Chap. 1, “The Maria” (based on amoung us)

I had been working on The Maria for 6 weeks when I met Bell. Her and her friend, Reuru were assigned to my group when it became dangerous to be alone for some reason. (we would find out soon). I didn't get along well with either of them at first, because they were both nurses and I was the ship mechanic, they were already friends. Every day, they sat with red and talked about patients they thought were cute and how annoying it was when they had to give kids shots. It annoyed me.

Me being annoyed by their clique didn't make them trust me more. The first group I was in only lasted for one week. I had gotten separated from Cindy and Bernard one day and they got hurt. Reuru had found them and rushed them to Medbay. We were never allowed to see them and people assumed they were dead until they came back for the next mission, acting totally different and only speaking to people other than each other when the mission demanded it.

Everyone thought that I had caused whatever happened to them.

"I don't know, Re. We just have to be careful while we-" Reuru cut her off. "Cap's trying to kill us! Everyone KNOWS that grease monkey is dangerous. I bet she knows more about it. I bet HQ told her more than they told us." Bell looked like she wanted to protest but sighed. "Maybe you're right. I'll keep an eye out around her. Don't worry." I hadn't meant to eavesdrop. I had just gotten to the door of the Med staff dorm when I heard them talking. I was thinking about how I could possibly make them trust me when… Fwshhhhhh! "Oh! Hi, Polly!" Bell's voice sounded guilty. Reuru grunted.

We walked in silence to the lockers. As I pulled my brown suit on, I asked, "so, what are we doing today?" Bell waited for Reuru to respond. It was clear that she was used to her friend speaking for her. "Well, we have some urgent patients so we'll be doing medbay tasks first. That's why Re isn't suiting up today. She's actually staying in the bay all day, so I'll be following you around doing checkups while you do maintenance, " That explained the discussion I had heard earlier. "Right. That sounds good."

After Reuru (not very) discreetly slipped a knife into Bell's pocket and I gave her some tools to hold, we left medbay. It was akward for the first hour or so; the only sounds we made were our boots on the ground and the occasional Bzzrt! From a wire. "I like your hair." I stood up from where I was crouching. "Oh! Thank you." She laughed. "I'm sorry I've been so quiet. I'd like to be your friend, since we're all stuck together for the rest of the mission." Her smile was forced at first, but quickly turned more genuine. "I'd like to be your friend too."