They went to dinner together, and the table that had once been called the losers' table was crowded now, filled with Jason's friends from the Technology wing and several cadets from the piloting classes, all of whom greeted Ning with interest when he sat down.
Naysha arrived halfway through the meal.
She stopped beside the table when she saw him, and for a moment, she simply looked at him.
She had changed too. She was sharper, more focused, and more self-assured in a way that went deeper than the calm composure she had always worn. She carried herself like someone who knew exactly what she was capable of and had no need to prove it to anyone.
Her red hair was still cut short to fit beneath her helmet, but her face looked older than Ning remembered, as though the year had taken something soft from it and replaced it with something harder.
Everyone was a year older now. But Naysha looked as though she had grown far more than a single year.
She sat down across from him.
