**Note: this story takes place aboard Nexus during the initial period after the students arrived onboard for the first time (i.e. it takes place before the first chapter of DSCS). Happy Holidays, everyone, and I hope you enjoy this.**

Winter festival was always rough for Victor. Back on Aurora, when he was young, it had usually meant his mother, brother and he sitting around a holiday terrace fire and exchanging gifts and stories. His father would be off doing work of one sort or another, using the time that his political opponents were resting easy to gain an advantage. As the years passed, his brother grew distant also, eventually mysteriously disappearing altogether. Strangely it was something that he and his father never talked about, when they talked at all. The only subject that was more taboo was Victor's mother, but he quickly pushed the thought out of his mind.

"Okay, thanks Mom," Victor heard Alex say from inside of an ansible booth. Normally the booths were completely sound proof, but on occasions when ansible traffic was heavy, usually homeworld festivals and holidays, people tended to leave the ansible doors open. "A few. Hey Vance, come say hello to my mother." Alex called to him as he stood awkwardly waiting for his friend to finish. It wasn't as if he intended to make any calls himself.

"Victor," he corrected as he obediently entered the booth. The woman on the other end was a motherly woman with Alex's trademark red hair.

"Right, right, buddy. Almost forgot. See, mom? This is Victor. I do have friends. I'm not just saying that so you don't worry."

Alex's mother looked at him appraisingly and smiled. "Oh, how nice. It's nice to meet you, Victor. Hopefully you'll help my boy stay out of trouble."

Victor smiled weakly. "I'll try," he said.

When they left the booth, Victor felt his spirits lift. It would have made more sense if the people with family's were the ones looking sullen and down, but it was quite the opposite. There was a strange electricity in the air. All around him people were still buzzing from being far away from all interfering parents and authority figures for the first time. They had only been on the station a few weeks, but Nexus itself had struck a nearly perfect balance between guiding them along a regimented schedule and letting them do what they pleased.

"Va - I mean, Vic, let's head down to the mess hall, man. Holiday portions are double!"

"Sounds good," Victor said. He was looking forward to his favorite: invitro beef and kale fries.

In the main hall the screen overlay on the walls was of a winter landscape on Fos, known for it's beautiful, snowy winters. Nexus had also dropped the temperature slightly to make sweaters comfortable and help the illusion. Suddenly Victor noticed a bespectacled boy running through the halls, grabbing people arms and speaking frantically. He finally came on Victor and Alex, grabbing Alex's arm.

"Have you seen him?" The boy asked. His hair was tangled and long, down to his shoulders and almost always covering at least one eye. He didn't seem to notice as bewildered eyes, filled with horror, dashed from Alex to Victor and back.

"Seen who?" Alex asked, leaning away even as the boy gripped his arm tight.

"Jason! Jason, of course!" The boy screamed. Alex and Victor looked at one another.

"I'm sorry. Never heard of him," Alex said. The boy looked desperately to Victor, but Victor could only shake his head. He didn't know that many people on board and wasn't especially popular. If he wasn't careful, his Social Score would get him sent to what people were already calling the box. A kid had gone to the box on the first day, and at least one had gone every week since. Victor had wondered, upon seeing the dorms, why everything had been packed so tight, but now he had a theory. The people who built Nexus and the people who had sent the students had had no intention of all of them staying.

The boy whimpered desperately upon hearing that the pair knew nothing of his friend.

"Oh, god. Oh, god. He got him, I just know it."

"Alright, buddy. Listen, I've got some cheesy sticks that are calling my name so...."

"Who?" Victor asked. There was something earnest in the boy's eyes. Whether the threat was real or not, it might be worth hearing.

"Him," the boy whispered, looking both ways down the hall and behind him as if someone could appear out of thin air.

"Who? Papa Noel?" Alex said, with a laugh.

"No," the boy said, but as he opened his mouth to explain his lips froze. Something behind the pair had caught his eye, forcing them somehow wider even as he slowly backed away, then broke into a run.

Victor turned around in a single swift motion, and Alex slowly followed suit.

"Hey there. I see you've run into my friend," a boy said, with a charming smile. He was handsome, but something about him put Victor on edge.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Strange friends."

"Yeah, well. I take what I can get here." Alex and the boy both laughed.

"I'm Dixon," the boy said, smiling brilliantly again.

"I'm Normstrom," Alex said, following the informal convention of introductions via last name. This is Vance."

"Victor," Victor corrected, sharp eyes eyeing Dixon closely. There was something wrong here, but he couldn't find it. Was it his imagination? Maybe being alone in space was making him paranoid too. He pushed the thought out of his mind, thinking of his Social Scores.

Dixon nodded. "Well, nice to meet you both. Wanna grab those double portions?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

When they were almost at the hall, a small boy bumped into Dixon, making him grunt. The other boy fell to the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" the boy said, picking up his holo panel.

"It's okay," Dixon said, smiling easily. "What's your name, kid?"

"Bra - Bracias," the boy said timidly.

"Well, Bracias," Dixon said. "I suggest you watch where you are going from now on." For just a moment, Victor thought he was sure something dark flitted across Dixon's face. But when Alex didn't seem to notice, he let it go. Social Score, Vic. You need to get it up no matter what. One friend isn't enough. We might get out of class for the holidays, but Nexus never sleeps.

The mess hall looked like something out of a homeworld Winter Festival gathering. The hall droids glowed blue and greend instead of their usual colors as they guarded the entrance. Inside, glowing soft lights hung in the hair, projected by the Nexus system as the only light in the mess hall. It gave the room an ethereal glow, even as the lights chimed like bells. There was something about the lights chiming that felt familiar. Had Victor seen it in a dream, perhaps? When they were sitting at a table in the mess hall digging into their food, Victor kept eyeing Dixon. Finally Dixon caught him in the act, their eyes locking.

"Just say it, Victor." He said, smiling. Victor blushed, feeling foolish.

"Well... That boy in the hall, he seemed pretty afraid of you. What happened to his friend?"

Dixon laughed easily and shrugged. "I don't know. He could've gone skinny dipping outside of the airlock for all I care. Right now the only thing I'm thinking of is my grades."

Alex nodded. "Here, here," he said, dryly.

Dixon looked at Victor, who looked right back, unconvinced. With every second Victor spent in this boy's presence he became more certain that his initial assertions were correct. But really, what did it matter? Nexus surely watched every square corner of this station. That was the only reason adults had entrusted them alone out here. That, and the fact that there were no girls. Ultimately, what could Dixon really do that wouldn't get him sent to the box. If Victor did something that made him unpopular however, it wouldn't be long before he himself was put on ice. His Social Score was currently at a nearly critical level. Once again he commanded himself to let it go.

Dixon looked back at him, something Victor couldn't identify in his expression.

"You're not like us," he said simply, looking at Victor as he put a piece of meat back on his tray.

"What do you mean?" Victor asked, without a blink. Alex looked from one of them to the other, confused at the sudden tension.

"I mean that you're from D class, aren't you?" Dixon said, with something like a snarl. Dixon wasn't referring to classrooms on Nexus, but rather the socio-economic ranking and informal caste system implemented back in the homeworlds. E class was the highest class, for the richest and most elite. A class was for the poorest and most forlorn of souls.

"What if I am?" Victor said, not wanting to admit that he was, in fact, from E class, one class higher.

Dixon smiled and shook his head. "Oh, how I am glad I was sent to this station. Guess what class I'm from, Vance."

"Victor," Victor corrected him again. "Judging by your attitude, C or below."

He regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth. Victor didn't know Alex's social ranking, after all. There was no way to identify it, normally. They all wore standard issue clothes year round. Even the sweaters were a Nexus grey and white. How had Dixon known?

"Lower," Dixon said. "Much lower. Lowest, in fact. How does it make you feel to break bread with a lowly a-classer?"

Victor shrugged. "Don't care about your class."

Dixon nodded. His facade was beginning to fall. It was why, Victor suspected, he stood up. It returned in a brilliant smile. "Nice meeting you, Alex. Think I'm gonna take my meal to go. Be seeing you real soon.... Vance. Happy Winter Festival."

Dixon navigated through the warm, glowing lights as he clasped so tightly to his meal tray that his knuckles were white.

"So...that was awkward," Alex said. "What did you want for Winter Festival?" He said, moving things in a more genial direction. That was what Victor loved about Alex. Victor sighed.

"To survive the next couple of years, I guess," he said. When his father had offered him the opportunity to sign up and test for Nexus, Victor had jumped at the chance to get far away from Aurora and the ghost of his family. Now, despite the fact that he was sure Nexus was protecting them and they were all being monitored, he was wondering if it had been the right choice.

Alex looked over his shoulder in the dim and moody light, adjusting his sweater. "Good wish. I would stay away from that Dixon character."

"What about you, Alex? What do you want?"

Alex smiled, beaming. "Pssht. That should be easy for you to guess, my friend. Girls on this fucking station."

They both laughed.

"Yeah. I don't know if either of us is getting what they want," Victor said darkly, his brow furrowing.

Alex looked up into the glowing, ringing lights.

"I don't know, Vic. Maybe we've got a better shot than we think."

"Happy Winter Festival, Alex."

"Happy Winter Festival, Vic."

And they both sat, drinking their caffeinated chocolate and looking up at the lights.