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This Chapter continues directly after the events of the last (Alex is headed to lunch with Pierre and his friends)
Lunch with Pierre and his friends was, surprisingly, absolutely fantastic. They were all very, very French, and it was refreshing to hear so many European accents in one place. The constant American voices all around me were making me miss home.
Pierre's friends consisted of two blonde twins, one male one female, Alec and Jasmine, who were both studying Interplanetary Law and Relations, a tall, skinny brunette girl with eyes the colour of ash called Belle, who was in her third year of Xenolinguistics and the cocky and assured Liam, an attractive jock, who was almost finished his course in Physiotherapy.
Pierre introduced me as 'Alex, the English doctor,', and everyone had welcomed me instantly. We all got to know each other well within the first half hour of lunch, and within no time at all, we were all laughing and sharing jokes.
"There is a belle of a boy in my endochrinology class," Pierre exclaimed to the group as he sipped on a caramel mocha, "Is there not, Alex?"
I rolled my eyes sarcastically, taking another bite of my sandwich, he was talking about Jason, the paper-aeroplane making 'dreamboat' that he had spotted during our menstrual cycle lecture.
"He's certainly made an impression on you," I joked, nudging Pierre in the side and earning a laugh
from Jasmine and Alec.
"Pierre, my darling, you are insatiable," Jasmine cooed in her strong French accent, batting her eyelashes comically.
She was almost painfully beautiful, Jasmine. Her long blonde hair tumbled perfectly around her heart-shaped face in carefully arranged curls, and her emerald eyes, lined flawlessly with kohl, shone from her face when she spoke. What was it about the French and producing ridiculously attractive people?
Pierre merely laughed and finished his coffee in one long draught, before checking the time on his watch.
"I'm off, my lovelies," he said, packing up his bag and standing up, his chair scraping on the clean linoleum floors, "Dissection awaits."
"Enjoy…" I muttered, and he pulled a face. I knew what he meant. Dissection could be interesting and enjoyable, but never on a full stomach. I was lucky enough to not have any dissection classes straight after lunch this year, thank my lucky stars.
He mimed sticking two fingers down his throat, and grimaced at me.
"I 'ope to see you again, Alex," he smiled at me.
"You too, Pierre," I responded honestly.
"You know what, I should probably be heading off too…" muttered Belle, smiling at me and hoisting her bag over her shoulder, "I don't suppose my essay on the cultural differences between Vulcan and Earth is going to write itself…"
I laughed, "Good luck, see you in a bit!"
One by one the group got up and left to go to their lessons, until I was eventually left on my own on the large table. I had a free period, and was planning on using it to my advantage. Getting my satchel out from underneath the table, I removed my PADD and opened up the e-mail that Professor Spock had sent our maths class.
"Complete the following equations, giving your answers in exact form where possible"
I glanced over the equations and smiled to myself. They seemed easy enough, just a bit of factorising and integrating. I was glad that I had bought my graphical calculator that morning, something told me that it was going to be helpful.
I worked quickly, undistracted by the constant chatter of students in the busy cafeteria. Maybe maths wasn't going to be such a terrible subject after all.
I had finished most of the questions within an hour, to my surprise. Something told me that the rest of this year certainly wouldn't be as easy, the Professor probably gave us some simple questions to ease us into the year.
I sighed to myself and figured that I should probably pack my stuff up and head back home, I certainly hadn't got much sleep last night, so I'd have to catch up tonight. At least I wouldn't be greeted at my door by a naked Jim Kirk, I hoped. I'd been pretty clear to him this morning, asking him to be gone by the time that I got back. It wasn't that I had a problem with his relationship with T'yonga, quite the opposite, I was happy that she finally had what seemed to be a decent guy in her life, but sometimes, I just needed a bit of girl-time.
I rooted around in my bag for any loose change, and luckily stumbled upon a few quarters and dimes. Brilliant. Just enough for a coffee. I walked up to the counter, bringing my heavy bag in tow.
"One black coffee, please."
"Not a problem, that will be $2.00 please."
I smiled and handed the checkout woman my handful of warm change, "Sorry," I muttered, as she counted each coin out individually.
She laughed, "Don't worry about it, dear. I'm always in need of change."
An unexpected voice came from behind me, causing me to jump.
"Do you have my salad, Martha? I'm very sorry for my unpunctuality, I got caught up marking papers."
I recognised the low monotonous voice instantly and froze. Shit. Why did I keep bumping into this guy? Had I been a murderer in a past life or something?
"Of course, Commander Spock, I'll just finish serving this young lady and get it for you."
She turned away from us and busied herself at the coffee machine, leaving myself and the Professor stood in painful silence. After a few seconds of awkward quiet, I realised that refusing to look around and acknowledge his presence would just be seen as rude, so I bit the bullet and put on my best smile.
"Professor Spock." I said politely, nodding in respect, as the woman, Martha, turned back and handed me a hot cup of black coffee.
"Thank you,"
I gave her another smile, then turned to the Vulcan, "Goodbye Professor."
Time to get the ever-loving hell out of there. The last thing that I needed to do was make the Vulcan hate me more than he inevitably already did.
"Cadet," he called out after me, and I froze, and turned back around to face him, trying to mask my annoyance. I just wanted to get home, I didn't need another lecture on my shortcomings.
"I trust that you have completed the work assigned to you for tomorrow's lecture?" he said in a neutral tone.
"Yes, Sir," I responded, with equal neutrality, "I just completed it before."
"And how did you find it?" he continued, swiping his ID badge on the counter to pay for his salad, a bland, tasteless looking concoction compromising solely of lettuce, tomatoes and avocado.
"Not too difficult," I replied, "I was alright with most of the questions."
He nodded, "Very well. I will see you tomorrow in class. I hope that you'll actually manage to make it on time this time. If there is one thing that I dislike above all else, it is unpunctuality, and you were two minutes late for my lesson yesterday. I trust that it will not happen again?"
I was surprised by the outburst to say the least, for a Vulcan, it was almost… emotive.
"Of course, Sir. My apologies, Sir." I might as well be polite.
"Good." He said simply, "I do not need the tardiness of one foolish cadet to impact upon my teaching, or the learning of others."
"I understand completely Sir. I'll be on time tomorrow." I was pretty sure that I had flushed a burning red colour by this point, surely such public humiliation was unnecessary for being just two minutes late for a lecture…
"Very well." He replied, turning away from me and thanking Martha, the cashier, "And you may want to check your assignment. I somehow doubt that you have answered everything correctly."
He just wasn't going to let up on me, was he?
"You are dismissed." He said cooly.
I nodded again, and turned on my heels, before speed-walking to the exit as fast as I could, the coffee cup burning the inside of my palm. I took a long swig, the black liquid scalding my throat as I swallowed. Well, he hated me that much was certain. Why was he so certain that I was unable to do the work that he had set for me? Surely, I was just as capable as any other student from my class? I grumbled to myself as I stepped out of the door into the pouring rain.
Perfect. Just perfect.
Sighing to myself and shrugging my bag to my other shoulder, I set off home.
By the time I got back to the flat, James Kirk was, thankfully, gone. I was greeted instead with a hug so violent it almost knocked me off my feet.
"He's the oooooooooonnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeee!" Sang T'yonta, her shrill voice ringing in my ears as I struggled to hold onto all of my belongings.
She finally let go and bounced over to the kitchen table, pouring me a mug of tea.
"Have a seat, my darling," she warbled at me, plonking me down onto the chair opposite her, and immediately reeling off into a long rant about the perfection of her new, official, boyfriend. I zoned out and drank my tea, nodding and occasionally adding a 'hmm' or a 'yeah' in the right place, to convince her that she had my undivided attention.
Eventually the conversation dragged to a stop, and she turned her attention back to me.
"You never explain why you hate that Vulcan so much, Alex."
Well, that was blunt and to the point.
I rolled my eyes at her.
"He seems to have completely dismissed me as a possible form of intelligent life." I stated simply, "He had a massive stress at me for being, like, one minute late to his first lecture, and not having that goddamn calculator. And then when I apologise to him today, he just acts as if his treatment of me was completely justified. As if he's so much higher and mightier than me. He basically told me today in the cafeteria that he didn't think I was up for the course. 'I doubt that you've got it right' my arse, he just hates me because I'm not as organised as a fucking COMPUTER!"
I hadn't realised it, but my voice had slowly built up to a crescendo, and soon I was yelling at the top of my lungs. A look of complete shock was plastered onto T'yonga's face, she had never seen me so angry before.
"Babe…" she muttered, and I sighed to myself.
"I'm sorry, 'yonga," I apologised for my outburst, "He's just managed to really piss me off."
"Don't pay him any heed, hun," she reassured, patting me gingerly on the shoulder, as if she was worried that I was about to take a bite out of her hand, "I'm off out. Care to join me?"
I shook my head smiling. After last night, I wasn't sure that I could handle another night out for the next month.
"Also, T'y," I enquired, turning around to her as she rooted around for her shoes, "Where in the hell did I get this love-bite from?"
She roared in laughter, tossing her head back, her red curls bouncing as she guffawed, "Some first year engineering student, he was attached to your neck like a fucking limpet."
"Why didn't you save me?!" I asked indignantly, "I had to walk around with a hickie on my neck all day!"
Her eyes widened.
"Did the Vulcan see?" I could see that she was trying not to laugh.
"YES!" I shouted, "YES HE BLOODY WELL DID!"
She laughed again, coming over to me and ruffling my hair, "You poor darling, you."
"Thank you for the resounding sympathy," I deadpanned sarcastically, as she skipped away, slipping on a pair of stilettos and grabbing her handbag.
"Well, you looked like you were enjoying yourself…" she defended herself weakly, "You'll probably be asleep by the time I get back, but I'll tell Jim hi from you…"
"Tell him that next time he stays over, he better wear pants. I don't want to be greeted with that view again in the morning."
She giggled shamelessly and blew a kiss in my direction, before slipping out of the door, leaving me sat on my own.
I sat in silence for a while, before reaching into my bag and pulling out my homework assignment, my scrawled handwriting spidering over the A4 pages of lined, white paper.
I guess it wouldn't hurt just to check it over, just once…
Thanks for reading, as always, and please, please, please (I cannot stress this enough) PLEASE review so I know if I'm on the right track with this.
