Like a lot of other writers, I get requests for stories. I will gladly accept any but there are absolutely no guarantees I'll follow through. If the idea intrigues me, I'll see what I can do. I have 2 other requests I want to work on but need the right inspiration to get the story going. This one came through, from a fellow FanFic member who wishes to remain anonymous. After a day or two, I realized I could use a story fragment I wrote months ago and formed the rest around this fragment. Hope this meets with your approval, anonymous.
The Goth And The Geek
by
John O'Connor
"...and the original Batman did kill. He had machine guns on the Batplane to shoot down Professor Strange's giants." Tori Vega's glasses flashed as she glanced up, looking smug as she made her point.
"Batman does not kill!" Sinjin Van Cleef insisted.
"No, not now. But back in 1939 - this was before Robin was introduced - he did," Tori insisted.
"Tori's right, Sinjin. I can show you the DC Archives editions for Batman and Detective Comics," Robbie Shapiro added.
Tori leaned against her locker, looking smug. "And did you know that Captain Marvel used a machine gun to get the bad guys in the old Republic serial? And Captain America wasn't above causing the deaths of lots of Nazis, especially in the Golden Age."
"Yep! The anti-hero was around a long time," Robbie acknowledged.
Tori added, "Look at the old Conan storied by Robert E. Howard. Conan sliced and diced his way through the Hyborean Age. And the Shadow had twin .45s he wasn't afraid to use."
"What about Doc Savage? His team used guns that fired mercy bullets that knocked out the villains. And he rehabbed them at a hospital he had along the Hudson Valley," Sinjin countered.
"Well, well, well. What's the Geek Squad discussing today? Can the Hulk kill Godzilla? Which Enterprise captain was better? Or which Batman was better?" Jade West sneered as she crossed the central hall of Hollywood Arts towards Tori and her friends.
"Ha! That's easy," Sinjin said. "The best Batman was Christian Bale in the Dark Knight trilogy."
"No, it was the animated series. After all, Kevin Conroy played Batman and Bruce Wayne longer than anyone else," Robbie rebutted.
"Jade, I know you don't care what we like or what we do. So why don't you just go terrorize freshmen?" Tori stared directly into Jade's eyes, her simmering anger burning behind that gaze.
"Fine. It's always fun to scare the little kids," Jade said as she headed towards three unsuspecting freshman near the soda machines. "Later losers!"
The Asphalt Cafe was buzzing with conversation as students went to and fro from Festus' lunch truck or the nearby JetBrew which featured pre-made sandwiches, salads and soups. The gang was sitting at their usual table at lunch.
Oddly, as much as Jade derided Tori and Robbie about being geeks, they were part of the group - partly because Cat and Tori were close friends and Andre had become friends with Robbie way back in second grade. Poor Sinjin, however, was just a little too out-there for the others to handle.
"Any of you guys watch Person Of Interest?" Robbie asked, out of the blue. He was already hunching into himself in case of the derision he expected to receive from Jade.
"I love that show! It's the best thing on any network!" Jade declared, surprising Robbie.
Beck agreed. "That show is engrossing."
"Yeah, and that detective? Carter? She's hot!" Andre added, drawing laughs from the group.
Except Cat. "What person is interesting and hot?"
Tori smiled at her child-like friend. "No, it's a TV show. About a man who helps people."
"Cat, go get some candy," Jade offered, holding out some singles to her friend.
"Candy?! YAY!" And the redhead hurried off towards the entrance to the school.
Tori stared at Jade, "You know what candy does to her!"
"So?"
"So, you get to corral her when she goes ballistic on sugar."
Jade shrugged, "Meh!"
Robbie, feeling bolstered by his friends' agreement on the show, brought it up again, "You ever notice how it's like Batman. See, Reese is Batman. His suit is his costume. He's a master of self-defense and weapons…"
"Batman doesn't use guns," Andre retorted.
"No, but he knows about them. And swords, knives, archery, explosives… All sorts of stuff like that." Robbie decided to add, "And Reese usually shots to wound."
Beck cut in, "Actually, way back when Finger and Kane created him, Batman had machine guns mounted on the Batplane…"
"I was just telling Robbie and Sinjin that this morning," Tori said, excitedly.
"Yeah?" Andre asked.
"Yep. Then the DC people decided to make him less violent."
"Like Superman?" Robbie asked.
"Superman killed Zod," Jade stated, referring to the latest Superman movie.
"Yeah, and in John Byrne's last issues, Superman killed several Phantom Zone villains in a pocket universe to keep them from following him and destroying his Earth," Beck said.
Jade stared at Beck, "Since when did you become a comic Wiki?"
"Remember when you 'found out my secret'?"
"That you're Canadian?"
"Yeah, well that's not a secret."
"But comics are?"
"Only to you. You never seemed too interested when I brought up the subject so we didn't talk about it."
"Y'know, when we saw the Dark Knight movies, you could've mentioned it then," Jade argued.
"We were kinda busy after the first two. And arguing after the third."
Beck turned to Robbie, "You're right. Reese is like the Bat without the costume. Finch is his Alfred, Bruce Wayne and Oracle, all in one. The detectives are like the Gotham PD – Carter is sort of Gordon and Fusco is almost a dead ringer for Bullock when he was still a cop in the comics."
Tori nodded, "Yeah, I can see that. But Barbara Gordon is a lot hotter as Oracle."
No one batted an eye. Tori had never made a secret of her preference for girls - sexually at least.
Robbie added, "That new girl…"
"Sarah Shahi?" Jade confirmed.
"Yeah, she could be like his Batgirl."
"More like the Huntress," Beck said.
"Does she wear leather?" Jade asked, winking flirtatiously at Tori who glanced away, her face reddening.
"Yeah, she is the Huntress!" Robbie exclaimed.
"And you are all geeks," Rex said.
Ignoring Res, Beck nodded his agreement with Robbie. "No argument there. And, on the show he even has his own version of a rogues gallery – the CIA, the FBI, his old black ops partner Kara, HR in the NYPD, Elias, and, of course, Root."
Robbie added, "And his allies… Zoe Morgan is like Catwoman, in a way. And Bear is like Ace, the Bathound from Batman Beyond."
"Actually, Ace was from the '50s. During the heyday of the goofier Batman stories," Tori stated. "The ones that influenced the old Adam West series."
"Well Ace was in Batman Beyond too," Robbie added.
"Man, this chiz is deep. I never saw all that," Andre said.
"And...Nolan, the producer and creator of Person Of Interest, worked on the Dark Knight movies with his brother," Beck offered.
"So how do you know so much about Batman and the comics?" Tori asked, surprised by this new side to her Canadian friend.
"I used to collect them. And I inherited my uncle's collection when he was killed in that accident last year. He had stuff going back to the '60s. Dad would let me read some when I was little but under...um...controlled conditions."
"Controlled conditions?" Tori asked.
"Dad has a cousin here in the States who had a lot of Golden and Silver Age comics. He was in the Navy on a nuke sub. When he was out on patrol, his little nephew got into his collection and used crayons on a lot of the comics."
"Ouch!" Andre said. "Did the kid live?"
"Yeah," Jade added, interested in the conversation again. "Did he? Cause I know what would happen if..."
"He lived. His mother kept his Uncle Ted at bay." Beck shook his head, "But, man, all those comics destroyed, essentially."
"Oh God, I wish I could see them. Even with crayons, those were the classics," Tori lamented.
"How 'bout you, Tori? How'd you learn so much?" Andre asked.
"Dad kept a lot of his old comics from when he was a kid. A lot of the old Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman comics, the really great Steve Englehart Doctor Strange and Detective Comics run he did with Marshall Rogers. The New X-men from the giant size issue through the late '80s comics. Even the first appearances of Wolverine in The Incredible Hulk. All four The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke and the entire Crisis on Infinite Earths stories - the mini-series and the companion and crossover books. And tons of others. He got some Alan Moore stuff signed by him at the San Diego Comicon in the '80s like Swamp Thing, The Watchmen and some old British comics he stared with."
"Holy Chiz! Tori, if those are in even good condition..." Beck paused. "I mean, Denny O'Neil was the Batman writer. Neal Adams was the greatest artist of that period. The Night Of The Reaper was so good..."
"Oh yeah… Did you ever see The Night of the Stalker in one of the giant-sized Detective issues?" Tori asked. "Not a single line of dialogue in the entire story and it was so effective because of that."
Jade stood up, "Okay, another geek love-fest. I've love to stay and watch you all salivate over someone's 'Transformers' lunchbox but I need caffeine. And even if I didn't, I'd rather watch my toe nails grow..."
"HI! I GOT CANDY!" Cat yelled as she ran up, licorice whips in one hand and a bag of jelly beans in the other.
"Cat! Where did you get licorice?" Jade demanded.
"At the candy store that opened in the old Rexall on the corner. I got a lot of candy there. Thanks Jade!" The faux redhead was jumping up and down now.
Tori smiled broadly, "Jade?"
The Goth humphed and grabbed Cat's arm, "Fine!"
Jade had a secret. One she never shared with anyone outside her immediate family. Even Beck didn't know this side of her. While she couldn't give a rat's ass about comics, she did like science fiction. And not just the gory stuff like The Thing, Alien or Predator. She really loved Star Trek - all the versions. Her favorite was Deep Space Nine.
She also was a huge fan of Doctor Who and had seen all the episodes she could from the original series to the revived series currently running on BBC America.
Any Japanese monster movie - from the original Japanese version of Gojira to the later Godzilla movies, including Rodon, Mothra and King Ghidorah were all amusing to Jade. Even lesser known movies in America like the Majin trilogy were part of her DVD collection.
That collection includes just about anything by Joss Whedon, Babylon Five, The X Files (she especially prefered the early Vancouver-based seasons), all the Stargates, any Gerry Anderson production from the Super-Marionation Fireball XL-5 to the live-action Space: 1999, Battlestar Galactica (the original and the reimaged version), Space Above and Beyond, Fringe, The Twilight Zone (all three incarnations) and especially The Outer Limits (the old '60s version was her favorite but she did love the cable series too). All of these and more were stuff Jade really loved to lose herself in.
Not that she didn't love gore. She loved the cheesy old Friday the 13th movies, Freddie Kruger, Michael Myers and the like. She also loved the gorn (the so-called gore-porn) spectacles like Cabin Fever, Hostel, Dead Snow and, of course, The Scissoring.
Fantasy, in all its forms, from the old Merriam C. Cooper stop-motion Kong movies, the Universal classic monster and science fiction movies from the '30s through the '50s, the Hammer Horror films of the 1960s to the gore-porn of the 2000s, helped Jade cope with her parents' divorce. At least in part. There was still a bitter core that was angry at the world - at her parents for not being together. That core of anger helped her create and maintain her shield.
That day, when she got home from school, she turned on Turner Classic Movies to see what was on. She always checked TCM, especially near Halloween before seeing what lame show was on SyFy.
Lately Turner's cable channel had been running musicals which Jade detested. (She could count on the fingers of one hand the musicals she liked and would consider performing in - other than the weird ones Sikowitz came up with.)
Fortunately, that day, rather than Seven Brides For Seven Brother or some other lame musical or old romantic comedy, she was thrilled to see Five Million Years To Earth was starting. The Nigel Kneale classic, based on his earlier BBC mini-series teleplay Quatermas And The Pit, was one of her favorites from the Hammer Studios prolific '60s era.
The story centered on something found while an extension of the London Underground was being dug. The Royal Army's bomb squad was called in on the belief it was an unexploded German bomb from the London Blitz. Professor Quatrermas (who had created his own rocket production and launch center which was taken over by the Ministry of Defence) became involved and learned it was an ancient Martian probe that crashed five million years before in the swamps of the Thames Valley.
Jade was thrilled to watch the movie, even though she had it in her collection (under the original British title which matched the BBC TV mini-series - she had that in her collection too, a bootleg supposedly from Nigel Kneale's own collection). The movie was followed by the classic Charles Schneer production Jason and the Argonauts which features some of the best Ray Harryhausen stop-motion work.
After those were done, Jade went down to dinner with her mother and her brother. This was something her mother insisted on after the divorce. If either child was going to miss dinner, the other still had to be at the table.
The only exceptions were the rare times their mother was out of town. Then they could eat whenever and wherever they wanted to.
As the Wests sat at the table, as usual, they chatted about their days and what they had planned for the weekend. To her friends, this was a Jade they would not believe. She actually talked to her mother and brother about her life. After the divorce, she mainly blamed her father for what happened and, as a result, she both alienated him and craved his affection and attention. But she loved and respected her mother just as she loved and dis-respected her brother
"So, Jade, how's Tori?" her mother asked. Tori had met Jade's mother and brother at one of the public showcases at Hollywood Arts. Both thought she was adorable and immediately liked her.
"What? How would I know? I don't even like her," Jade retorted.
"Uh-huh. And you talk about the people you don't like every day," her brother responded.
"I don't talk about Vega every day!"
Her brother smiled sweetly, "Nah, sometimes twice or even three times a day. And then, on weekends…"
"I don't fucking like her!"
"Jade..." her mother said warningly.
"Sorry Mom." She turned to her brother, "I. Don't. Like. Her. Okay?"
"Okay," he agreed, too easily for Jade's comfort. "Then again, there is this..."
Jade's eyes widened. She saw the note her brother was holding. As a joke, to make fun of the nerds at school, she had purchased a Klingon-English dictionary. Instead of making up dirty limericks about the different geeks at school, she ended up writing something very personal. To Tori Vega. Something she was never going to show to anyone.
And now, her brother had gone into her room and found it.
"Where did you get that?" Jade hissed.
Her brother, who knew how Jade could get, blanched and said, "I... See, I was going to return the twenty you loaned me. You weren't home so I went in your room - the door was open, by the way - and was going to leave it on your desk."
Jade stood up, her fists clenched at her sides, when Mrs. West intervened, "He's right dear. I believe I left it open when I finished vacuuming upstairs. Not that I condone what he did..."
"That's okay Mom. You I trust. Jerky boy here is another matter."
"Jade, before you say anything else, I have a Klingon-English dictionary too. Got it from my old suite mate, Logan Reese, when I still lived on campus at USC. I think it was his girlfriend's."
Jade's eyes widened in alarm. And her breath got shorter. She thought about sitting down before she collapsed.
"Jade, it's okay. Mom and I discussed this a while ago. After the first break-up with Beck. If you're gay, bi or whatever, it's cool."
Mrs. West spoke up, "Jade, darling, I love you. You are so special to me, as is your brother. I love you both. If you're straight, I want you to have the best man possible for you. If you're gay, I just want to make sure the girl you choose is worthy of you - and I think Tori Vega is definitely that. Above all, I want my little girl to be happy."
This was the most-heartfelt conversation at the West dinner table in some time. Jade actually had tears in her eyes for the first time since she left Beck at Tori's to play poker with their friends.
After dinner, Jade went into her brother's room and faced him. "Okay, asshole! Give me that note!"
He smiled at his kid sister. He did love picking on her and he loved that she gave it back in spades. But he did love her and wanted to help her. When he translated the note from the fake alien language, he knew he had to do something for her.
"Jade, it's already back on your desk. But you need to talk to Tori. I like her. I think she'd be really good for you."
"God no!"
"Why not?"
"First, she's a geek!"
"So are you."
"Fuck you!"
"Nope, we're not from the hills of Tennessee, Little Creepo," he teased, using his old nickname for Jade. "And you are definitely not my type. I prefer redheads who don't looked anemic."
"You're still an ass."
"And you're still clinging to the hangers in your closet. The geek closet too."
Jade sighed. "I can't like her. Not like that."
"Why not? We're in the 21st century. Gay marriage is legal in nearly half the country, including California."
"Jade West does not like geeky, nerdy girls!"
"Bullshit!" He spat out that statement then continued, in a softer tone, "Jade, I translated the note. I wasn't trying to pry, I was actually honing my skills for the Trek con in Anaheim the month after next. When I read what you wrote... Sis, I almost cried. And you know how emotional I get - like you."
Jade sucked in a shaky breath, "Alright. I do like her! Dammit! She's cute, sexy, smart, funny, cool, friendly, caring, sweet, stubborn, sexy..."
"You said sexy twice."
"I like sexy," Jade smirked.
"Alright, so tell her. And not in Klingonese."
"I can't. Not yet..."
"Jade, you're my sister and so, naturally, I don't like you." He smiled and she returned it. "But, all those things you said about Tori? Ditto for you. Except that you are pretty damn scary when you want to be too." Then he smiled widely, "And you forgot to mention the glasses. She's one of those girls who looked damned hot wearing glasses. Too bad she's gay...'
Jade laughed and punched his arm.
Then he added with an exaggerated sigh, "But she is gay... Aaaand, that's the biggest hurdle out of the way. Jade, I love you - but don't you dare tell anyone." Jade laughed again, tears in her eyes this time. "I want you to be happy and, while I dug Beck, I think Tori is the one. Go for it! What's the worst that can happen? You get rejected?"
Jade nodded, her eyes still brimming with tears.
"Well, it happens, believe me! Do you know how many girls I have to ask at a party to get a blow job rather than a slap in the face?"
Between sobs and laughter, Jade managed to say, "You're a pig!"
"All I'm saying is, go for it. Keep it private if you want. Corner her somewhere - that nasty-ass janitor's closet or one of the girls' rooms and tell her how you feel. I don't think she's the type to out you until you're ready, regardless of what happens."
When she barged into his room, Jade was ready to pummel her brother. Instead, she pulled him into a tight embrace, saying, "Thanks bro. I love you. But let me do this my way."
"I love you too, Little Creepo," he said with a happy smile on his face. "Just don't screw this up!"
Jade wasn't ready to face Tori or reveal her secrets yet. Instead, she held back when the bell for first period sounded then, once the halls were clear, she slipped to Klingon note through one of the slits in Tori's locker. Then she ran to class, ready for the expected reprimand.
Later, as Tori swapped books between second and third period, she found the note in her locker. Recognizing the cuneiform-style of writing, she waved Sinjin over.
"What's that, Tori? Hey, it's in Klingon!"
"Yeah. Did you put that in there?" He shook his head. "Hmmm… Okay. Can I borrow your dictionary?"
"Sorry. I left it at home. I think Robbie has one in his locker."
Tori ran down the corridor and grabbed Robbie as he was entering the men's' room. "Hey, I have to tinkle!"
"I need your Klingon-English dictionary!" And there no way Tori would take 'no' for an answer or accept a delay to pee.
With the dictionary, Tori went on to her next class, anxious for her study period so she could try to translate the note.
It was painstaking, trying to translate the note. She wasn't as familiar with Klingonese as she pretended when she was with fellow Trekkers. But, ignoring the bell, she stuck to it. Finally, she had it translated and read:
Kisses are sweetest under covering hair,
And whispers in its woven twilight best;
As flowery boughs above the chirping nest
Make sweet and sacred all the darkened air
Wherein abide the soft-secluded pair,
And know in the warm fragrance where they rest
The small heart beating in the downy breast
Each of its mate: a Paradise they share.
This is a longing of the human heart
After that dream, an Eden all for two,
Some lonely island 'mid the ocean's blue
Where Love may sport, and laugh, and kiss apart.
Therefore it was a moment past I drew
Thine hair about mine eyes, Eve that thou art.
Tori read it through several times, her eyes growing misty. Someone left her a love note and her heart was pounding. She had to find out who. As far as she knew, there were only two other people who knew Klingon at school. And that frightened her.
'No please. Not Robbie. And really not Sinjin...' she begged in her mind.
Tori felt a wash of relief as she remembered Sinjin seemed to be surprised at the Klingon note and he was a bad liar. She would still check him out. But now, to see what Robbie knows...
Jade saw all this. She went to the library and sat off to the side, out of sight of the future singer as Tori toiled over the translation. The Goth had a very un-Jade-like smile on her face when she saw the look on Tori's face when she finally read the sonnet, written by John Bartas in the 1880s.
Now she had to plan her next step.
The beginning of the next week, Jade slipped another poem, translated to Klingon, into Tori's locker. It was another Bartas love sonnet and, again, relatively generic in terms of sexuality.
The week after, it was a Shakespeare sonnet. And, thanks to the revised Klingon dictionary her brother had, Jade was able to translate most of it. Finally, giving up on the words that wouldn't translate, she wrote them in English but used the cuneiform-inspired design for the English letters.
Watching Tori translate the previous notes, Jade realized she needed another, less subtle clue planted. This one took some additional work to find the appropriate Klingon deities to substitute for the old Greek gods but she managed to translate one of the Sappho fragments that survived the millennia.
The day after she finished, Jade had just slipped the paper into Tori's locker as Tori came up. The Goth quickly leaned back casually, hoping the heart hammering in her chest wasn't as loud to the rest of the world as it was to her.
"Hey Jade... What...are you doing here?"
"Nothing Vega. Why? Do I make you nervous?"
"Uh, no, of course not," Tori replied, only partly lying.
"Okay then. I see a freshman I haven't scared in over a week. See ya," Jade said as she strolled over towards the opposite corridor where some underclassmen was clustered near her weaponized locker.
After the previous mystery notes, Tori was getting pretty good at translating Klingon. The last one, the Shakespeare, threw her until she realized some of the words were still in English but with a Klingon style. 'Sort of like using a backwards 'R' for fake Russian,' she thought.
This one was kind of difficult and she had no source book for Klingon mythology. When she realized 'Sappho' was untranslated, she read between the lines to realize who the gods were.
This one was like a beautiful prayer. One she could totally sympathize with. Blinking back tears, Tori realized that the person she liked to think of as a secret admirer was a lesbian too. A small, incredibly optimistic part of her deep inside her soul hoped and prayed this person was who she desired.
Reading it again, the tears of hope and joy started to flow.
Daughter of Zeus and Immortal
Aphrodite, serene
Weaver of spells, at thy portal
Hear me and slay not, O Queen!
As in the past, hither to me
From thy far palace of gold,
Drawn by the doves that overflew me,
Come, as thou earnest of old.
Swiftly thy flock bore thee hither,
Smiling, as turned I to thee,
Spoke thou across the blue weather,
"Sappho, why callest thou me?"
"Sappho, what Beauty disdains thee,
Sappho, who wrongest thine heart,
Sappho, what evil now pains thee,
Whence sped the dart?
"Flies from thee, soon she shall follow,
Turns from thee, soon she shall love,
Seeking thee swift as the swallow,
Ingrate though now she may prove."
Come, once again to release me,
Join with my fire thy fire,
Freed from the torments that seize me,
Give me, O Queen! my desire!
Jade saw Tori reading the fragment of one of Sappho's poems and realized the girl was crying. Deep beneath the icy exterior, she felt her heart melt at the sight. She started to walk towards Tori, a small part of her brain screaming at her to stop.
She ignored that strident internal warning as she reached Tori's table. She held out her hand and said, "Vega, come with me."
A warm, nearly electric tingle flowed up Jade's arm as Tori trustingly placed her hand in Jade's. The warmth grew, burning through the silent alarm in Jade's head as she led Tori to the nearest empty room. It happened to be a janitor's closet on the second floor and a little less nasty than the one often utilized by various students, especially Jade, on the first floor.
Once the door closed, Tori started to speak. "Jade, what are..."
The Goth grabbed the singer and pulled her close. Their eyes bored into each other and Jade saw, to her sorrow, a flash of fear in Tori's eyes. Tori saw an unusual warmth and what she thought was caring and maybe even desire.
As they stared at each other, Tori's eyes quickly reflected Jade's and the raven-haired girl felt another unusual feeling - relief.
The girls' bodies, already tight to each other, seemed to melt together and Jade leaned in, gently kissing Tori. Tori leaned into the kiss and they held it for several seconds.
Parting, Jade actually smiled. It was a gentle, happy smile and Tori, who had been smitten by the West girl for the past two years, knew she was in love. And she knew she'd never get over it.
Returning the smile, Tori asked, "You wrote the notes?" Jade nodded. "And in Klingonese?" Another nod. "And meant what the poems said?"
Rather than nod again, Jade pressed her lips to Tori's, her tongue dancing across the sweet lips before sliding inside the brunette's mouth. Then Jade whispered into Tori's mouth, "You now know something about me no one else does. I'm a geek too."
"I love hot geeks," Tori said.
"You know that's an oxymoron," Jade replied with a laugh.
"Not with us," Tori said, before taking Jade and kissing her, the Latina's tongue taking charge this time.
Twenty minutes later, reluctantly, they left the closet and went to join their friends at lunch, unconsciously holding hands and sitting next to each other. The other four smiled and then pretended it was just another day at lunch, even as Jade and Tori snuck a couple of short, soft kisses.
There was time enough for explanations later.
Jade gave herself one last glance in her full-length mirror. "Damn, I'm hot!"
The red skirt was very short but it definitely showcased her legs, in black stockings with the garter straps hidden by the skirt. Her hair was piled on top of her head and she had removed her eyebrow ring before she lightly applied makeup.
Grabbing her small black purse that perfectly matched her outfit, she left the house with a quick good bye to her mother and drove her Mustang to the Vega house. Jade was about to honk then decided to go to the door.
David Vega answered the door and wolf-whistled at Jade. From behind him came a loud, "DAD!"
Jade walked in to see Tori in her costume. Jade whistled lightly under her breath and Tori beamed.
"No Vega, Klingons don't beam."
Tori was dressed like one of the non-crested Klingons from the original 'Star Trek' series. She had a short leather and chain mail dress with a metal sash and a short sword slung at her waist and a Klingon pistol on the opposite hip. Her skin was darkened to a medium bronze and her canines had small pointed extensions.
"Did Klingons have vampire teeth, Vega?"
"Well, later they did. Bet Singh's genetic experiment didn't remove the teeth, just the forehead crest," Tori replied. "Oh, and I'm K'tora."
"Okay. I'll buy it."
"So, you the Red Shirt?"
Holly had her smart phone ready to take a picture of the two girls when she asked, "Red Shirt?"
David replied, "Yeah, the unnamed character who was always killed on the old series. In the newer series..."
Jade cut in. "I'm not a Red Shirt. I'm the sexy officer that Kirk always had his eye on."
"In this case, you've been captured by the Klingon Empire," Tori declared with a wicked smile. "Saved from that lecherous old, Canadian ham."
Jade laughed, a real laugh, as she had often since she and Tori started dating the month before. "And Klingons don't wear glasses, Ve... Uh, K'tora."
Tori reached up and adjusted her eyewear and said, "I'll take 'em off when we get to the convention center in Anaheim. Then you'll have to be my eyes..."
"My pleasure, K'tora."
"Alright, I want a picture of you two pretty..."
"Geeks, Mom. The word is geek," Trina said as she came down the stairs. "God my sister is a lesbian and a geek!"
Jade turned and declared, "NO! We're Trekkers!"
Tori nodded, "And don't you forget it!"