Chapter Text
“‘I want you dead! I want you DEAD!’” McCoy spat through his teeth.
He caught up to Kirk in the corridor and fell into an angry stride beside him.
“That ring any bells, Jim? Those were Dr. Lester’s parting words to you.”
The captain kept walking and didn’t acknowledge him.
“When Spock told me you were goin’ down there to visit her… well, I had to see it to believe it!” the doctor ranted. “After everything she did to you, you’re gonna go dine with the Devil?!”
“There won’t be any dining,” Jim said tightly, maintaining his pace. “Just a short visit.”
“What for?! Why in blazes…”
“Her mother contacted me, Bones, asked me to check in on her,” Jim explained.
“Her mother?”
“She’s worried that Janice isn’t being properly cared for by the doctors on Starbase 3.”
“That’s absurd,” McCoy scoffed. “The psychiatric facilities here are top notch. At least that’s their reputation.”
Jim cocked his head, remembering the other mental healthcare facilities they’d visited during this five-year mission.
“Experience tells us reputations can be misleading.”
“Hm, well…” The doctor couldn’t really argue with that.
“They’re not taking Mrs. Lester’s calls, Bones. She’s chronically ill and can’t make the trip to Starbase 3 from Earth. She asked me to check up on Janice while we’re here and I told her I would. That’s all.”
McCoy blew out a breath. “That’s all? That’s a mighty big ask. Does she know everything that Janice did to you eight months ago… to this crew, to her own staff on Camus II?”
Jim looked down and slowed his pace.
“Most of it. In her letter, she just sounded like a heartbroken mother who knows she’ll never see her daughter again.”
McCoy softened. “Hm. That’s gotta be hard. You knew her?”
“Yes. She lived right off of Golden Gate Park at Cabrillo and 44th Avenue.”
“Ah.” McCoy knew the area. “Pretty houses there.”
Jim nodded. “Hers was the prettiest. She kept a beautiful front garden, too. Very welcoming.”
Kirk’s expression turned wistful and he slowed his pace even more.
“Mrs. Lester was like a second mother to me senior year, when Janice and I were tight,” Jim confided. “We did a lot of studying at her mother’s house because it was quiet. I haven’t seen her since those days, but she did send me a nice note after the five-year mission was announced to the public, words of encouragement and good wishes.”
“Sounds like a class act. I’m not such a fan of her daughter, though,” Bones said as they stepped into the turbolift.
Kirk gave a strained smile. “If I can just have a short visit with Janice, make certain she’s okay…. It’s the least I can do for a grieving mother.”
“Her daughter’s not dead, Jim,” McCoy pointed out, “but we almost were! Do the doctors know you’re coming? Did they okay this?”
“It’ll be fine, Bones. Don’t worry.”
“Seems like a bad idea to me.”
“For Janice or for me?” Jim asked.
“Both!” McCoy said, waving his arms. “We all barely survived that woman’s reign of terror! And what she put you through personally… stealing your body, locking you inside hers. My God, Jim! If it weren’t for Vulcan telepathy saving the day…”
Bones trailed off, remembering how Spock had verified the impossible claim that Jim’s mind had been imprisoned in Dr. Lester’s body and their ‘captain’ was in fact a mad woman.
As was his nature, Kirk had been forgiving, even holding her in his arms as she stabbed at him with those last, venomous words that still shook McCoy. He really didn't want his friend to ever have to face her wrath again.
“Let me go instead, Jim,” he offered as the turbolift doors opened. “I’ll talk with the doctors, look her over, and give you a full report. What do you say? That would satisfy her mother, wouldn’t it?”
Jim flashed him a fond grin. He appreciated the offer; Spock had made a similar one not 15 minutes ago. His friends were protective and he loved them for it, but he had to do this himself.
“I’ll be home for supper, Bones.”
He turned into the transporter room with the doctor still on his heels. McCoy gripped his arm gently as one last entreaty, but he could tell Kirk’s mind was made up.
“Hey, speaking of supper,” Jim said, stepping up onto the platform, “remember that restaurant we all wanted to try last time we were on Starbase 3, but didn’t get the chance?”
He snapped his fingers, trying to recall the name.
“Tacada’s,” McCoy supplied.
“Yes, that’s it. How about you and Spock meet me there at 18:00?”
“All right, Jim,” McCoy agreed.
The transporter operator stood by.
“Energize,” Kirk ordered.
Bones rocked up on his toes, then back on his heels, nervously licking his lips. There were still arguments to make, but it was clear the captain wasn’t going to let him make them, so he held his tongue and watched his friend dissolve in a shower of gold.
***
Jim hopped down from the Starbase 3 transporter pad and headed out into the main promenade. He passed several attractive shops and restaurants, including Tacada’s.
Dinner will be a nice reward after what is sure to be a strained meeting, he thought.
Captain James T. Kirk was no stranger to difficult situations. He prided himself on looking them square in the eye and doing the brave thing, not the easy thing.
It would have been easy to write back to Mrs. Lester with an excuse, any excuse: no time, no-visitors policy, no… no guts. That’s what every excuse sounded like in his head. And James Kirk had guts. He could endure this encounter to put an ailing mother’s mind at ease.
As he checked a directory to find his way to the high security psych hospital, he pictured Mrs. Lester in her kitchen 16 years ago. Always cheerful, she was smiling a welcome as he and Janice entered through the garden and hung up their coats that evening, that last harmonious evening…
“How was your day, kids?” she asked. “Did the group presentation go well?”
“I choked a little, but Janice knocked ‘em dead,” Jim said, “like she always does.”
“Oh,” Janice scoffed, “Jim’s the stronger half of our team and he knows it. Don’t let his modesty fool you, Mom.”
She laughed and gestured for them to sit down for dinner. Her daughter had always been a stellar student, top of her class, but since she’d been dating this boy, she seemed more well-rounded, happier. He was good for her, academically and socially.
Mrs. Lester thought they were dating. It was hard to tell with these two.
They certainly spent a lot of time together, studying, challenging each other, and pushing one another to excel. They were both on the Command track at the Academy and took their career goals very seriously. All year, they’d been ‘joined at the hip.’ To Mrs. Lester it definitely seemed there was more to it than just a study-buddy relationship, but Janice wasn’t overtly affectionate with her handsome friend, so her mother wasn’t sure.
“Ooo, lasagne! This looks delicious, Mrs. Lester,” Jim said, preparing to dig in.
“Thank you, dear. I know Janice is looking forward to a big, Iowa supper at your parents’ place this summer.”
The cadets smiled at each other.
“I wish I could take her sooner, but there’s just no time before graduation. Too many assignments coming up and we can’t botch any of them if we want to hold our class rankings,” Jim said.
“Are you still 1 and 2?” Janice’s mother asked.
“Yep,” Jim said proudly.
They had been jockeying for the top spot and knocking each other off, back and forth, all year. No one else could break into the top two.
“Who’s on top this quarter, you or Jim?”
Janice blushed at her mother’s inadvertently sexual phrasing and Jim was suddenly fascinated by his plate.
“We won’t know until next week when mid-quarter grades come out,” Janice said. “Jim’s lowest grade during the first half of 4th quarter was a 96% and mine was a 94%, so it may be Jim on top this time.”
She rubbed her leg against his under the table and gave him a flirty side glance that her mother didn't catch.
Jim lived for little moments like that. He wanted Janice to want him that way, but she wasn’t demonstrative. She often seemed enchanted by his intellect and out-of-the-box thinking, but as for sexual attraction… Jim wasn’t sure how strongly she felt it. If ever a girl wanted him for his mind it was Janice Lester.
Cadet Kirk knew he was good-looking. Girls had been telling him that for years, but only brain-power seemed to impress the studious redhead. Jim definitely found her impressive for many reasons, only one of which was intellect. He had reached for her romantically a few times when they were alone in her room and she had allowed it, seemed to enjoy it, but always redirected him back to studying, like he had experienced a forgivable lapse but must now be set back on track.
He knew she didn’t want to ‘go all the way’ until after graduation. Romantic entanglements were not forbidden between cadets, but they were discouraged. Janice knew she could handle some tender kisses and touches from her friend, but was wary of what a full-blown sexual affair would do to her concentration.
She could fall hard for this brilliant boy with his sandy hair and disarming smile. He’d become her best friend, an equal, a kindred spirit who shared her ache for a starship command. If her drive and ambition turned to a burning passion for Jim that derailed her academic performance, she’d never forgive either of them. No, the pleasures of Jim’s golden skin and beautiful body must be deferred.
Later. After graduation, she told herself. Perhaps in Iowa, in the bedroom Jim grew up in.
Such a setting appealed to her. She’d lose her virginity in a charming old farmhouse, wrapped around her chosen one. Then, they’d get their assignments and hopefully fly off to the stars together.
Later that evening lying on her bed, that happy thought intruded and she raised her head from the textbook and smiled at Jim.
“What are you thinking, Janice?” Jim said to the beautiful girl whose legs were draped across his. “Organic chemistry doesn’t usually provoke a Mona Lisa smile like that one.”
She chuckled. “I’m thinking that I have the best looking study partner at the Academy and I wish his lips would take a break from reciting amino acid sequences and kiss me.”
Jim’s expression turned sultry and he obliged. This was his favorite type of study break, and it happened all too infrequently. Janice moved the book off her chest and embraced him. He kissed her deeply with feeling, laying her slowly down across the mattress until his whole body was spread across hers.
“Mmm,” she cooed, as his right hand found its way under her uniform shirt. He easily stretched her bra out of the way and cupped her breast, running his thumb back and forth over her nipple. She had allowed this before, twice, and seemed to enjoy it, but if he tried to stroke her between her legs or push his clothed erection too close to her groin, she’d get spooked and shut things down.
He could already feel her starting to tense up...
“We can just do this for a while,” Jim reassured. The last thing in the world he wanted was for her to be afraid of him or feel pressured.
She nodded and pulled her shirt off over her head. Jim did the same with her bra, exposing her small, white breasts for him to admire.
“Ahh, Janice,” Jim sighed as he slowly stroked the neglected breast. When both nipples felt equally taught beneath his thumbs, he leaned in and took one in his mouth, softly sucking and massaging it with his tongue.
“Ohh, Jim,” she moaned. “Mmm.” The feelings that surged through her body were powerful.
She reached for the hem of his shirt, raising it tentatively until he took the hint and stripped it off in one quick move. Jim was proud of his chest and never shy about showing it off. She ran her fingertips over his smooth chest for a moment, then pressed her breasts into its broad expanse. He held her close, his blood racing, but his mind reminded him to go slow with his virgin friend.
Suddenly, she reached down and touched him through his uniform pants, tentatively exploring the outline of his erection.
“Uhh!” Jim jolted.
She had never touched him there before and he had yearned for her to. He rolled his hips instinctively toward her touch, pressing himself firmly into her palm and pulling her to him tightly.
Her hand fell away as their legs intertwined and they slotted together. So close. Jim locked her in with his strong legs, clamping down and rolling himself against her. He wanted her to feel it! He wanted her to feel the same passion he was feeling, be swept away by it, give in to it. He wanted his pants OFF!
He angled away slightly and unzipped.
“No, Jim,” Janice said, pulling free. “I let it get too far and I’m sorry, but it’s not the right time for this.”
“It’s not?!” Jim panted. To him, it DEFINITELY seemed like the right time.
He stood up and continued taking his pants off.
“Jim!” she protested angrily, moving to the far corner of her bedroom.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Jim said, more harshly than he intended. “It just hurts, that’s all. I have to get these pants off. Just give me a second.”
“It hurts?”
“Yeah, it hurts, getting all worked up like that with no release.”
There wasn’t a bathroom in Janice’s room; no choice but to sit on the vacated bed and try to think of something else.
“I thought it was a myth that it hurt,” she challenged.
“Well, you don’t know too much about these things, do you?”
To her, that felt like a jab at her lack of sexual experience. She didn’t like not knowing things, not being good at things. She dreamed of a time when she could be the savvy lover that Jim wanted, know his body backward and forward and make him come over and over with a force he’d never felt before. In her mind, there was plenty of time to learn, plenty of time for pleasure after their goals were met.
Jim sat there with his pants around his knees, embarrassed, trying to think of anything other than his bare-breasted girlfriend. Janice seemed completely recovered already and was starting to glance back toward her textbook with what Jim imagined was guilt over their long ‘study break.’
“Put your clothes back on and go study, if that’s what you want to do,” Jim said, annoyance in his voice. “I’m gonna need a minute... and looking at you half-naked isn’t helping.”
This liking-me-for-my-mind stuff is really starting to wear thin, Jim thought.
He didn’t want to be irritated with Janice, but when he was ready to go like this and she shut him down, it made him wonder if she was really the girl for him. They clicked intellectually, but Jim was a physical, passionate person. He didn’t like not being able to show Janice that side of himself. Would she even like sex once they started having it? Was she too cerebral to enjoy carnal pleasures?
He pictured them married and her just lying there waiting for it to be over every time, so she could get back to whatever intellectual pursuit currently held her focus.
His friend Gary Mitchell had asked him why he was wasting his time with such a nerdy girl.
Jim had defended Janice by saying, “That ‘nerdy girl’ has helped me get to the head of the class. Bet you wish you had beauty and brains like her on your side.”
“No thanks,” Gary had said, as Annette Broyhill sauntered by.
She was a townie who frequented the coffee café near campus. She was built like a brick house and had all the cadets swooning. Jim didn’t think her face was that pretty, and personally, he didn’t think breasts needed to be big as watermelons, but he smiled into his cup of coffee as Gary made eyes at her.
“Janice might be your captain someday, Gary. I’d watch how I talked about her if I were you,” Jim joked.
“Pfft,” Gary scoffed. “Girl captains. That will never happen, my friend,” he said with certitude.
“Why not?” Jim asked.
“Can you picture it?! The Klingons find out we have women commanding our starships? They’d be invading in nothing flat!” Gary made a face. “No, your girlfriend is deluded if she thinks Starfleet will ever promote her to that level. First officer maybe.”
“Hmm.” Jim thought about that and had to admit Gary was probably right.
Janice spoke so confidently about being a captain one day. She was sure they would change the rules for her if she were impressive enough… and Janice was accustomed to being impressive, the same way Jim was. He pictured her aspirations thwarted because she was a woman. What would that do to her? Failure wasn’t something she coped with well; an 89% on a quiz could throw her into a tailspin.
Perhaps he should point out other options to her, get her thinking more realistically. The world wasn’t Starfleet Academy. Here, she could be applauded for her academic excellence, given awards and accolades, but she would probably never be given a command, not of a starship. Perhaps a colony ship or a supply ship.
As Jim sat on her bed, he thought, A real friend would tell her there are a million things in this life that you can have and a million things that you can’t, and the sooner you accept that the better off you’ll be.
He nipped that thought in the bud, though, recognizing it for what it was: an impulse to hurt her. He had a good enough rapport with himself to realize that he was feeling angry and rejected; he shouldn’t talk right now.
But as he recovered on Janice’s rumpled bed, his erection slowly wilting, he felt a sudden need to have some things resolved between them.
She had put her bra and shirt back on and curled up with the chemistry textbook in the bay window chair. She showed no signs of having been sexually aroused a few minutes before.
“Janice,” Jim began.
She jumped, almost as though she’d forgotten he was there.
“I know you said you wanted to wait to go all the way until after graduation, but lovemaking can be a real tension reliever. You could get a hypo of Preventix and we wouldn’t have to stop next time we’re… in the mood.”
Janice blinked at him. “God, Jim. You’re such a man.”
“What does THAT mean?”
“It means you’re 21 and horny and trying to justify risking everything we’ve worked for just to get off.” She looked disappointed in him.
“But…”
“Tension relief? Seriously? Boy, if that’s the best argument you could come up with, I think you’d better let ME handle our persuasive essay project.”
Janice could speak sharply when she was crossed and this was obviously a touchy area for her. “Do you even know what Preventix can do to a person, Jim?!”
“Keep them from getting pregnant?” Jim said casually, trying to hold his own.
“It can disrupt your hormones to the point where you can’t concentrate. That’s what happened to Sally Jaref, my good friend freshman year. No one knows how they’re going to react to it, and once you take a hypo of that stuff, it’s in your system for six months. Sally used to be competitive freshman year, then Brad Blenheim sweet-talked her into taking that poison and she told me it was like her brain was in a fog all the time. Her grades fell so far she had to drop out! Ol’ Brad didn’t drop out, though, did he? He graduated last year with honors,” Janice said with disdain, as she looked Jim up and down like she didn’t like his kind.
“I’m not Brad Blenheim, Janice.”
“Well, you’re acting like him, trying to get me on birth control so we can give in to our next ‘mood’ instead of exercising some control over ourselves. Jim, I have enough concentration troubles once a month. I’ve learned to fight through that, work around it. I don’t need to risk making things worse with Preventix just so you can ‘relieve tension’ whenever you feel like it.”
“Well… there are barrier methods… or I could pull out,” Jim suggested with a grain of hope.
Janice rolled her eyes. She knew Jim had been a risk taker earlier in his Academy career. Freshman year, he’d endured a bullying upperclassman, Sean Finnegan, and devised clever and somewhat questionable ways to get back at him that had drawn reprimands.
Junior year, he had reprogrammed the Kobayashi Maru simulation so that it was possible to beat the computer’s no-win scenario. Everyone expected him to be expelled for cheating, but he was given a commendation for original thinking and became the class hero.
Things always seemed to work out for this golden charmer. Now, here he sat, trying to persuade her that they could break the rules and not get burned for it.
“Jim, for crying out loud! Graduation is only nine weeks away. Can you please keep your focus where it belongs until then? Your ‘little head’ does not get to call the shots. I thought you had developed some maturity and were past all that.”
“Past wanting to have sex? No,” Jim blurted honestly. “Getting good grades is important to me, but our relationship is important to me, too. I want us to get closer.”
“Seemed pretty close just now when you were kissing my breasts!” she pointed out snidely. “Geez, Jim! Why can’t that be enough for you?”
“Because I’m not 14!”
“Oh, that’s right, the big ladies’ man who started so young,” she scoffed. “I concede. You got me beat there, Casanova.”
”Janice, it’s not a competition,” Jim said. “It… it just seems like we have so little time left together, and if we wait until summer, we’ll have even less.”
“Unless we get posted to the same ship…”
“That’s a big if, isn’t it?”
“Not really,” Janice argued. “I imagine #1 and #2 in their graduating class are going to be granted their first choices of assignment. I want the Exeter; you want the Exeter. There’s every reason to expect we’ll both get her, IF we maintain our class rankings. That’s why it’s so incredibly important we don’t mess this up, Jim! I thought you understood. Stay the course and stop rocking the boat. You’re upsetting me, dammit, and I don’t need that right now!”
Jim felt irritated and frustrated and he wasn’t saying the right things at all. Saying the right things seemed to take extraordinary effort right now, an effort he didn’t feel like making.
“I think I might want the Farragut,” he revealed defiantly.
“What?! Why?”
“Gary says the captain is good about rotating junior officers for landing party duty, so everyone picks up experience quicker there.”
“Oh, ‘GARY says…’” she scoffed sarcastically. “You’re going to listen to your idiot friend instead of ME?”
He let the insult to Gary go. He knew Janice didn’t think much of him. She’d once called him a good-time Charlie.
“Janice, a captain interested in mentorship is an important consideration. Junior officers who never go ashore or get important assignments won’t rise through the ranks very quickly.”
“Any captain will see that I’m an asset…” Janice countered.
“How? We’ll need opportunities to prove ourselves.”
“Why are YOU worried about opportunities? That handsome face of yours has people falling at your feet the moment they meet you, men and women alike.”
Jim gave an awkward smile. He didn’t think that was true at all. Sean Finnegan certainly hadn’t fallen at his feet OR Commander Montague, his humorless Ethics professor two semesters in a row… and Janice had shown little or no interest in him for three years, until he “matured.” The more he thought about it, the more insulted he felt that Janice apparently didn’t think hard work had gotten him where he was.
“We’re gonna have to work, Jan, to show we can apply our skills on a ship, in the real world, be useful and adaptable. No one’s gonna care how we performed in an academic setting.”
“Well, I’m terrific at practicums,” Janice defended. She had a tendency to express everything in academic terms, whether she meant to or not. “So, how long have you been thinking about requesting the Farragut? Why am I just hearing about that?”
“Well, Gary mentioned it to me mostly for you…”
“Me?”
“Yeah, he thinks being a female starship captain is… a challenging ambition,” Jim said carefully, “and a commanding officer who will make you stretch yourself and get you out there in the thick of things could only help.”
Janice stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Jim, I seriously doubt Gary Mitchell wants to ‘help’ me,” she said derisively. “I think we ought to give his advice all the consideration it deserves.”
“Also,” Jim pressed, “Ben Finney is a bridge officer on that ship now. He was my favorite instructor here. He knows everything about everything. Finney could be a big help to us, give us tips for impressing our division heads, a little hand up…”
“I don’t need a hand up. The Exeter will be much better for us, trust me.”
Jim held his tongue, but there was something in his expression that made alarm bells go off in Janice’s heart. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Areel Shaw is on the Farragut,” Janice said slowly.
Areel was a senior Jim had dated last year. When she graduated and shipped out, they ended things, but now, Janice feared he was still thinking about her. Janice hated her, hated her flirty ways and stupid pixie hairdo.
“She could help us, too, with a year in space under her belt,” Jim said innocently.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Jim! Do you think I’m stupid?!”
Jim just stared at her.
“Put your pants on and get out of here. You’re taking too much of my energy tonight, so if you don’t want to study, just go.”
Jim’s mouth was a tight, thin line. This evening had been humiliating enough and now, to be spoken to like that…. He stood up and tugged his clothes on.
“See you in class,” he said and slipped through her bedroom door and down the stairs.
Janice’s mother was in the living room, having tea. She stood up to see him out.
“Thank you for dinner, Mrs. Lester,” Jim remembered to say even though he was upset. His midwestern manners wouldn’t allow for anything less.
“Oh, of course, dear. You’re welcome any time,” the lady said graciously.
“Jim! Jim!” Janice called. He heard her running down the stairs and turned with a smile, happy to accept her apology and take her in his arms. But she didn’t apologize.
“Listen,” she said. “I have a solution: You go to the Farragut with good-time Charlie and the pixie, and I’ll go to the Exeter where the adults are. How does that sound?” Her eyes were cruel and hard.
Her mom, realizing they were having a fight, disappeared into the kitchen to give them privacy.
“Jan...” Jim whispered.
“And I think we should study separately from here on in. This… association has run its course, I think,” Janice told him coldly.
“Fine by me,” Jim said. He had his pride. He opened the front door to leave.
She snatched his jacket off the coat hook and shoved it at him, putting him out into the damp San Francisco night like a cat who’d refused to sit in her lap.
***
In her cell, Janice sat nervously. She’d spent hours conceiving this scheme, crafting it, refining it. It was perfect. The secret project had captivated her mind for months, kept her from going mad in this ridiculous place with its plodding therapists and insipid patients.
Vengeance would be so sweet. This would be even better than stealing Jim’s body. She’d given up on wanting his command. That wouldn’t be enough for her now. She was done with Starfleet and the fools who worked for them.
Soon she’d be free of the constant torment that was Captain James T. Kirk, if she could just get through these next few minutes.
Her plan, eight months in the making, would go off without a hitch if she could stay above Jim’s charisma and keep her cool. He was coming; she could feel him. In a few moments, she’d be staring into that beautiful face for the last time. It wouldn’t be beautiful for long.
She smiled at her steely resolve. It hadn’t come easily. There were nights over the past eight months when she’d come to tears thinking of Jim Kirk, nights when she almost doubted that he’d done anything wrong at all. Her therapists tried daily to get her to view Captain Kirk as an innocent victim, but she knew better. She held onto her rage for this golden man who always got everything he wanted; but now and then, memories of him tormented her mind. Regrets crept in.
She would lie awake in the dark some nights and imagine what their planned trip to Iowa would have been like… a tour of his old haunts, dinner with his parents, then up to his childhood bedroom where they’d make love all night and pledge their devotion to each other.
Might-have-beens made her crazy if she thought about them too much, and there was not much to do here but think. She tried not to dwell on what really happened after that night when they broke up, the things that jealousy and desire for Jim had led her to do, the pride and the bad choices that had driven him away for good.
It had begun with a rumor she shouldn’t have listened to…
“Aren’t you with Jim Kirk anymore, Janice?” Dina asked. “I saw him at the 5th Street club last night looking pretty friendly with their singer, Ruth... somebody. You know the one, the blonde with that French twist hairdo?”
“I don’t go there,” Janice said, “and Jim Kirk and I were just study-buddies. He can do what he wants.”
“Oh. That’s good because Curt Klein said he saw them kissing outside after the show, then heading off toward her apartment together. Ruth used to date Curt’s roommate and he says she has a ‘very talented tongue’ and Jim probably had a good time.”
“Hm,” said Janice, nonchalantly. “Well, I’m glad he’s found himself a good kisser.”
Dina gave a wicked smirk. “Oh, I don’t think he meant kissing.”
For the rest of the day Janice thought about that: Miss French Twist sucking on Jim, making him moan with pleasure, doing the things Jim craved and had wanted from her just weeks before. She could barely concentrate in Interplanetary Relations class and missed several questions on her Particle Physics exam. By the time she got home, she was shaking with… something. Was it rage, humiliation, loss?
She decided it was loss. I’ve lost Jim! How did I let that happen? He was trying to tell me what he needed and I scolded him, so he turned to someone else!
She threw herself down on her bed and sobbed, remembering how good it had felt when they lay here together. The smartest, handsomest, most charming boy at the Academy had wanted her and she’d thrown him away.
Oh, God! I have to fix this.
She sat up and dried her eyes. She would work the problem and find a solution. There was a solution to every problem. She brought all of her intellect to bear.
First of all, she decided it was foolish to be afraid of Preventix. If her concentration was already suffering this badly, what did she have to lose? Jim was worth the risk. She would get the shot and either invite him over or surprise him at his dorm. She’d give him the night of his life and he would be hers again.
There was only one snag in this plan: She didn’t have any experience giving men the ‘time of their lives.’ She certainly didn’t have a ‘clever tongue’ like Miss French Twist. What if she couldn’t get him back?
A practicum! That’s what I need. I know what goes where, but I’m lacking in real-world experience, that’s all. How hard could it be? I’m great at practicums. I’ll get good at sex with somebody, then have more to offer Jim.
Looking back years later, she couldn’t believe she’d ever thought this was a good idea, but to her 21-year-old mind, it seemed logical. She sat down at her makeup table and got to work. For a nerd, she had considerable raw material. She rarely chose to exploit it with makeup and revealing clothes, but tonight was different. Tonight she would acquire new skills with a temporary ‘study partner,’ and learn how to make men melt into jelly.