My Big Discovery?

☄️🔭📘

Man, it was getting cloudy out. Overcast was covering the sky way too quickly. Hade said it was supposed to rain tomorrow too.

YAY.

Maybe we made the right call heading back. I mean, we did need to get back to school eventually, right? But I would’ve stayed out all night if I could. The night was so young, and I really wanted to spend more time looking at the sky. Even if I couldn’t do that, I just didn’t want to go home yet.

Hade’s hand waved into my view and broke me out of my walking stupor. I stopped and turned to see him with an unusual frown.

‘Meda, something up?’

Was I that obvious…?

I pointed up with a forced smirk.

‘The clouds.’

I thought he would laugh at that and move on, but that frown wasn't going down. *Sigh* Instead of lying, I figured spilling some of the truth wouldn’t be too bad, since I was in a pretty cooperative mood.

‘I don’t want to go home yet.’

‘Don’t want to go…’ he had a habit of repeating my words to try and make sense of the rough Japanese. ‘Let (**) guess. You (****) strict parents?’

His lips were a little hard to read, probably since he seemed a little less enthusiastic than usual, so I had to really focus on them, but I got the gist of it.

‘My dad,’ I replied. ‘He wants me back home so I can study till the end of time.’

‘Ahh…’ he nodded. ‘Sounds (****) your pops wants you to (**) smart. Clearly you're on the right track if you hang out with me.’

‘Shush up, baka,’ I said with a roll of my eyes and a genuine smile cracking on my face. His lips became easier to read after stroking his ego. What a conceited himbo. ‘It’s more complicated than that. He’s worried that being deaf and a girl will make it hard for me to get a good job.’

There was a shift in his demeanor, very evident by his straightened out posture and serious facial expression.

‘How often does he see you?’

‘He sees me every day. He takes me to school and back home. But he’s usually too tired from work to talk much.’

‘There’s his problem. He doesn’t really know how smart you already are.’

My eyes immediately showed how baffled I was. Hade complemented me, genuinely. And he did it without reflecting it back on himself. That felt so real and flattering.

‘I’m not that smart,’ I argued.

He had a cool smile take to his face, hands sliding into his pockets like he wasn’t nervous at all about that flattering compliment he just hot dropped.

‘I said what I said.’ Hade asserted with an upwards nudge of his shoulder and head. ‘I’ve seen a lot of smart people. Interviewed ‘em too for my radio show. I’d count you in that batch, since you're really putting your brain to work with astronomy.’

‘Are you serious?’ I furrowed my brow to show a little bit of fake contempt, kinda’ like a challenge to his words to prove their sincerity. ‘You know, astronomy isn’t very practical.’

‘Well, if a meteor is hurtling toward my house, I sure would prefer someone notice before it hits.’

I closed my eyes in disbelief, chortling at how silly his reasoning was. But honestly though…

‘Baka…’

‘Hey, you know I’m right, as usual.’

And he was back to his usual self. I hated when he genuinely was right. It was such an ego boost. But at least he was supportive.

You know, I don’t think I’d be able to stand him if he was a jerk. No amount of a handsome face would ever make up for a bad personality.

Heh, did I just call him handsome? Yuck.

Hade at least had a good heart that wanted to support people, even if it was a barely disguised excuse to receive praises. He did a lot to make people feel special. I had admiration for that.

No wonder so many people flocked to him. Maybe it’s more than just his dumb voice.

We got back to walking. I kept my eyes forward, a little more chipper about calling this the end of the day.

☄️🔭📘

Once I got home I immediately locked myself in my room and wasn’t coming out until dinner time. Dad thought I was going to be studying in here like a good student, but who had time for that when there was a comet to identify?

If you think about it, that was a form of studying!

I sat down at my desk, which was cluttered by cute little coffee cans, ready to add one more to the mess after tonight.

My computer was practically a toaster on dial up, so I had a good few minutes to wait before I saw anything other than a big BASUS 9 startup screen. Why use that ancient operating system? Because it was the only one that ran Olympic Assault 3: Madusa’s Revenge at more than 15 FPS, that’s why. Basus 11 OS just didn’t get that same level of optimization…

All that money for lawsuits, and Shiawado company couldn’t port up their best game?

Ah! Finally it booted up!

I logged in and immediately scoured the web for any hint of this comet's identity…

The first place to go searching was the Aladdin Space Database. That was a big catalog of the entire night sky. And I mean it had EVERYTHING. If there was something out in space, it was listed there. They even had a big scan of the sky that could be interacted with.

All I needed to do was type in the coordinates… Add a margin of error in case I was off… and…

…Nothing?

I increased the margin of error a few degrees. Just stars. There were other comets around, but nothing in that spot.

This couldn’t be right. How did they not have something like this listed here?

Okay… So I then turned my attention toward the Comet Hub forums. But they didn’t have any log of it either. People were just talking about 0208 Cassiopeia, and a few smaller comets nowhere near where I was looking.

Next came Ickypidea, but nothing there either.

Deadit? Nope.

Why did those last two websites sound like B rated horror movies?

Could I seriously have been the first person on Earth to see that comet? There was no way. No way!

But I got giddy thinking it was true. I mean, somebody had to discover it first, right? It wasn’t impossible to think it was me. But with my dinky antique, children's telescope? I mean, come on. A girl can only get her hopes so high.

…

…

…

Did I really just discover a comet? For real?

‘Oh my God!’

I think I squealed a little too loudly, because the housekeeper came to check up on me…