First Day of Classes

Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2025 by Lieutenant JG Zotras Lazol & Paige Cohen & Katelynn Bancroft & Charlotte Preston

1,260 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M01 - The Hooke
Location: Classroom, USS Hooke
Timeline: Present

Charlotte pressed the bag of data pads she was carrying firmly against her chest as she walked into the classroom. The corridor was somewhat chilly and the twelve-year-old assumed it was simply because the settings in the corridor were wrong, or she was just cold all the time. She walked into the classroom and found herself sitting down in the middle chair as the sliding door opened a second time.

"I'm Paige," Paige Cohen said to Katelynn as the two of them walked into the classroom. "This is Charlotte," She said and pointed the whole of her hand toward the other girl.

Katelynn nodded with a warm smile, "Nice to meet both of you," Katelynn went to her desk and noticed that nobody else was in the room. She wanted to believe what she'd been told last night, "We're supposed to have a teacher," She said. "One of the officers was talking to me about it last night."

Charlotte looked around the room, "They're late then," She said. Charlotte had also thought of herself as late because of how slow she'd been to get out of the quarters she shared with her mother. "I honestly thought I was running late too," Charlotte mentioned to the two of them. Then she directed her attention toward Katelynn, "Did you find your way around okay yesterday Katelynn?"

Katelynn nodded, "I was on board the Ares before this." She mentioned, "Though this ship is much bigger than what I'm used to. The computer terminal was very helpful when I got lost, and I found my way here last night. I wanted to make sure I knew where to go and all that."

Paige leaned forward listening to what was being said, "This ship is kind of small compared to the ship my Dad and I were on." She shrugged, "That's all right though, I kind of like being on a smaller ship compared to a larger one you know?" The question was somewhat rhetorical.

"What kind of ship were you on?" Katelynn asked.

"A Galaxy-class," She then redirected the question, "What about you?"

Katelynn moved some of the hair from her face, "Steamrunner-class," She answered.

Zotras Lazol entered the classroom and could hear the chattering between the three girls, he wore a soft grin on his otherwise expressionless face. "Sorry I'm late class," He said to the three girls. It would be super easy to keep track of only three students. The El-Aurian was really quite excited for that part, being assigned to double as the instructor for the children on board the ship would be the easy part. Not getting called away to deal with some dumpster fire on the ship when that time came, perhaps not.

He didn't give any explanation for his tardiness, "In the future I won't be late for class. Since there's only three of you let's begin by going around the room. Let us know your name, who your parents are, and your grade level." He had already been tracking that all three of the girls were in the same grade, which also made life much easier on him.

Katelynn was glad to see the information she'd been given was accurate. "Katelynn Bancroft, my parents are Lieutenant Sam Bancroft and Allyson Bancroft, and I'm in grade six."

Paige had hesitated when asked for her parents' name, but after taking a deep breath she was able to answer the questions. "Paige Cohen, my Dad is Captain James Cohen, and I'm in grade six."

Zotras looked at Paige with a frown, "I'm sorry I forgot Miss Cohen," He told the young girl and made a mental note to not make that same mistake a second time.

"It's okay," Paige said while smoothing the bottom of her blouse.

Charlotte looked at Paige for a moment and wondered if Paige had told her anything about her mother, then she looked forward once more. Charlotte wouldn't ask Paige about it because she respected the other girl too much to do so, "Charlotte Preston, my Mom is Lieutenant Commander Freya Preston, my Dad is Lieutenant Commander Blake Preston, and I am also in grade six."

Zotras nodded, "Your Dad is assigned to a different ship?"

Charlotte smiled somewhat hesitantly, "He's assigned to a different ship as the Executive Officer there." She leaned all the way back in her chair as her eyes drifted back toward Paige. There was almost a sadness in her eyes as she looked at the other girl.

Zotras grinned, "Thank you," He activated the viewer in the classroom. "Since the three of you are in the same grade level and I doubt any of you want to sit here all day I've devised a plan to have you out of here by noon each day. We'll do about three hours five days a week and I'll stay for another hour if you need additional help and the day before a test in a major subject."

He showed them the screen that displayed what classes were on what days, "I'm Lieutenant Zotras Lazol, or Mister Lazol, or Zotras. I'm not picky about which one you call me, and I'm sure each of you three young ladies know how to behave in a classroom so I won't bore you with the details of the classroom rules, they're pretty standard. However, this year you will have a science lab credit and a science fair project."

He changed what was displayed on the screen, "The science lab rules are displayed, I will also not be handling your science lab time. It'll be one of the science officers on board that will be handling that portion, please follow the rules regardless who's in here okay?" He waited for each of them to nod, "Now then are there any questions?"

Paige didn't have any questions about the classroom rules, this wasn't the first time she'd been in a classroom before, but she did have a question. "When will the science fair project be due?"

Katelynn had swallowed hard, science was not her strong suit. "I was wondering the same thing," She managed to say softly.

Zotras smiled warmly, "That will be due in pieces. You'll have two weeks from today to know what your project will be on, we'll do some work in here to help you pick out something fun and exciting, then you'll have about a month from that point to put all of the draft work together, the final project will be due toward the end of the first semester." He could see the distress on Katelynn's face, "The science officer that will help with the labs plans on staying late if need be to help with the project."

Katelynn breathed a sigh of relief, "Okay," She said.

Charlotte was really excited for the science fair project, someone on the station had told her they would do them the next school year. It was a combination of not believing what they'd said, and anxiety that kept her questioning the validity of that. She shook her head, "I have no questions."

"Okay," Zotras said to the three girls, "There's not enough to time to start with math today, so we're going to start with history. This first semester will focus on early Federation history, then we'll slowly work our way to more modern history and cover events that are a little closer to when the three of you were around." He turned his attention to the viewer where he'd already displayed the first panel for the lesson and began to teach them.

 

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