The loud alarm on Nicolas's phone jolted him awake from a weird dream about his dad - the one who was never around. He was dreaming that his mom showed him a picture of the man he never met. When he opened his eyes, he saw the faded poster of the solar system on his ceiling, thinking about how he wanted to explore space someday. He hoped there was a place out there, among the stars, with the answers about his past. The phone alarm, which looked like a space signal, brought him back to reality. He checked the time:

"Shit! Going late to bed messes with my life every day."

He took a fast shower and brushed his teeth. He put on any clothes, regardless if they matched or not, and ran as fast as a bullet through the kitchen, for no more than a glass of milk and two bites of a sandwich fixed by his mom. After sending her a kiss, the boy fled out of the kitchen, as it was typical of him, to catch the bus on time to get to college.

"Hey, dear, hold on! I need to talk to you!" His mother said, but he couldn't talk to her right then, not if he wanted to take the next bus. At night, if he didn't forget, he would ask her what it had been about.

Going to college, and amid the racket made by all the people around, the boy thought it would be a boring Monday, with its usual classes. He didn't think anything would happen. Nicholas had no idea how his life would change from that day on, though...

Paying no attention to the noise around, he started to read a book on celestial bodies and supernovae. With a passion for stars, Physics and Astronomy, he had quite romantic ideas about the sky, thinking of it as a place of endless stories and possibilities.

He was a daydreamer too, like many others around, and wanted to become a well-known physicist and solve the secrets of the Universe. Would he maybe find out how to travel in time through space folds and find his father in the past?

While watching the night skies, it seemed to him as if the stars called for him, making him shiver sometimes, as if he was touched by all those celestial bodies, or as if his own body wanted to travel and talk to the stars. He liked it, no doubt. That was the reason why he studied hard and managed to go to the University of California, in Los Angeles, the city where he lived.

But the boy also felt a great emptiness in his heart because, since when he was a child, he saw his friends walking with their fathers, the figure he hadn't had in his life. Her mother played the two roles since her husband had disappeared before the child was born, leaving behind an unusual bracelet that Lorena gave her son.

Nicholas got off the bus and into college. The campus was crowded with students and teachers moving all over the place in order to get to the classrooms. As soon as he arrived in the building, he ran into his friend Sanches, a boy born in Mexico, naturalized American.

"Hi, Nick. What's up, hombre? Today we're starting a new subject, that one we enrolled in at the beginning of the term, remember?"

"Yeah, sure. It took so long to start. I thought it had been canceled. I'm looking forward to it though. People say Cosmology will introduce us to the depths of Universe."

Suddenly, Sanches sneezed. He took some vitamins from his backpack and gulped them down with a sip of water.

"I've got the flu again."

"You need to take care of yourself, friend."

"How about you? I've never seen you sick, not even with a flu."

"I don't remember getting sick either. I find this strange."

The friend started to observe the students passing through the place and changed the subject.

"Hermano, how many beautiful chicas! This time, you're going to get yourself a girlfriend."

"I hope so. You know how hard it is to get a word out of my mouth at the right time."

"I'll help you."

"If you're my teacher, I believe that nothing will change."

They both smiled and Sanches curious looked at Nicholas' wrist.

"Why don't you ever take this bracelet off?"

"My mother gave it to me. She said it belonged to my father I never knew.

"It's very cool!"

Nicholas rubbed it in a gesture he used to repeat and it seemed to glow. The young man looked out the window and, in awe, caught his friend's attention by poking him.

"Cool is that object in the sky." He pointed his index finger. "Is that a meteor?"

Sanches promptly looked for something outside.

"But I don't see anything."

"For a moment I thought I saw a meteorite ripping through the sky."

"You're already getting into the mood for the class. I think it's even exaggerated..."

The young man looked out the window once more and there was nothing there. He found that strange, but turned his attention to the student's movement.

The new subject was the topic of the day. It was the very desired subject that had taken so long to come up, because there was no appropriate teacher to teach it. His university would be one of the few in the US to make Cosmology available to study, which is why they were all excited to attend the lecture.

Then, the first three fifty-minute classes came to an end, and the students were excited to meet the new teacher. Few left the classroom, but many got in to attend the new program, leaving it full of curious faces.

Dr. Finken, the chief coordinator of the Physics Department, stepped in to talk to the excited students:

"From now on, Cosmology will be offered to those who enrolled in it at the beginning of the term. We apologize for the delay but, after Mr. Franklin's resignation, we had some problems to fill in the gap left by him, and that's why the classes hadn't started before. By good luck, after an intense search, we found a highly qualified professional to teach you. He studies the outer space as well as some big secrets now known by men. Please, class, I'd like to introduce Professor Glein, PhD in Cosmology."

Mr. Finken reached for the door and opened it.

"Please, come in, Dr. Glein", he spoke.

Professor Glein got in and, along with Dr. Finken, waited for the applauses that never came because, in silence, the hole class had moved their eyes past the two men and stared at the most gorgeous girl they had ever seen. Standing at the door, the girl was a newcomer whose incredible beauty had made all faces turn to her.

As soon as she came in the classroom no longer existed for Nicholas. With eyes wide open, all he saw was that the girl had thick red shoulder-length hair, white porcelain skin, blue eyes and full lips, everything in such a perfect female body, as if it had been painted by a master from the Renaissance.

"Wow, hombre! Lessons will be a lot more exciting with a girl as beautiful as that", Sanches said next to him, his mouth gaping.

"I'll say! She's gorgeous!"

Aware of the stir the girl caused in the class, Dr. Finken introduced her to the students.

"This is the new student who came from the East Coast. I'd like you to meet Zara."

Excited, all the boys stood up and started clapping in a friendly welcome the new member of the group.

Embarrassed, Professor Glein cleared his throat to stop the agitation and start the lesson.

"Now I'll leave you alone with the class, Dr. Glein. I hope they enjoy Cosmology", Dr. Finken spoke.

Zara looked at the students and smiled a thank-you. She stared at Nicholas in the eyes, as if solving the secrets of his soul, and then went to the last seat available in the classroom: the one just beside him. He blushed when she approached him.

"Thank you, Dr. Finken, I can handle it now. And I'm sure they will enjoy it a lot, for knowing the Universe is pretty wonderful indeed", Dr. Glein said along with a good-bye to Dr. Finken.

He then introduced himself to the students, and started to explain what his subject was about.

"As the noble Dr. Finken said, I have a degree in Physics and a PhD in Cosmology. For a starter, I'll give you a brief introduction on the knowledge about the outer space."

While the teacher spoke, Nicholas saw Zara staring at him.

"Nice to meet you, Nicholas", she said. "So, you're the guy who gets an 'A' in every college subject."

"H-hi. My p-pleasure", the boy answered, stammering and blushing, not knowing where to look. "But how do you know about my grades?"

"I think everyone here knows. You shouldn't focus on space to fulfill your dreams", Zara whispered. "Sometimes the things we wish for can be right before us."

Nick was speechless and so involved in his own shyness that he couldn't get the meaning of the words Zara had spoken.

"Gee, the most gorgeous girl in campus is talking to me! I can't believe that", he thought, skeptical.

During the whole lecture, Zara didn't stop staring at the young man by her side, and he felt something new and unusual every time their eyes met. His heart raced, producing beats he had never felt before, and he wondered where such a nice and mysterious girl like her could have come from to be able to make him feel as such a fool.

"It can't be true. She's not looking at me. It's just my imagination. A girl such as her would never have a crush for a guy like me."

His thoughts were interrupted by someone poking him.

"Hombre, that chica doesn't take her eyes off of you. Go over there and talk to her after class", Sanches told him while laughing.

"I wouldn't dare to, dude. My legs are trembling", he whispered back.

Sanches took his hand to his mouth to prevent stronger laughing and said:

"Take a deep breath and go talk to her after class. Don't be a coward, hombre!"

The bell rang announcing the end of the lesson. Everyone was leaving the classroom, when Nicholas took a deep breath and filled his lungs with air in order to be brave enough to come near Zara and start a conversation, but the poor boy didn't see the step near the teacher's table and stumbled, falling over some students and making a lot of noise. He felt embarrassed.

"It had to be the Moon Boy!" Adam teased, breaking into a laugh when Nick bumped into him.

Nicholas ignored the comment, got up and went to the hallway, feeling ashamed. He looked around, but Zara had already left. He had lost the opportunity.

The young man got home, took his shoes off and let himself fall into bed, thinking about Zara. He spent some time thinking about everything that had happened in the classroom, and how much that girl had stirred him up. There was something about her that went beyond beauty, and that had touched his soul in spite of his inability to identify what it was really about. Nicholas liked it though. He felt as if he had already met her somewhere else. After resting a while, he decided to catch up on college subjects.

His little sister Sophie entered his bedroom still wearing her school uniform and jumped on him, giving him a tight hug. For a moment she stared at the book called Cosmos on the bed.

"Hi, brother. How was your class? Everything all right?"

"It was cool! I met some new people, and something different came up too", he answered, flashing a smile.

"Cool. Hope you had fun. Tell me everything later, ok? Mom's calling you for dinner."

"And how about you? How are you doing at school?" Nicholas asked on their way out of the bedroom.

"The classes are pretty cool. There are some annoying girls that pick on me sometimes, but I don't care about them. There are also Louise, Katherine, Jim and other nice guys. We all have a lot of fun at break time."

After catching up on each other's news, the two of them went to the kitchen for dinner.

"My son, how are you doing? I tried to say good-morning to you earlier, to say hello, and when it hit me... Where were you? Out there on the bus! Is it necessary to be always in such a hurry, Nicholas? Why don't you try to get up earlier? To live in such a rush won't do you any good. And we've barely even talked lately... Why don't you get up earlier? That way we could find some time to have a bit of conversation in the mornings. I've been so lonely since Sophia's dad left us."

That was Lorena, Nick's mother. Once she started talking, she was like a chatterbox.

"Everything's okay, Mom. Don't worry. I promise I'll try to go to bed earlier, and get up earlier too. And you're right, we just have time to talk at night, indeed. Besides, I also want to kiss Sophia good-morning, no matter if she's asleep or not. But the thing is that sometimes I start reading my books, and lose track of time."

"My boy... Always fond of the stars..."

A broad smile spread over Sophia's face, showing some small gaps among her teeth. She was eight now and she had been her mother's closest companion. Sophia loved her brother very much.

"That's why he loves me! Because of my missing teeth! My little teeth are like falling stars, and I know other stars will come soon to replace them. Isn't that true, brother?" Sophia said, making all of them burst into laughter.

"Yeah, sweetheart, you are my brightest little star." He took her in his arms in a tight hug.

"I love you, brother."

Lorena smiled when she saw her children having fun together. After a while, she told Sophia:

"Honey, now you should go up the stairs to do your homework."

"I'm going right now, Mom."

Sophia kissed her brother and hugged her mom. Then she went to her bedroom upstairs.

After a while, the young man went to his bedroom too, still thinking of the red hair of that girl who had come out of nowhere into his life.

As usual, he looked out the window and watched the starry sky until his eyelids started to close; Zara still lingered in his mind. The young boy didn't even realize there was a new star pulsing on the endless sky, bigger than all the others.

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Read #ThePhantomMan Duology by #ChaieneSantos chaienesantoswriter