As Felicity walked back to her dorm, it wasn't too hard for her to hear the loud electronic music that blasted off in the distance. The loud sounds belonged to a party that stirred in one of the dorms across campus. That party, in particular, was the Party of the Year. It was the Party that marked the beginning of the new school year at Starfleet Academy. It was an event hosted and planned by upperclassmen. Every cadet on campus was invited especially the newly arrived cadets. They were the rookies who had just gotten a taste of Academy life. And, with the Party of the Year, they could expect a three course meal of Academy life. Plus, first year cadets could expect a fast and friendly welcome accompanied with tons of alcohol and a night that was guaranteed by upperclassmen to be a night to remember.
But, of course, that was a lie. All party attendees would most likely not remember a thing from the night before as guaranteed by the alcohol. However, the event was nonetheless, an "unofficial" campus festivity. It had yet to be sponsored by The Academy. And, would most likely never ever be. Ever since Felicity was a little girl, the party was something that took part on the night of new student orientation every year. As a young girl, Felicity had asked her father several times about the nature of the event, but he'd always managed to brush off her question with a simple answer, "It's just cadets being cadets." Her father's answer only sufficed Felicity's question for a couple of years. However, when Felicity turned fourteen, she finally understood the nature of the event when her curiosity got the best of her. Her father was off-planet at the time when she finally garnered an opportunity to see what the Party was all about. The opportunity required that Felicity climb a tree in order to see through one of the dormitory windows. She immediately regretted her decision as soon as she fell from the tree branch to land in the bushes at the foot of the tree. As a result, Felicity's curiosity earned her a twisted ankle and a couple of scrapes. But, before the fall, Felicity managed to see strobe lights, cadets becoming extremely intimate with one another in the crowded room while a couple of cadets vomited in trash cans attached to various corners of the room. So, now as a nineteen year old, she absolutely had no interest in attending the festivity across campus. Besides, why would she attend?
Felicity didn't want to spend her first night on campus drunk out of her mind. On top of that, the last thing Felicity wanted to do was be in the presence of intoxicated cadets. And, Felicity knew just as well that the Party of the Year was really just an opportunity for cadets to sleep with one another. And, sex wasn't in the cards for Felicity. Frankly, Felicity felt that sex was something a little more special than just a one night stand and should be treated as such. At her core, Felicity was a romantic, although she would never admit it. So, when Felicity's roommate, Ariel, tried to convince her to come along and join the festivities, Felicity had to respectfully decline. Sure, maybe it would have given Felicity the chance to know her roommate better. But, Felicity concluded she'd have the whole semester to become familiar with her roommate. After all, it was a lot better than spending one night attempting to talk over loud music, cadets chugging beer and crude public displays of affection. Felicity could think of much better things to do. As a matter of fact, Felicity managed to do just that by choosing to go to the campus library.
To anyone else, the benefits of going to a college party outweighed the benefits that belonged to visiting a library. But, to Felicity, the bookshelves filled with tangible archaic items were much friendlier and pleasant to Felicity compared to the smell and wandering hands of drunk classmates. The calm and quiet atmosphere was also far superior to the noisy and cramped atmosphere of the crowded apartment of whatever senior was reckless enough to let others invade his or her apartment for the night. Additionally, after a full day of lectures on Starfleet Academic policies, she had grown tiresome of being around so many cadets. Especially since, none of them were James Tiberius Kirk.
Every face she looked into that day wasn't the one she wanted to see. It seemed as if she was bending over backwards for a misfit cadet who got into bar fights. She wasn't sure if he even made it to the shuttle. Yet, she still managed to care about whether he did or didn't make it. And, she wasn't sure why. All the signs said that Felicity should move on and not waste her time on someone like Kirk. A person who was far from perfect. And, even so, she still cared. The only person she could blame for her persistence in caring about Kirk was her father. Her father had faith in Kirk. And, somehow Felicity had managed to develop her own faith in James Tiberius Kirk as well. "I am my father's daughter after all," Felicity mumbled as she opened the book she borrowed from the library.
The time Felicity spent in the library passed significantly as she found herself lost in the book she plucked from the Ancient Civilizations section. For some reason, she had developed a keen interest in the Greek myths. Decidedly, Felicity picked up an edition of Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Although Hamilton was a twenty-first century writer, Felicity found that Hamilton had a straightforward way of commenting on the Greek Gods as well as the various tales of adventure and love that stemmed from Greek mythos. The Greek Gods, in particular, fascinated Felicity. They were very much far from perfect celestial beings. As a matter of fact, they were perfect in being imperfect. For instance, Zeus, the paramount and strongest God of them all, was a serial adulterer who fell in love with one woman after the next even though he was a married man. Still, in spite of his flaws, Zeus still remained in the hearts and minds of the ancient Greeks. Zeus' situation was not unlike what took place with other Greek celestials as the people still devoted themselves to them despite their flaws. But, maybe their devotion stemmed out of both fear and admiration. It wasn't hard for human beings to experience emotions that contradicted one another. Human beings even back then were complex. Felicity could only imagine how repulsed Vulcans would be by the Ancient Greeks. Vulcans would probably be more repulsed by humans back then compared to the humans of today. A funny thought suddenly crossed Felicity's mind. She snickered, if Zeus actually existed today something told her that he would have no trouble fitting in with the party that stirred across campus. He would also have no issue with finding a mortal woman to sleep with.
Without taking her eyes from her book, Felicity entered the code to enter her dorm room. "Lights," Felicity commanded as she entered her residence. Each dorm was designed to be a simple living space outfitted with two beds, two desks, two closets, two drawer cabinets and one bathroom. All of the dorms on campus were virtually the same. The on campus residencies only had the necessities to encourage studying. Essentially, the dorms were designed to mimic the quarters of a starship. The simplistic design of the dorm rooms, primarily served as a benefit since roommates didn't have to argue over ridiculous things such as what side of the room belonged to whom. Of course, there would most likely be other types of problems to occur between roommates. These problems included discussions over which roommate got to use the bathroom first in the morning or what the rules were about bringing guys back to the dorm. Luckily for Felicity, Ariel didn't seem too picky about anything. Ariel also didn't seem like the promiscuous type.
Then again, Felicity didn't know much about Ariel. All Felicity knew about her roommate was the information revealed through Ariel's student profile. The last time Felicity checked Ariel's profile, it didn't reveal anything about her personality or her sex habits. Felicity began to regret not going to the party with Ariel. Maybe it was the perfect opportunity to get to know Ariel better. As Felicity crossed the threshold, she heard the shower running inside of the bathroom. Ariel must be back, Felicity inferred, maintaining focus on her book as she walked slowly into the room.
As it turned out, the Greeks had gone to great lengths to make the Gods in their own human image. Since that was the case, Felicity realized, it was quite obvious as to why a majority of the Olympians were physically perfect such as Apollo, the God of Light. When Felicity came across Hamilton's description of Apollo, Felicity was greeted by a photograph of a marble sculpture of Apollo waited on hand and foot by six marble nymphs. Apollo sat comfortably with a naked torso and his waist just barely covered with a loincloth. The sculptor spared no expense in detailing Apollo's lean muscular physique. Even Felicity had to admit, the marble statue did justice to Apollo's Godlike appearance. If Apollo was real, the girls would certainly fawn over him. Maybe even I would become caught in his spell, Felicity thought momentarily before her foot got caught in something that lied on the floor. The unknown object forced Felicity to remove her gaze from the book as she frustratingly turned her gaze to the carpet in order to investigate what it was that caused her to trip.
Looking behind her, she saw various pieces of clothing scattered on the carpet. From one glance at the spattered bits of clothing, Felicity already knew the clothing did not belong to her. The see through bra and panties especially did not belong to Felicity. Logically, the clothing could only belong to one other person...Ariel! When Felicity looked at her roommate's bed, Felicity saw that it was drastically unmade. The sheets and pillows were unusually misplaced. Felicity knitted her eyebrows together, Please don't let this be what I think it looks like.
Felicity didn't want to look around the room any further and closed her eyes to pray, Please God… don't let this be what I think it is. When Felicity opened her eyes again, she received an answer to her prayer. But, it wasn't the answer she wanted because Felicity's answer came in the form of boxer briefs that lied in front of her bed. And, those are definitely not mine!
Felicity quickly realized she needed to have a long talk with Ariel regarding bringing guys back to the room. That was certainly a conversation both of them needed to have. Promptly, Felicity's ears perked up to the sound of the shower turning off. To Felicity's relief, it seemed that Ariel was almost done in the bathroom. As Felicity waited for Ariel to get out of the bathroom, Felicity caught a glimpse of a black object from the corner of her eye. Felicity turned to her bed and saw what looked to be a black leather jacket strewn across it. She walked over to her bed and picked up the leather grasping it within her fingers. Felicity tilted her head forward. The leather was suspiciously familiar.
In a moment's time, the bathroom door slid open. "Ariel," Felicity said, still focused on the jacket that lied in her hands. "We really need to establish some ground rules on bringing guys back to the dorm."
"Well," said a voice that certainly did not belong to Felicity's roommate. "I hope you two can have that conversation until after I'm gone."
Jolted by whomever had exited her bathroom, Felicity quickly turned around to face the stranger. Surprisingly, Felicity was now face to face with the real life counterpart of the mugshot she had seen the night before. However, unexpectedly, Felicity was seeing more of the blue eyed genius repeat offender she had ever expected to see. Felicity felt her cheeks turn red in embarrassment. From where she stood, Felicity payed witness to his lean naked chest and toned stomach as he stood with nothing but a towel tied around his waist. Seeing Felicity's expression, he looked down towards his body as if he forgot about how naked he was. "And…until after I'm dressed," he nervously chuckled.
Felicity remained silent with flushed cheeks.
"I'm…Jim Kirk…," he said with a bashful smile.