the journal of literature and the arts at saint david ’ s school
shorter than me . He had black hair and brown eyes . One time in fourth grade , I sank to the bottom of the pool after losing consciousness from spending too long underwater . We had been having a competition to see who could hold our breath the longest , and I couldn ’ t afford to lose . I had always been able to hold my breath for longer than him anyway , so I figured I would eventually win . Ben risked his life to swim down and bring me to the surface . When I thanked him , he looked at me and said , “ You ’ d do the same for me .”
All of a sudden , I heard the captain through the speakers in the back of the room , breaking me out of my trance . “ Attention passengers ,” he announced hesitantly . “ We will be making an emergency landing on the Mars base called ‘ Athena Station ’ tomorrow , because we have miscalculated the amount of fuel needed to get to our destination . I know that some of you have concerns about that station being attacked and captured by France , but I can assure you that we ’ re about 50 % sure it is safe . We ’ ll stay there for a day or two until a Mars rover comes and picks us up . I ’ ve already sent a distress signal to the other outposts .”
“ Wait a minute , we ’ re landing at Athena Station ? I saw an article in the news about how that base was attacked by the French . Apparently , we haven ’ t heard back from the inhabitants in seven months !” exclaimed Ben . “ Yeah , this isn ’ t a good situation .” I replied . “ I ’ m sure it ’ ll be fine ,” he responded . “ After all , the captain said he was about 50 % sure that it was safe .” “ I ’ m just going to go to sleep ,” I said . “ We ’ ll see what happens tomorrow .” The next morning when I woke up , I could feel the impact of the ship making contact with the landing pad . I was feeling pretty excited to get
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