Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe by Shannon Heather, Jerrett James Page A

leaned back. Mikayla took the other set of connecting seats across from Finn.
    Finn rolled his eyes at the disgusting scene. For almost two weeks they’d woken up next to each other, well sort of. Finn usually woke to find Reggie on the ground next to Mikayla, who’d probably tucked the other blanket around him, and they were always holding hands. He just couldn’t figure out what those two saw in each other. Reggie was his very best friend and the best guy he knew. Unlike Mikayla, he seemed to feel words and speaking weren’t all that necessary. Mikayla, on the other hand, proved annoying in every possible form. Sure, he considered her a friend now, but that didn’t stop him from feeling completely frustrated with her almost every single minute of the day.
    They were so opposite from each other. Reggie, tall and muscled but still thin compared to most Diggers, had inherited the flaming red hair of his Irish ancestors. His ginger hair was his most Digger-like trait, because 90 percent of the Diggers had some shade of red hair. Mikayla was short—well, the same height as Finn, which didn’t say much—and had thick, bouncy blond hair, which she used as an extension of her feelings. She’d throw it over her shoulder when she felt mad, happy, frustrated, sad—everything. She managed to chatter more than both boys put together. She always had to discuss things to exhaustion. Though the daughter of the Lee Fishborne, she hated science and Finn couldn’t help but despise her a little for that particular detail. If she loved science, Finn could just be jealous of her and everything would be fine. But her complete lack of excitement for everything scientific turned Finn’s jealousy into a loathing he couldn’t quite explain.
    He pretended to be asleep, but watched them out of a cracked-open eyelid. Reggie tiptoed over to Mikayla, whose hand lay outstretched. She gave him a pillow and a blanket and he lay on the floor awkwardly, not wanting to lose her hand.
    Finn feinted a loud snore and turned away.
    # # #
    The morning alarm clock—a head-over-heels tumble and a death dive toward the floor—garnered screams and yells from all of them. The DUMP had spun and bumped into something hard, sending Reggie careening toward the front windshield. Instead of his usual passing out or throwing up, Reggie pushed the flight button, then fell face-first onto the navigational screen.
    “Oh gosh.” Mikayla flipped hair out of her face, then settled in the captain’s chair where she’d landed after her tumble around the DUMP. “We have got to set up some kind of sensor to warn us about obstacles.”
    “On it.” Reggie belted himself into the navigator chair and went to work.
    “ELAINA,” Finn yelled as he fell out of the maintenance closet he’d been slammed into. “Start focusing the view finder again.”
    “Do you always have to yell?” Mikayla gave him a dirty look. “ELAINA’s only a bot, but I, for one, am so tired of listening to you yell all the time.”
    Finn felt a rage like he’d never felt before. Furious, he rounded on Mikayla. “Well, I , for one, am sick and tired of you! I’ve had to watch your little love affair with my best friend for weeks. I’ve had to listen to you because of your background in science even though you hate the subject. I’ve had to listen to you complain about this entire trip, but no one asked you to come. We would’ve been fine without you. Better than fine. You’ve been a total waste of a person on this mission.”
    Mikayla looked like she might cry, but she didn’t. Instead, she went off on her own snotty, frustrated tirade. “I wish I hadn’t come, either. I’ve had to endure your, your…substandard science skills. You treat everyone around you like dirt. You never acknowledge when Reggie and I come up with good ideas. Instead, you just get mad and pretend like the idea was yours. I may not…like science, but I know better than you what makes a good Scientist, and you