“You’re supposed to salute back and say, ‘Cadet Baumgarten reporting for duty,’” Mr. Fuyijama whispered.
“But I’m not—” I said. “Admiral, I didn’t apply for the Academy—” and everybody must have thought I was saying, “Cadet Baumgarten reporting for duty,” because they started to applaud again. The admiral shook my hand and gave me an envelope.
“There’s been a mistake. This isn’t my—” I said, but Mr. Fuyijama was shaking my hand again and a swarm of students took the opportunity to close in around the admiral and begin bombarding him with questions.
“Mr. Fuyijama, I have to talk to you,” I said. “This is all a mistake—”
“It certainly is,” Coriander said, storming up. “Theodora can’t have gotten an appointment. She didn’t even take deep-field astronomy.”
Mr. Fuyijama was looking at her like she was a bug, which would have been enjoyable if I hadn’t been in so much trouble. “The Academy chooses for all sorts of skills,” he said.
“But she can’t have gotten the appointment over me,” Coriander said. “She’s not cadet material.”
Mr. Fuyijama ignored her. “I’ve messaged your parents,” he said. “They should be here any minute.”
“Help,” I messaged Kimkim, who I still couldn’t see anywhere, and tried again with Mr. Fuyijama. “My appointment is a mistake. They mixed up the names or something.”
“Don’t let Coriander upset you,” he said. “She was a fine candidate, but so are you, so are all of Winfrey High’s students. We have one of the most outstanding schools in the country, and—”
It was hopeless. I tuned him out and looked around for the admiral. I couldn’t see him anywhere. “Where did the admiral go?”
“He had to leave,” Mr. Fuyijama said. “He has several more appointments to announce this afternoon.”
“But I have to talk to him—” Oh, thank goodness, here was Kimkim. “Where have you been?” I said, pulling her off to the side of the stage. “You have to help me. Nobody will listen when I tell them there’s been a mixup.”
“Mixup?” she said.
“Yes, of course it’s a mixup. I can’t have been chosen. I didn’t even apply to the Academy.”
“You didn’t?” she said happily, and flung her arms around me. “Oh, I’m so glad! I thought you’d applied without telling me, your best friend, and I was so hurt—”
“Why would I apply? I’ve told you a hundred times I don’t want to go into space. I want to go to UCLA.”
She looked sheepish. “I know, but I thought you were just saying that because you were afraid you couldn’t get in. But how could there be a mixup?”
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s somebody else with the same name.”
“Two Theodora Baumgartens? Unlikely.”
“Well, maybe there’s a Theodore Baumgarten. Or a Theodora Bauman. Come on, maybe we can catch the admiral before he leaves,” I said, and we headed backstage.
“Wait, Theodora!” Mr. Fuyijama said before we’d gone two steps. “Your mother’s here.”
“I’ll go see if I can catch him,” Kimkim said, and darted off as Mr. Fuyijama and my mom closed in on me. “I’m so proud of you!” she said. “I knew we made the right decision in sending you to school. You didn’t want to come, remember? And now look at you, a cadet!” She and Mr. Fuyijama beamed at each other. “I still can’t believe it!”
“Where’s Dad?” I said. He knew I didn’t want to be a cadet. He’d see this was all a ghastly mistake.
“Cheyenne,” Mom said. “As soon as I heard, I left a message for him to come to the school. Why didn’t you tell us you’d applied?”
“Because—”
Mr. Fuyijama patted me on the shoulder. “Shouldn’t you be getting home, young lady, and getting ready to go?”
For your information, I am not going anywhere, I thought.
“What am I saying?” Mr. Fuyijama went on, smiling coyly. “You’ve probably had your kit all packed and ready to go for months.”
“Mr. Fuyijama’s right,” my mom said. “We need to get you home. You only have a few hours.”
“A few—?”
“I’ll call your father,” Mom said, steering me toward the door and away from Kimkim. “He can meet us there.”
“Mom, what do you mean, a few hours?” I said, but she was talking to Dad.
“Bob? Where are you? Oh, dear. Well, turn around and go back home. We’re on our way.”
Kimkim appeared, shaking her head. “The admiral’d already left.”
“What does my mom mean, I only have a few hours?” I asked her.
“Didn’t you listen to anything the recruiter said when she was here? Cadets go straight to the Academy after they’re appointed,” Kimkim said, grabbing the letter the admiral had given me and opening it. “It says they’ll pick you up in exactly—oh, gosh, two hours and forty minutes.”
“Let me talk to Dad,” I said to Mom, who was still on the phone. Dad knew I didn’t want to go into space. We’d talked about it after the recruiter came. “Hand me the phone.”
Mom shook her head. “I’m talking to Grandma. You can talk to your dad when we get home. Yes, isn’t it marvelous?” she said, presumably to Grandma, and then, presumably to me, “Get in the car. Yes, of course she’ll want you to come over and say good-bye. Come on, we need to go. Good-bye, Kimkim.”
“Kimkim’s coming with me,” I said, grabbing her arm and pushing her into the car. “She’s going to help me pack.”
Mom nodded absently, still talking to Grandma. She switched on the car and pulled away from the school. “Would you call Bob’s parents for me? And Theodora’s piano teacher? I’m sure she’ll want to see her before she leaves.”
“You’ve got to find out the admiral’s phone number for me,” I messaged Kimkim so Mom couldn’t hear what we were saying, “so I can call him and explain—”
“I’ll try,” she messaged back. “Academy numbers are all classified.”
“Do you think I should phone Aunt Jen and Aunt Lucy?” my mom called back to me.
“No,” I said, and Kimkim put in helpfully, “She doesn’t have much time, and she’s got to pack, Mrs. Baumgarten.”
“I suppose you’re right. You should have done that beforehand, like Coriander Abrams. Her mother said she packed her kit the same day she filled out her application. Oh, look,” she said, pulling into the driveway, “Aunt Jen and Lucy are already here.”
They were, along with Grandma, Grandpa, Grandma and Grandpa Baumgarten, and about a hundred neighbors, all holding up a big laserspark banner twinkling Congratulations, Cadet Baumgarten!
The online news crews were all there, too, holding mikes, and it took me half an hour to get into the house and another fifteen minutes to escape to my room, where Kimkim was working away at my computer. “Here,” she said, handing me a printout.
“What is it?” I said eagerly. “The admiral’s phone number?”
“No, it’s the list of what you’re allowed to take. Fifteen-pound weight limit. No pets, no plants, no weapons.”
“Because they know at this point I’d like to shoot them. I don’t need lists,” I said, throwing it in the wastebasket and going over to stand beside her. “I need the admiral’s phone number.”
“I can’t get to it,” Kimkim said. “I’ve been trying to hack into the Academy officer roster for the last half hour. It’s got firewalls, moats, ramparts, the works. I’m not surprised. With fifty thousand candidates, they’d be inundated with students trying to find out the officers’ numbers so they could call them and beg them to be let in, but it means I can’t get in either.”