3Steps2Metal

 Spensa’s best friend, and one of the few people in school she gets along with. Quiet,
tall and kind of “lurchy,” he’s always been good with his hands. They’ve dreamed together of joining the
DDF since they were children, and he’s like a brother to her. (They’ve been friends since she beat the tar
out of someone who was bullying him.)
Rodge is one of the few people who won’t put up with Spensa’s crap, particularly when she
starts bragging--or starts getting herself into something stupid. Unlike her, he takes school very seriously,
and aces his tests to join the DDF. He wasn’t going to get chosen, but they can’t deny him when he gets
a perfect score--so they let him in. However, after the flight’s second encounter with the Krell, he admits
to himself that he just can’t handle the pressure and--against Spensa’s wishes--drops out, determined to
just go work the manufactory with his brothers.
Spensa, however, ropes him into her scheme of repairing the ship she discovers--and he ends up
being the primary mechanic who tries to get the thing up and running again.