Chapter 2 "The Set-Up"
Aurora
When I awoke, my head hurt, but I was lying down on my classroom floor. A handsome Black man with a stern expression peered at me, almost suspiciously, as if my presence baffled him. His eyebrows were shaped severely upwards, and he donned a strange two-toned colored uniform. Blinking, I felt my eyes shut again as the dizziness returned for a minute or two.
"Miss, do you need medical attention?" A resounding male voice questioned as he shook my arm. I gradually opened my eyes, and my mouth was parched.
"Tuvok to Janeway," he sternly stated.
" Are you talking to me? Who are you" I wondered. He sounded official, but I didn't recognize him as a school leader. He appeared irritated when no one answered.
"My name is Lieutenant Tuvok," the unknown man replied like it was apparent, and I was the foreign person in my classroom, not him. Next, he cautiously examined my head to see if I was bleeding. Although I didn't know the reason, this man's touch felt soothing, and I felt a slight relief.
At a loss for words, I stared at Tuvok, and that wasn't usually the case as I spoke my mind. The pain in my head returned with a vengeance, and I left out a guttural groan.
"Do you have a hypospray that I can administer to you?" he inquired, scrutinizing me with brown coffee eyes.
"Excuse me?" I didn't comprehend Tuvok's question and attempted to sit up by leaning on my elbows.
"No, I think you should lay down, and you may have a concussion," the man commanded in an authoritative voice, pushing lightly on my shoulders with his large hands to push me back down. Reluctantly, I followed his directions.
"Do you have any medicine," Tuvok slowly questioned. I observed the man with an extraordinarily solemn face, a well-built upper body, and a determined chin intently from the floor and recognized that he was extremely handsome.
"Who sent this Adonis to me," I thought to myself, pleased, as I viewed him through my thick eyelashes. Usually, hot men didn't fall into my lap or randomly show up.
"Yes, but first, are you a figment of my imagination?" I pondered, "you just randomly appeared."
"No."
"Am I drunk," I questioned again.
"No, I don't believe so, Miss," Tuvok frowned as he remarked.
"May I call you by your given name or your surname to give you the proper respect you deserve?"
"Who speaks like this anymore," I incredulously thought before stammering out my name, "A-A-Aurora."
"Aurora," the handsome man carefully spoke my name with a hint of wonder like he hadn't heard the word. For a couple of beats, we gazed into each other's faces.
"This man is a mystery," I concluded, giving up for the time being.
Tuvok's brown eyes were soulful and made me shiver until my head throbbed in pain again.
"Oh, oww!" I cried.
Maybe one of my friends was playing a practical joke on me, so I attempted to sit up, but the man grabbed my shoulders to lower me.
"You may have a concussion, Aurora," Tuvok informed, standing looking around for something to pad my head from the ground. He saw a black sweater on my desk chair and retrieved it. Swiftly, Tuvok came back and placed it on the floor.
"Raise your head, please. Where can I find your medicine, Aurora?"
I did as requested, then motioned to the office space behind my desk. The foreign man was tall as his beautiful eyes poured into mine from above, reading my soul, or so I felt. Randomly, I thought I spotted that he had pointy ears.
Indeed, I was mistaken, wasn't I?
My vision was still slightly blurry, so I was unsure.
"It is in a red purse," I called him as he went into my office area.
"A purse?" Tuvok stuck out his head from the door and repeated. He appeared almost comedic when he popped out of nowhere in the doorframe, but I wasn't in the mood to laugh.
"A bag, just bring it," I exasperatedly whined as I put my head back down on the sweater.
As the uniformed man went to the office area, I shut my eyes to halt the pain and the blurry vision. Tuvok returned with two red bags he found. Grumbling, I pointed to the one in his left hand, and he handed it to me. The man returned the other one to my office.
"Is this a practical joke by Matt and Sarah?" I wearily wondered.
Finally, I found my pain reliever medicine, retrieved two pills, and put them in my left hand. I held my other hand out for Tuvok to assist me to a standing position.
"I still don't think you should stand up because you may have a concussion," he archly countered, rejecting my outstretched hand.
"This man has control issues," I thought, irked, and abruptly withdrew it.
"So do I," I reminded myself.
"If you must know, I need something to wash these pills down with," I countered, antagonized by Tuvok's disapproval.
"Wash it down? Please clarify," he answered in a semi-robotic voice.
Tuvok's face had been blank the whole time during this escapade other than the occasional looks of frustration, and it was most peculiar.
"What is wrong with this guy," I wondered.
"Drink," I angrily quipped when the strange man looked puzzled.
Tuvok held out his large hand, and I took it. He pulled me up from the floor without speaking. Next, I walked to my desk, swallowed pills, and drank soda. Afterward, I calmly remarked.
"Look, I am not sure who put you up to this ruse, but I am done. You, Matt and Sarah, won. Can we just stop this craziness?"
"It is illogical that I know your friends if I just arrived here," the man's sassy response made me defensive.
"Fine," I shouted, annoyed, and picked up my cell phone. I found Sarah's number scrolling down with my thumb.
"Sarah, I need the practical joke to stop now," I demanded. She casually reminded me that she and Matt had gone to Galveston for the weekend and hadn't played any pranks recently.
"Put me on speaker, Matt, can you hear me," I sternly commanded.
"Yes, Aurora, I am driving," a gruff voice informed
"Standing in front of me is a well-built African American man with weirdly arched eyebrows in a black and a yellow uniform. He says he is..."
Holding the phone out for the man to speak, I motioned for him with my hand to respond, "Tuvok, chief security officer."
"Did you hear that?"
After speaking, he began pacing my classroom with his hands clasped tightly behind his back. Meanwhile, Tuvok appeared deep in thought.
Sarah claimed that they didn't know anything about this man. Still, I passionately cut her off by loudly declaring, "I'll admit Tuvok is extremely easy on the eyes. If you two wanted to set me up, why didn't you just have him meet me somewhere instead of school? It has been one hell of a horrible week, guys."
"We don't know what you are talking about," Matt finally revealed after a long bout of silence.
"Oh, ok. Have a safe trip," I uneasily replied, realizing my friends told the truth, leaving me feeling defeated.
"What the hell is happening?" I noisily declared after ending the phone call and placing it on my desk. In a huff, I began packing items in my backpack as Tuvok analyzed an electronic device in his hands as he paced now. When he stopped, he curiously inquired,
"Aurora, where are we exactly?"
Tuvok put the machine back in his pocket when he viewed me watching him.
"Dallas, Texas," I anxiously revealed.
"No, what planet?" Tuvok's voice cracked a little in slight annoyance as if I was showing contempt to him.
"Earth, duh?" I replied, in a ludicrous voice, indicating my sarcasm. Yet my comment was lost on him. Tuvok repeated my answer. Baffled, he quietly questioned, "What year?"
"2021," I enraged in a shout, " Are you crazy?"
"You must be erroneous, Aurora," Tuvok sternly scolded me like a misbehaving child, " It is 2371."
Consequently, I gave him the stare down like I would a student who challenged my authority in front of a class for several extended seconds. Usually, they would back off, but Tuvok's steady gaze glared back at me.
"He thinks I am the defiant one," I realized amazement.
After a while, I finally relented, crossing my arms around my chest, chastising him,
"Come on, enough of the act. I'll finish packing up my stuff, and you can take me on a date. I give up."
Nevertheless, I still didn't know who was behind this insanity. Matt and Sarah were my only friends who were pranksters.
"What is a date," the man asked.
"You know, I don't think I like you, but I don't go on enough dates in general. So we are going," I angrily stated, shutting my laptop down and gathering my other supplies to take home.
"This is most illogical," Tuvok stated, appearing frustrated with my impatience and comments.
"You can drop the act," I ordered as I slid the arms of the backpack on my back and reached for my red purse. I felt perturbed by this man, but I needed some social interaction outside of the classroom.
"Come on, let's go," I declared and grabbed Tuvok's hand as we walked out of my classroom.
What do you think is next for Aurora and Tuvok?