“Teacher,” she whispered once called on. She accepted a pink square of astronaut ice cream with a quiet “Thankth.”

“You got it! Challenger is special for a lot of reasons. It was the first orbiter to land at Kennedy Space Center!” Stephanie tapped one of the newspaper articles. “Today it will take off for time number ten and it will return to Earth after one hundred forty-four hours and thirty-four minutes, or about six days.”

Nova puffed out her chest a little. She didn’t already know all of the information Stephanie was sharing, but she knew that.

Stephanie asked more questions, some super-hard, some super-simple, until everyone had a piece of ice cream except Margot, who ate through a tube and earned a Saturn sticker instead.

Finally, Mrs. Pierce thanked Stephanie, gave her a hug, and told everyone to stand and stretch—it was time to head to the other classrooms to watch the launch on CNN.

Nova hummed louder and louder and flapped harder and harder on her way down the hall as she mentally counted down all of the things that had made her morning perfect.

Ten: Billy helped her cut out a picture of the seven astronauts from the newspaper.

Nine: Francine said the sun was shining in Florida, which meant no more delays.

Eight: She was wearing her best launch outfit.

Seven: She’d held up Margot’s head and made her laugh.

Six: NASA Bear smelled good because he’d gotten washed while she was sleeping.

Five: Now she had five friends: Mallory, Alex, Mary-Beth, Buddy, and Margot.

Four: Stephanie told everyone she was a space expert.

Three: She’d been able to answer a question and a bonus question about Sally Ride.

Two: She was about to see Christa McAuliffe become the First Teacher in Space.

One: Bridget was on her way. She’d promised.

Nova wasn’t sure which of the ten things had her most excited.

Wait.

Yes, she was.

Seeing Bridget again.

That was the most exciting.

But it was close.