Her (Jim Kirk)

Introduction

Sometimes I still wake up in the middle of the night and think about her. Her. The husky tone her voice took on when she whispered, that ebony hair, the way I could feel every single one of her vertibrae when I laid my hands on her back. Her name was Karina Stern and she shaped my world.

***

Johnny met me on the street corner in front of the school at seven o'clock  that evening. I waved as I turned the corner, then yelled,

"Johnny, my man!" as I rushed to greet him. He smiled and clapped me on the back.

"Hey, Jim! How ya been?" I hadn't seen him all summer. Johnny's eyes moved to my head, where they doubled in size. "When did you become a Brunnette?"  His hand raked instinctively through his own hazelnut-colored hair as he asked the question. I gave my head a little toss as I answered,

"Florida, baby! Man, that sun does wonders to your bod'."  Johnny nodded in agreement. Then, like a true northerner, he said,

"Isn't it supposed to be, like, really hot there?" I chuckled.

"Yeah, it never got below Thirty-Two degrees celsius (that's about ninety degrees Fahrenheit for anyone reading in America in the 2000s) while I was there --it even got to  Forty-Five once (Johnny grimaced)--but hey, I don't have to live with the stupid blonde stuff anymore, so I'm not complaining." 

As I talked, we made our way through the parking lot and into the school building for the "Welcome to High School" meeting (aka the "This Is Boring AF, So Drag My Ass Out Of Here Or So Help Me" meeting). We took our seats in the lecture hall whilst rolling out eyes at the High School Administation in front of us. After the principal greeted us, I couldn't have told you what happened during that meeting or what was said or who said it. Why? Because Johnny and I were tuned out and detatched, playing Chopsticks: that's why. By the time the meeting ended at Nine o'clock, Johnny had beat me TEN TIMES IN A ROW (argh!) while I had only won five times. After he'd finished teasing me he wondered aloud, while still on top of me in tackle position behind a shrub in the parking lot,

"What do you think they said at the meeting?" I shrugged,

"Dunno; probably talked about rules and expectations and shit we'd just forget tomorrow, anyway." Johnny sighed in relief as he clambered off of me and turned to leave. Before he walked home, he called over his shoulder,

"Good! Means it doesn't apply to us! See ya tomorrow, Jim!"

"You bet!" my eyes lingered on his retreating back until he was out of sight. It's a good thing he was, too;  he would have never  let me forget what was about to happen. Not that I would ever forget or anything like that.

While lost in thought, I felt something hard collide with my left leg. As I let out an intake of breath, I heard someone--a girl--shout,

"Jesus Christ!"  With mini heart attack over, I took a glance at the figure who had just almost tripped on me. She was tall and slender (no, not slender: freakishly skinny was more like it) and was dressed all in black, giving her the look of a shadow. The night darkened her face, but I could see the sihloette of wavy hair that hung down to the curve of her breasts. Suddenly, I felt gratitude towards the dark; I was suddenly very aware of the ammount of dirt on my pants. I pushed the thought away at sixty Kilometers per hour. "Are you okay? What happened to you?" she asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. I scrambled to my feet, the whole while mumbling uninteligably--until I got a look at that girl's face. It was etherial, with keen hazel eyes and a small nose, but what caught my attention the most was the ugly red weal that ran across her right cheek. After gawking at it for a second, I repeated,

"What happened to you?"  The girl touched her cheek.

"What, this? A couple of girls jumped me. Don't worry, it'll heal soon enough; won't even leave a scar. I guess...so that...so that they can just beat me up again..."  Her head bowed low as she ended the sentence, eyes fixated on her shoes. 

Tentatively, I reached out to place my hand on her shoulder. 

"Please don't say that...Hell, I don't even know your name."  She lifted her eyes off of her shoes again.

"It's Karina. Karina Stern."  I moved my hand from her shoulder and presented it to her to shake.

"Jim Kirk."  A shy smile played on Karina's lips as we shook hands, and, oh God, her hand was as warm and as soft as fresh-baked bread. I wondered if her skin was that soft everywhere. Okay, in all honesty, I was awe-struck by this girl. But why? She was just a girl, one of my best friends was a girl, I knew more girls than I could bother to count. It's not like she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, either, but when her eyes sparkled I couldn't help but stare. I don't know, something about her just said, Jim, you gotta pay attention to this one. "Want me to walk back to the shuttle stop wih you?" I offered. A smile graced Karina's lips at the invitation and she nodded.

I watched her face by the light of the waning moon as we walked down the weather-beaten road. The crisp cold sheen lit half of her face, like the actors in those age-old action movies that they used to make. The light of the stars shone in her eyes, transforming them into burning lumps of coal. So much I wondered about this angelic creature, so much I didn't know. But what would I ask her?

"So are you new this year?" I asked, courtesy of my bumbling mind.

"Yeah," she answered, and her voice took on a lighter tone. "I moved here from Iowa City over the summer."

"Neat," I commented, "My friend, Hortensia lives there." Karina's eyebrows threatened to disappear into her hairline.

"Hortensia T'zioni?"

"Yes."

"No way! we went to elementary school together." 

By this time we had reached the shuttle stop which, like most places in Riverside, was due to have a lightbulb changed. Karina observed it, transfixed, as the light finally sputtered out and died. I shrugged.

"Well, now that's fourty dead lightbulbs in Riverside." Karina's laugh was as gentle and rippling as the breeze. 

"You counted?" I chuckled slightly.

"Yeah."  We took a seat on the bench to wait for the shuttle and as we sat I told her about school, my friends, teachers to watch out for, loopholes in the Code of Conduct, rules that were meant to be broken anyway, the stealth locker in the east wing of the building that opened to a student lounge that not that many people knew about, your basic school survival guide. In tern, she told me about the places she'd been and the burning questions that stole hours of her sleep. After what felt like hours, a shuttle appeared, as black and slick as Karina's hair. Why was I thinking that way? I had to stop. As Karina got up to leave, she circled a stick-like arm around me in half a hug.

"See you tomorrow," she whispered. I flashed her a warm smile and replied,

"See ya." As the shuttle bolted into the night, I glanced after it and thought to myself,

'What a girl.' I could already feel the first threads coming together to begin the tapestry of an unforgettable friendship.

A/N: This is my first story of this kind, so I'm super excited. I have that feeling like those two are gonna take over my life and I can't wait to see where fate takes them.

--Lembas