She sat in the courtyard with Adonis going over her Vulcan assignment. It had been three days since the first day of class and she was going to prove to her precious Commander that she was not just another pretty face. She was bound and determined to pass this test and there was nothing stopping her. "So why are you taking this class anyway? From what Carol said your first meeting with this guy was not all that great. Why don't you drop the class and do something you like doing?" Adonis asked her. He couldn't understand her need to be in every hard class the academy offered. This one was just another line in another of these silly quests. She needed a language and culture course, she didn't need the hardest one on the books.

"I'm not dropping this class, because I'm not going to be seen as a failure in anyone's eyes. I'm sorry, that's not how I operate, you and I both know this. Carol was right, my first meeting with this Commander was not appeasing, but I am bound and determined to ace this stupid first test of his. I know he expects everyone to fail it and I'm not doing so." She determinedly replied, looking up briefly to him and meeting his eyes and then looking back down at her book. She was not doing this.

"Look, you don't have to get snippy." Adonis bit out. "If you're going to be this snide about it, maybe you should drop the class. You've been in that class for three days and you're already out of control." He was one of the beacons in her life. When he said something, sometimes, it wasn't what she wanted to hear, but she listened to it. She didn't even meet his eyes as he said it all. She couldn't. Her pride in herself wouldn't let her and the book remained at her attention. She couldn't have this happen right now. He knew the situation and he was the only one at the moment who was even willing to share a bench with her in the last twenty-four hours because of her moods. "Are you even listening?" He fumed.

"Yes, I'm listening. I heard what you had to say and I'll take it into consideration. However, I need to study for the test I have in a couple of minutes and I'm going to go somewhere where I'm not hounded by you, telling me that I'm out of control. Goodbye, Adonis." She walked off, tearing up slightly. She didn't like doing that but she had to. She knew that he would be yelling after her about how she shouldn't give him that logical bullshit, how he deserved more after their twenty years of friendship and she supposed he was right. He did deserve more than that, but right now she couldn't handle that. She went to Spock's class. He was there, he looked up and recognized her and then looked down. She sat in her customary seat and opened up the book to where she was. She had read it several times in the last few hours but she didn't feel like that was enough sometimes. She wiped her eyes and begain to read.

She didn't look up to see him looking at her with an odd look on his face. She didn't want to look at anyone right now. All she wanted to do was what was important and that was schoolwork. She didn't want to club, she didn't want to see friends, she didn't want to see classmates, all she wanted to do was finish this test. Everything else was secondary. Everything was just the icing on the cake after this. People straggled in as she complusively read the chapters. No one else seemed to be taking ehr advice. It didn't dissappoint her any, mainly, because she was not worrying about other people. The bell finally rang and she put her book away in her bag, the Vintage Prada that she always wore with her. She put her PADD away and looked up at the front of the classroom. Her eyes were glassed over and she didn't look at anything in particuliar, just ahead.

"Now Cadets, let's begin, clear your desks. You, as I said at the beginning of this course, have a test today. I want to see where you have progressed and if you have been studying. You will find the necessary materials in front of you on your desk. Any cheating will be punished severely." She just looked down at the test. Many of the questions were taken from the text itself that she had read over a dozen times in the few days that she had the material, but several questions came from knowing and analyzing the text. Makes sense. Most Vulcans by nature are not V'tosh ka'tur and therefore percieved and analyzed text drawing logical conclusions.

She supposed she shouldn't have gone to the club, that night when she met her commander there. It would have given her more time to study the material and to ace the test. She wasn't perfect though. She didn't even like that word. It meaned so much to so many people and she despised it. Nothing was ever perfect. She finished up the test and handed it in. She hoped she hadn't overthought anything or screwed herself out of answers. Things she supposed she had no control over and shouldn't be worrying about anyway. Another bell rang signaling the end of class, "Students, bring up your tests and have a good day. Roxanne, could I speak with you for a moment?"

She looked up. He wanted to talk to her, about god knows what she didn't know. The rest of the people took their tests up and fled the room, many talking to people that they knew. Once everyone was gone she went up to him. "You wanted to talk to me, Commander?" She asked, with full rank and the respect he deserved. Today wasn't her day and she didn't need any trouble after everything that had happened.

"Yes, Cadet I did. I noticed several anomolies in your behavior today. You didn't slouch, you stared straight up at the front of class, you did not get your PADD out, you opened your textbook and read before class, and you turned in the test first. Your face was also distorted and you seemed to be producing tears. May I inquire as to what was the cause of these anomolies?"

"My day has not been pleasant, I've been studying all night for your test, so I was late to Velocity practice and got chewed out. After that was done, I was studying some more for your test in the courtyard and Adonis and I had a fight about dropping this class which I won't do. And then I was studying some more when I came in. You could say I've had a stressful day." She grimaced. "I'm sorry, you probably don't wanna hear about my problems. I'm sorry I even said something about it." She just wanted to shrivel up and die right now.

"Cadet, I inquired as to your dilemma, you answered me honestly. While it's not logical to do so much, I can understand the workload. As for dropping this class, why would your friend ask something like that of you? Of course, logically if you are bogged down by this class, you should think about taking another course."

"He says I've become out of control already, and normally that doesn't happen until near the end of the semester. And logical or not, I'm staying in this class. I won't fail. I don't fail. I'm not going to bring shame to Caron slash Gallagher name by dropping a class. My mother wouldn't do it and neither will I." She shook her head in protest.

"You base your actions on the appearance of your family name? This is highly illogical."

"My family, while not perfect is my life. My brother and sister graduated top of their class. I am going to graduate at the top of mine and won't be because I took easy classes. My mother was the only of her kind on Vulcan, following V'tosh ka'tur and then came to Starfleet, I won't have her name be marred by my ineptidude, it's already marred enough to know that they can't figure out her cause of death. or won't figure it out."

"Your mother died?" He asked, suddenly feeling bad that all this had come up.

"Yeah, I don't need pity though. I got this far in the eight years that she's been dead. I don't need someone trying to look after me because I'm so fragile. I just want to get through this and get on a ship, so I can do what I came to do, to be a good chief security officer for someone." She looked at him. He seemed at least sad, that the news of her mother had been aired. "Look, I need to go. I've got a couple of practices I need to go and deal with some homework for my other classes. It was a nice talk though. I needed it." She walked out, head held high, feeling better. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Indeed." He looked at her and his lips twitched into a small smile. It was an incredible talk. She was so strong and impassable on the top, but all she needed was to talk and someone to listen. She was interesting and he hoped he would see her soon again, hopefully not in the arena of his classroom either.

-Star trek: 2009-

Okay, time for my first authors note since the begin. I would like to thank my to reviewers for their constructive criticism, I have taken their ideas into account and I've even made this chapter I a little different. I hope you liked. Thanks to all the people who have it on story alert and their favorite's list, this means the world to me. I would like to know your thoughts and ideas on the story and I'll maybe even reply to your reviews in the next chapter. Please Read and Review.

Happy Hunting,

SVM!