Star Trek: Academy

New Friends and Coffee

Charlie runs towards two girls standing by the fountain at the center of campus. The girls open their arms wide and squeal. The three girls embrace.

I stand off to the side and wait to be introduced.

The two girls are a fellow redshirt and a blue shirt. The red shirt is average height with short curly brown hair. The blue shirt also has curly hair but hers is red and she's a little shorter than the redshirt.

They look nice.

I wonder if the brunette is an engineer. But something tells me she isn't. She has a sharpness that screams security.

"Kris this is Lennox Aberdeen and Tarryn McKnight we met on our way in," Charlie gestures to the red shirt and then the blue shirt.

Holy shit. Lennox. "You're my roommate," What a coincidence.

"Coffee came earlier than expected," Lennox chuckles.

"I thought your roommate moved out," Tarryn asks. How much has Lennox told her?

Oh boy.

"I did. My godfather felt it was more fitting that I live at our apartment instead of the dorms," If not for Chris I would have stayed in the dorm room. It was cute and I could have made it a home.

It would have been a fresh start for a Lee. Since I am using Lee as my last name for the first time in eleven years.

At the apartment, I feel like I'm hiding part of who I am. Which I guess is true. I'm a Pike but the girls don't need to know that.

"Why?"

Well...

"The last time he left me, my parents died," Which is true. But that was twelve years ago. The academy is perfectly safe. And it's not like he's going to die randomly this week. He's got many years left.

"WHat?"

"It's a long story—"

"ABBEY!" Charlie yells running for an Asian woman.

The woman in question gasps and then runs to Charlie her arms held wide. They embrace.

Upon first look, the women look identical. They have similar builds. The same can be said for height. Charlie's taller.

Could they be sisters?

The two women converse before jogging over to Lennox, Tarryn and me. With a closer look at Abbey, I can tell there not sisters. They could be cousins. That would fit.

"Gals this is Abbey Magno," Charlie motions to Abbey. "My cousin,"

"I knew it," Lennox exclaims, fist-pumping the air.

"Nice to meet you," Tarryn states offering a warm smile.

"Likewise," I smile.

The cousins look close. My cousins and I talk maybe once a month. They work at the family's distillery so they are quite busy. But we try our best.

"And you guys,"

"Coffee?"

"Please."

I mention the best shop on the block. Charlie nods. Of course, she knows the place. Pretty much all the engineers in Starfleet flock there. I know I did before I was enrolled. It has the best damn coffee on campus.

The walk doesn't take long. Conversation is easy with these women, they seem to understand me. I like that. I never had many friends. The ones I made were much older and usually left after a year. New duty shifts and new shipboard rotations.