Luciana: Braving the Deep by Erin Teagan

Author:Erin Teagan [Teagan, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2017-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

After our morning meeting, I took the long way to the greenhouse, hoping to gather my thoughts before I had to face Claire. I stopped for a minute to watch the Rocket Science kids put the finishing touches on the rockets they’d send off later that day. I took a closer look at the jet engine sitting on a table that the Aviation kids had been putting back together over the week. When I passed the underwater astronaut trainer, Thomas was backing away from a porthole.

“Pretty cool what they’re doing in there,” he said, walking with me.

“Survival stuff?”

He nodded. “How to live through a plane crash into water.”

“Whoa,” I said. “That’s pretty serious.”

He shrugged. “Better to be prepared, though, right?”

We were almost to the greenhouse now and all I could think about was how unprepared I was to talk to Claire.

“Hey,” I said, changing the subject. “Have you ever had to apologize for something you didn’t really feel sorry for?”

Thomas snorted. “If you’re not sorry, why would you apologize?”

I sighed. “Because I want to be the bigger person. You know, for the good of the team and all.”

Thomas shook his head. “That’s not going to do anything for the team. If you don’t mean it, don’t apologize.”

That was not the advice I was looking for.

“Maybe you’re apologizing for the wrong thing?” Thomas said, stopping in front of the greenhouse.

A light bulb flashed in my brain. “Hey, you know, that’s pretty genius advice.”

Thomas smiled.

“Are you the kid in college?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything, but he smiled as he headed to the robotics station.

“Thought so,” I called after him.

I stood outside the greenhouse for a second, getting up my nerve to talk to Claire. Ella and Buzz were huddled around their printer, and Dominic and Thomas circled a bin of PVC pipes and robot parts. Thomas was right. I wasn’t sorry for accusing Claire of dropping the stopwatch on purpose, because I believed she had actually done it. But maybe I was sorry for the way I shouted it across the pool, the way I accused her in front of everyone. I took a breath, and walked through the plastic flap door of the greenhouse.

Claire looked up from the plant pillow in front of her. She was measuring another seedling. So far we had five sprouts. Sarah had been right; at this rate, we’d be able to harvest a few to send with the dive team to Cetus in a few days.

I sat down on the stool next to her and she stayed focused on her measuring, holding the ruler against the delicate stem of the butter lettuce.

“Claire,” I said, the room too quiet except for the hum of the bank of LED lights glowing red and green and blue on the rest of the plants. “I just want to say that I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have accused you of cheating in front of everyone like that.”

And, truly, I was sorry. If I could do it again, I would have told Sarah or Marcus or Pirate Pete instead of announcing it to the entire room.

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