Popular with the Girls

by Weird Little Stories

When he was a child, the other boys teased Spock ... but he was always popular with the girls. Even before the age of sexual attraction, when they were still young children, the girls liked Spock because he was intelligent, a trait that all Vulcans valued. And as the son of an ambassador, he'd been schooled to politeness from the moment he could talk. Any Vulcan looked formal and polite to a human, but to other Vulcans, Spock was clearly far more polite than was usual for a small boy. As the girls themselves were also more polite than the boys — Vulcan girls grew up faster than boys, just as they did in humans — Spock was accepted as being very nearly one of them, while also being different enough, as a boy, to be interesting.

Spock's popularity with the girls was understandable to his parents, though the other boys his age found it completely inexplicable. This gave Spock an area where he had a much-needed sense of superiority, which helped to serve as armor against the boys' accusations of being not fully Vulcan.

As social beings, even people who controlled their emotions needed companionship, and Spock had a large number of friends.

Spock and T'Brel played musical instruments together. Many Vulcan musical compositions were written for a duet of harp and flute, and she was one of the few children his age who was as adept with the flute as he was with the harp. Both of them agreed that playing music together was very satisfying, and each practiced their instrument all the harder, so as not to let the other down.

T'Dovet was nearly as proficient with computers as Spock himself, and they deemed it quite logical to perfect their ability to protect a computer from attacks by taking turns being the protector and the attacker. T'Dovet learned several new ways of breaking into a system from him, while he garnered several ways to protect a system from her. Their friendly rivalry sharpened their skills, and even Sarek found their association both logical and beneficial.

T'Jarn was more accomplished than he in the biological sciences, while he was more so than she in the physical sciences. Hence, he helped to guide her thinking in physics, chemistry, and astronomy, while she helped to guide his in biology, botany, and zoology. Their friendship made each of them a better scientist, and Vulcans considered nothing more logical than that.

T'Kraan's knowledge of the literature of Andoria and Tellar was unrivaled among the children Spock's age, while Spock had been exposed to much of Earth's literature through Amanda. They lent one another books, then met to discuss them, and Spock's understanding of human's emotional nature, through his observations of Amanda, helped T'Kraan to understand Earth's literature in a way that few other Vulcans did. She grew up to become Vulcan's leading expert in Earth literature and eventually dedicated her doctoral dissertation to Spock.

By the time they were old enough to begin to experience sexual feelings, the other boys had stopped teasing Spock, for prejudice was illogical, and bullying was not proper behavior for a Vulcan. Yet privately, the boys still regarded Spock with consternation, now less because of his half-human genetics and more because he was still wildly popular with the girls.

They were all betrothed, of course, and had been since the age of seven. But betrothals did not entirely remove the subtle jockeying for position among the adolescents, nor the desire to gauge one's worth in the sexual marketplace. Spock was widely regarded as extremely beautiful — by both the girls and the adults — and the boys had to admit that his ears were just as Vulcan as theirs but lay close to his head, instead of sticking out as ridiculously as Stonn's. Most Vulcans had prominent cheekbones, but Spock's were considered very nearly sharp enough to cut, which made them the epitome of Vulcan beauty, unlike Dirlok's nearly imperceptible cheekbones. Spock's lips were perfectly shaped — Amanda called them a Cupid's bow — and were neither so thin as to be displeasing to regard ... or to kiss ... nor so thick as to be considered too sensuous to be properly Vulcan, unlike the thin lips of Marbok or the thick lips of Pulot. The girls often admired his hands, which puzzled the boys no end. HANDS? What was the logic in admiring a man's hands? Surely they could accomplish the same work, no matter what they looked like.

Of course, physical appearance was not terribly important, they all assured one another, but Spock was already the best scientist and best musician of their generation. The boys had hoped that his appearance would be too human to be considered attractive, but Spock looked almost too Vulcan, with an austere beauty that seemed to make the girls like him, if anything, even more than they had before.

Most Vulcans had never heard the human saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," but once past childhood, Vulcans were a logical people, and they obeyed this unheard injunction simply because of its logic. The boys began to get to know Spock, to see if they could discover the secret of his popularity with the female sex. They found him to be intelligent, polite, and kind, with a brilliant mind and an excellent sense of ethics. He was clearly a superb scientist, an excellent musician, and a worthy Vulcan, and those who remembered their childhood teasing were ashamed.

When Spock came of age and left Vulcan for Starfleet, few Vulcans of his age were surprised, because it was clear that his appetite for learning and discovery, for experimentation and study, was too large to be confined to a single planet. It was not long before he began to be seen as almost a legend...

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Author's Notes

1. An enormous number of stories portray Spock as a total outcast on Vulcan, someone who other Vulcans bullied and shunned for his entire life. Many stories portray him as someone who never once had a friend until Jim Kirk came along. All of this is fanon.

What's canon? In "Journey to Babel," Amanda says that the other boys teased Spock when they were children. In "Yesteryear," we see a group of seven-year-old boys tease Spock until he tries to punch them.

People can certainly write whatever they want in fan fiction, and Spock's wonderfulness has always been a comfort to those of us who were bullied as children, as I was, and as many of you were. But canon certainly does not portray him as being a total outcast for life, nor does either prejudice or bullying fit with Vulcan logic. Once reaching late adolescence, I found my niche and found other people like me, just as most victims of childhood bullies do, and as I hope you all have done.

It seems to me, then, that when Amanda says the other boys teased him, that's exactly what she means. When they were little kids, some of the boys teased Spock. That's not the same as being bullied for life or having no friends. Given that Spock's family is very high status, I'd think that once they reached the age of reason, the other children would think it advantageous to cultivate the son of the Vulcan ambassador. And almost anyone who got to know him would like him, because WE all like Spock; he was the wildly popular breakout character of TOS, back in the 60's, and his popularity doesn't seem to have diminished much since then. :-)

So I've written a story where yes, the other boys do tease Spock, but he's great friends with the girls. :-) This is just a quick little snippet — I'm not feeling well enough to write a full story — but I'd love it if someone else took this idea and fleshed it out...

2. I have a chronic illness that leaves me non-functional most of the time, which means that I am not always able to reply to comments. I do read them all with great attention, though, and I do cherish every single one of them, even when my health doesn't permit me to reply. I apologize for being so limited in what I can do.

3. I don't own Star Trek, and I make no money from the stories I write; everything here is just fans playing in the sandbox. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that Star Trek owns ME. :-)

4. Thanks for reading! If you liked anything about this story, I'd love to hear what you enjoyed.

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