Nova had scrunched up her face, trying to understand, trying to imagine it. As if Bridget read her mind, she exclaimed, “You can’t imagine it, Nova! That split second billions of years ago resulted in everything existing all of a sudden, born from nothingness!”

Maybe Nova could not imagine or understand it, but here, in the planetarium, she could feel it. She knew at any moment she would either collapse in on herself too, or explode. Though she tried to choke it back, a sob escaped her throat. Tears welled up in her eyes as the stars illuminated in the dome surrounded and consumed her. It was beautiful, much more beautiful than the solar system poster or the cool blue stone in her mood ring.

“Do you want to leave?” whispered Stephanie, which made Nova flinch because she’d forgotten where she was and that there were other people around. She shook her head and then hit herself in the temple one-two-three-four times to calm down.

“Nova?”

Nova shook her head again and wrapped her arms protectively around NASA Bear and tried to pretend she could feel Bridget there beside her. She wouldn’t leave now for all of the rings around Saturn.

Above them and all around, the stars froze in place. Nova was now viewing the night sky as it might appear out the circular window at the end of the attic after the streetlights clicked out. As suddenly as they had stopped, the stars began to move again, this time all to the left as if being spun on a globe, getting blurry until finally coming back into focus.

Mr. Mindy spoke from somewhere in the pitch-black center of the room.

“Here is where we left off last week.”

A neon-green line formed in the sky, connecting a series of stars almost straight above the center of the room.

“Ursa Major: the Great Bear. One of the constellations we can see from our homes throughout most of the year, if it’s dark enough outside, Ursa Major is the third-largest…”

Nova could not concentrate on his voice and the room around her at the same time. She still couldn’t quite breathe but she wasn’t panicking either. She remembered the word Francine had used with Principal Dowling: “Overwhelmed.” That was it, Nova realized. She felt overwhelmed. She took in air and her lungs expelled it but it felt like her heart had grown three sizes…like the heart of the Grinch in one of Francine’s Dr. Seuss bedtime stories.

The rest of the class faded away again. Stephanie was gone. Zach Zbornak was gone. Mr. Mindy was gone.

Even Bridget was gone.

And Nova was floating.

She held on tight to NASA Bear, afraid he might drift away due to lack of gravity, but he didn’t seem to be having the same breathing difficulties she was. Probably because of his space helmet. He was safe anywhere in the known universe.