“Even if the seven astronauts somehow managed to survive the initial blast and breakup of the spacecraft, a person cannot hit the ocean going over two hundred miles per hour after a sixty-five-thousand-foot fall and live,” Mr. O’Reilly said in a serious voice. “There’s no way. It’s not possible. I’m so sorry, kids. They’ll try to recover the…the astronauts…from the water, but I’m afraid they’re all gone.”

“They’re gone forever.” Mallory’s voice was quieter than Quiet Mary-Beth’s and she was crying. “They’ll never come back. They’ll never go home. They’ll never…they’ll never…”

Miss Chambers moved to put her arms around shaking, sobbing Mallory. The rest of the class was silent, watching, not moving. Nova’s body was frozen too, but her mind raced as she stared at the television, trying to understand what she’d just seen. This would not be like when Luke Skywalker flew from G.I. Joe’s helicopter and landed on the floor. This was real life.

In real life, all seven astronauts were gone.

Forever.

And where was Bridget?

She hadn’t come. She wasn’t there like she’d promised.

On television, people in Florida were crying.

All around Nova, students were crying.

Mallory was crying. Mary-Beth was crying. Jeremiah and Julia and Zach were crying.

Miss Chambers was crying. Mr. O’Reilly was crying.

Nova was not crying.

Nova had no tears to cry. Her tears were lost, somewhere inside her. Lost like she’d been her entire life. Lost in her own head, lost in her own world. Lost in space. Lost without Bridget.

And then, she knew.

She knew exactly where Bridget was. Bridget was in the same place she’d been when Nova last saw her.

Bridget wasn’t coming for Nova. Bridget wasn’t coming back.

So Nova would go to her.

Nova grabbed NASA Bear and took off running. She ran from the classroom. She ran down the hallway. She was almost to the front door when she heard Miss Chambers behind her.

“Nova, stop!”

But she could not stop. She needed to find Bridget. She needed to tell her what had happened. She needed them to suffer through it together, as they had through the last twelve years, holding hands, a big sister and her shadow, knowing nothing could hurt them, not really, so long as they were together.

The sound of Miss Chambers’s heels clacked down the hall after her, but Nova was fast and she’d had a head start. She was out the door.

“NOVA!”

Through the faculty parking lot, across the grassy baseball field, and all the way to the road.

She knew where to go. She’d get there. Running.

The scene played over and over again in her mind. She could not stop it. Countdown. Lift-off. One minute. One minute, ten seconds. One minute, twelve seconds. One minute, thirteen. Unlucky thirteen.

Countdown.

Lift-off.