It took every ounce of self control to keep from spinning on his heel and marching right out the door. The buzz of talking stopped and an awkward silence hung in the air as all eyes turned on the newcomer. Spock was acutely aware that he was now the center of attention. His jaw clenched and his shoulders tensed as he forced himself to remain impassive.
"Good evening." Spcok managed to grind out.
People responded with their own greetings and began to turn back to their previous conversations, though they still shot furtive glances at him.
Meanwhile, Kirk remained oblivious to the Vulcan's discomfort, whether or not he was oblivious intentionally. He simply pulled Spock in further towards the center of the room where a small group of people were eagerly awaiting them.
"So this is the new chemistry teacher?" one of the people asked.
He spoke with a Scottish accent and was holding a glass of some sort of alcohol. Spock decided he seemed friendly enough.
"Yup, this is him." Kirk patted him on the shoulder and added, "And this, Spock, is-"
"Montgomery Scott. You can call me Scotty if ya like, lad. Most others do." Scott interrupted cheerily. He took a giant swig of his drink.
Spock tilted his head in acknowledgement and answered,
"It is an honor to meet you. I have read your papers. They are fascinating theories. However, should you have no preference; I shall refer to you as Mr. Scott."
Scott was in the middle of taking a sip but stopped when he listened to Spock. Spock, for his part remained carefully neutral though he did not know how the human would take his straight forward answer. After living on Earth and interacting with humans on a regular basis, he knew that his straight forward, and Vulcan way, of speaking could make them uncomfortable or be offended.
"Ha! That's fantastic! I've never met a man so straight to the point…well, maybe that guy." Scott jerked his head in Kirk's direction before cracking out in a huge grin. "So you've read my papers, have ye? Maybe we can have a little chat about my theories."
"I look forward to it."
Spock was relieved Scott was one of the few who were not put out by his manner of speaking. He was knocked out of his thoughts when a youthful voice butted in.
"Ooh, if it is not a problem, can I join that talk too?"
A young man walked over to their little group with an eager smile.
"Hey, kid, this is for teachers only." one of the men arched an eyebrow at him.
Spock studied the man out of the corner of his eye. He was a little bit older than the rest of them and he too carried a glass of some sort of alcohol. His voice indicated that he was perhaps from the southern part of this country. More than all of that, however, Spock noticed the way Kirk rested his arm on the man's shoulder. As such a gesture denoted familiarity, he assumed the two of them were friends.
"Da. I am a teacher. Well, I am actually a teacher's assistant, but I am going to be teaching a math class on my own." the young man corrected.
"Wait, how old are you and who are you anyways?" he asked incredulously.
The others focused their attention on the youngest teacher they had ever seen. Even Kirk seemed surprised at his youthful appearance.
"Sewenteen, going on eighteen. And I am Pavel Andreivich Chekov. A pleasure to meet you all." Chekov answered brightly and with a smile.
"So you're seriously going to be teaching math?" Kirk finally asked after remaining silent far too long.
Nodding his head energetically, Chekov beamed.
"I can vouch for Mr. Chekov's abilities. He has served as my teacher's assistant before and performed admirably." Spock interrupted. It was always difficult for most people to accept Chekov's abilities at first. However, Spock knew from first hand experience that they will soon think otherwise.
"Oh, well, if you say it, it must be true." the man grumbled sarcastically.
"Indeed. Vulcans do not lie." stated Spock.
Kirk had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at McCoy's expression. The disbelief on his face was plainly written for all to see. The others did not try as hard to suppress their amusement. Scott practically spewed his drink all over the place. What made it best was the absolutely blank expression and deadpan delivery on Spock's part.
"See Bones? It's got to be true." Kirk said as seriously as he could and then slapped him on the shoulder. "This is Doctor Leonard McCoy. He teaches anatomy and also helps the lovely school nurse, Christine Chapel."
A pretty young woman with blonde hair smiled sweetly and held out her hand towards Spock.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Spock. And don't mind the doctor here…he's a brilliant, cantankerous old man."
Spock and Chapel ignored the offended spluttering from McCoy as they shook hands. Shaking was another human gesture Spock did not care for but used nonetheless. Fortunately, Chapel had a gentler grip and only shook once before letting go.
"I am not an old man!" McCoy growled out with a huff.
"You don't deny the cantankerous part?" prodded Kirk.
Taking a huge gulp from his glass, McCoy smacked Kirk's arm off his shoulder.
"Hell no. I know I'm cantankerous. I deal with all of you on a regular basis."
This caused most of them to start laughing while McCoy pretended to be offended. Spock was left out of the loop between the apparent inside joke and his inability to properly understand the doctor. Seeing this confusion, one of the others broke off their laughter and scooted closer to him.
"Don't worry. You'll get used to him. His bark is worse than his bite. I'm Hikaru Sulu by the way." the man called Sulu spoke genially and held out his hand. "I teach biology and whatever other life sciences need teaching."
Shaking his hand, Spock was pleased to meet another person on the more tame side.
"You boys sure know now to make a racket. I can hear you from the other side of the room."
Spock's attention became riveted by the speaker. She was a young woman with dark skin and dark hair. Her eyes showed a certain kind of intelligence and her stance told him that she was confident.
"Okay, hearing us from across the room isn't that big of a deal when you can hear me breathing under a bed, you know." Kirk grinned suggestively at her.
She rolled her eyes in exasperation that was off set by the small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to Spock.
"I hope these idiots haven't been causing you too much of a problem." She smiled sweetly at Spock who responded in the negative.
"They have caused me no difficulties and given that they are teachers at this school, they cannot be idiots."
He was not surprised when she started laughing softly when he spoke. Most humans did, but what she said next surprised him.
"You're right. They're not idiots. They know their stuff it's just that they can be…duhsu."
It was not often that Spock heard his language from a human and so well spoken at that. He immediately realized this was the language teacher Kirk referred to when he first greeted him in Vulcan.
"Nyota Uhura wimish." she continued to speak in Vulcan.
"Spohkh wimish. Dif-tor heh smusma." Spock responded in kind. There was something comforting about being able to hold a conversation with another person in his native language.
"Hey, how come you gave him your first name so easily?" Kirk whined pathetically. He feigned a pained fist to his heart. "That's cold."
Uhura shook her head and tweaked his ear causing him to let out a little yelp.
"Grow up, Kirk. It's my name and I can give it out to whomever I please."
Kirk ruefully rubbed his ear but could no longer suppress his grin. Spock cocked an eyebrow. There was clearly some sort of detail regarding Uhura's given name that he was not privy to and did not know if he wanted to. It was well enough she gave him a name and in Vulcan no less. As much as he did not want to admit it, and of course he would never admit it aloud, he was impressed by the teachers at this school.
"Wow Spock, you should be proud. First Christine and now Uhura." joked Kirk with a wink.
Spock had no idea what he was talking about. As far as he was concerned, he treated the females exactly how he treated the males. Then again, with Kirk, he was never sure what was going on.
"You know, they probably find the glasses sexy." supposed Kirk.
An eyebrow shot up to his hairline when he heard that.
"You are making a human jest?" Spock asked suspiciously.
Kirk was caught off guard by his question. He recalled that the Vulcan was unaccustomed to human joking, and probably any kind of joking. But what made him leery was the way Spock was regarding him with the most intensely guarded non-expression. Even though he had no idea what he should say, he knew it would be best to just speak truthfully.
"Yeah, I was making a joke, but you know, I wasn't actually making fun of you for wearing them or anything. They work for you."
Thankfully, Spock lightened up a little bit so Kirk took that to mean all was well. The only thing Kirk could not understand was the confused expression on Spock's face. Before he could ask, Spock beat him to it.
"My glasses are not animated thereby exerting no energy. They do what they do as they were intended. Glasses cannot work."
Kirk grinned along with all the others. However, he figured he would not be able to explain it very well.
"How about you take it, Miss Uhura? I'm sure you'd explain it better as our language expert. I apparently use too many metaphors or something."
Rolling her eyes again, Uhura smirked and then turned to Spock.
"He's just saying those glasses look good on you. And I think so too."
Nurse Chapel also nodded her head in agreement. The others just watched Spock with amusement and curiosity. He did not seem to know what to do with the sudden attention.
"Hey, kid, he always so stiff and formal like that?" McCoy asked Chekov.
"This is the most welaxed I have ever seen Mr. Spock. Actually, I am wery surprised he even came. He never does things like this." explained Chekov.
"Really? Never?" Kirk asked incredulously.
"Never. He is a wery reserved person. He said so himself. Right, Mr. Spock?"
"Indeed. The current situation I find myself is most uncharacteristic."
Kirk and the others were surprised at Spock's swift answer. They had been speaking in soft tones and did not think the Vulcan could hear them let alone follow their conversation. Apparently Chekov did not see fit to tell them Spock would be able to hear them.
"I have Vulcan hearing." Spock stated in a matter of fact tone.
"Meaning it's a lot better than all of yours so watch yourselves." Uhura added with a playful lilt to her voice.
"Great. Two people with super hearing." McCoy grumbled with mock despair.
They continued to banter back and forth while Spock allowed himself to listen in but not participate in. There were still too many unknowns for him to participate in these types of conversations in a suitable manner. But he was comfortable with it. Observing was far more appealing to him than participation. So caught up with studying each of the teachers and their conversations, Spock almost did not hear the question aimed towards him.
"So what hobbies does a fellow like you have, Mr. Spock?" Scotty asked with an overly eager glint in his eyes.
"I am interested in poetry, art, music, literature, and I spend most of my free time playing three-dimensional chess." he listed them off with ease.
He was immediately surprised when Kirk let out a loud whoop.
"Haha! Suckers! That means he's mine!!"
McCoy rolled his eyes dramatically along with Uhura. The others looked defeated. Humans were so illogical and now Spock wondered what he just got into by admitting his hobbies.
"I fail to see how or why you are staking claim on me. Please clarify."
Sulu took pity on the confused Vulcan.
"See, every teacher here is involved with some sort of club, usually dealing with their hobbies. A lot of times, there's more than one of us to a club depending on the amount of students." he shrugged and continued, "Jim heads the chess club. You play chess therefore he's deemed you part of the chess club."
"I see…" Spock replied.
Scott immediately chimed in.
"It's not set in stone. You can choose anything you want…like advanced engineering physics per chance?"
"Or you can join the fencing club. I'm sure you'd be great at it." Sulu quickly added.
"Languages would benefit greatly by having a native Vulcan speaker." interjected Uhura.
"Guess I'll whore myself out as well." McCoy, in his normal gruff manner, asked, "How about you be part of my xenobiology club? That green blood of yours will be interesting enough."
Spock was overwhelmed and fascinated at all of their attempts to make their respective clubs appeal to him. While many of them sounded interesting enough, Spock could not deny chess' appeal.
"Back off bitches, this one's mine." Kirk triumphantly growled out with a goofy grin.
He slung his arm over Spock's shoulders and pulled his body towards him. Spock immediately stiffened under the contact.
Once again, the doctor made a huge show of rolling his eyes while Uhura and the others shook their heads.
"Kirk, give them man a choice before you get all territorial."
Kirk was about to make a quip but then he realized how tense Spock's shoulders were. He immediately retracted his arm and shot Spock an apologetic glance. Nudging his glasses, Spock took a fraction of a moment to recollect his thoughts.
"While Mr. Kirk's declarations are crude and unruly, he is correct in his assumption."
Having now declared his intention to join the chess club, the others were slightly disappointed. They guessed that the chess club was going to be the most interesting club this year. Kirk and Spock had no doubts about it.
A/N: Third part of the story. I'm happy everybody has been enjoying it thus far. Hopefully it will remain enjoyable. Written late at night and could potentially have lots of mistakes. With any luck there won't really be many. whatever. As always reviews, comments, questions welcome. Happy reading.
Don't be out of your Vulcan mind,
~Tofu