Full Class

Posted on Thu Apr 10th, 2025 by Paige Cohen & Lieutenant JG Zotras Lazol & Katelynn Bancroft & Charlotte Preston & Ashley Ortega

1,226 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M02 - The Sixteenth Rule
Location: Classroom, USS Hooke
Timeline: Present

The next morning had come a little too quickly for Ashley Ortega's taste. She'd gotten ready for school, knowing that after school would be her first appointment with the Counselor. That was not something she was relishing, almost as much as she wasn't looking forward to school. Ashley had maintained contact with some of her friends from Earth, but it was difficult when you tried to keep a friendship going over subspace. Breathe, she had thought to herself as she mentally prepared herself.

Paige had noticed the extra desk when she entered the classroom, and thought the rumors she'd heard were true. There was another person possibly in her age group on board. Paige had thought this wasn't going to happen, and yet here they were. She found her seat and sat down noticing that Charlotte was already in there. "Hi." She said.

Charlotte was still thinking about the science lab from the day before, when she thought she sensed an extra presence in the lab with her. The computer and everything else indicated otherwise, even the officer that came to help her didn't seem to think there was anything out of the ordinary. When she heard Paige's voice her thoughts were broken and she looked over, "Oh hi."

Katelynn walked into the classroom and sat down in her usual spot, "Hi," She said to the other two. Katelynn had yet to tell them she no longer had contact with her friend Rebecca. It wasn't something she was ready to talk about anyway, "We have another classmate?" She asked.

"It seems that way," Charlotte replied, "And hello." She added.

Zotras walked into the classroom and saw three of his students had arrived, then there was the fourth chair that hadn't filled yet. He lowered his shoulders having not seen Ashley standing there waiting and wondered if she'd lost her way to the class. "Have any of you seen the new girl Ashley?" He asked them.

"I don't think we've even met her yet," Paige answered.

Ashley soon found herself standing outside the classroom and she took a quick breath. This was entirely too nerve wrecking for her to think about for too long. She sighed and lowered her shoulders, "May as well get this over with." She mumbled then walked through the door. Suddenly there were four sets of eyes on her and she shuddered at the thought of being the center of everyone's attention. "Um, hi." She said with a weak wave.

Zotras smiled warmly, "Welcome please come in." He said and pointed his hand toward the chair for her to sit down in. "I'll give you the classroom rules," He dug around his desk until he found the copy of the rules he'd made along with a copy of the lab rules. "Everyone this is Ashley Ortega, she's going to be joining us from now on."

Katelynn could tell the new girl was nervous, and hardly blamed her. She was still a bit anxious about being in class with others, "Hi I'm Katelynn." She said.

Paige also smiled warmly, "Paige." She told the new girl.

Charlotte seemed the most cheery of the bunch, she was always excited to meet new people anyway. And her ability to make friends fast had always helped her as well, "I'm Charlotte Preston." She remarked.

Ashley waved a second time as she found her seat. "Hello." She said softly, almost so quietly that it was nearly impossible for them to hear her. She looked over the documents that Zotras had given her, "Thanks." She said and deactivated the PADD so she could focus on class. This was hopefully the distraction she needed.

Zotras nodded, "I'm Lieutenant Zotras Lazol, or Mister Lazol, or Lieutenant Lazol, or even Zotras. I'm not very formal as the other three could probably tell you. This file says you're in the sixth grade?" He asked.

Ashley nodded her head slowly, "Um yes."

"Excellent," Zotras replied. "The other three are in the same grade level as you so that'll make it rather easy. I'll have to see where you were at with your schoolwork from Earth at some point, probably this afternoon. Class ends at lunch each day, the rules includes what course material we cover each day of the week. There's also a lab, since the other girls are rather far ahead, I'll have you discuss options with Lieutenant Valencia Roma since she's running that."

Ashley processed all the information she had been provided and realized it was quite a lot, there had been quite a lot. She nodded her head slowly in understanding. "I think I got it." She said quietly.

Zotras could tell the girl was nervous and he would just allow that to be the trend. He hoped both her and Katelynn would hit it off rather well since they seemed to have the same general outlook, then there was Paige who'd lost her mother at an early age. Zotras knew about Ashley's parents, and knew she had a little in common with each of the girls in the classroom with her.

"All right, so we were working on mathematics so we'll start there," He said and placed another PADD in front of Ashley with the notes from the previous sessions.

Katelynn looked over at the new girl for a moment and found herself rather curious. She knew next to nothing about this other girl, she didn't even know this girl was coming aboard. She wondered why her father hadn't said anything, there's no way he didn't know about it.

Paige watched Ashley only for a moment before turning her attention onto the lesson and the back of Zotras's head. She would ask her father about the new girl, and see if she could get anything out of him. First though, she would be calling Hayden they'd not talked for a couple days and she was supposed to talk to him after school. She just hoped her father was out of the way long enough for her to do that.

Charlotte was fully invested into her thoughts about the science lab. She thought about saying something to the security officer, and yet she thought it was a bad idea. They'd probably just tell her she was insane and clearly letting her imagination run wild. Besides, she needed to review the data from the experiment and that would probably take her a lot of time if she didn't end up with more math homework to work on.

Ashley looked briefly at the notes in front of her, but her thoughts were dwelling on the upcoming counseling session again. And that was enough to hinder her ability to focus on what she was supposed to be learning about. Ashley didn't know what she was going to say to the Counselor, she didn't know if she wanted to say anything at all either. She'd already talked about it with so many other people.

Paige looked over at the other girl and wondered how to get the four of them together to hang out. She'd come up with something after her call with Hayden. Or, she could ask him what he thought since he'd been somewhat introduced to the other two anyway. She sighed and tried to not think about him because then she ran the risk of daydreaming about him instead of focusing.

 

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