“Farkle, do you think humans will ever make it to Pluto?”
Riley has a dreamy far off look in her eyes that Maya can’t help but find endearing. Farkle, in contrast, has a serious look of contemplation on his face.
“It’s entirely possible,” he eventually concedes with a shrug. “We’ve already sent a satellite all the way out there. The next step would be to have a satellite land on Pluto and if that went well… who knows? Humans could be the next step. But I’m not sure it’ll happen in our lifetime.”
Maya wants to slap Farkle for ruining Riley’s dreams of travel to her favorite planet but she decides against it when she sees the regretful look on his face. Whether he’s regretful of having admitted it won’t be possible within their lifetime or that science can’t move faster, Maya isn’t sure, but she figures either is good enough. Maya, instead, prepares herself to comfort a heart broken Riley.
However, when she turns to face her girlfriend, Riley still only looks kind of dreamy and (for lack of a better word), spacey.
“Wow…” she murmurs, her voice full of awe. Maya realized she’s misjudged Riley’s reasoning behind her curiosity. Of course Riley wouldn’t care if she was ever able to go to Pluto. Space travel would probably terrify her. No, Riley Matthews is just happy with the knowledge that someday, someone who believes in Pluto the way she does will be able to visit it. Of course.
As Maya comes to this realization, Farkle types away on his computer. After a moment he lets out a noise of triumph. Both Maya and Riley look towards him.
“You know how I was talking about how we’ve sent a satellite out to where Pluto is? Well some guys at NASA put together this video with the images it gathered to simulate what it would be like to land on Pluto and well… just watch. It’s pretty cool.”
Maya forgets why she’d ever want to slap the Farkle. Their boy genius has pulled through once again. She watches Riley’s reaction to the video more than she watches the video itself, but she’s still impressed based on Riley’s facial expressions alone.
“I love it! Thank you for showing me this Farkle,” She exclaims, her voice breathy with excitement. Farkle just shrugs, ever modest, although the sly grin on his face shows off how secretly proud of himself he is.
“Seriously Farkle, this is great,” Maya chimes in, winking at Farkle as he brightens even more. They both know she’s mostly excited for Riley. It is pretty cool though, she has to admit. Even though she knows the satellite isn’t manned, she wonders what it would be like to take pictures in space.
Two days later Maya’s phone background is a satellite picture of Pluto. When Farkle notices he doesn’t say anything, he just winks back.