Mirror Mirror On The Wall

<snip>
“Yeah, it is. You have so little faith in others. You have assumed that we don’t like you and accused us of not making an effort because we are GELF haters…” She paused, watching as the Ssala began to prepare for sleep, and secure the ship module. “But let me ask you one question. You accuse us of not making an effort, you say we don’t care. But I ask you this, how does Jay take his coffee?” Jade asked simply. Eve paused, she didn’t know, she thought about it and knew how Jaxx liked his coffee, and it was no secret that Cass liked hers dark and strong, but she didn’t know how anyone else did. She thought about it a bit more, and it dawned on her what Jade was saying.
“You think I don’t make an effort?” Eve said, her face flushing with anger
“Exactly. Think about it. How many times have you sat with someone other than Jaxx in the canteen? How many times have you asked one of us to go to see a film or for a drink on the promenade? When you do think about it, ask yourself if you have, have you been with Jaxx as well? If you have, were you really paying attention to anything we did or said?” Jade closed her eyes in the silence that followed. "You don't even need to be friends with someone, but 90% of people, everyone who gives a smeg knows how the people they work with takes their coffee."
After a few minutes she reached over and touched Eve’s arm.
“I’m sorry that was rude of me to say all of that… I’m going to find somewhere to sleep.” She stood up, steadying herself against the wave of dizziness leaving Eve to her thoughts.
<snip>

Evelina watched as Jade staggered away to get some much needed rest. After Jade left, Evelina sat quietly as she pondered Jade’s harsh words. As Evelina reflected she remembered her only group of friends the “Rowdy Girls”. They were a small group of talented crew members who also didn’t fit in with the rest of the crew for various reasons. Among Evelina’s closest friends were Ensign Tammy May Fly, Ensign Rhonda Rhodes, Ensign Ruby Daze and Ensign Stacy Crews. Tammy the practical joker who was a JMC scientist. She was smart but her odd sense of humor often made her an outsider in her science group. Rhonda was a very masculine woman and a great pilot and of course but she was getting rejected by guys since she wasn’t pretty and often mistaken as a guy. Ruby was a bit of a tomboy and a great mechanic but she was always put in the “Friend” zone with the guys she liked. Stacy was a pretty communications ensign who loved tattoos and body piercings and was often considered a freak by her fellow crew members. There were a few other girls in her group but Evelina was closer to these four friends.
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Evelina smiled as a few tears rolled done her face as she remembered her long lost friends. They would often get into trouble together and Evelina remembered many of Jay’s lectures and reprimands but at the time they lived for the moment. Evelina remembered the time they went to cheer up Rhonda by playing a prank on the latest guy who embarrassed her and hurt her feelings calling her a gorilla. Tammy synthesized a large quantity of Memorizian GELF Pheromone sweat and the girls rigged the guy’s locker to hose him with the pearl colored goo when he opened it. The result was far more comedic than the five pranksters had planned for, since only Tammy knew what the Memorizian GELF Pheromone sweat would do to a human. As it turned out Memorizian (humanoid frog) GELFs were sort of a transgender race in that they could switch genders depending on the environment to continue the lifespan of their race on a harsh planet. The Pheromone sweat they excreted would cause their body to switch genders when under stress. However known only to scientist, the Memorizian GELF Pheromone sweat has been known to affect some humans as well. So the poor victim of the girl’s prank was quickly changed into a rather attractive woman and his world was turned upside down. He was quickly hounded by his perverted male colleagues and chased down the corridors. Evelina remembered being the reprimand she and her friends got from the Captain. It was at that point they gained a rather bad reputation and were avoided by most of the crew. Evelina realized the reason she knew so little about the rest of the crew was because she only wanted to be with her friends since they accepted her. At the time Evelina was happy to even have friends since they didn’t judge her so she never bothered to consider getting close to anyone else.

As Evelina remembered the words of Jade she sighed she realized never once considered Jay to be her friend since he was her CO. Evelina remembered all the times Jay tried to be nice to her but she kept her distance from him believing the rumors that he was a player and a hotshot pilot. Evelina realized she never once gave Jay the opportunity to defend himself from the rumors, she simply lumped him in with the rest of the jerks that treated her badly. It made Evelina sad to realize she was just as bad as the jerks who treated her badly. As she reflected she thought about all the lost opportunities she passed up to befriend the other GELFs on the ship. Evelina wondered if she was so isolated because she was a jerk or was it because she was so insecure in herself that she was afraid to get hurt again. As Evelina thought about the other crew members she realized she knew very little about them as well. She never knew that Jay and Phil were so close or that Jay was a God parent to Phil’s kids. Till now she didn’t even know Jade was bisexual either. Evelina wondered if the rest of the crew was like that as well. As she put some thought into it she realized she was oblivious to what the rest of the crew was like. Other than their professions and outlandish behavior the rest was a complete mystery. Evelina quickly realized she latched onto Jaxx pretty quick and solely focused on him and thus showing little concern for the rest of the crew. As Evelina closed her eyes she soon realized there was some truth in Jade’s words. Though she didn’t consider herself a racist against GELFs she did understand how she could be seen as an inconsiderate person. As Evelina thought about her Chief of Navigation Amber, she never realized she was a GELF.

<SNIP>
“Because she was a GELF too. I remember several times, she came to me rather than Doctor Keto as she didn’t want her father to find out she’d been fighting. It wouldn't take much for word to get back to Phil given how fond Keto was of gossip.” Jade smiled, remembering. “Once, she came to me with someone who had been making fun of a GELF in her department, must have been you thinking about it. The guy had a broken arm in three places and a dislocated jaw….” She chuckled, recalling the angry stern face of Amber as she hauled the crewman into the medical bay to be fixed up.
<SNIP>

Evelina let a few tears roll down her cheeks as never knew that Amber had defended her. She always thought she was the outsider the whole time and never took the time to realize she wasn’t alone. As she thought about Amber in the past she never noticed the few times when she helped her out. Evelina just chalked it up to her CO just doing her job. As she considered all the other people in her life who she never once appreciated and were long gone it made her feel like crap. Evelina realized she was in deed an arsehole because she was so self-involved that she never saw the few people who were also nice to her in different ways. Now it was too late since they were all dead with the exception of the remaining crew members. Evelina wondered if it was even possible to make things right with the rest of the crew since she and Jaxx managed to paint themselves in a corner. If she and Jaxx were going to be living with the rest of the crew they were going to have make some changes. Unfortunately there was no simple answer to fixing the problem for her and Jaxx. The big question was how they were going to make things better between the crew now. Granted Jaxx might have gained some points sacrificing himself to protect everyone but all it would take is one mistake to lose that what little respect he gained. Evelina hoped Jaxx would listen to Jay’s orders and keep the violence to a minimum. As for Evelina they only thing she could do at this point is to act professional and try to work with the other crew members and hope that in time she could remove some of the social barriers between them.

Evelina’s trance was broken when a few female Ssala put a small blanket around Evelina and gestured for her to go with them. Evelina then looked up at the female Ssala as she wiped her tears away and half smiled as she stood up. The female Ssala then led Evelina to their hut to show her they made a small bed of grass for her to sleep on. Evelina wasn’t sure how to respond but reluctantly accepted their hospitality so she wouldn‘t offend them. As Evelina took off her back pack and lay down on the grass bed the female Ssala covered Evelina with the blanket and said something in Ssalan language before they smiled and went to sleep. As Evelina closed her eyes her mind filled with all the random thoughts in her head and eventually she settled on the fun time they had at Whiskerman’s Ball. Evelina smiled as she dreamed about doing Karaoke with Jaxx and the crew.

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