could muster in return.

The rich, nutty smell of baked pecans wafted through the house. Max let his nose guide him to the kitchen. His dad was wearing his old denim apron, busily stirring a bubbling pot with one hand and a frothy mixture in a bowl with the other.

Max plopped down at the counter.

“I sure hope that’s something I can eat, ‘cause I’m starving,” Max said.

“It is. Go call everyone for breakfast.”

“Serenity, call everyone for breakfast,” Max said.

“Your father asked you to call everyone for breakfast. It would not be appropriate for me to oppose his efforts to build your character,” Serenity calmly replied. “And on the subject of character, you should always include a ‘please’ or ‘would you mind’ when asking someone to do something.

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