I clenched my jaw as I watched the Butterfly slosh lamp oil over the dry wood of the ship. I’d stopped watching Elliot’s side of the screen, but I tuned back in in time to see him grab the two chamber pots and heave them at the flames. Professor Green and the mystery professor grimaced as my on-screen self was drenched. Commander Fitz didn’t so much as flinch. Elliot smiled. Jerk.

It took everything in me to stay sitting calmly in my seat as the simulation careened from bad to worse. Finally, mercifully, the screen went dark.

“Is there a winner?” Elliot asked, and I glanced over at him in surprise. It wasn’t like him to blurt out something like that. He was sitting ramrod straight in his chair, his eyes on the panel of professors. He always sat like he’d attached a steel pole to his spine, but it was even worse now. He wanted that win in the worst possible way, and for a half second I felt bad about ruining his chances. But then I remembered the Cocoon and the “sounds like a you problem” and the chamber pots, and I stopped feeling bad.

“There is not,” said Commander Fitz. “I’m sorry, Cadet Mason, but this test did not count as an advancement point.”

“But it’s not my fault that she tackled me!” he said.

“Cadet Fitz’s interference is not why you did not earn your point,” she said. “It is, however, the reason why you are both moving to a different branch of the Academy.”

“What?” Elliot and I both yelped at the same time.

Commander Fitz held up a hand to stop us, and we both snapped our mouths shut. She turned to the mysterious professor on her left and motioned him forward. “Professor Callaway will explain, since this is his area of expertise.”

I stared at Professor Callaway, trying to place him. Had he ever been to our house for dinner? What could his area of expertise be?

“Today was a test,” said Professor Callaway, looking from Elliot to me and back again. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. No kidding it was a test. Who was this guy?