Blue walls, white carpet. Smiles. Hair twirling. Twinkling eyes. Stars. No more walls. Trees. Silhouettes. Flashlights. Fireflies-

“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” Kerry’s brown eyes snapped open and quickly squeezed shut as the automated voice yelled at him from his phone, and he rolled over and fumbled with it before finally hitting the stop button. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes, noticing the light twinkling through his blinds onto his old plane wallpaper and glinting on his little league trophies on a shelf above his dresser. Little slivers of the light fell on his pale skin as he walked across his room to the dresser. He opened a few drawers and threw together a mismatched outfit that somehow still worked, a basic sports brand t-shirt and black shorts. He walked into the bathroom and splashed his face and styled his curly black hair just right.

He went back into his bedroom and grabbed his phone from the dresser and headed through the kitchen to the front door. As he was about to leave, he turned his head and yelled over his shoulder “bye, Mom,” but the only response he got was silence. He then left the house, got on his bike, and headed to his friend’s house. Once he got to Lloyd’s place, he pulled his bike around the side of the house and walked around to the back door, quietly opening it so he wouldn’t wake Lloyd’s parents.

“Lloyd?” He whispered into the semidarkness. “You there, man?”

A figure rose from the couch and nodded, slivers of sunlight shining on his shaggy blond hair and tan skin. “Hey, man! Been waitin’ a while.” Lloyd said as the two of them headed through the door.

“My bad, bro, you know my mom won’t let me get a car. I had to bike here.”

“Oh yeah.” Lloyd laughed. “Forgot about that.” He smiled. “You ready for adventure?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kerry asked with a smirk. “Let’s go!”

The two of them got into Lloyd’s car, a nice silver Chevy Sedan, and off they went. “So,” Lloyd’s blue eyes twinkled, “I heard about this cool space exhibit they’ve got at the museum right now, and it sounds awesome. Plus, it’s free for anyone 16 and under!”

“So, random techy space stuff and free admission? Count me in!” Kerry exclaimed with a grin. “When’s it open?”

“Ten.”

“What’re we gonna do until then?”

“Well, Byron said he’d come with, so I thought we’d pick him up on the way, and then we should be there fifteen or so minutes early.” Lloyd said with a shrug, then slammed the brakes as a guy tried to run across the street, and Lloyd honked. “Dude!” Lloyd exclaimed angrily. The guy shot him a confused look and kept running to the other side. Lloyd sighed, “sorry, ’bout that, Kerry! Some people are just complete idiots.”

Kerry laughed and reached down to turn on the radio, and on it was a man’s voice.

“Oh, dude, turn that up, it’s about the exhibit!”

The newscaster’s voice filled the car. “…in the new space exhibit at Mapleton Museum with her now. Mrs. Juddson?”

A woman laughed and answered. “Yes. I’m very excited to announce that the new Mapleton space exhibit featuring the suit worn by this town’s own Burnsley Wish! The exhibit will open for the first time at the museum today at ten o’clock AM, and kids ages 16 and under will be free!”

There was a short pause and then the newscaster cleared his throat. “Yes, thank you, Mrs. Juddson. Now, a short message from our sponsor.”

Kerry turned it down as a short jingle started to play and an upbeat voice started talking about some exciting new product. “Dude! They got the Wish suit!”

“Yeah, see? I told you! This thing is lit!”

“Aw, man, I’m so excited!”

“Oh, this is Byron’s neighborhood!” Lloyd said, and turned, driving for a little bit before stopping in front of a nice house. A tall kid with caramel skin and close-cropped hair sat on the porch with headphones on, head bobbing slightly to music. Lloyd parked the car and pulled out his phone, thumbing a text. The kid on the porch looked up and smiled, taking off his headphones and walking down the driveway to meet Lloyd and Kerry in the car.

“Hey guys! What’s up?”

“Byron!” Kerry’s face broke out in a smile. “Dude, hey! You want shotgun?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Byron said. “I heard about that new space exhibit.” He said with a smile. “So excited!”

“Us too!” Lloyd said. “Get in, dude!”

Byron got in the car and the three of them left the neighborhood. As they were approaching the intersection nearest the museum, the newscaster came back on the radio and mumbled something. “What’s he saying?” Byron asked. “Turn it up.”

“…at the museum again.” The newscaster’s voice flooded the car once again. “Here is Mrs. Juddson again.”

They pulled into the museum’s parking lot, and Lloyd put the car in park as Mrs. Juddson began to speak again. “The space suit!” The woman said, frightened. “It’s- it’s been torn up to shreds. It’s lying shredded around the pe- pedestal.” Her last few words came out in a rush. “The exhibit will be closed.”

All three boys rushed out of the car and ran up to the museum’s entrance. “What do you mean it’s closed?!” Kerry asked the person in the ticket booth incredulously.

The man shrugged. “Couldn’t tell you, kid.”

“Dude, what? They closed it just as we pulled in. Wow.” Byron said angrily.

“I mean, we’re already here, so we might as well put our drive to good use.” Lloyd said disheartened. “Three tickets, please.”

“No one said that the free ticket thing was over, and you kids should get some compensation for not being able to see that exhibit you came for, so I’ll let you kids in for free, ok?”

“Um,” Lloyd looked at Byron and Kerry who both shrugged, glad they didn’t have to work out the payment, “ok then. Thanks!”

The man handed them each a ticket and the boys went inside. There were fossils and giant life-size models of planes, trains, cars, and dinosaurs, art of all kinds, and taxidermies in small cases. They walked down a hallway with old china and silver plates from way-back-who-knows-when. At the end of the hallway was a door labeled “stairs,” and it was unlocked.

Lloyd held open the door for Byron and Kerry who started up the stairs. “I wonder what’s up here.” Byron said, thinking aloud.

“Who knows?” Kerry shrugged as they reached the top, and he held open the door for the other two boys. “Let’s check it out.”

The lights were off. “That’s weird.” Lloyd said, walking down the wall to find a switch. With a click, the lights turned on and the boys found themselves staring at that closed exhibit. All the interactive displays had been turned off, but they had a model of the rocket Wish had gone up on, pictures of space with labels and descriptions, models of satellites and Mars rovers, and a stand where Wish’s suit was supposed to be, but-

“It’s… destroyed.” Byron said breathlessly. “What?”

“Wow. I know they said they found it torn up around the pedestal, but… who would do that?” Kerry asked.

“I don’t know,” Lloyd shrugged, “but whoever did it should definitely pay for stealing our morning.”

“I agree.” Kerry nodded.

“None of us know anything about solving crimes, how would we find out who shredded the suit?” Byron asked.

“I’ve watched a little CSI, but I don’t know much.” Lloyd said with a shrug.

“Never seen it,” Kerry said, putting his hands up in defense, “but even if we could use their techniques, we don’t have any of the special tech or hacking skills we can use to find out who did this. Also,” he laughed, “I don’t think security will let three teenage boys look at the cameras from whenever it happened. So…”

“Fair point.” Lloyd said, pursing his lips in thought.

“What do we do about this, then?” Byron asked.

“I don’t know. What do you think we should do?” Kerry said, turning to Lloyd.

“We could look up detective stuff for amateurs or something?” Lloyd said. “Like, WikiHow, maybe?”

“Good idea!” Byron exclaimed, pulling out his phone. He looked up detective on WikiHow and: “nothing useful. We should probably drop it,” he said with a shrug, “I mean the museum already knows what happened and the police are probably going to try and figure it out anyways, so we should probably just go find something else to do.”

Lloyd sighed. “Sorry this was a bust, guys.”

“It’s fine, man. I guess we’ll just have to find something else to do that doesn’t include seeing cool space stuff.” Kerry said. “We can walk around the rest of the museum first, though.”

They went back down the stairs and walked around the rest of the museum, stopping to look at plane models, historical figures, and random prehistoric animals. They soon became bored and decided to head out.

It had started to rain outside and the boys jogged from the door to Lloyd’s car laughing. They got in and turned on the car, still laughing. They turned on the car and the radio turned on with it. Music started playing and Kerry started singing along, and soon Lloyd and Byron had joined in. They left the parking lot and started driving around town. They passed the bookstore, several coffee shops and fast food restaurants, and random stores and malls. The music was playing and the boys were still having a grand old time listening to the radio and watching the world flash by. An ad break stopped their fun for a minute and Kerry’s stomach grumbled. “Anyone up for lunch?” He asked as he turned down the radio.

“Good idea.” Lloyd said. “What do you guys feel like?”

“I’m down for anything.” Byron said.

“Same here.” Kerry agreed.

“Ok then, I guess I get to choose!” Lloyd said with a smirk.

They pulled through a Drive Thru in the rain and ate burgers and fries in the parking lot. A phone buzzed as they were all eating, and all three of them pulled their phones out to see who it was. “Oh,” Byron laughed, “that’s me. Sorry ’bout that.”

“It’s fine, man.” Kerry said, pocketing his phone. “Oh! Hey, you guys wanna chill at my house for the rest of the day? We could watch The Martian or 2001 or something to make up for that exhibit closing.” He suggested. “How’s that sound?”

“Ooh,” Lloyd put his phone back in his pocket as well, “hard choice! I’m down for either!” He said. “Byron?”

“Uh…” Byron glanced at his phone and shrugged, “yeah, I guess.”

“Hey, what’s up, dude?” Kerry asked. “You got a hot date tonight or something?”

Byron laughed. “Maybe.”

“And how would Mr. Spaceship find a cute girl?” Lloyd asked.

“You’d never guess, but she’s actually from my math class.”

“Aww! Nerd love!” Kerry laughed. “That’s so cute!”

“Nice job, Byron!” Lloyd said with a smirk. “Maybe we can squeeze that movie in before you have to head.”

“Yeah, it should work out fine.” Byron smiled. “So excited for the movie!”

“Which should we watch?” Kerry asked.

“Maybe The Martian since it’s a little more up-to-date, although, being so outdated, 2001 is kinda funny.” Lloyd offered.

“Sounds great!” Kerry smiled. “Although, did you guys ever read Project Hail Mary?”

“Oh yeah,” Byron smirked, “that would make a wicked cool movie!”

“I saw somewhere that they’re working on a movie now.” Kerry said. “I would love to see that when it’s out!”

“Yeah, same!” Byron said excitedly. “So… we wanna head out?”

“Sure!” Lloyd said, pulling out of the parking lot and heading to Kerry’s house.

Kerry pulled out his phone and thumbed a text to his mom, telling her that he was headed back home with Byron and Lloyd. After a few minutes his phone buzzed and he checked it just to find she had liked the text.

They turned the radio up a little and drove to Kerry’s house with broken conversations. Lloyd parked in the driveway and the boys went inside. They plopped down on the couches in the living room and Kerry turned on the TV. “You guys want popcorn or anything?” Kerry asked as the movie started up.

“No thanks, I’m good.” Lloyd said. “I’m stuffed.”

“If it isn’t too much to ask for, yes, please.” Byron said. “Thanks, Kerry!”

“Yeah, no problem, dude!” He grabbed a bag of instant popcorn from the pantry and opened the microwave.

“Yo, dude!” Lloyd waved Kerry over. “C’mon! It’s starting!!”

“Man, I love this movie!”

The music started playing and the producing companies started rolling as the popcorn cooked, until finally the title appeared, the microwave beeped, and the first scene started.