Listening to Leryn complain about the lack of plans for her birthday was really only amusing for about a day or two, then they had to come clean about the fact that a party was already planned. The uninhabited planet that Enterprise was currently orbiting made a nice backdrop out the mess hall windows during the occasion.
"Happy Birthday!" everyone assembled yelled as Leryn and her family came into the mess. The now-fourteen-year-old grinned as she saw her guests. All of her friends from school were there, as well as most of the crewmembers that made up her extended family onboard the ship.
"Thanks everybody," she told them. "This is really great. I can't believe I'm fourteen!" She quickly disappeared off with her friends to socialize.
"She's really a teenager now," Kirk teased Nyota and Spock as he approached.
"We were already aware," she replied. "It took her almost an hour to decide on what to wear today. She doesn't have enough clothes for it to take that long to get dressed!"
Jim laughed. "Oh, God. Just think – by the time she's finally out of that phase, you'll have another going into it."
"Don't wish her life away," Nyota chastised him, hugging Amanda a little closer. "I can't even wrap my head around the fact that she's going to be six in a couple weeks. Six!"
"I get a party, too, right?" Amanda asked her parents.
"Yes, you do," they promised.
Kirk chuckled. "Wow, it's really gonna be a string of celebrations for you guys, isn't it?"
They had a few different treats to eat, including a good old-fashioned Earth-style birthday cake. Leryn tore through a pretty impressive stack of presents; her 'uncles' onboard the ship spoiled her rotten and most of her friends had gotten her clothes or other little items. She was back talking with her best friends when she heard a voice call her name. She turned and found one of her classmates behind her.
"Hi, Ryan."
He smiled. "Happy Birthday. I, uh, I got something for you." He produced a small box from behind his back and handed it to her.
"Thanks." She untied the ribbon and pulled off the lid to discover a necklace with a green and amber stone. "Oh, wow…"
"Do you like it?"
She grinned. "Yeah, I love it. Thank you!"
"I-I can put it on you if you want?" Her smile turned a little shy as she nodded before turning around and holding her hair out of the way.
Across the room, Spock had seen the exchange. Nyota put a hand on his arm before he could take a step toward their oldest. "Easy," she told him. "Where do you think you're going?"
"I wish to be certain of his intentions."
"I'm sure you'll be amazing as a terrifying overprotective father, but don't do it here."
"She is too young to be accepting jewelry from a friend of the opposite gender."
"I agree, and we'll talk to her about it later. But, if I remember correctly, aren't you the one who comes from a race where our youngest daughter would be matched with her husband in only a year?"
That comment was definitely not appreciated. "There are many rules that dictate behavior between a joined couple until they reach the age where they can be officially wed. I am fully aware that other races do not have such limits on their conduct. I have heard enough stories from male members of this crew and students at the Academy to know that I do not believe it will be appropriate for Leryn to engage in courtship for several more years."
Nyota just smiled. "We'll talk about it later."
Leryn ended up staying in the mess hall with some of her friends from school even after the party ended. When she eventually did get home, she found that Spock was helping Amanda practice on his Vulcan lyre, while Nyota looked over reports.
"That was near flawless," he told his daughter as she finished the song.
"Yeah, munchkin, you're getting really good," Leryn added. Amanda smiled.
"Thank you. Did you have fun at your party?"
"Yeah, I did," she replied. "Hey, um, Mom, Dad? Can I ask you a question?"
"I believe you already have," Spock pointed out. Leryn rolled her eyes.
"That got old a long time ago, Dad."
Nyota laughed. "What's your question?"
"Ryan invited me to go hiking on the planet tomorrow. Can I go?"
"Who else will be in attendance?" Spock asked her.
"Uh, it would just be us. We were going to ride along with one of the away teams on a shuttle in the morning."
He shook his head. "No, you may not go."
Leryn frowned. "Why?"
"I do not approve of the idea of you going alone."
"We'll only be a kilometer or so from the team!" He didn't respond, so she tried another tactic. "Come on, Mom, please?"
"Hey, don't do that," she told the teen, seeing straight through her attempt to pit her parents against each other. "I agree with your father. We haven't gotten very detailed scans of the planet yet. We don't know a lot about native creatures or their weather patterns. It could be dangerous. I don't think it's a good idea, either."
"It is not appropriate for you to be alone with this or any other boy at your age," Spock told her.
"I'm fourteen!"
"Precisely."
She sighed. "Well then what if Sierra and Adair come with us, too? Then that's four people, and we'll all have comm. devices and we'll be really careful."
"Why don't you see if you can stay with the away team for their survey?" Nyota counter-suggested. "I'm sure you could learn a lot from the experience, and we'd feel better knowing you weren't off wandering in the wilderness."
Spock, however, didn't want to hear any other ideas. "She's not going," he declared.
"But, Dad – "
"No. You have a sufficient number of things to do in order to keep you occupied onboard the ship. Perhaps you can spend some time working on your term project for your science course."
Leryn eyed the object he was talking about: a small robot that she'd designed, which was currently sitting on the table by the couch. She grabbed the machine and hurled it across the room before heading to her bedroom and shutting the door behind her.
Amanda warily eyed her parents once her sister was gone. Leryn had been getting into little battles with them recently over things from her clothes to her schoolwork, but nothing like the explosion she'd just witnessed.
"Well, that went well," Nyota muttered.
"Her behavior isn't logical," Spock pointed out. She laughed.
"She's a teenager – illogical by definition. I will point out, however, that you were also being rather stubborn. We could have worked something out with her…"
Amanda tuned out the rest of their conversation, debating her father's declaration. She'd been trying to figure out what was going on with their family lately, but her five-year-old brain was having trouble. However, it now had all clicked. She knew two facts were true: logic was very important to Spock, and people fight when they don't like each other. Therefore, if Leryn wasn't logical, then that must mean that their father didn't like her anymore. It was a scary thought, and meant that if Amanda wanted to keep from ending up like her sister, she would have to be logical about everything so that Spock would always like her.
"Hey, princess," Nyota's voice cut into her thoughts. "Sorry you had to hear all that. How about we get you ready for bed, okay?"
Amanda didn't feel tired, but arguing against bedtime was usually useless, which probably meant it was illogical. "Okay," she quickly replied.
TBC...
A/N: Thanks for all the feedback I got!
