CHAPTER 8
Jimmy woke up when the early morning sun shined through his eyelids and blinked rapidly. He almost groaned and slumped back down from his attempt at sitting up. It was summer vacation back on Earth and he usually slept in late on the weekends, considering he had to help out on the small farm he lived on during the weekdays, summer vacation or not.
After last night his stomach had been content, finally, after a couple days of not eating anything from the fear that the berries may be poisonous. He lifted his head up from the ground and glanced around the little camp, taking note that his two companions were still asleep.
'They must have tired out from all the excitement and blood loss,' thought Jimmy as he looked at the relaxed faces of the Vulcan and human boys. Spock was lying on his right side facing the place where they had the fire, which was now ash and partially burned sticks. His face was almost serene and looked as if he was pondering some deeper meaning. Leonard, on the other hand, was lying on his back and seemed to have a very faint smile on his lips with his arms by his sides.
'Spock! I was so worried about you! Don't EVER do that again! You worry us every time you run off like that!' Amanda reprimanded.
'I apologize, Mother,' said a young Spock. He ran into his mother's arms and hugged her.
Sarek stood from the doorway of their home and gave a disapproving look to his son. Spock quickly let go of his mother and Amanda had a faint sorrowful look from having the hug cut short.
'Spock, do not run off. It leaves your mother worried and reflects poorly on yourself. Do not give in to emotional impulses,' Sarek seemed to say coldly. Amanda looked up at Sarek from her crouched position and gave him a slight, angry look. Spock was, after all, half human, half hers. She wanted Spock to be happy and be spoiled rotten like human children are in comparison to Vulcan children. But Sarek prevented that, Amanda had agreed to live on Vulcan and abide by Vulcan tradition. But Spock had not even voiced his opinion of either wanting to be a human or a Vulcan.
'Go to your room and continue your studies,' ordered Sarek.
Spock gave his father a nod and now had a solemn look on his little face.
Spock woke up and opened his eyes to the morning sunlight. It was about half an hour from when Jimmy awoke. Spock's muscles were stiff from sleeping on the ground and he was just about to stretch when his back angrily protested and reminded him of the day before. Spock, however, kept a calm face and stopped from stretching and instead sat up. His sharp eyes made a quick study of the area around them and found Leonard still sleeping, which made sense since he had lost so much more blood than Spock had. Spock also heard and saw that Jimmy was bathing in the stream, which didn't seem a bad idea to Spock.
To Spock's disdain, he found himself feeling tired still and a little weak. He had eaten the night before and got some sleep, but most of his night was spent dreaming memories of his younger self and gave him a restless night.
Spock finally stood up and took off his pants, leaving him in his underwear and walked to the stream. Jimmy noticed Spock and waved.
"Good morning, Spock!" said Jimmy cheerfully.
"Good morning," answered Spock with a nod. His mother had ingrained into him the use of pleasantries. Spock gingerly stepped into the stream until the water reached his waist. He then started methodically started cleaning himself in the water being careful with his back and how he moved his arms.
Jimmy finished his bath and had already started drying off and checked on Leonard. He saw that Leonard was still sleeping and now had a silly grin on his face that made Jimmy wonder what he was dreaming about.
At that moment Leonard was having a nice dream about a girl named Jocelyn. She was a girl at school that he had a crush on. And right now, in his dream, they were walking together, hand in hand, through a field and came to rest in the shade of a very large tree. He was admiring the way her light brown hair glittered gold from the few beams of sunlight that made it through the leaves of the tree and her dark blue eyes. Jocelyn had captured his icy blue eyes with her dark ones and they started slowly leaning towards each other when everything brightened and Leonard found himself groaning in disappointment.
Leonard felt a little disoriented and wondered where he was as his eyes opened. Then he remembered the events of the last three days.
"So, you're finally awake. I was wondering when you would," Jimmy told Leonard. "Were you having a good dream?"
Blood rushed to Leonard's face and he hoped to God that he didn't talk in his sleep.
"Uh, it was nothing," said Leonard, trying in vain to hide his blush. "So, uh, what's for breakfast?"
But Jimmy was not about to be put off and felt like poking at Leonard.
"C'mon! You were smiling like crazy. That can't be nothing. Besides, you're blushing!"
"You're talkin' like a madman," Leonard said defensively, now furiously blushing.
"See! You're still blushing!" Jimmy crowed. "What was the dream about? Was it about your GUURL friend?"
"I don't have a 'girlfriend'!" Leonard yelled, his face still burning.
Spock was walking out of the steam, disturbed from his peaceful bath from the racket the two human boys were making over "girlfriends". He almost permitted himself to sigh. Almost.
The trio were quietly eating around their stoked up fire, a startling change from the previous scene with two rowdy human boys and Spock getting nervous and wondering if he should sedate them both. Luckily it didn't come to that and they sat down to eat.
Leonard still had a slight blush, but this time it was accompanied by a smug grin. Jimmy was unusually quiet and had a faint red mark on part of his cheek and neck… where he had been smacked upside the head by Leonard. Spock was usually quiet anyway, but he worried if he should be worried about their behaviour. Vulcans didn't hit puberty until their twenties, but they learned anatomy in school along with xenobiology. He wondered if testosterone had a hand in the human boys' behaviour.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: As Visage had reminded me by saying that s/he hoped they were the third to write a review for me to post up my next chapter. Sorry for the delay because Midnight Dove was actually the third reviewer for Chapter 7. I'm having some writer's block so I'm sorry this chapter is short. Doctor, sorry I haven't gotten Chap 9 out yet, I'll figure something out.
Thanks to everyone for reviewing, it makes me get off my lazy butt faster to try to get the next chapter out sooner.
-Lea aka LSR_7