Jim sighed and plopped his head onto one hand. Calculus is such a boring class, he thought. He closed his eyes, hoping to catch a few minutes of sleep before the period ended. (Thank god this is almost over, thought the exhausted student.) He cursed the irony of things; staying up late partying is not a good idea when you have classes the next morning.

When he opened his eyes sleepily and noticed the girl sitting at the desk next to his staring at him with wide eyes, he grinned at her. She blinked several times in rapid succession, looking a bit stunned to have his attention for even that short amount of time. The girl then looked away from Jim (sadly) and continued to watch the teacher solve the equation scrawled on the chalkboard. The equation Jim had already solved in his head the moment Mrs. Alloway had put it on the board.

He closed his eyes and continued his almost-doze, expecting the rest of the class to be just as boring as the beginning had been.

If only I had stayed home today, he lamented in his head. The darkness of the inside of his eyelids was soothing to his pulsing headache. Mom offered: I was stupid to—

Jim's regretful thoughts were suddenly interrupted by an almost inaudible knock on the closed classroom door. He moved his head toward the door in slight interest, expecting it to be an office aide or something. His hopes of an escape to the guidance office (as painful as that would be) were dashed when he saw who was standing there.

Jim had never seen him before. The boy standing outside the opened door was obviously Vulcan, his pointed ears, strange haircut, and faint green tinge to the skin on his cheeks evidence of his heritage.

"Well, come in, come in," said Mrs. Alloway, waving the blank faced Vulcan into the classroom. "You must be Spock."

"Yes," was the Vulcan's short answer. "I am sorry that I am late. I was given an incorrect room number."

"That's okay," said Mrs. Alloway kindly. "Since I've already talked to you about what we've been working on in class, why don't you just find a seat?"

Spock nodded and took the empty seat behind Jim.

The class resumed quickly. Jim glanced back at Spock, who had taken out a PADD and a stylus and was studiously taking notes (though Jim doubted that the Vulcan needed them). When Spock's eyes moved to Jim, who was still observing Spock, Jim flashed him a quick grin. A raised eyebrow was his only answer. Jim smiled. He was going to like this guy.

z0z0z0z

Generally, when class ended, Jim was the first one out the door, his bag packed in an instant. Today, though, he hung around, waiting for the new guy to finish putting his PADD away.

"So… you're new?" asked Jim in way of a greeting. Spock raised an eyebrow (which seemed to be quickly becoming a habit for him around Jim.)

"I would assume that the fact that I have never been in this class before a sufficient answer to that question," he said, heading down the hallway, which was emptying. Jim chuckled at the twisted Vulcan version of sarcasm, while trying to keep up with Spock's long strides.

Jim shrugged. "Usually. But sometimes people switch classes."

"Students at this school change their courses halfway through the school year?" asked Spock, glancing at Jim, who was walking at his side, for the first time.

Jim laughed at this. "You got me at that," he said. "Anyways, I'm Jim. Jim Kirk." He extended his hand out of habit.

"You know my name already, I believe," said Spock, ignoring the proffered hand.

Unfazed, Jim continued. "What class're you going to next?"

"Advanced Xenobiology II." Spock hesitated for a millisecond before continuing. "I was wondering if… if you could show me the location of that classroom?"

"Of course!" exclaimed Jim, grinning. "It works out, becaust I have that class too. Is it with Mr. Borgen?"

"Affirmative," said Spock.

"Well, we're going the wrong way, for one," said Jim, and grabbed a hold of Spock's sleeve. Spock looked visibly taken aback at the contact as Jim led him to the right hallway and let him go once they had reached it.

"So, where'd you move from?" asked Jim casually, unconcerned with the almost deserted hallway. He had an excuse to be late to Biology, which, while exponentially more interesting than Calculus, was still school. And it was a rule (in Jim's mind at least) to avoid anything school-related when the possibility arises.

"Vulcan," said Spock, who looked more concerned with his tardiness than his guide was. And of course he was Vulcan, so it was only a trace of concern that showed in the slant of his eyes. "Will we not be late while going at this slow pace?"

"Nah," said Jim, waving one hand in dismissal. "Since it's your first day here, they'll let you off easy."

"Speaking of which," he continued as they reached the door, "would you like to sit with me and my friends during lunch? It's always hard to find someplace to sit when you're new. I would know."

Spock turned slightly towards Jim, probably wondering how he could be speaking with such experience when he looked so young, but didn't voice his curiosity.

"I suppose I will," he said.

"Great!" said Jim, beaming.

The rest of the morning passed slowly for Jim, as usual. Only this time, it was passing slowly because he had something he was looking forward to.

z0z0z0z

Jim set his tray down next to Lenny (otherwise known as Bones), then sat down looking more excited than usual.

"Guess what?" he said, his face bright.

"What? What have you done this time?" barked Bones, grouchy as ever, running his hand through his thick dark hair and turning to his best friend with narrowed blue eyes.

"Whatever do you mean?" asked Jim innocently. "I never do anything bad."

A loud laugh rang out from across the table. "Well that's a blatant lie if ah've ever heard one," chuckled Monty Scott, otherwise known as Scotty.

"That's what Jim Kirk's good at, isn't it? Lying?" muttered Ny Uhura, who, much like Bones, seemed to have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.

Jim crossed his arms, looking playfully hurt. "Guys," he said. "Can't I just tell you who's going to be sitting with us today?"

Christine Chapel, the school gossip, had been eavesdropping as usual. She promptly forgot about being subtle when she heard this tidbit. "Who?" she asked excitedly.

"Don't tell me," said Ny, rolling her eyes. "Some new girlfriend of yours?"

Jim smirked at that comment. "You're just jealous," he teased. "Anyways. You know the new guy—"

"The Vulcan?" Christine squealed. "He's—"

"Shh," Jim interrupted, as he had caught a glimpse of a head of glassy black hair heading their way from across the cafeteria. Jim swiftly pushed Hikaru, who had been sitting on the bench to his left, onto the next one over.

"Hey—!" Hikaru began to protest, then stopped abruptly when Spock appeared behind Jim's left shoulder. The friends quieted and stared at the new Vulcan.

"May I sit here, Jim?" he asked politely, indicating the newly-emptied seat.

Jim grinned at his friends quickly before turning to Spock. "Of course, dude," he said. "I said you could. Why would I take it back?"

The Vulcan sat down beside Jim. "It is the polite thing to do," he said serenely.

The rest of the teenagers snickered behind their hands at Jim's taken-aback expression.

"Well… I guess you could say that," he said.

Ny tried to move closer to Spock, resting her chin in both of her folded hands.

"What grade are you in?" she asked.

Spock blinked. "I assumed everyone in this lunch is the same age. I'm a sophomore in the Human system of education."

Pavel Chekov shook his head at this comment. "Some of us are in different grades," he said. "I'm uh, technically not ewen in high school right now."

Spock blinked at this, which was probably the biggest sign of surprise you could get from him. "Fascinating," he said.

"You see," continued Pavel, "technically none of us are in the correct grade lewel." He began picking out people at the table. "Vell, Jim is, I suppose, but he takes all adwanced courses. Hikaru should be in ninth grade, Ny should be in ninth, also, Scotty should be a sophomore, and Lenny should be a junior. I, should be in fifth grade," said the boy genius, smiling proudly.

Spock just raised an eyebrow.

Jim looked at the faces at the table. "So are all of you guys in for Friday? Studying at Bones' house then pizza and a holovid?"

Bones grumbled, "Kid, you don't have the right to invite people over to my—"

"Oh, come on Bones, you know you were going to do it anyways," said Jim, grinning at his disgruntled friend. "Anyways, yours grandparents love me and wouldn't care if I invited half the school over, and plus, I'm buying the pizza. And the holovid," he added for good measure. Bones just mumbled something unintelligible and went back to his food. Jim ignored him and turned back to Spock.

"You can come too, if you want," he offered.

"I am agreeable to that idea," agreed Spock.

Jim smiled at him. Bones kept mumbling something about pointy-eared Vulcans as he shoveled his lunch into his mouth at an alarming rate. He left quickly, grabbing his messenger bag and practically sprinting off.

"Don't mind him," said Jim to Spock. "He's my best friend, but I have to admit he's grumpy a lot.."

"I am not!" called Bones over his shoulder as he disappeared through the cafeteria door. Jim stuck out a tongue at him.

"Is there another reason for his… negative mood?" asked Spock.

Jim shrugged. If there was, he wasn't going to tell the new kid of all people.

"Anyways…" he said, addressing the whole table. "Let's get back to the get together on Friday. What's everyone's idea on the movie?"

Discussion commenced.

A/N: Good idea, bad idea? Thoughts? Shall I continue?

I wrote this almost entirely while I was in PreCal. ahahaha. Math sucks, but it has perks (aka random story ideas!)

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with the rest of this story... probably make it into slash. haha. Hm... *ideas*

~looking for