Like most fourteen-year-old boys, David Wildstar considered himself brave—much braver than his big sister, even if she was four years older. When, one Tuesday evening, his sister hurried in from the international strategy team meeting crying, he knew he was right. But being right didn't matter as much as the reason for his sister's distress.
"You okay?" He caught her before she made it past him.
"Fine." She wiped her eyes. "Tough day. Have you seen Dad?"
"Out on the balcony," David said. "Probably reading about all the fighting happening on allied planets right now. That's about all he's been doing since yesterday—reading reports and answering messages."
"Thanks." She pulled her comm out and stared at it for a three-count before heading upstairs to the balcony, fingers wrapped around her comm as if it might slip away like a wriggling fish if she loosened her grip.
David sneaked after her and waited half-way up the stairs, out of sight.
"Hitomi!" Dad shifted in his chair, probably to prop his foot on his other knee like he always did. "You're home early. I thought your meeting went until eight."
"It did." His sister sat opposite their dad. "But I couldn't think about anything other than… that message. So, I left."
Message? What message?
"Even if I say yes, how does he expect me to do this?" His sister's voice wavered. "Why didn't he just pick somebody else?"
Dad got up and leaned on the balcony rail. "How're you holding up?"
His sister cried, little staggered sobs.
"I'm sorry." Dad took a knee and hugged her. "I can't do this for you. If your mom and I could help, we would."
"I—know…" his sister choked.
Mom and Dad couldn't help? This sounded serious.
David tiptoed into the living room, out of earshot, before his sister sulked downstairs.
Maybe he could find hints about who was bothering her. He needed an excuse to get into her room—without sneaking in sans her permission. He was brave, not stupid. "Can I borrow your stylus? I lost mine. Can't finish those Calculus problems without it."
"Sure." His sister motioned him after her, comm still clenched in the other hand. "You really need to put it back every time you use it. How many have you lost? Six? I'd better get this back when you're done."
"I'll have it tucked in its case before you notice it's gone."
His sister's room hadn't changed—still half-organized, half-chaos. The organized part featured her growing collection of pictures and trinkets from her favorite place, Galmania. It didn't matter that it was light years away, near the galaxy's core. The green world fascinated his sister—had ever since he could remember. David had to admit, it held a certain draw for him too. After all, their godparents ruled it. Who could pass up bragging rights that tempting?
Nothing else seemed different. The small trash bin was empty. Her collection of physical books peeked out of a three-foot shelf mounted over the desk, and a pile of clothes topped an extra chair in the corner. Her clothes for tomorrow—styled to mimic common Galman dress—hung on a wall peg. The closet stood half open, and a pair of boots, one upright, the other tipped over, guarded it. An open sketchbook lay on the bed.
His sister discarded her small purse by the door and docked her comm at the desk. Her workspace appeared. Holographic notes, assignments, projects, appointments all flooded the desk. Even file folders, stacked in a neat line sat to one side along with a small pile of unsorted photos. Everything in her workspace was written in Galman.
"Finish your homework." She held the stylus out to him.
David took it.
No leads here. He'd have to do more investigation at school.
Wednesday, classes met on campus.
David tailed his sister to her first class, careful to keep out of sight. If a teacher saw him, they'd ask why he was here instead of with the other junior high schoolers.
His sister gathered with three friends in the hall. "I can't wait until we get to the next chapter in History." She grinned. "Twenty-third century!"
"You say that every year," said one of his sister's friends. "You just want to bring in stuff to show the class. Last year it was a clipping from that white Galman rose, and the year before it was one of those whatcha callits—personal shield things. You spend more time visiting other planets—or at least not here on Earth—than anybody else in school. You're lucky you go here. Any other school wouldn't let you disappear mid-term so often. But I guess you get good enough grades that it doesn't matter."
Though everyone in the school had at least one parent in the Earth Defense Force, few of them got the opportunity to spend time in space, much less on other planets.
"Hey, I take my schoolwork with me when I'm off world. Plus, this year's different." His sister's eyes sparked. "A whole chapter about allied planets—and a long section on Galmania."
Her friends shook their heads.
"You'd live there if you could," one said. "What're you going to do this year, bring in an actual Galman?"
The light in his sister's eyes winked out.
"Hey, strategy girl." One guy, wearing last year's wrestling club shirt, jogged over and poked his sister's arm. "Where's your imaginary army? Did they get lost in thought?" The wrestler let out a belly laugh while David's sister and her friends groaned.
His sister snorted. "Get to class, Sora. They finally found a book you can read—had to steal it from second-year Kindergarten."
Her friends admired the insult.
The wrestler chuckled. "At least my shirt doesn't look like I pieced it together from a scrap pile. Alien clothes are weird."
His sister's friends covered their mouths.
"Galmans aren't aliens! They're—" His sister balled her fists, and her eyes misted.
"Hey, whatever." The wrestler left looking uncomfortable.
This had to be the guy upsetting her.
"I'll… see you in a minute." His sister waved her friends into class and hurried for the girls' room. Just before she stepped inside, tears spilled down her cheeks and she covered her mouth to stifle a sob.
During lunch, David looked for his sister. She wasn't eating with her friends in a classroom, and she wasn't outside near the soccer field where she sometimes sat to read.
Where was she?
He scoured the halls, even asked her friends if they'd seen her. Nobody knew anything.
Ten minutes before the break ended, he found her behind the school, sitting on a stone bench under a low-hanging tree. She was staring at her comm again.
That wrestler guy must have sent her something rude. Why didn't she just delete it? And why weren't Mom and Dad talking with the principal about this? If no one else would fix this, he would.
"Hey, Sis." David sat beside her.
She put her comm away.
"Whatcha doin' out here?"
"Thinking." His sister pulled her purse strap over her shoulder. "Just got a lot going on. I saw you coming out of Language. You looked serious. Everything okay?"
"Yeah, fine. Listen, Hitomi, what's going o—"
"I've got to get to Particle Physics. See you after club meetings." She ruffled his hair, left the bench, and hurried inside.
Three hours later, David stuffed his soccer cleats in his gym bag. He didn't bother to shower or change out of his shorts and t-shirt before sprinting to the art club's studio.
He peeked inside.
The wrestler from earlier—Sora?—said something to his sister, packed up drawing pencils and a sketchbook, and started toward the door.
His sister leaned over her easel and shook quietly, crying again.
The wrestler brushed past David on his way out and made it to the end of the building before David ran after him.
"Hey!" David grabbed the back of the boy's shirt. "Look here. You leave my sister alone!"
Sora faced David.
The older boy towered at least eight inches above him, but David planted his feet and refused to budge. He'd get rid of this bully for his sister. "I saw you teasing her earlier and then just now. What kind of guy picks on girls?"
"Whoa there, kid—David, right? You're Hitomi's little brother. I didn't do anything to her. She's been weird all day—well, more like all week. If somebody's bothering her, it isn't me."
"Then why were you making fun of her in the hall before first period?" David let go of Sora's shirt.
"Your sister doesn't talk about people at school much, does she? We always do that. I pick at her for all that nerdy stuff she likes, and she picks at me for my sports stuff. We're sketch buddies. She makes sure I keep up with art club work, and I do the same for her. She's my friend."
"Friends don't make fun of stuff that's important to other people," David said.
Sora looked downcast. "Oh… so you heard that. Yeah… I went too far this morning. I know your godparents live on Galmania. I just apologized to her, said I never should have called people she considers family aliens. That's when she started crying. I wasn't sure what to do, so I just left her alone to sort it out. I have no idea what's going on."
"Oh…" David said. "Sorry I… thought you were bullying her. Has she said anything about a message she got—maybe in the past few days?"
"Nope. Not a word. And if you're trying to figure out something like that, good luck. If she doesn't want to talk about it, there's no way you're gonna make her." Sora patted David's shoulder and walked away.
David turned around and walked back to the studio door.
"Ready to go?" His sister nudged him. "What were you and Sora talking about? I didn't know you knew each other."
"Uh, nothing. Just met him. Nice guy. Yeah, let's get home."
David sat in the passenger's seat going over the next couple days' homework on his comm.
His sister turned on the local news.
"Civil unrest intensifies as Earth's allies struggle for peace amidst protests and pocket rebellions across the galaxy. The Galman Empire fights to regain control of several planets wrested from them by Krischga Ka'rel, Augustus Bemlayze, and other members of the S.U.S. Several death threats have been made against Galman's emperor and his family. Thus far, we have not received a public announcement from Earth President Ferrell, the Galman Empire, the Iscandari Remnant, or our other allies as to how they propose to respond to the imminent threat posed by the S.U.S.
In other news—"
His sister turned the broadcast off., face solemn.
"Lotta stuff goin' on right now, huh?" David pretended to skim his new Calculus homework.
His sister nodded as a tear dripped off her chin and left a damp patch on her collar. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her mascara smudged, but she kept her attention on the road.
"You… doing anything later? We could hang out—watch one of those documentaries you like." David put his comm away.
No reply.
"Okay, look. I know somebody's been bothering you the past week. I heard you and Dad talking about that message last night. Just tell me who it is, and I'll make 'em quit."
"It's nothing you can help with." His sister pulled a tissue from her purse.
"It isn't if you don't tell me. I can help—really, I can. I'm not letting some thug make my sister cry. Whatever he's doing, he has to stop."
"It's not like that. It's—" She pulled into an empty parking lot and shut off the car before pulling out her comm and handing it to David.
A message filled the screen; the Galman Empire's emblem adorned the top, and beneath it… lay the emperor's seal. It was a message from their godparents—and an important one.
"Why did they send this to you?" said David. "Wouldn't they usually send official messages like this to Mom and Dad?"
"They did. They asked Dad first, and when he said yes, they sent me this."
"I can't read Galman."
"Switch the language."
Once David adjusted the comm settings, he almost dropped the device. "They want you to come all the way to Galmania? And stay there?"
"To act as their children's guardian. Our godmother offered to give me advanced hand-to-hand combat training and swordsmanship lessons."
"But you're my sister. I've never even seen you hit anybody."
Little sobs punctuated his sister's laugh. "I can hit hard when I want to. Plus, that's not the real reason they asked me to come. They want someone they can trust—someone they know will love and protect their children. Those kids are already like brothers and sisters to me. It would be like protecting you."
She hugged David tight.
"I want to go so much, but… I don't want to leave you, or anybody else I love here. I don't want to send you vid-messages instead of talking to you or wait a few days to hear about your soccer game. I want to sit down and eat lunch with you or stop Mom or Dad and talk to them about stuff without having to wonder if I'm waking them up because of the time difference. It's a long way to Galmania, David." She let him go. "A really, really long way."
David's expression turned sheepish. "And here I thought it was some guy at school bullying you."
"Thanks." She gave him a thin smile. "But I'm not a little girl you can save anymore."
"You're gonna go… aren't you?"
"I don't know."
David set the language on her comm back to Galman and returned it. "Yeah. Ya do…" His voice cracked.
His sister held another tissue to her nose. "I don't want to leave all of you behind."
"It's okay, Sis." David rubbed his eyes furiously. He couldn't cry about this. He had to be brave—for his sister. "Just think—when people ask you what you're doing after graduation and everyone else is going off to college or starting a job, you can say you're going to protect a royal family. Who else gets to say that? And the strategy team is so never gonna win again after you leave."
"You really think I should go?"
"I've seen your room." David laughed. "You kinda left for Galmania years ago. You already know the language, the culture. Look at what you're wearing right now. And remember that getup you wore to the last spring formal? I thought you were crazy to leave the house in something that bright."
His sister snorted. "I think Dad did too, but he didn't say anything."
"Guess you won't get to see me trussed up in that suit Mom's gonna make me wear next term."
"Yeah, I will, because Dad will definitely send me pictures." She socked his arm. "You are my little brother. It's my job to make fun of you sometimes."
"Just… call often. Okay?" His vision blurred, and he swiped his eyes again. He would not cry. "I really wish all this was because of a kid at school though…"
His sister mussed his hair. "I love you, little brother. Thanks for trying to rescue me."
Author's Note: Written for the Writer’s Anonymous Break the Cliché challenge on fanfiction.net.
Inspired in part by the Ron & Shelly Hamilton song, “Keep Following the Savior.”