The gym was packed that day. The school had filled every single folding chair. Even more tried to squeeze in before it became a fire hazard, and they had to be turned away.

The staff stayed late the night before to put up student artwork and hang banners. Hallways were scrubbed clean by the janitors. The school looked as close to new as a 36-year-old building with a limited budget could look.

The gym’s audio system was blasting the only music they had, which was, unfortunately, exclusively Kidz Bop albums that they used for the PE classes. As the censored version of Old Town Road played in the background, the crowd chatted amongst themselves in soft whispers.

The projector screens had the yearbook images of the ceremony's honoree. He had dirty-blond hair and wire-frame glasses. Below, written in Papyrus for some inexplicable reason, was why they gathered.

Dr. Ryland Grace

Suddenly, the music shut off and the fluorescent lights dimmed. A pair of footsteps on the scuffed wooden floor was the loudest sound in the room. The ceremony was starting.

The principal, a tall woman with short dark hair streaked with grey, walked up to the podium. She started to talk, but no one could hear her. After an awkward moment of silence, she managed to turn the microphone on and restart the speech.

“Thank you for joining us for this occasion,” she began to say.

“Hi! I’m Ms. Howard, principal here at Grov- I mean, Dr. Ryland Grace Middle. Forgive me, it takes some time to adjust.

Welcome to the renaming of our middle school. From now on, Grover Cleveland Middle will be known as Dr. Ryland Grace Middle . Here, we pride ourselves on creating the future leaders. Our students graduate as inspired leaders, ready to take on high school and the world. When he told us he needed to take the rest of the year off, my first thought was “How am I going to find a long-term sub on such short notice?” The principal awkwardly laughed at her own joke.

“My second thought was, though,” she continued. “I’m going to miss him.”

Despite a small fib about the events that took place (she was quite relieved to see him go), the principal continued her speech.

“Dr. Grace was an inspiration to many of his students. Using his advanced degree in molecular biology, he explained science in a fun, accessible way. All of the staff are excited to rename the school building in honor of his heroic legacy. We’ve had students come back and tell us, “I wanted to be a scientist because of Dr. Grace. In fact, we have one of his students as a surprise guest today!

Please give Ms. Olivia Walters a warm Grover Cleveland welcome!” Ms. Howard finished the speech muttering, “Dang it” under her breath. A young woman with braids and a blazer walked out to the crowd’s applause.

Oliva had to wait for the crowd to go silent. Afterwards, she told the story of how his classes inspired her to study science. Watching Hail Mary launch on live TV with her science teacher inside was the final push. Now, she was a student at UCLA, getting her master’s in physics.

After another round of applause, the ceremony was over, and the attendees filtered out of the gym. Ms. Howard offered up tours of the school, but nobody took her up. The main reason for visiting Dr. Ryland Grace Middle School was over.

Olivia stayed behind in her cold metal chair. It had taken her 3 coffees and 5 hours on the highway to attend the dedication. The trip had been long and she dreaded driving back to her shoebox with four roommates in Westwood. Olivia took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up. A face she hadn’t seen in a while was standing in front of her.

“Hey, Liv,” Rekha said casually. Even though it had been over a decade since the two shared a classroom together, Rekha, with her big brown eyes and black hair, looked the same, just a bit older. She was dressed casually, in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that said: “Dinosaurs didn’t read and we know what happened to them.”

“Hi, Reks,” Olivia responded. She and Rekha were close throughout school, but Rekha went to college on the East Coast, while Oliva stayed in California. They tried to text and FaceTime regularly, but as their college years went on, they faded to just liking each other’s social media posts. Partially, it was because of the time difference, but a small part of Olivia knew that they had both changed. Maybe a little too much.

“You came too?”

“Yeah,” Rekha nodded, “I was visiting my parents, and they mentioned the school was getting renamed. I couldn’t miss it. Want to talk outside? This gym is bringing back bad memories of dodgeball,” she chuckled.

Rekha walked away, blending into the sea of bodies.

Oliva stood up and wove her way through the crowd attempting to exit the school. Finally, she saw Rekha’s head again and followed it. She went out to the old patch of concrete where a few basketball hoops and benches were plopped down. On one of the benches sat Rekha, staring into space.

Oliva slid down next to her. The two of them made it their spot back when they were younger. Rainbow loom bracelets were woven, and flash cards were made together while waiting for the bus. The bench was sun-bleached, and a screw was missing, but it was still there. Olivia just sat next to Rekha, hearing the faint sound of a foghorn and the scent of briny water. She ran her fingers over the tiny RO carving they made together on the last day of middle school. After a quiet moment, Olivia started talking.

“What’s Virginia like?”

“It’s fine. I teach 2nd graders at this tiny elementary school. It’s humid, and you can’t get a good sourdough. But the kiddos are cute, and it’s pretty sunny. But you must get a ton of sunshine down in SoCal.”

“Mmhm, but it’s still so expensive.” Olivia enjoyed UCLA, but Los Angeles? Not so much. It was crowded, everything (still) cost a ton, and she missed the fog.

“Remember the quilt our parents helped us make?” Rekha pointed to a mural painted on the side of the school building. It looked like a blown-up, painted copy of the quilt the class made together for him.

Every kid designed a patch for it. Rekha’s patch had an Om symbol, and another had a ladybug. One had a group of kids from around the world, and Olivia’s piece said thank you, surrounded by flowers. Her Nana took cotton fabric and embroidered a masterpiece based on her drawing. The quilt was a cacophony of colors, fabrics, and styles, but it was perfect.

She saw a glimpse of the quilt on her TV when Commander Yao held it up. He told the camera that Dr. Grace hadn’t woken up yet, but any day soon. It took 12 years for them to learn he woke up.

Rekha snapped her fingers under Olivia’s nose.

“Olivia, wanna play lava?”

“Huh?”

“The game where we threw his hacky sack from the 90’s around and answered science questions as quickly as you could?”

“Yeah! I was obsessed with it!”

Rekha pulled out a knitted beanbag. The crocheted ball was orange with red stripes. It looked oddly familiar, but Olivia couldn’t quite place why.

“Have I seen that beanbag before?” She asked. Rekha grinned mischievously.

“He left a ton of stuff behind when he left. I took it from his desk.”

Olivia stared, her mouth agape.

“REKHA!”

“In my defense, I was 14.”

“It’s still stealing,” Olivia said indignantly.

“Do you still want to play?” Rekha asked.

“Hell yeah.”

**********

“What’s the speed of light?” Rekha asked, throwing the beanbag.

“186,000 miles per second!” Olivia stuttered, nearly forgetting the answer for a moment.

“Correct!” Rekha grinned.

“What is the red spot on Jupiter?” Olivia said, throwing it back.

“A giant centuries-old storm?”

“Yep! What made them reclassify Pluto?”

“It wasn’t gravitationally dominant. Why did our teacher go to space?”

Olivia fumbled the ball. It bounced on the ground with a soft thud and rolled over to softly brush Rekha’s boots. The space questions were easy, but this felt like a trap.

“To save humanity, duh. He had to.”

Rekha frowned.

“I don’t agree,” she said. Olivia didn’t know what she was talking about. The news said it plain and simple- Dr. Ryland Grace chose to join the spaceflight because he was the most knowledgeable person for the job.

“Huh?”

Rekha took a deep breath and exhaled. She was staring at the plaque about Dr. Grace beside the quilt mural.

“Dr. Grace didn’t have to go to space just because a German lady told him to. He could still be here; instead, we got that long-term sub that smelled like Febreze and didn’t believe in gravity,” she said.

“You know why I wanted to study education? Dr. Grace. Science was actually fun in his class. He talked to us like we weren’t idiots. Then he abandoned us.”

“No he did’n-” Olivia said before being cut off.

“Dr. Grace made me want to teach. Now that I’m a teacher, I can’t imagine leaving my students behind on a death mission to fix the Petrova Line,” Rekha’s voice was like steel, hard and cold.

“You would have to knock me out and shove me on the rocket to do that!” Rekha shook her head and crossed her arms. Olivia couldn’t help but feel like defending him.

“We would probably all be dead without him!” Olivia raised her voice. “And I know you probably wouldn’t want to die because of organisms eating the sun!”

“I thought he cared. Turned out he’d rather be a scientist again than just a teacher. He probably completely forgot about us all in space. It’s all just so weird. Why did we have to be the people left behind in all this shit?” Rekha put her head in her hands, not looking Olivia in the eye.

Rekha had never been one to be quiet. She was always asking her teachers questions, even if they hated it for interrupting the lesson. As Rekha started to tear up, Olivia rubbed her friend’s tense shoulders before pulling her into a hug. Soon, she felt her eyes water as well, and the two started to cry together.

It must have been a strange sight, two twenty-somethings, one in business casual and the other in jeans and a punny t-shirt, crying and hugging on a middle school bench.

When she got her breathing under control, Rekha looked at Olivia with bloodshot eyes.

“I don’t know why I’m like this today,” she said, wiping the tears from her face. “I know he was just a teacher.”

Olivia shook her head.

“He wasn’t just a teacher. He was a great one.”

After one more hug, Rekha asked Olivia if she wanted to grab lunch at a nearby deli. Olivia immediately agreed. Los Angeles could wait a little longer. As they set off on their walk, Olivia thanked Dr. Grace internally for unintentionally bringing them back together.

***********

Erid

Grace pointed at one of the young pebbles watching him through the barrier. He had been teaching them for a couple of months, and they were excited to learn. For the most part.

“Ok Olivia? What are magnetic poles?” He asked. An excited little Eridian bounced up and down and chirped. A few seconds later, the translator came in.

“Magnetic poles are the areas where magnetic force is the strongest!” A young, robotic voice said.

“Good job, Olivia,” Grace said. He noticed a particularly hyper pebble jumping on his sister.

“Luke, stop bouncing on Leia. She doesn’t like you in her personal space,” he said firmly. Luke stopped and resettled on his perch. The class was almost over, and Rocky was waiting to visit. As the class filed out, Rocky made himself a protective suit and stepped in.

“Hey Rocky!” he said.

“Fist my bump!” Rocky replied. Grace sighed. It had been months and Rocky was still stubborn about them being the same. He still gave him a fist bump, though. They went into the tiny house that was way nicer than the apartment he used to rent back on Earth.

“How’s Adrian doing?” Grace asked.

“Good, helping adjust the water temp,” Rocky answered. “I have question.”

“What is it?”

“How you choose human name for pebbles.”

“Well, I just choose it based on the personality. Some of them remind me of people I used to know. Olivia just acted like an Olivia. Naomi, Matthew, Katelyn, Jayden, Aubrey, Rekha, Ryan,.. they just reminded me of some students.”

“You remember your pebbles now?”

“Took a bit of time, but yeah. I’m glad I remember them now,” Grace said, looking at the quilt spread out on his couch. He smiled.