Work Text:
From Modern Psychology for Space Explorers:
First impressions are influenced by a number of factors, such as facial shape, vocal inflection, attractiveness, and general emotional state. People tend to get attached to their initial impressions of others and find it very difficult to change their opinion, even when presented with lots of evidence to the contrary.
“I made it! I'm a fighter pilot. Hasta la later, Keith!” Pidge heard the tall, lanky boy exclaim as he did a silly little victory dance to express his glee. “And look, you're my engineer!”
“Cool,” said the heavier, round-faced boy beside him, who was clearly less enthusiastic than his friend, “Um, can I do that from the ground?” He asked this sounding hesitant, almost reluctant.
Interesting, Pidge thought. The cadet who just got promoted to fighter pilot was loud-mouthed and easily excited. She wondered how someone so flighty could keep a cool head in the cockpit, especially when his crew’s lives were at stake. His friend, the quiet engineering student, seemed more grounded, both figuratively and literally.
“And our communications officer is...” began the slim, hyper-excited boy with the pointed chin. “Who the heck is Pidge Gunderson?”
Pidge swallowed, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. “Right here,” she said, suddenly aware of her femininity. Did her voice crack? She was pretending to be a boy, but it was difficult to remember that fact that when faced with the devil-may-care grin and sparkling blue eyes of the handsome cadet that had turned his attention towards her. Her heart began to beat faster.
“Welcome to the team, Gunderson. I'm Lance, your fighter pilot,” he said with roguish smile. Was it her imagination, or did his vocal inflection sound flirtatious when he said that? When he had moved close enough to count the freckles across the bridge of her nose, she averted her gaze, but not before noticing his flawless complexion. His cologne was intoxicating, reminding her of the smell of a garden after a springtime shower, a scent more grassy than floral.
“Hey, I'm Hunk,” the engineering student said. Pidge’s attention was momentarily drawn to the quieter boy. She recognized Hunk as one of the top students from her astrophysics class, an advanced course in which she was the youngest (and smallest) student in the room. He had always seemed like a nice boy, just the sort of student she might want to be friends with if she hadn’t been trying so hard to avoid drawing attention to herself.
Lance continued to prattle on in a friendly manner, vying for her attention. “We’ve got a lot of great times ahead, so we should probably start bonding now.” He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. “What do you say we sneak out of campus...”
Suddenly, Pidge’s attention was drawn away from Lance and Hunk by the familiar, dreaded sound of Commander Iverson’s voice.
“Security for the Galaxy Garrison's mainframe is our first priority. It's been breached once. And by a little girl, no less. It can not happen again!”
Little girl. Her heart was hammering in her chest. What if he recognized her? She impulsively saluted, hoping to hide her face from her least favorite officer at the Galaxy Garrison. If she got caught impersonating a Garrison cadet after being banned from the Galaxy Garrison for life—
“Wrong arm, cadet,” Iverson said gruffly. He didn’t know that she had deliberately saluted with her left arm to hide her face. Pidge breathed a sigh of relief as Iverson continued on his way.
“Hello? Pizza? Girls? Astronauts?” said Lance, still clamoring for her attention. As desperately as Pidge would have wanted to spend more time with these two cadets and accept their offer of friendship, she couldn’t. Not yet. Not now.
She was on a mission.
“Sorry, I don't have time to mess around with you guys,” she said, feigning nonchalance. “See you in the simulator.” Pidge hoped she hadn’t hurt the boys’ feelings by being so aloof.
Her heart fell to her feet as she heard Lance’s voice as she walked away. “What’s his problem?” He sounded as if he had just been slapped, and for the first time since she infiltrated the Garrison Academy, Pidge wished that she didn’t have to pretend to be someone else.
She turned back to gaze at the boys sadly, feeling a stab of guilt for her curt response to their offers of friendship.
Pidge hung her head as she turned away and continued walking, reminding herself that, unfortunately, first impressions are often lasting ones. She hoped that someday she could tell Lance and Hunk the truth, but it wasn’t this day. Finding her missing brother and father was her most urgent priority. There wasn’t any time to waste. Her cover might be blown at any moment if she was recognized as Sam Holt’s daughter, and she would be expelled, maybe even imprisoned. She hoped that someday she would have the opportunity to tell Hunk that she admired his brilliance and that she really wanted to be friends with him. She also secretly hoped that she would have the courage to inform Lance that she was interested in pizza, boys, and astronauts. Well, not really,Pidge admitted to herself.
There was only one particular boy, and being in close proximity to him in the simulator was inevitable. Why did this have to happen to her now? She exhaled a sigh of frustration. Wasn’t her life complicated enough already?