DISCLAIMER - I OWN NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS, PLANETS OR LOCATIONS, EXCEPT FOR MY OC ANNA.

STARDATE 13th September 2249

"James! James! You promised you'd see me off." Young eighteen year old Annabeth Kirk yelled up the stairs of their small house in Iowa. Her tone was annoyed, and her usually smiling face was spilled into a frown. Her blue eyes sad. Her long blond hair was tied up in a ponytail underneath her new cadet red hat. She was also dressed in her cadet reds. Her carryon bag, with a few sets of clothes in, was sat by her feet at the bottom of the stairs. She had to leave any moment and she had yet to say goodbye to her younger brother. She was only bothered about saying goodbye to him. He was the only one in this town that she cared about. Not Frank, her step-father or Dominic, the resident bully. No, only James.

She was finally fed up of waiting. She stormed up the stairs and straight into her brothers bedroom. He was lay there, fast asleep. She frowned. She wanted to say goodbye but she had always hated waking him up. She sighed and approached his bed. She sat down on the edge and nudged his shoulder. He stirred but didn't wake. She nudged him again and this time he did wake up. His tired eyes opened slowly and glanced over at her.

"I have to go soon James." she said softly. As much as she wanted to get angry with him for not waking up on his own to come and see her off, she had no idea how long it will be until she returns home and she didn't want to part ways on bad terms. She knew James didn't want her to leave. She knew that James hated the idea of her being part of Starfleet. He hated everything to do with Starfleet. To him it was responsible to taking away both their dad and their mom and now it was taking his sister.

"Do you really have to go?" James asked, looking up at her from where he was lying. He hadn't slept well that night. Knowing that this morning he would have to say goodbye to his sister and only true friend in Iowa.

"If you want to stay in a house away from Frank, I have to be able to afford it. And to be able to afford it I need a job." Anna told him softly.

James nodded. "I understand that but why not just get a job here, at home."

"Because I want to give you and my future children the best life possible and I can't on a shop owners wage or a waitress' wage. But with a Starfleet wage I can." Anna told him.

"You promised you would never leave me like Mom and Dad did" James said, his eyes sad.

"James, Dad didn't mean to leave us. He just did what he thought was right. And I'm not leaving you like Mom left us. I'll comm you however often you want me to. Everyday, if that's what you want. Just know that I'm not leaving you, I'm just trying to get an education that will get me a well paid job that can support us." Anna told him, reaching out to stroke his hair down.

Usually James would never allow his sister to stoke his hair down. He was sixteen after all but even he knew that she was doing the right thing, even if he didn't like it, and so he would never be able to come up with an argument good enough to convince her to stay. And besides he knew it had always been a secret dream of hers to be on board a Starfleet ship. He knew she had always wanted to follow Dad's footsteps and go into Starfleet. Who was he to stop that? He knew that if it was the other way around she would be encouraging him to do what he wanted to do.

"Okay. Just don't break your promise." James finally relented.

"I won't. I'll comm you tonight. We'll talk then. I have to go. Love you James." Anna said, standing. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to James' forehead. She could tell already that he was about to go back to sleep. He looked like he could fall asleep any minutes.

"Bye Anna" James said, already half asleep.

"Goodbye James. I'll miss you. Try not to get into too much trouble." Anna replied, finally slipping out of James room.

She made her way downstairs, collected her bag and walked straight out of the front door. She knew if she didn't walk straight out she never would. Her mind was whirling into several different directions. Should she go? Was she being selfish by going to Starfleet and leaving James here with Uncle Frank? She knew the reason she had just gave James was only part the reason why she was going.

Her mind was whizzing through determination to go and regret for leaving as she walked the long way to where the shuttle would be leaving. It was still dark out. She had to leave several hours in advance so she could get to the shuttle on time.

By the time she arrived at the shuttle the sun was rising. Other cadets were already milling around, approaching the doors to the shuttle.

She took a deep breath and looked back towards where she had come from. This was it. Her last chance to back out. She thought of James. How much trouble would he get in while she's gone? What would he think if she backed out? Would he be happy or disappointed and guilty? Her mind turned to her Dad. Would he be disappointed if she backed out? Yes... No... Maybe.

"Having second thoughts?" a voice startled her. She quickly turned to look at who the voice belong to.

A commander by the looks of his uniform. Must be who they sent to babysit us on the way, Anna thought to herself. He had brown hair that was greying at his roots. His eyes sparkled with some sort of amusement.

She stood for a moment observing him before realising he had asked her a question. "Um no, sir. Just worried about my brother."

"Younger?" he asked.

She nodded. "He's sixteen. He doesn't really like the idea of me leaving." She told him honestly.

"Well, I suppose you'll just have to prove to him that you leaving is a good thing. Achieve at the academy and he'll realise that is where you were supposed to be." the man kindly said.

"Oh, he knows this is where I am meant to be. I think he's just scared of loosing me. Our Dad died on a Starfleet ship and our Mom practically abandoned us to go off planet every opportunity that she got." Anna told him, unsure about why she was opening up to him so much. He just had the sort of vibe that made her trust him and want to tell him.

"I see." He commented shortly. Obviously unsure about what to say in response. He suddenly jumped slightly before saying, "My apologies, I never introduced myself. I am Commander Pike."

He offered out his hand. Anna smiled before taking his hand. "Annabeth. Annabeth Kirk. But everybody calls me Anna."

"Kirk? Daughter of George Kirk?" Commander Pike asked.

Anna nodded. "Yes Sir."

"It's pleasure to meet you again Anna. It seems not that long ago when you were running about the Kelvin, and it was me always chasing after you." Commander Pike said with a large smile.

Anna smiled as well. "You were on board the Kelvin?"

"I was assigned the Kelvin in my final year of the Academy for my dissertation. George was a good friend of mine, even during my academy years." Commander Pike said.

"Well then, it's good to meet you Commander Pike." Anna replied with a smile.

"Now, we should get on board. I believe we are almost ready to go and we wouldn't want them to go without us now would we dear?" Commander Pike asked with a smirk on his face.

"No sir" Anna replied back with a smile as they both began to head for the shuttle.

Once on board Anna took a seat amongst the other cadets dressed in red while Commander Pike went up to the cockpit. As soon as he was sat down the pilot turned to the cadets and said, "Prepare for takeoff." The cockpit door closed cutting off the Commanders from the Cadets.

Anna looked around at the other cadets. They were all dressed in the Cadet reds and every single one of them looked smart in them. She noticed that other Cadets were doing the same as her, probably looking for somebody that they recognise. She tried to find somebody she recognised but it looked like she was going to be the only person from her end of Iowa. She sat back, half pleased, half upset. It would have been nice to already know somebody but she didn't really like anyone from back in Iowa so it wasn't necessarily a bad thing that she didn't know anyone already.

It took 3 hours to travel from Iowa to San Francisco in the shuttle and when the shuttle finally docked every single Cadet was a mixture of nerves and relief. Everyone was nervous about the beginning of their Starfleet career but relieved to be finally able to get out of the uncomfortable shuttle seats.

Anna waited until all the other Cadets had gone before leaving her seat herself and exiting the shuttle to follow the Commanders. The two Commanders that were with them, Commander Pike and a female Commander lead the cadets into a hall room. At the front were five tables with Commanders behind them. Above the tables, so everybody could see it, were five signs that had parts of the alphabet. For example the first read " A - D ". The room was already filled with people queuing, obviously from other shuttles that arrived before they did.

"Please queue in the queue based on the first letter in your second name. Here you will receive your personal pad with your room allocation and class schedule." shouted the female Commander.

The group of cadets from Iowa quickly split. Anna joined her queue "K - Q". She waited a good half hour in the queue before she reached the desk.

"Name?" asked the Commander at the desk.

"Kirk. Annabeth Kirk" Anna replied.

The commander searched through the pile of padds before picking one out and handing it over to her.

"Thank you" Anna said before moving away quickly and toward the exit of the room. She opened up her padd and wondered where they kept the room information. She opened up the documents app and instantly found the document named 'Room Allocation'. Because she was focusing on the padd, she therefore wasn't focussing on where she was going so it wasn't surprising when as she exited the door to go outside she ran head first into someone else. She dropped her padd and fell back on her bum. The person who she had bumped into knelt down and picked up her padd before standing back up at the same time she did.

She looked over who she bumped into. He was tall and lean. He was pale with a tint of a green colour to his skin. She knew instantly that he wasn't human, or at least fully human. It wasn't until she saw his face that she recognised what he was. The pointed ears and the slanted eyebrows told her that he was a Vulcan but his eyes looked almost human. Not that Anna had seen many Vulcans to compare his eyes to. For all she knew they could very well be Vulcan eyes.

She cleared her throat awkwardly, aware that while she was studying him, he had also been studying her. "My apologies. I wasn't looking were I was going." She said awkwardly.

"That is quite alright. I was also neglecting simple eye functions" he replied, holding out her Padd for her to take back.

Yep, definitely a Vulcan, she thought to herself as she took her Padd back from him.

"Well... um thanks for picking up my padd... and um I apologise again for running into you" Anna stammered out awkwardly shifted from foot to foot.

"Your apology is unnecessary. You have apologised once. And I do not remember you running." The Vulcan replied, obviously not understanding the phrase 'running into you'.

"Oh. Um. It's a figure of speech that's used instead of 'I collided with you'" Anna explained to him.

"Interesting" was his only reply.

"Well anyway, I'm Annabeth Kirk but call me Anna. It's nice to meet you" Anna said to him, excited about the prospect of a new friend, even if it is with a Vulcan. She didn't however offer out her hand for a handshake because she could remember reading that Vulcan's have a touch telepathy and therefore do not like shaking hands as an introduction.

"I am Spock" The Vulcan, Spock, nodded to her in greeting.

"What's your focus?" Anna asked him curious.

"Computer programming with minors in Phonology and interspecies ethics" Spock replied, well aware that the three subject that he just said were not usually placed together.

Anna also recognised the fact that they were not usually placed together. Phonology and interspecies ethics maybe but not computer programming. Then again she couldn't really talk. It was hard to put her three together as well.

"That's interesting. I'm focussing on survival strategies and tactical analysis, with minors in Combat and xenolinguistics." she replied.

Anna noticed that Spock looked over into the room that she had just left and the fact that he didn't have his own padd yet.

"Oh, you need to get your padd. Sorry to keep you talking. I better let you get your padd. Maybe I'll see you around at some point." Anna said, smiling kindly.

"Indeed." Spock replied.

"See you later Spock" Anna waved as she left, leaving Spock stood by the doors.

It didn't take long for Anna to find her assigned room. MG649. Room 649 in the Mathew Grant building, named after an Admiral that died the year that this building was built. Anna entered the personal code that she had on her padd into the keypad by the door. The door opened. She walked into the dorm room. There were two double beds. Underneath the beds were boxes for storage and beside the beds were bedside tables, one per bed, which had on them an alarm clock and lamp. On the wall opposite each bed was a desk. Anna sighed before claiming the bed furthest away from the door by placing her bag on top. She looked at her padd again to see whether it said anything about her roommate. Nothing. It didn't mention anything about her roommate. She would just have to wait and see.

As she waited nervously she began unpacking her bag. She only had a few spare sets of the Cadet reds, a few pairs of clothes, one set of bed sheets, duvets and pillow cases, her essentials and two photographs. One photo was of her and her Dad, and the other was of her and James that she took two years before when she finished high school two years in advance. She couldn't really fit anything else in her bag. She put her two photos up on to the shelf above her bed and then unpacked her cadet reds into one box under the bed, and her ordinary clothes in the other. Her essentials she put in the single draw that was on the bedside table. She made her bed with her blue duvet cover that James picked out for her. He said it matched her eyes. It was a light blue with a dark blue pattern. The pattern was a flower stem that travelled down the bed and that bursts into flowers near the bottom of the bed.

Her padd beeped and the screen flashed. Anna had a look to see that Commander Pike had messaged her.

MESSAGE

FROM COMMANDER PIKE, CHRISTOPHER

TO CADET KIRK, ANNABETH

Annabeth

I am to be your personal advisor for the next four years while you are a cadet. At the moment it says in your timetable that it is Commander Barnett and you are meet him tomorrow morning at 0900 hours. However this will be updated soon. You will meeting me in my office, tomorrow at 0900 hours.

Hope you settle in well.

Commander Pike

Annabeth smiled and placed her padd down. She definitely liked the idea of having Commander pike as her personal advisor for the next four years. At least she knew him and he knows her.

She was about to flop on her bed and relax when the door chimed and then opened. Annabeth was shocked to see Spock at the door. After all she could have sworn that the academy don't offer co-ed rooms. It's supposed to be girls share with girls and boys share with boys.

"Spock?" Anna questioned, "Have you been assigned to this room?"

"According to my padd, yes. However there must be a mistake in our assignment." Spock replied.

Anna nodded. "Obviously. I'll message Commander Pike. See what he says."

MESSAGE

FROM CADETKIRK, ANNABETH

TO COMMANDER PIKE, CHRISTOPHER

Hi Commander Pike

I've just met my roommate and we both agree there must have been a mistake with the assignment of rooms. My roommate appears to be a male. Who should we speak to to get his resolved?

Please reply soon and thanks.

Annabeth Kirk

Anna looked up at Spock to find that he had moved to look over her shoulder. She raised an eyebrow at how close he was. She could feel the heat coming off his body he was that close. Spock took a step back.

"So while we've got some time to kill, lets talk." Anna said cheerfully,

"I do not believe it is possible to kill time" Spock replied "Time is a figurative element."

"'kill time' is another terran phrase. It means there is a period of time that you need to get through. For example right now I say time to kill because I want the time to go fast till when we receive a reply so we should do something." Anna replied to him. Anna suddenly had a feeling that she would be explaining a lot of her terms and phrases to him over the next four years and she could tell that like this explanation some of them will not be an easy thing to explain.

"I understand. " he replied but said nothing else.

Anna frowned with the lack of conversation. "Okay, um how about we get to know each other? or we could set some ground rules. I mean at the moment we have no idea if Commander Pike will be able to sort out this room issue so we should set some ground rules."

"Ground rules? Explain." Spock demanded.

Anna frowned a bit more at the rudeness of just saying the word explain with no please on the end but explained anyway. "Well when I say ground rules I mean rules that are between us, to do with this room, that we set out and absolutely must follow. For example as we are obviously different genders we will have to work out some sort format for getting changed because I am not getting changed in front of you nor will I attempt to get changed under my duvet. I'm sure you will also be uncomfortable getting changed in front of me."

"I am a Vulcan. I do not get uncomfortable" Spock said firmly.

Anna raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Okay well I'd be uncomfortable with you getting changed in front of me."

"Is it not part of the Terran culture for a male and female to get changed in front of each other? Many of the Terran males on the shuttle I boarded were discussing losing their clothes in front of a woman." Spock commented.

"Spock!" Anna groaned. "No, the only time a woman will lose a part of the clothes in front of a male is if they're in a relationship with them or about to have sex with them."

Anna's face blushed at the topic. She had never had much experience with love and lust but discussing it with Spock was awkward because he was 1) a guy, 2) a Vulcan that supposedly had no emotion and 3) she could not deny that Spock was anything less than good looking. Spock's face showed no reaction, however Anna could see that the tips of his ears appeared slightly more green than they had before. She smiled shyly. So it had affected him in some way.

"Do you understand now why I would be uncomfortable?" Anna asked him.

"Indeed." He replied.

Anna's padd beeped but this time it didn't just beep once but kept beeping. She looked at it and saw that Commander Pike was trying to Comm her. She answered.

"Commander Pike. You have good news I hope" She said with a smile.

His answering frown and sigh deflated her smile. "I'm afraid not Anna. Is your roommate there with you, um Cadet Spock?"

"Yes, he's here. He can hear you." She replied.

"After I received your message I commed the accommodations office. There wasn't a mistake with your room allocation. There was a full intake on cadets this year and an odd number of males and females. You and Cadet Spock where just the male and female that ended up being paired with one another. For now you will have to share a room, however there may be a no show or a drop out and if there is I shall see to it that you are the first to receive notice of a free bed." Commander Pike told her.

"Well, thank you Commander. I'm sure Spock and I will work something out." Anna replied with a small smile.

"Ever the optimist. I shall see you tomorrow for your personal advisors meeting." Commander Pike said smiling at her.

"Okay. Bye Commander." Anna said.

"Good bye Anna" he replied before shutting off the comm.

Anna turned to Spock and said, "Looks like we're stuck together Spock"

"Indeed." Spock replied.

"Do you always reply with one word answers?" Anna asked with a mischievous sparkle in her eye and a teasing tone.

"Unclear"