Hitting the Board
Post of the Month - June 2006
by Francine Hart
ON:
(Jadda's USS Pacifica)
Francine had been playing darts with Jason for a while
now and she was starting to show some improvement at
it. She had managed to hit the dartboard on a number
of occasions now and was slowly growing with
confidence each throw. More importantly though she was
actually enjoying herself, which came as a welcoming
sensation to her as it had been a long time since she
had last had any fun. Francine slowly crossed her arms
in front of her chest as she watched Jason who was now
taking his next round of shots at the dartboard.
Her attention was caught by the sound of the barroom
doors sliding open behind them. She glanced back over
her should towards the door just in time to see
Lieutenant Commander Matthew Horne enter the room. She
was slightly surprised to see him as he was the first
person to come in to Jadda's since she had started
playing darts with Jason. It was a funny feeling for
her to see the bar this empty as she had never seen
the place like this before during her entire time on
the Pacifica. She continued to watch Lieutenant
Commander Horne as he started to make his way across
to the vacant bar before she looked back to Jason just
in time to see him throw his third dart. Once he had
thrown the last of his darts he turned around to face
her.
Adams: Take your throws I'll be right back.
Hart: Okay.
Francine nodded her head and headed across to the
dartboard to collect the darts as Jason walked across
to the bar to serve Lt. Commander Horne. Pulling the
darts out of the board Francine turned around and
started to make her way back to the throwing line. She
glanced across to the bar before retaking her position
at the line and watched as Jason served the Lieutenant
Commander who had requested a hot chocolate. Unlike
Jason who seemed to know the Lieutenant Commander
quite well Francine didn't really know him all that
well despite serving with him on the Pacifica for
quite sometime. She had crossed paths a couple of
times with him whilst on duty, but that wasn't usually
very often as their departments rarely interacted
directly with each other and she had no off duty
contact with him despite the occasional hellos. He did
seem friendly enough though and she knew that he was
pretty close friends with both the Commodore and the
Doctor as they seemed to have some history together
but other then that she knew very little about him.
She looked back to the dartboard and started to focus
all of her attention on her upcoming throws.
Francine desperately wanted to hit the board this time with all
three of her throws as she didn't want to embarrass
herself with her lousy throwing ability in front of
someone that she really didn't know all that well.
Much to her delight her first two throws managed to
find and connect with the board. She glanced across to
the bar out of the corner of her eye as she lined up
her third throw and noticed that the Commander was
quietly watching her efforts while Jason was fetching
him his drink. Francine's eyes shifted back to the
board as she mentally ordered and pleaded with herself
to hit the board one more time.
After lining up the throw for a couple of seconds she
finally let the dart go. The dart appeared to be on
target to hit the board but much to Francine's horror
it drifted off to the left and crashed tragically into
the bulkhead some distance away from her intended
target. She scolded herself as she watched the dart
drop down onto the floor, completely embarrassed that
she made a fool out of herself. She glanced across to
the bar to see Horne looking at her with a slightly
bemused look on his face that caused Francine's cheeks
to redden in further embarrassment. She stood there
for a couple of seconds not quite knowing what to say
as she dug for something witty to say to salvage her
dignity. She ended up blurting out the first thing
that popped into her head.
Hart: What?
Horne: ;;Raises hands defensively;; I didn't say
anything.
Francine didn't know if the Commander was about to
break out laughing or what as she was already mentally
kicking herself for saying "What." She couldn't
believe that she had said that as there were much
better opening lines then "What," luckily for her
Jason provided her with some relief as he returned to
the counter with the Commander's drink in hand.
Adams: ;;placing the drink down on the counter;; I've
been teaching her to play darts.
Horne: Oh I see.
Horne smiled as he picked up his drink off of the
counter before he continued.
Horne: ;;to Jason;; You haven't had much luck then I
take it.
Francine couldn't believe what she was hearing as it
seemed that he was cracking a joke at her expense. She
really didn't blame him though as she probably would
of ended up poking fun at herself anyway. She
continued to stand there dumbfounded as Horne took a
sip from his drink.
Adams: ;;smiling;; She's actually improved a bit you
should of seen her earlier on today.
Horne: I can only imagine.
She couldn't believe her luck as Jason was now getting
involved in the act as well. Francine shook her head
before she walked over to the bar.
Hart: Hey give a girl a break, I'm just a beginner
here.
Adams: We all have to start somewhere. Seriously
though you are improving.
Hart: Thanks.
Adams: I'm serious ;;pauses and looks over to the
board;; Want to do a couple of more rounds?
Francine thought about it for a couple of seconds
before quickly shaking her head as she had played
enough of the game for the night. It was however
something that she definitely going to play again.
Hart: No thanks I think that I'll quit while I'm
behind.
Adams: You sure?
Hart: ;;nods;; Positive, but we'll do it again
sometime.
Adams: That's the spirit. Care for another drink?
Horne: Yeah join us.
She considered the offer as she had been thinking
about returning to her quarters. In the end she just
shrugged her shoulders and pulled herself up a stool
and sat down. Jason smiled before he started to head
back over to the replicator.
Adams: One OJ coming up.
OFF: Tag Matt.
Lieutenant Francine Hart
Chief Operations Officer
USS Pacifica NCC-72545
Bravo Fleet
