The music thudded in her veins as she moved easily to the music, letting the beat control her body rather than her mind. The lights of the club were blinding her eyes, but all vision was relative. A flash of ginger hair in her field of vision every so often relaxed her, and she leaned comfortable against a tall, masculine body, moving her hips easily as she lost herself completely. Some DJ called Krewella was playing that night, and their songs were perfect for dancing. Esperanza "Zorra" Gomez was in her element, grinding against the body of a hot guy she'd managed to seek out in the first twenty minutes of being at the club. Tonight had been the perfect night to go out, and she was glad to be doing it after her most recent grounding sentence had been lifted (last week, her mother had caught Zorra and her best friend, Sophie Cullen, sneaking in through Zorra's bedroom window after being out at a bar all night). Mrs. Gomez had been pissed beyond belief, and now, Zorra and Sophie were allowed out on the condition that they went to a club instead of a bar, because according to Mrs. Gomez, "there was less alcohol there." If only she knew the truth.
The current song finished, and Zorra regrouped with Sophie, who had just finished dancing with a cute girl she'd just met. "You planning on hitting that later, or is the plan still for you to drive us home?" Zorra winked at Sophie, whose cheeks turned tomato red.
"I'm still driving," she mumbled, shaking her head. "You need to get your mind out of the gutter."
"It's only in the gutter based off the information I currently have," Zorra shot back. "And before you say anything, no, I am not sleeping with the guy I was dancing with. He's cute, but definitely not my type."
"What is your type?" Sophie glanced at her.
"Not him!" Zorra cried, laughing. "Who's the hottest person here right now?"
Sophie did a quick study of the club. "It's a tie between the sexy Indian girl at the bar and the dark-haired guy in the corner," she decided.
"Sophie! He is so not cute. He's a five, at best," Zorra declared. "Now, the Indian girl is definitely a nine."
"Agreed," Sophie nodded. "What about him?" She pointed haphazardly at a cute-ish blonde guy in the far corner.
"Seven," Zorra shrugged. "He's more cute than hot."
The girls quickly went around the bar, assigning both the guys and girls numbers. The tenants were confused at first, but they quickly caught on - those who'd received an eight or higher looked pleased. One guy who'd only gotten a five narrowed his eyes and muttered something that sounded like, "Bitch." By the time they got to a cute black girl who sat at the bar, the girls were out of breath from laughing so hard.
"Mmm, she's pretty," Sophie swooned. "I'm saying nine. That's a nine. I want it."
"Her, Sophie," Zorra reminded her friend. "She's a her, not an it."
"You never know," Sophie shot back. Zorra giggled. "Don't assume her gender."
"Oh, stop it." Zorra rolled her eyes. The girls frowned as they paused, looking around. "Well, this club is looking less like a club and more like a bar every day."
"That's because it is a bar." The black girl at the bar rolled her eyes. "How wasted are you? You girls should be heading home. You look like you're underage."
"Excuse me, I have an I.D." Sophie held up her fake I.D. to the girl.
"An I.D. that says you're from the year 2018?" The girl scoffed. "Nice try. Go home, girls."
"But it is the year 2018!" Sophie whined, stomping her foot in impatience.
"I don't know what world the two of you are from, but it's 2255," the black girl corrected her. Sophie huffed and sat on one of the barstools a few away from the girl who had spoiled her fun. Zorra joined her. "It has been for awhile now."
"I'd like a Klavnian fire tea, uh... three Budweiser classics, two Cardassian sunrises..."
"Kardashian sunrise?" Sophie repeated, frowning. "What's a Kardashian sunrise?" Zorra snorted and patted her friend's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, she's really drunk," she chuckled. "We didn't mean to cause any trouble. We were just leaving."
"But, Esperanza," Sophie complained. "I haven't even had anything to drink yet!"
"Not from this bar," Zorra snickered, "Wherever this bar is. I'll let you have a drink, but it'll have to be non-alcoholic. As for me..." Zorra glanced at the menu. "Oh, good, stuff I recognize. I'll have a tequila sunrise and a chimoya. She'll have a sweet tea, without the bourbon." Sophie pouted at her best friend and made a whining noise.
"That's a lot of drinks for one woman," a man's voice remarked as he sat on a barstool beside her. Zorra's eyebrows shot up almost to her hairline.
"And a shot of Jack, straight up," Zorra added as an afterthought.
"Make that two, shots on me," the man put in. "As well as the rest of the lady's drinks."
"You don't have to do that." Zorra chuckled.
"Seemed like you would be lost without it," he countered. "Are you really from another time?"
"It would seem that now I am, which is abrupt," she remarked. "The last thing I know, we were at a club in the year 2018. Now we're here, apparently in the year 2255."
"Do you at least want to know my name before you tell me your whole life story?" the man interrupted.
"I'm fine without it." Zorra flashed him a brilliant smile.
"You are fine without it," he agreed. "It's Jim, Jim Kirk." He sighed dramatically. "If you don't tell me your name, I'm going to have to make one up."
"It's Gomez," she answered.
"Gomez, no way!" The man, Jim, looked extremely proud of himself. "That's the name I was going to make up for you! Gomez what?"
"Just Gomez," she smiled at him.
"They don't have last names on your world?" He quipped.
"Gomez is my last name," she corrected him.
"They don't have first names on your world?" He tried again, but it didn't sound as good.
"So, you're a girl from 2018 who finds herself in the year 2255, and her first choice is to go to a bar." Jim raised an eyebrow at her, his cocky smirk never leaving his face. "I'd be interested in hearing that one's full story. How old are you, really?"
"Eighteen," she replied. She couldn't help her smile. On the other side of Zorra, Sophie was rolling her eyes as she took a sip of her sweet tea.
"So, you're heading into college. What would you study?"
"Linguistics. You have no idea what that means," she guessed.
"It means you study languages," he supplied, "Morphology, phonology, syntax. It means you've got a talented tongue."
Zorra offered him an ironic smile. "I'm impressed. For a moment there, I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals."
"Well," the smile Jim offered her next was crooked, "Not only." Zorra chuckled and rolled her eyes. Sophie gave her an excited thumbs up, but Zorra shook her head.
At that moment, a group of men walked up to the bar. "This townie isn't bothering you, is he?" Zorra frowned. She didn't know these men, so she had no idea why they wanted to defend her, but whatever they wanted to do had Jim pissed.
"Oh, beyond belief," she admitted, "But it's nothing I can't handle." In truth, she liked Jim's flirty banter - she just needed to get the hell out of here so she could figure out why she and Sophie were here.
"You could handle me, if that's an invitation," Jim grinned. The cute black girl from earlier walked over to join them.
"Hey!" The leader of the group snapped. "You better mind your manners." Sophie squealed and grabbed Zorra's arm, thrilled by the turn of events.
"Oh, relax, Cupcake, it was a joke." Jim clapped the man's cheek.
"Hey, farmboy! Maybe you can't count, but there are four of us and one of you," "Cupcake" reminded him, clearly foreshadowing a coming fight.
"Well, go get some more guys, and it'll be an even fight," Jim shrugged cheerfully.
That was when the fight broke out. Zorra gasped, backing away from it. Each guy got a few good punches in before the black girl shouted, "Stop it! Stop it, all of you! Enough!" Her friends, if that was what they were, didn't listen. "Guys, he's had enough!"
At that moment, a tall, official-looking figure entered the bar and let out a loud whistle through his teeth. "Outside, all of you!" He boomed. No one moved. "Now!" Everyone obeyed his command immediately, except for Zorra and Sophie, who stood around looking confused. The bartenders grumbled and complained to each other on their way out. Zorra and Sophie, despite having nowhere to go, prepared to leave as well, but the man grabbed Zorra by her arm. "Stay here." Zorra didn't know why, but she felt compelled to obey him. The man then glanced at Jim, who was lying across a table. "You all right, son?"
"You can whistle really loud, you know that?" He slurred.
Here it is, guys! The introduction to the reboot of my old "Star Trek" story, Sophie! Called "When You Wish Upon a Star," a few changes have been made. First and foremost is that Sophie is human in this story, and it's a Bones fanfiction instead of Spock. There's also the addition of new character Esperanza Gomez, the reincarnation of my old self-insert. Sophie and Zorra (which is Spanish for Foxy, which is Esperanza's nickname) are played by Amanda Seyfried and Emeraude Toubia, respectively. I can't wait for you all to read this story! All the best, China!