Welcome to the Real World

Posted on Wed Feb 8th, 2023 @ 12:55am by Ensign Avis Larant & Cadet Freshman Grade Poppy Koppelman

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: Entry to Midway at Docking Port of SB10
Tags: Rommie

Leaves were over, the Midway was due to leave very soon now, departing Star Base 10 for a new mission. New crew were arriving, some as replacements for losses from the Orion pirates. It was duty as usual, fleet personnel come and go but Star Fleet operations continue on.

Avis was by the docking port, her current assignment was to expect a specific arrival of one Cadet Poppy Koppelman destined to be working in the....Records Department? Really? Whatever thought Avis.

There was a single very youthful looking young woman in uniform approaching and she certainly looked like a bureaucratic type. Not that Avis was judgemental (yeah...right).

"Excuse me, are you Cadet Koppelman?" Avis spoke up.

"Oh! Hi! Sure, yes, I'm..." the girl looked up and her eyes became as round as circles and her jaw dropped. "Oh my golly gosh, it's YOU!! I recognise you from the Academy, you're that Senior with the Rommie hairdo!!" Like Avis didn't know.

"It is not a Rommie hairdo, it's popular on my home world," Avis looked annoyed.

"I heard Madison Parks tell someone that you used to be one of the popular girls but then something happened and you got in a fight and nobody talks to you now. But hey, that's great because nobody in my year talks to me either so maybe we could be friends!" the girl suggested helpfully.

"Madison Parks is a stupid bitch," Avis growled.

Poppy's mouth opened, but nothing came out immediately. After a second or two, she managed a shocked "...oh." Poppy had always assumed that Madison Parkes was a cool girl because she had done the bad thing with the legendary jock Peter Novak in the Academy Fountain when she was a Freshman.

That was before her time, and she didn't think that doing the bad thing before you were married was a good thing, but it had sounded cool and it was a shock to hear someone call Madison a 'stupid b-word'!

"Little early for the friends assumption, Koppelman. Let's just get this over with, huh?" Avis pointed out rather icily.

"Yes... er, yes Ma'am! Sorry Ma'am!" Poppy yelped, like an annoying little lap dog.

"Er, where do we go first, Ma'am?" she asked, trying to show keenness and curry favour with the red-clad security woman she had, inexplicably, managed to pee off.

"Alright, first off, you stop calling me ma'am," Avis snapped, "I'm not an officer ....yet so call me Security Cadet Larant...wait, that's too long...just call me Avis."

"Yes M... Avis!" Poppy almost saluted. Wow, wait until she told the kids back at the Academy that she was on first name terms with Avis Larant! What, the senior with Rommie do? Yep! The one who had that fight?! Yep!! They would think she was so cool!

"I've been volunteered by my department head to escort you around, show you your quarters, familiarize yourself with the basics of the ship - you can study the deck plans of the whole ship at your leisure, and answer any questions you have," she went on as they started walking at a rapid pace.

"Oooh, thank you for being volunteered! That's so kind of you!" puffed Poppy, unironically, as she tried to keep up on her spindly legs which were mercifully covered by her out-of-date trousers. Avis had great legs! Firm and muscular but shapely too, and they showed off well in the short red uniform.

"Say, like, you know your legs..." she started to ask.

"Make that.......reasonable questions," she wanted that clear. Her legs??? Avis glanced down at her legs just in case something had spilled on them without her knowing it. No, just fine.

"Oh" Poppy withdrew the query. Maybe when they were closer and actually did become besties, she could ask her if there were some exercises that would get hers like that. She dreaded sports at the academy, when she had to wear a Fleet Standard leotard and tights and people made unflattering comparisons between her legs and a pair of pipe-cleaners.

As they passed other crew most ignored them or nodded acknowledgment or even a friendly smile but one in an engineering uniform started to address Avis.

"Hey, Avis isn't it? Would you by any chance...." his attempt didn't even slow the two women down.

"Not interested!" Avis called out not turning her head back.

Wow, Avis was so cool! Poppy loved her. "Ha! We showed him!" she grinned, glancing back at the young man's dejected face. "What a loser! Oooh, where are we going first?!" the little lapdog panted.

"Let's take you to your quarters first. Then my advice, change out of those godawful pants and wear a uniform skirt like the rest of the ladies do," Avis suggested, in a tone that 'strongly' suggested.

"O..oh no, I couldn't! I'd feel naked!! It' OK for you, you've got great legs!" she drooled, then caught herself.

"Ummm....thanks," Avis gave her a look.

"Oh, I mean... I like boys!" she whispered. Now she thought about the way Avis was so not interested in that handsome Engineering guy. "Us girls, we all sure like boys, huh?" she said chummily... making sure they were both on the same page on that score.

"All is a generalization you should never make. But yes, I like men...not so much boys," Avis freely admitted.

"Maybe I could take the hem down on one of those teeny weeny dresses" Poppy thought out loud "like maybe to the knee?"

"Don't be a prude. Your legs are fine I'm sure. You do know some guys like skinny legs on girls, right?" Avis waved off Poppy's musing.

Poppy looked doubtfully down to her trouser covered legs as they walked.

"Well, I have got a quite short party dress I got two and a half years ago and have never worn. If I put that on, would you please have a look and tell me what you think? I don't want to get called names like at the academy." she pleaded.

"Sure, kid," Avis easily agreed but then frowned when the newcomer revealed some unfair treatment back in Star Fleet academy. It brought back Avis' own issues with the place.

"You know, Koppelman, I got called a name once back at Academy."

Poppy couldn't believe it. "Wow, why would anyone call you names? You're so pretty and so nice!" She thought back over the last year. "Still, only one name, I got called lots: spaghetti legs, grease pit, Tellarite nose, bolognaise face... that's because of my acne... one girl was really clever: she said I smelt like parmesan cheese, but that would go well with my spaghetti and bolognaise. You got to admire these bullies sometimes, some of them come up with really clever insults." she pondered.

"So what did you say to the person who called you names... er, a name" she asked.

"I promptly decked the person and I never had any more name calling least to my face. You need to learn to stick up for yourself or people will trample all over you."

"If anyone calls me names, punch them in the face, got it!" the young cadet repeated, as if learning the lesson by rote.

Avis did not figure this meek little thing would actually be able to do such a bold thing but at least the girl was reminded not to simply be walked over and take it.

They came to a halt by a door and the gauche Poppy looked at the awesomely cool Larant and couldn't help blurting out a question "What did they call you?" She meant the person whom Avis had thumped.

"None of your business,"

The over-eager girl blanched at the answer.

"O.. oh, I'm sorry. I had no right to ask that. I... you might have noticed, I get a little carried away: if somebody's nice to me, I always assume we're best friends all of a sudden. Usually they're just being nice to me because they feel sorry for me or something, he he he!" The girl shrugged and emitted a fake laugh to cover her pain at the essential truth of the statement.

Avis dismissed that line of inquiry then gestured, "And here is your quarters. Go in and have a look."

"Oh great!" Poppy gushed too soon, before even looking inside. They walked in and she looked around. "Gee, it's kinda small" she said and then "how come there's four beds? I only need one."

"You will do doubt be sharing it with other crew, only high ranking officers get a private room," Avis explained.

"My quarters has two beds, I have a roommate. She's very nice too," Avis added.

Poppy span around happily. “Ooh, seeing as there’s nobody else here right now, let me change into my party dress and you can tell me what you think!” She grabbed her bag and disappeared into the room’s shared bathroom and came back in a trice wearing a short, rather lurid coloured pink and lime green dress which might best be described with the single word phrase: horrible. Her legs resided beneath it.

“What do you think?” Poppy asked, giving a little spin.

Avis paused to look her over. Horrid color choice but she would not be mean to this poor girl, sounds like way too many were already in her life.

"Well that color choice certainly is different. But the length if fine and so are your legs. Now if I were a guy, I'd have no problem with those legs. You worry too much."

"Gosh, really?!" Poppy looked down at the limbs in question in wonder. "So, if I could just fix my greasy hair problem and my acne and..." she leaned in nearer to Avis, very near in fact, and whispered "... also, I sometimes have an issue with personal freshness. It's not my fault, it's my glands. Did you know that glandular disorders sometimes cause issues with personal freshness? Well they do!"

"Well civilization has invented deodorants you know?" Avis pointed out, "And showers."

Poppy nodded "Oh, I know, and I thought I'd gotten it under control. But when I was on the base, I was talking to this officer about what it was like like living on the ship, and she said I would probably be made to share a room with some Tellarites, you know, those pig-people. And I said 'Oh but what about the smell?' and she just sort of wrinkled her nose at me and said 'Don't worry, they'll get used to it'! Isn't that mean?"

"Anyway, if I can fix those things, I might have a chance with him!"

"Oh? A him? Already? You just walked onto the ship off the starbase," Avis was surprised.

She suddenly looked abashed. "You see, there's someone on this ship I met at the academy. He's a little older than me but I think if I could just fix those things, I might be in with a chance. "Do you got a boyfriend?"

"I do have one, yes. But I did not make it easy for him to catch me. You don't want to throw yourself at a man, you'll seem needy. Make him work for it a little," Avis dispensed unasked for advice.

Poppy nodded obediently.

"I'll try, Avis, I'll try. But every time I even think about the Captain, I just start to lose all sense of concentration and, I want to... I wannna..." she suddenly lifted up her arms, patting her own head with her right hand and rubbing her tummy in wide circles with her left.

"The Captain?" Avis was stunned, the young girl was aiming a bit high ambition wise, "And what are you doing?"

"My Mom taught me this! She said 'Poppy, whenever you start to think about boys, pat your head and rub your tummy, and it will stop you doing anything foolish!' It works too, try it. Maybe if I pat my head and rub my tummy when I'm with the Captain I'll have the self control to play hard to get!" she chirped optimistically.

"Umm, no, do not do that in front of the Captain...or any guy. Just use your imagination that you're doing it. That makes you look...weird."

"It does?!" asked Poppy, carrying on and peering in the big mirror that room-mates had to share. She stopped and shrugged. "You learn something new everyday."

"You want to project being cool," advised Avis.

The younger cadet looked intrigued. "It's OK for you, Avis, you're just naturally cool. I know, I'll pretend to be the Captain and you be me, what cool thing could I say?"

"Sorry, I'm not into roleplay. And actually I don't come up to men and try to impress at all. My boyfriend right now, I made him work hard just to have a conversation. He was persistent though," Avis responded.

“Oh” frowned Poppy, looking confused.

"You know you are so obviously inexperienced at all this. Don't take this wrong but maybe you want to try getting some with other younger guys. I think the captain is quite the ladies man or so I've heard."

“No he is NOT!” Exploded the freshman, going a little red with annoyance. Avis had hit a sore point there all right “They’re just rumours. Oh, of course he has to talk to lots of ladies in his job and even if he has had lots of girlfriends it’s because he knew that each of them wasn’t THE ONE. Sometimes you have to wait a long time for The One to come along and when that happens, sometimes there’s a little bit of an age difference, but that doesn’t matter and if I met the one for me, I wouldn’t make him ‘work hard’ and have to be ‘persistent’, I’d just say...” she looked like she was about to cry, or something equally lame, as she looked at herself in the party dress in the mirror.

“... I’d just say: ‘here I am.’”

"Well, I didn't mean any offense. And ...umm, I wish you the best of luck with....him," Avis now realized her words of advice were definitely not what the girl wanted to hear.

She sniffed and then looked at Avis, not so worshipfully as she had before.

In fact, quite coldly.

“I feel quite tired now and would like to go to bed.” She said, marching off to the bathroom to get changed out of the lime green and pink monstrosity, it was pretty clear that she hoped her cicerone was not there when she got back.

"Very well, I'll leave but if any officer asks you about the tour, be sure to be honest and tell him you cut it short on the first stop, showing you to your quarters," Avis pointed out.

"Goodnight, Poppy," she ended with and vacated the room.

 

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