Galactiquest

Jun found herself resting on the bottom bunk bed in her newly assigned room. The ranger had a different one originally, but she’d been moved to this one for a special, secret task. That task came barging through the door.

“‘Sup, Kelly?” the rookie sat up to greet him. Aiden Kelly, a troublesome ranger Jun had been assigned to keep tabs on, was her new roommate. For the past two weeks, she talked to him every chance she could get, hoping a more casual approach would gain his trust and make him less suspicious. Maybe getting to know him would get to the root of why he acted the way he did. The only thing Jun found out about him was that he was a tough nut to crack.

He didn’t respond to the question, only glaring.

“What’cha got planned for today?”

Aiden paid no attention to his roommate, instead retrieving something from the drawer.

“I was just thinkin’,” Jun grasped for straws, “like, you don’t gotta, but I’d like to get to know my roommate a bit more, establish some, uh, common grou--”

“You’re so annoying.”

Completely shot down, the rookie didn’t know what to say.

“Look. I don’t know who you’re working for, or what your game is, but I know that you don’t like me, and I really don’t like you. So can you just stay outta my face? Go spy on someone else.”

Jun started to crack up.

“The heck is your problem...?”

“Am I that bad of an actor?” The dark-haired ranger wiped away a tear, calming down from laughter. “To be honest, I was starting to get annoyed with myself. I’m surprised you haven’t tried to deck me yet.”

“You’re not worth the effort.”

“Wow, thankssss...” Jun thanked him sarcastically. “Gonna be honest with you, I didn’t sign up for this either. I swear I’m not normally this clingy.”

Aiden leaned his head to one side. “...So are you supposed to be my parole officer or somethin’?”

“Yeah, basically.”

“Ha!” He scoffed. “Who sent you?”

“You’re on pretty thin ice with the warrant officers. And the captain.”

“‘You’re on thin ice, Kelly!’” Aiden mocked. “Yeah, they say that every week. Lemme guess, they wanted you to ‘put me on the straight and narrow?’”

“You got it. I don’t know how they wanted me to do it.” admitted Jun. “I was trying not to be annoying and stalkery about it.”

“You were.”

“I triiied.” Jun shrugged.

The blond ranger shook his head. “Why are you even telling me? Aren’t you supposed to keep this a secret?”

“You already figured out what was going on, so why bother? I’m not a good liar.” Jun told him, while pretending to be someone she wasn’t. Ordinarily, though, this would be true.

“You’re really not.”

“Besides, you don’t seem the type to trust people that easily anyway, so I was pretty much losing from the start.”

“You were.” He smiled.

The dark-haired ranger couldn’t help but feel that even though keeping the assignment a secret was a bust, she was getting somewhere. Where, she didn’t know, but somewhere.

“Could you--?” Jun began. “Nah, forget it.”

“What?”

“I was gonna ask could you pretend like you don’t know any of this around the warrant officers.” The rookie grinned sheepishly.

“No.”

“Thought so.”

Aiden leaned his weight on one leg. “But I’m not gonna snitch about it, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Oh, thanks, dude!” Jun felt somewhat lucky for this. “But do be warned, this doesn’t mean I’m gonna let you off the hook if you do anything reckless.”

“What are you, a cop??” He sneered.

“I was almost one.” admitted the rookie.

Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “...That explains a lot.”

He left the room as abruptly as he entered. Jun almost flopped back onto the bed when he poked his head back through the door.

“You wouldn’t last a day where I’m from.” were his last words before leaving for good.