There was an open table in the dining room, and Beverly aimed straight for it, pretending not to notice the beckoning waves of her friends and classmates. She didn't feel like talking to them or eating right now, though she had gotten an apple from the replicator, in an effort not to look odd. The only thing she wanted to do right now was be alone, the same thing she had wanted for the past two weeks since Mina's arrival. That possibility, however, looked to be about as promising as the rest of her days had been lately: not at all.

All of the Cadets who had seen her enter, her anger draped over her like a shroud, stayed well away from her. Whether it was out of respect for her feelings, or out of fear, Beverly wasn't quite certain. Her luck ran out, however, when Cadet Data entered the room. Spotting a nearly empty table, he headed straight for it, seemingly unaware of the hostility the red head radiated. "Is this seat taken?" He asked the question with his customary politeness, and waited, patiently, for her answer.

"No, not at all, Cadet Data, sit down, please." Data obliged willingly, and stared blankly into her frustrated face. He had met Beverly before, and, had he been human, he would have been positively worried at the abrupt disappearance of her normally light-hearted attitude. Seeing as he was, however, incapable of emotions, he merely asked, doing his best to sound concerned, "Is something troubling you, Cadet Howard?"

She moaned softly, and thrust her head into her pale hands, the knuckles turning white with strain. "You may call me Data." he said helpfully.

"Data," she began, sounding aghast and agitated, "The last two weeks have been the worst time of my entire stay here at the Academy, so far, and I don't think it will ever get any better."

"Why is that, Beverly?" Though she hadn't given permission for the used of her first name, he took it in stride that that fact was largely, if not utterly, due to her audastic anger, and measurable despair.

"I got a new roommate, and she is simply aw…" her voice trailed off, and her gold skinned companion allowed his yellow eyes to follow her gaze across the spacious dining hall. "Oh no." she moaned, barely audibly, even to the android.

"What is it?" Data had no idea why the appearance of this particular Cadet could cause her to react so strongly, for he found no difference between her and the others that had recently entered. He observed everyone else's reactions intently, hoping to discover what had led to Beverly's sudden change.

The room had suddenly become quieter, and the majority of the remaining voices were female, he noted. Many of the males had stopped eating, and were gazing intently at the newcomer, some letting unchewed food dangle from the corners of their mouths. Beverly continued to cradle her head in her hands.

"That's her. That's Mina." She whispered, her voice brimming with clear contempt. "My roommate," she added as an afterthought, though it was rather unnecessary.

"She appears to have provoked an emotional response amongst our fellow cadet's." he said, thought it was rather a moot point, he could tell from the look on her face she had, undoubtedly, known as much.

The blond woman headed in their direction, walking pointedly, each movement adding to the already thick cloud of snobbish attitude that seemed to bloom from her. She stopped curtly at the table's end, looked Beverly over with a glance, and said in a warm, open voice, "May I join you?"

Data weighed the situation carefully, taking the matter from each vantage point, and decided to remain the mediator, if it came to that. He strongly suspected that if this obviously planned confrontation between the two women became a feud, they would keep it quiet, if only for the purpose of allowing it to continue, unannounced.

Beverly, for what it was worth, answered momentarily, as though she had been planning for this all along, a thought, Data presumed, not too far from the truth. "Actually, I wanted to be alone." Her voice was charming in a strange way, like sugar in coffee.

Mina was dubious, and uncharmed. "You don't look like you're alone." Her voice was amused, and she looked as though she were considering launching an all out assault against Howard, who wore an exhausted, falsetto smile.

"Well, mostly alone. Please, go sit somewhere else, we were in the middle of an important conversation." Beverly was lying through her teeth, and Data wasn't sure if Mina noticed or not.

The android raised his hand, and opened his mouth to dispute Beverly's argument, and point out, that, they had, in fact, been talking about a problem which had now arisen, and, he felt, needed to be dealt with here and now. Her cold look stifled him, before the sound had even left his throat.

Neither woman moved, and the lounge grew measurably quieter as the Cadets awaited the moment when the preliminaries would end, and the real fighting begin. Data wasn't sure if they would even try to stop it, if, and when it did. The silence was deafening, and seemed to echo through the room, adding to the tension that was stretched so tightly it would have made a sound, had it been plucked.

After what had seemed to be an eternity, though it had only been seconds, the door hissed open again, reveling an upperclassmen, and an outstretched arm behind him, though the latter never entered. The new arrival stalked, nearly marching, to the table, which had now been circled by fight eager cadets, and clapped his hands loudly. The circle dissipated, as onlookers slunk away to their tables, trying to catch glances at what had been their focal point.

"What is going on here?" There was a hard edge to his voice, the kind garnered only by the experience of dealing with problems of this sort. His eyes first took in Mina, eyes widening slightly, then receding once again into dark slits. He looked across the table to Howard, and spoke in a concerned, yet inflexible voice, that was filled with unasked questions. "Beverly?"

Her blue eyes filled with sadness for a moment, as though she had unintentionally hurt someone, and then returned to the rigid, unrelenting undercurrent. Her voice was like granite, and the room's temperature dropped by degrees when she acknowledged him, though, Data thought, the hostility was not intended toward the other man. "Walker."

The human reached across the table, and stretched his hand to her, giving her a moment to think about the unspoken question, which was an order more than anything. At last she, wisely, took it, and he pulled her away with such force that she almost lost her footing, which would have caused her dignity to crash around her as well.

At last they exited through the parting doors, and Walker breathed a sigh of profound relief that Beverly hadn't heard Mina's triumphant snort, and her sarcastic name calling. He pushed Beverly into the wall lightly, and stood over her, his voice penetrating the thick air in a knife of authority, to which she succumbed. "What the blazes was that for? Do you know that if there had been a security detail in there you would have landed in the CO's office, and then back on wherever you came from. You are one lucky kid."

His words stung her, like a dagger to the heart. She gulped loudly, and he backed away, giving her room to think. At last she spoke, her eyes flashing angrily. "I'm not a kid!"

Keel exploded. "You are a kid. Just wait until you get out in the real world, and aren't floating through your first year anymore. See how grown up you feel then." He paused his lecture for breath, then continued, forcefully, "I didn't see anything in that cafeteria tonight that indicated to me that you were an adult. If you were, you wouldn't be fighting with your roommate. You can't get rid of her. There's nothing you can do. What crime did she commit against you anyway?"

"She," started Beverly, in a voice that sounded as though its soul purpose was ensuing combat, "Has been just plain rotten since the moment I met her. She tried to take my bed, and my side of the room. She is snobby and rude. And worst of all, she makes me feel like a nothing. Like I just don't matter."

"Beverly. It's going to be all right. These things happen. You two are just a bad match, like matter and antimatter. Put you together and, well...You had better watch out. This one may cost you the Academy, if you aren't careful. Think of it like handling a brain surgery, every move is potentially volatile, and the whole thing has to be done delicately, yet efficiently. Believe me, it will make you a better person."

Beverly looked disbelieving, and somewhat doubtful. Walker tried to break through her haze of frustration by introducing a new character into the plot. He hoped that didn't like to hold grudges against innocents for the crimes of others. "Now, to change the subject, and lighten things up, I know someone who I'd really like you to meet. Feel up to it?"

Apparently she was a master at holding grudges, although, he knew, he was guilty of this crime. "I don't know. Are you sure they were expecting a kid?" The last word rolled off her tongue in a wave of sarcasm, which he chose to ignore.

"Quite sure, although, I take back what I said, and I promise not to think of you as anything but an equal, saving, of course, formal protocol, from now on. Deal?" He extended his hand, and she somewhat grudgingly allowed a quick and perfunctory handshake, withdrawing her hand long before even professionalism had been exhausted. He sighed. She scowled.

Letting the moment lie dormant, he beckoned slowly with his right finger, and a man popped out of the shadows. He was tall, with a lanky, boyish frame, though well muscled. His brown hair was cut short, with a few strands crossing carelessly over the ill-done part. His hazel eyes glimmered with a vivid intelligence, and the grin spreading across his charming square-jawed face could only be called infectious. Beverly swallowed self-consciously.

Walker took a step forward, halting the assessment taking place between the two. "Beverly Howard, I would like you to meet Jack Crusher. Jack, Beverly." They shook hands lightly, cautiously drawing unspoken barriers, and stood about a meter apart, silent. Walker took it as a cue. "I have to study for my quantum mechanics test. See you guys later." He walked off quickly, rounding the bend in record time.

Beverly, who had always found taking charge of foreign situations to be a delightful activity, spoke first. "Eat?"

She had a plan working it's way through her head now. If Mina were to see her with Jack, who happened to be, in Beverly's eyes, one of the better looking Cadet's she had seen here at the Academy, perhaps her new roommates view of her would change. Maybe Mina would even have something to be jealous over. Beverly smiled, largely to herself.

"Not yet today, no." Jack answered. "But are you really sure you want to go back in there after what just happened, and I don't have enough money to go anywhere else around here..."

"We'll be fine. Don't worry. Come on." Bev led the way through the sliding door, with Jack following bewilderedly behind her. He was worried by this scheme, as the security detail had been off duty in the room for almost two hours now. To him, it was just inviting trouble.

Beverly walked deliberately to the food dispenser, and order a grilled cheese sandwich, another apple, and a glass of milk. Jack did the same, in a mild effort to impress her, and they walked together to an empty table near the trash receptacle.

The two made an effort at pleasant conversation for a while, Beverly stealing glances at a table on a direct diagonal intercept course from them.

"Say, isn't the Cadet Data's table?" Jack asked. "When did he get to be so popular?"

"It has nothing to do with Data." Beverly snapped the reply at him, and Jack was stung.

"Sorry." he said sarcastically.

"For what?"

She wasn't trying to be funny, she was serious. Jack decided she was preoccupied, and left it at that. He couldn't quite understand her. There were moments when she seemed like a great person, and then there were times like this, when she was so distracted, she probably wouldn't have noticed if he were to up and leave the table. It confused him enough, he was actually considering trying it.

Suddenly, Beverly began talking with huge amounts of enthusiasm, flaring her arms, and waving her hands wildly in the air. Jack began to wonder if she was literally crazy when a girl about her age walked up, and stood next to him. Beverly sat silent, and just looked. Jack also sat silent, but he stared.

"Hi. I'm Mina Coldwell." she said as though gasping for breath, "I see you've taken an interest in Beverly. I wouldn't bother with her, if I were you."

Jack, who's mind was now working at a much slower pace said "Hi." Then, suddenly, he seemed to snap out of it, and said, "Why?"

Mina leaned over and whispered something into Jack's ear that Beverly couldn't readily discern. Then she whispered "Bye." and went back to her table, throwing a triumphant glance at Beverly on the way.

"What did she tell you?" Jack said nothing. "What did she tell you?" Beverly demanded.

"Look, I have to go. I thought you were a nice person and all, but if I'd be helping you hurt Data by staying, then I think I'll just leave now." Jack looked appalled by the notion of Beverly's using him.

"WHAT!!!" She screamed as loud as she possibly could, and then lowered her voice to a semi-normal level. "You mean she told you I was dating Data?" Beverly had turned a peculiar shade of red by now, and she trembled in rage. Not even waiting for an answer, she stormed over to Mina's table, pulled her up by the front of the shirt, and introduced her fist to Mina's face. That done, she walked through the sliding door and into the hallway.

Jack followed her, and ran in pursuit of her fleeing form, trying desperately not to lose her in the maze of hallways and dorm rooms. He didn't quite succeed, and, with head shaking, he walked back to his room.

* * *

Beverly was not happy, a fact which she was continually reminded of when she looked over at Mina's side of the room. She didn't understand how the other girl could be so rude to her, and, at the same time, so kind and warm-hearted to everyone else. Her plan had backfired, and now she would be the laughingstock of the Academy.

She glanced at her own gleaming metal desk, and noticed a pile of disks lying atop it. Although studying was the last thing she wanted to do right now, she had responsibilities, and, for now, success was more important than whims of wanting to sleep, or to party, or to fight. Nothing could replace the time spent studying, she knew, and tomorrow's Terren Anatomy test promised to be a killer.

Troubled as she was, Beverly managed to log two hours, until she had sufficiently memorized the material.

As she turned off the light above her head, she noticed that Mina still hadn't come home.