Their teacher stood in the center of the room. He was so short and skinny he could pass for a fifth grader if not for his long graying beard. He reminded Nova of the garden gnome one former foster family kept in their front yard. Nova pictured him wearing a red pointy hat.

“Greetings, Earthlings! We have two new students in astronomy starting this week. Welcome to the stratosphere, Zach Zbornak and Nova Vezina! Wave to the class!”

Zach Zbornak stood up, held up both hands while flashing the peace sign, then took a deep bow, which made some of the boys laugh. At Stephanie’s urging, Nova stood up too, waved one hand awkwardly (but not backward like Buddy), and sat back down.

“Nice to have you both with us! I’m Mr. Mindy. Let’s get started.”

Mr. Mindy switched on a lamp in the center of the planetarium and proceeded to lecture in semidarkness about Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and the reading kids were supposed to have done since last week’s class. Nova covered her ears to block out the sound of pencils flying across paper all around her. She felt like she’d fallen into the center of a scratching post surrounded by a dozen angry cats.

Finally, Mr. Mindy clicked the lamp off, hit another switch, and said, “Now we turn to the stars.”

Nova’s breath caught in her throat. She needed Billy beside her to remind her to breathe. Above her and all around, tiny flecks of light danced and shone. They began as distant pinpricks but grew larger and brighter and closer and closer until they were flying at her face. She reached a hand up, clasping it in midair, certain she could catch one before it slammed directly into her nose. She and NASA Bear were soaring through space as stars whizzed faster than the speed of light, until, abruptly, the movement ceased. Nova braced herself, holding on to the arms of her chair, breathing heavy. Perhaps they were about to make a soft landing on the moon.

Nova had never felt this way before. It was as if all of the space inside her was filling filling filling and expanding expanding expanding. She wondered if this was how the universe felt in the milliseconds before its creation, when all that there was became hotter and hotter until BANG—an explosion forced the stars and moons and planets and galaxies into formation and set the universe off on a course toward eventual life. This was how Bridget had described the “Big Bang.”

“When all that existed up until that point was so dense and thick and full-to-bursting, when it could either collapse in to form a star or explode, it exploded, expanding outward to create everything. Except that it wasn’t an explosion, not really, it was more like…like a moment in time that created everything. Oh, I’m not describing it well!”