Author's note: Wow, I have had a lot of arguments with rimmerslittlevoodoodoll over who is more obsessed about Chris Barrie, involving lots of picture swaps (and by picture swaps I mean that I stole every one she put up : P) – but I still got this done! Anyway, there are four names here you may recognise. They are, in no particular order, Sunrise over the Tango Factory (Bex), Raging Tree Trunk (Liz), rimmerslittlevoodoodoll (Robyn) and reddwarfaddict (Laura). I luv these guys so much and I want to commemorate them. So I have. Sorry about the weird ending but I wanted to finish it quickly; Laura helped me a LOT (thank you babe!) and I couldn't have done it without her. R&R please.
Gemma ran towards Rimmer's quarters as fast as she could, taking the long route so she could hopefully lose the kids who were chasing her. This plan worked for a while as she did lose them, but she hadn't accounted for the part where she had to walk past the Xpress lift – right past a group of children waiting for a ride home. If they saw her going in the wrong direction there would be questions, there was no doubt. She tried her best to sneak around them but it was too late.
"Hey!" one girl called out, "It's that kid who rebelled against Richardson!" Gemma froze.
"Oh yeah," another girl agreed.
"Woo! Rock on, girl!" yet another girl cheered. Gemma turned around to see four smiling faces. The fourth girl put a hand on Gemma's shoulder, "You're an icon, mate."
Gemma tried so hard not to smile.
"What's your name?" one asked.
"G-gemma."
"G-gemma? That's a strange name."
"No, Liz, her name is Gemma. You're just making her nervous."
"Shut up, no I'm not! I bet it's you with your chunky man fingers!"
"We have had this discussion…" she replied patiently.
"Liz, Bex," one of the others interjected, "Can we move on from this 'chunky man fingers' thing. It's getting old."
"Sorry, Robyn," they replied in unison.
"So, Gemma," the fourth girl asked her, "How did it feel to shout at the most evil teacher ever?"
"Err…"
"See!" Liz squeaked, "I'm not the only one making her nervous! Laura is as well!"
"Shut up, Liz!" Bex moaned.
"Right, fine, I'm going. I know when I'm not wanted," Liz said dramatically and stormed off down the corridor. The others let her.
"Aren't you going to go and see if she's OK?" Gemma asked quietly.
"Nah," Laura replied, "She's always doing this."
"If we had a quid for every time she walked off with no explanation…" Bex pondered to herself, but was cut off. She had been watching Liz walk down the corridor and she had crashed straight into Gary and Sam, the two toughest kids on the ship. Well, Sam was the toughest kid and Gary agreed with everything he said. Liz made a quick u-turn and headed back, but Sam grabbed her shoulder and span her back round.
"Hey, you'll look at me when I'm talking to you!" his voice was deep and menacing, "Have you seen a little kid around here? Red hair, small?" Liz shook her head firmly. Sam growled and looked up, "Never mind…" he said as his eye caught Gemma who cringed; these were the boys who were chasing her five minutes ago. They started walking towards her but Gary spotted someone else…
"Look, boss, it's that girl who took your seat at lunchtime," he said pointing at Robyn.
"Ah, so it is. Well, you've got a nerve showing up around here haven't you?"
"I honestly don't know what you're talking about," Robyn said nervously.
"You should."
Robyn whimpered whilst Laura, Bex, Liz and Gemma watched in fright. Suddenly, an image of Rimmer flashed in Gemma's mind. She felt her confidence build; this was the sort of challenge he would set her.
She swallowed hard, "Look, let's just look at the real issue here…"
"Don't you start with me-"
"No!" Gemma interrupted forcefully, "Don't you start with me!"
Liz nearly fainted.
"Can't you see you're only doing all this because no one likes you? Even your little sidekick tags along purely out of fear!" she waved her hand towards Gary who looked at the floor, "If you took the time to get to know people instead of bullying them all the time maybe you'd have a happier life."
"You wanna watch what you're saying to me!"
"She's got a point," someone in the crowd murmured. Sam spun round.
"Who said that?"
No one responded, but a couple of people whispered agreements. These whispers gradually built up to a buzz of muttering, which built up to shouts in Sam's direction, which built up to boos and hissing (one person even threw an apple at Sam's disbelieving face). Sam found himself immersed in the mass of hysteria. Gemma and the others took this as their cue to scarper.
When they reached Rimmer's quarters, Gemma span round.
"Er, I don't mean to sound rude but, could you leave?"
The others looked amongst themselves.
"Why?" they asked in unison.
"Well, I…I'm here because…you see…" she realised she wasn't going to get out of this. She looked at Laura who she knew was in her maths class, "You know I've never been fantastic at maths?"
"Hey, you're getting better!" Laura replied putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes, that's the point. I've been having private tutoring. But no one knows. He'd get into so much trouble if anyone found out. And so would I."
Laura looked curious, "Personal tutoring? Like, he teaches you maths and stuff?"
"He teaches me everything: maths, science, geography, astronomy, and…" she wasn't sure if she should mention the social studies, "history.Everything."
"D'you…" Laura said quietly, "Er, d'you think he'd, you know, teach me as well?"
"Oh, um…" Gemma didn't think he'd like that. But then again she hadn't thought he'd ever suggest being her tutor in the first place, "I'd have to ask him."
Laura nodded.
"Actually," Bex said, "I'm having trouble with astronavigation. Does he teach that?"
"Well, yes, but…"
"So am I," Robyn agreed, "It's that stupid Miss Redman. She doesn't make it clear at all."
"And she can't spell!" Liz joined in, "Lucky she doesn't teach English otherwise I'd be failing miserably!"
Gemma could see where this was going. To avoid a long discussion she took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
Rimmer jumped a little when he opened it.
"Er, hi, Gem," he stuttered.
"Hi Arn. This is Laura, Liz, Bex, and Robyn," she strained to remember.
The four girls smiled.
"Um, hello."
"Could they…d'you think they could join in today?"
"Join in what?"
"Tutoring!"
"Um…" Rimmer was shaking. Teaching Gemma was fine, and he probably could cope with one other person, but five of them? "Sure," he heard himself say and numbly stepped to one side to let them in.
As it turned out, it was one of the best decisions he ever made.