“Don’t see why,” Malcolm Reynolds said, brushing his hair and trying to press the cowlick at his crown into place. Never would stay, not unless his hair was longer’n his Ma would accept. Fourteen years old, nearly fifteen, and he still wasn’t allowed to decide how he should look without his Ma getting involved.

“Because it’s the law, Malcolm.” His mother moved in from the doorway, turning her son around so she could inspect him. “Everyone gets tested.” She smoothed out his collar.

“Still don’t see why. Ain’t planning on getting any more education, Ma. Know exactly what I’m gonna do with my life,” he added stubbornly.

She sighed. He was growing up, almost a man. In the last year he’d shot up and was taller than her now, and his voice wasn’t a boy’s no more. “What about your dreams about going out into the ‘verse?” she asked. “When you used to talk about seeing the stars …”

He shook his head. “That’s all they were, Ma. Dreams. Dreams of a kid, and I ain’t a kid no more.”

“Malcolm, just don’t try to grow up too fast.”

She was the only one ever called him Malcolm . Everyone else just called him Mal.

“I ain’t trying, Ma. I’m kinda doing that without any thought from me.” He looked down at her from his extra few inches, and wondered when she’d stop worrying about him. Prob’ly never. “’Sides, I can see the stars well enough from here.“ He smiled and bent forward, kissing her cheek. “Gotta go. Maddy’s waiting for me.”

He hurried down the stairs to the front door, feeling his mother at his heels. “You be careful with her,” his Ma said. “You know she only wants one thing.”

He was glad he had his back to her, because the blush that rose up his chest might have stopped at his neck, but she would have known. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Ma,” he said, his mind skittering to that night last week, when they’d been down by the creek, and Maddy had let him touch her, just a little. He’d never … he took a deep breath. Then what she’d done to him …

“You know