Chapter Text
Ryland Grace stared out the window of the bus.
He watched as the world flew past, knee bouncing nervously as his mind raced at all the possibilities.
A new school.
Basically a new galaxy.
A new environment, new people.
He tried to think of it as a fresh start. A chance to make friends and finally fit in. But if he didn’t fit in at Hail Mary High, how would he fit in here?
Even just the name brought him back to that fateful day.
Grace sat outside the Headmistress’ office.
The office attendants scurried around, focusing on their jobs and trying not to get caught stealing looks at the boy.
Grace did his best to look small, which was hard. He shifted the ice that the nurse had given him for his hand and grimaced at his bruised knuckles.
The movies all made punching someone in the face look like a wonderful idea.
He wouldn’t recommend it.
Grace sighed, using his good hand he readjust his glasses before picking at the hem of his shirt.
As usual his mind raced. He thought mostly of the worst possibilities.
‘What if I lose my scholarship? What if I fail that class? What if I get forced to work in the Cafeteria? Or clean the floors?’
He didn’t really know what punishments Hail Mary High tended to give out, but they couldn’t be great.
”Mr. Ryland Grace?” An older accented voice called out from the Headmistress’ office.
Dread filled Grace as he stood. Feeling it well from his stomach and move to each of his limbs. He felt like he was walking with 10x the gravity as he slowly made his way towards the office.
Stepping into the office he saw an older woman (Grace was only 18, so it wasn’t hard to be older than him) in her 30s. Her blonde hair rolled just below her shoulders and her blue eyes seemed to catch every movement as he walked in.
“Mr. Grace. Please, sit.” Grace complied as he sat in a plush chair just in front of her desk.
This was Eva Stratt, headmistress of Hail Mary High.
Hail Mary High, the more affectionate name for the Hail Mary Project, was a school designed to create the next generation of top STEM people in the world.
Every child that had a moderate interest in STEM dreamed to get into Project Hail Mary.
It was the leading Stem academy in the world and had the reputation to prove it. It was created to make scientist that could solve any problem the world might face.
You graduate from Hail Mary High and the world was practically holding its breath to see what you would do.
The students who made it through would change the world.
Because of all this, Project Hail Mary was more difficult to get into than most colleges.
And there was Grace, an orphan would had been personally invited to join the student body with a scholarship and everything.
Grace swallowed hard. This was the second time he had met Headmistress Stratt and she was just as intimidating.
Stratt sat at her desk, head down in some paperwork before finally looking up to see Grace piled into the chair in front of her.
Despite her relatively young age, worry lines had begun to grow on her face. Wrinkles around her mouth and eyes were small but noticeable, no doubt because of her position.
The school may have been for STEM, but Eva Stratt was a historian. She was also one of the only people who knew the consequences if this Project didn’t work.
Grace felt the awkward tension fill his throat, almost choking him.
He wanted to say Hi, hello, or some other inane greeting that he would no doubt regret two seconds later, but all words died on his tongue when Stratt spoke.
”Mr. Grace, can you please tell me what happened in your 4th period.”
The words were simple, but they felt all but damning.
Grace could feel all her attention, a part of him wondered if he could hold a finger up and move it side to side and her eyes would follow it. Instead he took a deep breath and spoke.
”Well,” his voice came out small, much smaller than he wanted, “4th period is my biology class… Last week we wrote about a topic we felt hadn’t been studied enough… and I wrote about-“
”Whether life is dependent on water. Yes, I’ve heard.”
”Oh, yeah, well…” Grace could feel his breath quicken, he was doing his best not to ramble but as Stratt’s gaze followed him he felt the nerves creep up his throat, “Well, we were talking about our essays and… I uh.. I was passionate-“
”You called Dave Torres a ‘staggering waste of carbon,’ and when he continued to deride your work you punched him in the nose.” Stratt’s steel gaze flicked down to Grace’s still bruised hand.
Grace grimaced, not expecting the blunt (yet accurate) description of his actions. Grace was not a violent person, he could barely stand verbal altercations, but for some reason this particular instance had really gotten under his skin.
It might have been because Dave’s best friend Mark had started dating his ex and they had both been teasing and shoving him in the hallways.
But that wasn’t what Grace was focused on right now.
”I-I’m… yes… but I.. Well,” Stratt raised her hand, silencing the babble of half sentences that had started to cascade from Grace’s mouth.
”Ryland Grace,” She consulted a paper in front of her, no doubt his file. “You are number 5 in your class. One of my top molecular biology candidates. And you even tutor nearby public school students and first years.”
She looked up at him, once again giving him all her attention. Grace felt like he was being dissected. Every thought, expression, and movement filed away in her brain to be looked at later. Suddenly she looked back down and Grace finally returned to breathing.
”Your teachers are fairly impressed by your work. Though many note your hermit like sensibilities.” Grace wanted to argue but knew there wasn’t an argument to be made. “However.”
Grace’s breath once again stilled in his lungs. This was it. However was never a good sign.
”However,” Stratt repeated softer, looking back up at Grace, almost… apologetically. “This is a top rated school. And despite your… accomplishments, there must be a… consequence.”
Despite her carefully chosen words, Grace had a feeling it would be more of a punishment.
”What… What kind of punishment?”
”Expulsion.” Grace’s eyes went wide. His heart nearly stopping.
”Ex-Expulsion? Like… like expelled? Like, I no longer go to this school? But- but I have nowhere to go! This is my dream! This is everything I’ve ever wanted! I can’t just leave!”
”Mr. Grace, I have no other option.” She said it as kindly as possible. Her face a mask of tiredness and regret. She had been the one to approach Grace to join the school, and now she was expelling him.
”There has to be something I can do!” Grace felt like sand was filling the room around him. Threatening to take all the air and leave him with nothing. “I-I’ll apologize! I’ll clean the floors. Please, please just don’t expel me! What am I going to do?”
“I am sorry. But you are lucky that Dave Torres parents are not looking to sue. This is the lesser of two evils.”
”What, I’m just going to be thrown on the street?”
”No. You will still have room and board here for the time being. However, you will be shuttled to a different high school.” Stratt’s voice was even despite Grace’s leap to theatrics. Her gaze was just as so when she stood.
Grace watched as she turned, facing the window behind her desk that gazed into a field touched by the coming fall. The grass, once green, now a faded yellow.
Grace did his best to even out his own voice, a hard thing to do when his breath was coming at such a quick pace.
”What high school?”
”Tau Ceti High.”
Now Grace sat.
On a basic Petrova Line bus.
Heading to a school he knows nothing about.
A public school he knows nothing about.
With people he knows nothing about.
He felt like crying.
Thankfully, if he did there would be no one here to see him.
Grace sighed, his hand absentmindedly tapping on the glass as he shifted his gaze from the sky outside to the ceiling of the bus.
On its domed roof there were various laminated stickers in the shapes of stars, asteroids, space ships, and so on, all in cartoon fashion with names written on them. The names of the children on a previous route.
Grace felt a sob rise in his throat.
He couldn’t make friends at a place tailor made for him to make friends. A place filled with all the smartest minds that had most of the same interests.
How was he supposed to make friends when every one was so different? They had probably known eachother for years. And he was rehearing about science he had practically mastered.
Grace took a deep breath, I can’t start crying on my first day. I haven’t even made it to the dang school.
Just as the thought dawned on him he felt the bus screech to a halt. The boy nearly flying out of his seat as his body tried to keep moving forward despite the abrupt stop.
The bus driver opened the door, a non subtle hint for Grace to get out.
Grace grabbed his backpack, which was mostly empty as he didn’t know what to bring. He dragged himself to his feet, feeling like he was dragging a bag of lead behind him as picked his way to the front of the bus.
Grace gave a poor half nod to the bus driver who didn’t even give him a second look.
Stepping off the bus Grace took a second to take in the suns rays, something he hadn’t done in a long while (both before and after the expulsion). He definitely wasn’t just holding out before making his way into the building.
Tau Ceti high looked like a normal high school. Which made it a new sight to Grace, who was used to the large almost eclectic mass of buildings and floors that Hail Mary High had been shoved into.
Grace had only seen such a building in movies.
Oh how his movies had burned him so far.
Grace had half a mind to turn around and never come back. Headmistress Stratt wouldn’t just leave him in the street. Maybe after a few days he could try and convince her to let him back in the program.
But just as he had begun to turn back to the bus he heard a voice.
”You must be Ryland Grace! Our new student.”