Chapter 2
Ash's P.O.V

As soon as we touched down, there were a thousand thoughts running through my head. Sara and I walked out of the shuttle and met my dad outside. He said he'll meet us later because he had some duties to perform. I looked around for William but he was nowhere to be found, so I thought I'll just look for him afterwards. We looked around the unfamiliar place in awe. There were tall buildings and people everywhere. A woman in a grey uniform approached us and started directing us to our designated areas to get our PADDs (Portable Auxiliary Data Display). They split us up to take us to our dormitories. The boys went with another guy official and the woman took us to our dorms. Before going, we gave a small wave to Kirk and McCoy to say 'bye'.

Our luggage was already taken to our rooms so we didn't have to worry about it. Sara and I were assigned to the same room and we were both ecstatic. We set up the code to enter our room and went inside. Everything was perfect inside, there were bookshelves, two study tables, two beds, and a kitchen! But best of all, there were two separate bathrooms, so now we didn't have to worry about who goes first in the morning! I was so excited!

"Did you check your timetable?" Sara asked. She was going through her PADD while I was checking out our room.

"No, I didn't. When is our first class?" I replied.

"My classes start tomorrow; I don't know about yours. It probably starts at the same time but you should check, just to make sure." She suggested.

"Good idea," I took out my PADD and looked through it. I found my timetable and saw that my classes were indeed starting tomorrow morning. Quite late might I add. I was used to waking up between 5:30 am and 6:30 am, thanks to the disciplinary habits that my father drilled into my brain at a young age.

My first class was at 8:30 am. Pathology. With someone with the initials, L.M.

To be honest, a lot of the teachers, admirals and other officials knew me because of my father. I had been to a lot of Starfleet's functions and get-togethers with him. But I don't think I knew anyone with the initials L.M.

Might be someone new, I thought.

Sara started talking about McCoy again when I heard a lot of noise coming from outside and poked my head out the door to see what was going on. Crowds of students were moving towards the mess hall. I looked at the clock and realised that it was time for dinner.

"Sara! Let's go, it's time for dinner, I'm starving!" I exclaimed. Pulling her off the bed and towards the door.

"Okay, okay! I'm coming! You're gonna rip my arm off, you, violent creature!" she shouted while being dragged by me.

We walked into the mess hall and were surprised by what we saw. There were definitely way more than 100 people. I wasn't used to being around so many people as in my last school, there were only about 200 people.

We found the counter and got our trays of food. I spotted an empty table near the corner of the room and told Sara to follow me. Once we put down our trays on the table and sat down, Sara pointed behind me and gestured for me to look. I turned around and saw Kirk and McCoy holding their trays and looking around for an unoccupied table. I quickly turned around.

"Don't do what I think you're gonna do. Please!" I whispered, a bit too forcefully. But, of course, she did it anyways.

"Hey! Kirk, McCoy! Come here!" She shouted and waved her hands over her head to get their attention. I looked at her with my narrowed eyes. They probably didn't even want to sit with us.

"Hello, girls! Fancy meeting you again!" He said in a fake British accent to mock me. I smiled, shyly, and said 'hello'. McCoy just nodded and said 'hi', with a small smile, I must add. He looked better than how he looked in the shuttle. They sat down, opposite each other, on the square table. I looked at Sara, who was, as expected, staring at McCoy. I attempted to kick her under the table.

"Ah!" Kirk yelped. I accidentally kicked him, I'm so screwed, I thought.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! That wasn't meant for you, does it hurt? I'm actually really sorry-" I kept apologising until he cut me off.

"Hey! It's fine, it doesn't hurt. Who were you trying to kick anyways?" He asked, chuckling a bit. I nodded towards Sara, who was still staring at McCoy. McCoy, who was just eating his dinner with his left hand and doing something on his PADD with his right hand, oblivious of everything happening around him. Kirk looked back at me and raised an eyebrow as if asking me 'what's going on?'. I told him how Sara kept talking about him all day. He laughed quietly and started eating his food.

"So, which field are you studying in?" he asked, putting his spoon down.

"Medical and tactical," I said, finishing my dinner.

"Medical?" McCoy looked up from his PADD and said.

"Yep, I've always wanted to help heal people," I elaborated for McCoy. He nodded his head and had an impressed expression on his face.

"Why tactical then? That's the complete opposite of healing people, you know?" Kirk asked with an amused smirk on his face.

"I also want to protect people…and myself," I said, looking down at my hands on my lap. Sara looked at me, sympathetically. My eyes started watering, remembering that day.

"Did something happen?" McCoy asked, softly, in a brotherly tone, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I-I-," I stuttered. I wiped some of the tears that had fallen down my cheeks and started again. "Last year, four seniors in our school used to bully us. One day, they cornered us on our way to class in an empty corridor. They started calling us names and insulting us. Just when I thought that it couldn't get any worse, they slapped Sara," All three of us looked at Sara, who had an angry expression on her face, as she remembered that day, I continued my story. "I lost my cool and started to retaliate. I tried to kick one of them but they grabbed my leg and threw me to the ground, where I hit my head. Sara punched the guy who slapped her, so hard, he knocked his head on the wall and passed out. The other three guys got scared. I was feeling light-headed from hitting my head on the ground so I was still lying there. One of the guys kicked me in my stomach and pulled the unconscious guy with him and they all ran away. I have, I had a pretty bad bruise on my torso. I told my father about this…incident and he had those guys expelled. He made Sara and I join self-defence classes," I started to sober up and wiped all my tears with my sleeve. "We learnt all about different fighting styles and how to protect ourselves and others if needed. Now, it's just become a passion for me. Sorry, you guys must be bored, I don't know why I told you all of that. Sorry." I looked down at my lap again, on the verge of tears.

"We're glad you told us, Ash," McCoy said, patting my shoulder. Kirk took my left hand and held it in both his hands. His hands are so big compared to mine, I thought.

"We'll always be here for you guys," Kirk said, still holding my hand, looking at me and Sara. I gave him a grateful smile.

"Yeah, we'll protect you and Sara to the best of our capabilities." McCoy put his hand on Sara's shoulder.

"Guess we're friends now!" Sara exclaimed, always the one to lighten up the mood.

We all laughed and went to the garden for a small walk. McCoy and Kirk were walking behind us; they were talking about something but I couldn't hear them. Sara and I were planning out what to do tomorrow when I felt two hands tickling me. I turned my head to the side to see that Sara was being tickled too and we both were laughing like idiots. We turned around and saw Kirk and McCoy tickling us.

I tried to swat Kirk's hands away but I was too distracted and he was too strong. Sara was also trying to get out of McCoy's arms. I ended up falling with Kirk on top of me. He was resting his elbows on either side of me as to not crush me under him. I was still laughing but as I opened my eyes and looked at him above me, I stopped abruptly and he started grinning.

He got up and offered a hand to help me up, I took his hand and he pulled so hard that I went crashing into his chest. I sheepishly backed away and said sorry, while keeping my head down. He lifted my chin up with his index finger and thumb to face him. He said it's okay and hugged me. I found it weird but smiled and hugged him back anyways.

Just then, someone cleared their throat and I looked over to see McCoy looking at someone behind me. Sara, who was standing beside McCoy had a worried look on her face as she gestured for me to turn around. I looked behind me and froze. The colour from my face drained as I saw William standing behind us with an angry expression on his face. I had never actually seen him this furious before. I got scared and took a small step back. Sara came to me and squeezed my hand to tell me everything's going to be okay. Kirk and McCoy were just looking at us with confused expressions on their faces.

"Hello, William!" Sara exclaimed with a fake smile on her face.

"Get out of the way Sara. I need to talk to her," He said, forcefully. He tried to push Sara with one hand and grab me with his other hand but McCoy and Kirk came and stood in front of us, effectively blocking him from us.

He tried to get a hold of my hand again and I flinched. Just then, Kirk's hand shot out, he grabbed William's hand and yanked it back. William's face held an annoyed expression as he looked to Kirk's face but it quickly changed to an apologetic one. But only I could see that the expression was fake. He was a lot of things but submissive was not one of them. I knew that he would never back down without a fight. I knew that he was probably up to something else. I decided not to show, the fear that I felt, on my face. I honestly didn't know why I was scared because he was the most loving boyfriend I ever had, even though he is my first one, my mind added. But there was something in his eyes that I'd never seen before, and I didn't like it.

"I didn't mean to scare you, baby," he said to me. Kirk and McCoy were even more confused now. I pushed in between the two guys and stood before William. He took my hand in both his hands and looked into my eyes. "I'm sorry," he said and hugged me. For some reason, I couldn't hug him back, I just stood there.

"Hey! Who do you think you are? You can't just go around hugging any girl you like!" Kirk almost shouted.

"I'm her boyfriend, I can do whatever the hell I want with her," William spoke through gritted teeth. "On the other hand, who are you?"

"He's your boyfriend?" Kirk asked me, ignoring William's question, with an expression on his face that I couldn't quite place. He looked almost disappointed.

I looked at the ground and nodded. William looked to me, then Kirk, and said, "I asked you something, who are you, mister?"

"Oh, I heard you the first time, douchebag. I just didn't feel like answering you," Kirk said, angrily. I looked at him and gave him a wide-eyed, surprised look. He glanced at my surprised face and his expression quickly softened. "Kirk," he said, extending his hand to William.

"Brandt," He introduced his last name and shook his hand, gruffly.

I turned my head towards Sara and gave her a look. She quickly understood and said, "Please don't tell her dad. If he finds out he will be really disappointed and angry."

Kirk was just processing everything while McCoy said, jokingly, "Why would we tell your dad? Do we really look like snitches to you?"

I smiled a bit, so did everyone else. Then, William told everyone that he wanted some alone time with me. As we were about to leave, Sara came to me and hugged me saying, "I swear to god, I still don't like him. See you tonight in our room." I chuckled a bit and said bye.

To my surprise, McCoy hugged me in a 'protective brother' way and whispered, "Are you sure about him?" I hugged him back and whispered, "I'm sure," he pulled back and nodded, his lips pressed into a thin line. It almost looked like he didn't believe me.

I was just about to turn around and leave with William when Kirk grabbed my wrist and held me back. "What? No goodbye hug for me?" he pretended to pout. We shared an awkward one-armed hug and said that we'll meet tomorrow.

I turned to William and saw the anger on his face which he was trying to hide behind a fake smile. He pulled me away from all of them and practically dragged me to the boys' dormitories. I told him I wasn't allowed in there but he somehow sneaked me in without anyone seeing.

As soon as I went through the door of his room, after him, he closed the door behind me and shoved me against a wall. It took me by surprise so I let out a scream and he clamped his hand on my mouth. "I did not give you permission to talk to other boys." He said in a dangerously low voice. He towered over me as I tried to get out of his grip. He removed his hand and I finally shouted, "I don't need to ask for your permission to do anything!" Just as I finished that sentence, he slapped me. I was shocked….and hurt. Tears were falling freely out of my eyes as I put my hand to my cheek. He had never hurt me. I looked up at his face and saw him looking at me with disgust.

"What did I do?" I asked in a shaky voice.

"You're cheating on me, aren't you? At least tell me with who? Kirk or that black-haired guy?" He asked with a sneer on his face.

"I'm not cheating! Why would you even think that?" I exclaimed.

"Are you serious? You were hugging them like you knew them since birth!" He was almost shouting by the end.

"They're just my friends!" I said, trying to keep my tears in. I couldn't believe he was accusing me of such a thing. I looked away and crossed my arms, letting the tears flow. Suddenly, I felt arms snake around my waist and clasp on top of my stomach.

"I'm sorry. I just missed you." He said, I could feel his breath on my neck and it gave me goosebumps.

I turned around in his arms and he leaned down to kiss me, I turned my head just in time so his lips touched my cheek. I put my hand on his chest and said, "Sorry, I-I'm not…um… ready for that."

"It's fine." He said smiling, but there was a bitterness in his voice. Just then, my phone ringed and I picked up on the second ring knowing who it was.

"Where the hell are you?!" Sara shouted into the phone. I looked at the time and realised that I was supposed to be in our room by now.

"I'm coming!" I said quickly. I hastily said bye to William and he replied with a wave. It was pretty easy to sneak out as it was pretty late at night and almost no one was outside.

I reached the girls' dormitories, after a short walk, and put the code in to get inside my room. The lights were off, but I could hear the T.V. playing. I assumed Sara was probably watching a movie. I walked in and saw Sara sitting on the couch with her legs on the coffee table, in front of the couch. The T.V. was playing a Bollywood movie, Main Hoon Na. Sara and I loved watching Bollywood movies, by the way. She looked at me, paused the movie, then walked up to me and crossed her arms. I knew that I was in for a big lecture.

God help me.

A/N: Hi people! Here's another chapter into their lives. Hope you liked it! Please review!