Celebration of Life
Posted on Fri 19th Jul, 2019 @ 6:54pm by Lieutenant Commander Alora Baro & Lieutenant Commander Dallas Briggs & Teagan Keller & Makila i'Hartelhai & Menali Coburn & Miranda Callas
1,343 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
A Diplomatic Affair
Location: 18 Below
Timeline: MD-8, 1600 hours
The invitation appeared in the lockers of each student at St. Joan's Academy--and other schools on the station--who had been a passenger on the tram during its derailment the previous week.
To a Celebration of Tram Survival Party!
Date: Stardate 72988.3
At: Eighteen Below Private Party Room
Deck 680
Attire: Casual
Please RSVP by Stardate 72986.3
at tramparty@18below.com.
The truth was, all Aiko MacBeth wanted was to kiss Yucholl. And have Yucholl kiss her. It was a new thing, doing that kissing, but it had very rapidly become Aiko's favorite thing. A quick buss in the halls between classes, a longer, lingering kiss on the river bridge, or best of all: a passionate, intense kiss with Yucholl's lower body wrapped around her snugly. Kissing, Aiko had decided, was the Best Thing Ever. So she was startled out of a daydream when the bell rang to end class, and the student at the next desk spoke to her.
"Are you and Yucholl going over to Eighteen Below for the Post-Traumatic-Tram-Incident-Survival Party?" asked the pretty redhead. "I'm kinda split on my thinking about it. On the one hand, we all survived. On the other hand ... well, it was pretty frighteningly exciting. What are you thinking?" Ingrid straightened her skirt pleats and picked up her books, glancing toward the girl she most wanted to be her friend.
Aiko blinked a couple of times, her mental processes switching tracks slowly. "Oh, is that today? Um... I don't think we'd quite decided." They'd started to talk about it, but then the whole 'kissing is the best thing' thing had come up, and... "Do you know who came up with it?"
The girl shook her head. "No one seems to know. I've tracked down a couple of rumors only to find they had no substance, as rumors generally don't. I don't think there's anything sinister in that, do you? It's probably people who want to help us get over the trauma ... which I admit has been harder than I thought."
"Oh, I believe it to be rather dexter," Aiko answered flippantly, storing her notes -- such as they were -- in her PADD and sweeping the device into her satchel. She looked at Ingrid. "You've been feeling traumatized, then?"
The redhead thought about that as they walked toward the exit. "Noooo, I don't think traumatized is quite the right word. It's true I'm not anxious to hop a tram lately, but I do it anyway. I think it's understandable, and it will get easier with time. But I didn't really have a horrible experience ... no broken limbs or cuts, for instance. You? And Yucholl? I'm starting to think of you together since the accident," she laughed.
Aiko grinned. "Not a bad thought," she agreed. "And we were both physically fine -- Yucholl was wrapped around a standpole when the tram derailed, and she was fast enough to grab me so I didn't go after the bits of shattered window... and, speak of the devil!" Aiko reached out her hand to Yucholl as the Lamian glided up to them in the hallway.
"I'm the devil?" the Lamian asked, taking the hand and squeezing it gently. "Well, the tempter is depicted as a snake, I suppose." She paused, and batted her eyelashes at Aiko. "Want an apple, little girl?"
In Astrophysics class, Teagan closed her book and gathered her things. She nearly barreled over the other students to get out the door. She was hoping to run into the third years that were on the tram with her. She'd been invited to a celebration of victory and was anxious to see who might be attending. The invitation was in her locker, and she wasn't sure who'd sent it, but she was happy for the invite.
Sarah was coming from the 4th form hallway when she heard older girls talking about the tram accident. She stopped and bent down to fiddle with her shoe while she listened, and then she moved on. A party to celebrate surviving the tram accident? That sounded like fun! She'd love to go, but ... how to get there?
"So are you coming?" Miranda Callas asked her friend Menali as they collected their books before going home. She looked at Menali's slender figure. "You can actually have a milkshake or bacon cheeseburger without it going to your hips. I am a lost cause."
"Of course it will go to my hips," Menali Coburn said. "But a burger and cheese curd fries with brown gravy are worth a little extra gym time."
"I want my fries in yamok sauce." Miranda shut her locker door, and the two girls fell into step with each other on their way to the tram downstation. "The party sounds like it's going to be well attended. I wonder who thought this up? I wanted to do something with just a few of us, but these invitations went out to everybody who was on the tram--which is jake by me!"
Miranda went on with a conversation that had begun at lunch. "So I like the idea of the two of us going into business with each other and calling ourselves E. What are you thinking? A cosmetics company? Because that would be so me. I'm not sure how to meld your brain-geek self into that, though," Miranda said.
"By using the neuroscience behind beauty perception to determine how to best apply the cosmetics for each facial shape," Menali said. "The real challenge will be working on non-humanoids. I'll have to see what research has been done on them. I mean, what looks attractive to a Xindi?"
"I'll leave that up to you," Miranda said. "Go get 'em, tiger!"
Teagan caught up with Nali at the tram station just as they were about to board. "You going to the party? It seems like everyone that was on the tram, even in the second car has been invited."
"Can't, my folks said that it was only for those that were at risk." Nali pouted a bit. "It's just an excuse to keep me home and under their supervision." She grinned. "I haven't done anything to be grounded lately, and I think they're afraid to let me out."
"Couldn't you go as my guest? Everyone's friendly enough but most of them are older and I feel like I'm out of place." Teagan was practically begging. "Have them talk to Adam. He's okay with letting me go." The girls took seats together near the front of the tram.
Sarah sat a short distance away from some of the older girls who were, without knowing it, her role models and mentors on how to grow up. Though the idea of cheese curd fries, in any kind of sauce, did not appeal to her. But a burger? That would be lovely!
The tram moved away from the station, and her heart gave a small hitch, as it still did since the accident. Like the older girls, she wasn't going to show it, and she wasn't going to be a baby about it, either. All the way to her stop, she thought about how she could show up at the restaurant at the right time, like the older girls. Just before she stepped off to meet her nanny, she knew what to try.
The invitation caught Makila by surprise as she had previously not ever been invited to something as innocent as a social gathering. How fun! A party! What do I wear? The young woman scurried off to her closet to try to find something appropriate.
Sky's invite was on her bed and had been there for the last half hour as she went through her closet wondering why she had nothing to wear. Finally she decided on some dark cargo pants, black boots and v-neck t-shirt and a leather jacket. Simple but classic and solid. With a grin she grabbed the invite and headed out.
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