Chapter Text
Abby craned her neck, trying to see past the worshippers gathered in the church room. Vera was still talking about salvation and Earth, and so long as she was talking, Marcus would be up there with her, by the tree. The services closed when Marcus, as the tender of the tree, watered it, but that largely depended on how long Vera's speech went on for. Impatiently Abby waited, then wandered back to the little table at the back of the room to read over her Earth History speech notes again.
"You have a crush on him," someone giggled in her ear.
Diana Sydney, at seventeen, was three years older than both Abby and Marcus, but a great deal more immature, or so Abby thought. She was only here because her boyfriend regularly attended services.
"I do not!" Abby retorted hotly. "Marcus is my friend."
Her best friend, in fact, and they had been best friends since they were seven and participated in the Unity Day pageant together. Abby had carried the Canadian Flag and Marcus had carried the Brazilian one, and they'd been inseparable ever since.
The older girl just laughed. "Yeah, a boyfriend."
"Go away." Abby had never really liked Diana, who was loud and went around telling everyone that her mother practically owned Factory Station. Like anyone cared who owned Factory Station, or any other station for that matter.
Diana made kissing noises as she danced off.
"Trash!" Abby called after her. A few heads near the back of the crowd turned to look at her, and she ducked her head. You were not supposed to call people names during church services, but then you were not supposed to tease people, either, and Diana clearly didn't care about that.
Abby really hated Diana, who thought she was so great. She didn't understand why Diana cared so much about other peoples' business. Maybe she was jealous. So far as Abby knew, Diana didn't have a best friend.
With a sigh, Abby got up again, and this time saw that the services were finally coming to a close. She smiled as she caught a glimpse through the crowd of Marcus watering the tree, then bounced on her feet while she waited for everyone to disperse. When they were mostly gone, he spotted her and wandered over.
"Been waiting long?" he asked.
"Maybe ten minutes," she replied. She made a face. "Diana was here."
"Well... salvation only comes after great suffering," Marcus replied, with a shrug. He was always saying things like that, inserting random religious teachings into his words, and she was pretty sure that he didn't know that he did it.
"You have to help me with my Earth History," she told him, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him over to one of the tables at the back of the room, where she'd already laid out her notes.
"Do I really have to?" he complained, though he took the sheet she handed him anyway, scanning the words she'd written there.
"Well?" she asked.
"Just a minute."
She watched his eyes dart back and forth over her notes, eagerly waiting for him to finish. She was sure that her oral report was perfect, but before she started rehearsing her speech, she wanted to make sure, and Marcus was an ace at Earth History because of his mother, who as leader of the church knew a great deal about Earth.
Marcus pointed to one of the notes near the bottom. "This is incorrect. Well, not incorrect, but you either have to focus on one culture and be specific, or be general."
She grabbed the sheet away, reading over what she'd written there about weddings. "It has to be general."
"Then you should stick with saying that weddings were elaborate gatherings where everyone dressed up. Nix the point about the white dresses, because not all cultures wore them."
"But it was widespread," she argued. Besides, she liked the idea of white dresses. She had only ever owned one dress, and she certainly had never owned anything white. There was no longer any white clothing on the Ark because it had all been used and repaired and handed down so many times.
"Doesn't matter," Marcus replied, sitting back and crossing his arms.
"Fine." She set the paper aside, her mind still on Earth weddings.
"That's pretty amazing, though, right? That they actually celebrated their love. All the symbolism, and the families coming together. Makes registering with the records department and having a small evening gathering seem a little boring, doesn't it?"
"It would be pointless to consume unnecessary resources," Marcus replied, completely logically. Sometimes his logic infuriated her, and this time was no different.
"Oh, come on," she complained. "Just play along."
"You're romanticizing life on Earth."
"Of course I am. How could we not, living in space? I for one would like even one small thing to make my wedding day special. Maybe not a white dress, but a dress. Not a fancy one, but a different one."
"Girls," he snorted. She kicked him under the table, even more determined now to force him to play along.
"Play along! What would you wear to your wedding?"
He rolled his eyes. "Whatever clothing I was issued at the time?"
"Marcus, you're no fun."
"Who says I'm going to get married anyway?"
It was her turn to roll her eyes. He was impossible, but that was what she loved about him.
"Of course you're going to get married," she told him. She would see to that, because he was her best friend, and of course he was going to marry her. She'd never tell him that, though. Not until he kissed her, anyway, and she was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, which was just as well. They were only fourteen, after all, and had plenty of time. Abby had the whole thing planned out in her mind, and if there was anything she was good at, it was making things happen.
And if by some small chance Marcus was right and he didn't marry, she would assume it was because she wasn't there. And she would always be there.