“You have to stop hanging out with that so called friend of yours. He is nothing but trouble,” my mother blocked the docking door to my ride to school. Normally it was to give me a kiss on the cheek and a goodbye, but she looked upset with me. Did she know about us making Susy cry yesterday? We didn’t mean to, we didn’t know she would cry if we used her coloring stylist.

“What do you mean Mama?” maybe she won’t know if I just don’t say anything? Shifting my backpack on my back I began to look anywhere but my mother’s eyes.

“Mrs. Hutson called, she told me about the little shenanigans you and Jet got into yesterday,” what does shena- na… that word mean? I would ask but I feel lit it won’t be a good word for me. She began to lower herself to my eye level, which normally made me feel better now I felt like I was going to get a talking to. My eyes widened as she looked me over at this new point of view, it looked as if she was waiting for something.

“I- I-,” I was about to apologize for every mistake I had ever committed, but she stopped me her own words.

“Jet is a bad influence,” what? My gaze quickly left the floor to meet my mama’s eyes after she said this. A bad what? But it seemed as if she knew what I wanted to ask, “He isn’t teaching you good things to do. He is getting you into trouble.”

“No he isn’t mama, its-“

“I don’t want you to hang out with him anymore,” she looked at me a worried look as her eyes seemed to not rest on one part of my face. It was as if she was scanning me like when I went to go get my birth license. The small card had a picture of me on it and a recording of my voice. Ha, Jet would always make fun of how silly my voice sounds in the recording. He says something like ‘You sound as if you saw a ghost,’ which of course I was mad about, but after we fought we laughed it off. I don’t want to lose that.

“But he is my only friend mama! All the other kids are meanies!” I had never said no to mama, but I didn’t want to give up this friendship. Especially since all the other kids bully him and the teachers always send him to the office. I had been sent to the principles with him before. It was scary, long hallways with doors that could open at any time and pull me in so I could never see the sea of stars anymore, but Jet reassured me that it was just any other normal hallways. He even told me which door was for what.

He was a good influence! Mama just didn’t know what she was talking about! “Jet is goo-“ again I was cut off by my mother’s words.

“Austin, please. Listen to me, he is a bad kid. He is only going to get you into trouble. Do you want that? Do you want to get a talking to from the principle again?” her arms rested on my shoulder now as she always did when she wanted me to do something. It was normally a chore she wanted me to do, but this was not a simple job. She wanted me to give up being friends. I think she could see me not wanting to agree with this because she let out a huge sigh as she gave me a hug. “At least think about it, okay?” she gave me a kiss on my forehead that made me feel guilty about disagreeing with her, even if I didn’t voice it to her.

“Okay mama,” the words were automatic and without second thought, but as the smile appeared on her face I could hear the bus docking with own ship.

“Thank you Austin,” she said with a proud smile on her face. With that she rose to her feet to type in the key code to be able to leave. It was something that I wasn’t allowed to know until I was older. I never understood why, but maybe now I knew… maybe it was to keep me from hanging out with Jet at his house? Whatever reason it was I stood by the door as it opened and waited until my mama leaned down so I could give her a kiss. Now while on any other day I would have done it without any hesitation, I did today. I felt like if I gave her a kiss it would be me giving up being friends with Jet, but that was silly. This kiss was for my mama and only my mama.

The smile on her face made me feel like it was the right choice to give her a kiss. “Bye mama!” I said as I entered into the ship with a skip in my step. I didn’t have to look back to know she was waving goodbye to me as I now left the home ship into this ship. There was going to be five other stops before we all actually got to school. It seemed like everyone in the bus seemed to be chattering about the topic of the school, but most importantly the upcoming graduation of third grade into fourth. But they were all conversations I was not going to get involved in. The only one I wanted to be a part of was Jet’s hilarious ones!

There was an empty seat for me that I took like I did every other day, but it today it didn’t seem like there would be much talking. Jet had that dazed look like he did once a week. It was the hazy look that normally got him sent to the office. He would never admit that that’s what was going to happen, but I knew. I asked him what was wrong, but like every other time I ask, he just waves off the question and instead got onto the topic of how this new set of stars had funny constellations. Pointing out the connection of a rabbit or a tree, but I was never make the same connections as he did on days like this.