THE NEW ARRIVALS - DAY SEVEN

Oww, my head. Who hit me on my head?

I open my eyes and immediately close them again. Someone has plugged in a bunch of spotlights all around my room and hit me on the head before they left again. Is this part of the marriage ritual or something?

“Alan,” Dexter yells at me. “You okay?”

Dexter. It must be him that’s responsible for the spotlights and the hitting on the head. I should have known.

“Dexter…don’t yell. And turn the spotlights off, will you please?”

“Okay,” he yells, “but I just wanted to stop by and tell you that the wedding’s off.”

“What?” I open one eye to look at him and I can just make out the smile on his face amid the glare of the spotlights.

“I said the wedding’s off, man. And I didn’t have to scheme anything. You took care of it all by yourself.”

“Me…? How?”

“Can’t propose to the princess while drunk, my friend. The proposal was pronounced illegal because of it. You can’t do the Scotch and then expect to do the princess.”

“No shit?”

“No shit,” he yells. “Congratulations.” He shakes my hand, turns out the spotlights and leaves me to suffer through my headache in peace.

“Well, this has certainly been an interesting first week,” Keith says he as reaches for another breakfast roll. Hunk snags the last one out of the basket a split second before Keith can reach it. Keith makes a face at Hunk. Hunk grins back and begins to smear jelly on his prize.

“I’ll say, Captain-Captain.” Dexter plucks a roll out of the basket near him and is about to toss it Keith’s way when Allura gives him a very disapproving look. Dexter shrugs and passes it along instead, but the roll never makes it past Dunkirk. Dexter looks at Allura and shrugs. Allura rolls her eyes.

“Who wants a boring first week anyhow?” I hold my roll out to Keith. He is about to take it when I happen to mention how sexy he looked in Allura’s pink gown. He glares at me and refuses the roll.

“You’re not funny, Lance,” he snarls and leans back in his chair with a fold of his arms. I laugh at him and eat the roll myself. Allura tries hard not to giggle. Tasia has no such reservations and giggles into her hand. Keith sighs and reaches for his orange juice.

“Well, now that we’ve seen Keith in my dress, I wonder when I’ll get a turn in his pants,” Allura says.

Keith has just taken a mouthful of juice prior to Allura’s remark. He makes this odd sort of choke/gasp/gulp and his face turns beet red. I slap him hard on the back. Tasia has to hide her face on Dexter’s shoulder. Dexter has a hand pressed to his mouth. Dunkirk is grinning from ear to ear. Hunk has an expression on his face like someone just told him there was a live cockroach in his roll. Pidge looks like he wants to hide. Allura looks totally confused.

“What?” She says, her expression all innocence.

Tasia finally separates from Dexter to lean close and whisper in Allura’s ear. She blinks and gives an embarrassed little laugh as she throws a glance Keith’s way. Keith has managed to get the juice down the right pipe, but he’s still red in the face and totally speechless. I could kill for a camera right about now.

After breakfast and small talk, everyone heads their separate ways. Keith takes the helm down in Castle Control while Hunk heads out for first watch. Allura is off to play princess for the day. Coran isn’t over his sulking quite yet, but who cares? For the most part, everything is back to normal. And that’s a good thing.

“Hello, Keith,” Allura says from behind me. I spin the chair around to face her.

“Princess…how are things going today?”

“Well enough, I suppose. Coran is in such a mood. He was grouchy all through the Counsel Meeting, and he hasn’t spoken two words all morning. Serves him right, though, trying to pull a trick like that anyway.”

“I plead the fifth on that one.”

“You’re supposed to plead the first, remember?”

“Oh yeah, that….so, now that all the chaos and mayhem has subsided, do you still think I made the right decision?”

“Yes, I do. You know I trust your judgment, Keith. I always have, and I always will.”

“Security to Castle Control,” comes a voice through the main console. “We have an incident of two VF pilots attempting to sneak into the girl’s locker room in the gym.”

Allura blinks at me. I sigh and turn back to the console.

“Which two, Security?”

“Lance and Dunkirk, Sir.”

“Have you apprehended them yet?”

“No, Sir. The girls in the gym have apparently taken matters into their own hands. We’re sending someone down to peel off the duct tape as we speak.”

Allura giggles. I cover my face with my hand.

“Roger that, Security. Give me an update when the situation has been resolved. And lock those two up for the afternoon, all right?”

“Yessir. Security out.”

“Stress. I have stress,” I mutter aloud. Allura pats my shoulder.

“The sun’ll come out…tomorrow…bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun…”

I turn and stare at her. She smiles, waves and leaves the room. Security calls back to inform me that the offenders have been apprehended and locked up. Not like it’s going to stop them from trying again, but it makes me feel better. I sigh and lean back in the chair.

Despite all the glitches, this will be a good thing in the long run. And Allura agrees with me. That’s all that matters, really.

====== END

To The New Arrivals: Day 6