Two Teens a-Dancin'

Posted on Sat Jul 18th, 2026 @ 9:45pm by Lieutenant Mark Valleroy & Corey Valleroy

3,128 words; about a 16 minute read

Tessa'e'Sera di'Orion, Baroness of Heart's Forge, Priestess Fifth-Class of Urd'a'Neta found herself in yet another predicament that she'd never figured she could predict anymore. She had absolutely no clue what Corey Valleroy would have planned for them to occupy their time. There was a fierce pride in him for having the courage to ask her out to do a few fun things today, something she'd felt for several others on Tial when they met a challenge head-on, as was proper for a scion of a baroness. She'd explained that to Henry the best she could, but wasn't quite sure he truly understood.

Still, that didn't necessarily tell her what the younger man would be wanting to show her and she'd fussed over what specifically to wear, so she hedged on the side of caution and wore a grey pleated skirt with a matching slightly oversized t-shirt, with a bathing suit on underneath in case he wanted to go swimming. On the front of the shirt she'd decided to go with some humour related to Valentine's day, a neon red heart bisected by an arrow, with the words 'Cupid better watch out, I shoot back!' partly above the arrow, the rest below it. Her rugged sandals that she'd programmed into the replicator would work for anything like a walk or a hike or anything inbetween, so she'd be ready for whatever he was thinking.

She checked herself out in her mirror, wishing that Henry had helped her get ready, but she understood his feelings in regard to her doing this on THIS day. He'd been soothed a little bit by her promise to be back and with him no later than ten-thirty that evening and she was going to try to make it sooner. She didn't put in the delicate tiara that was often part of her daily wear, but put in a set of diamond studs in her ears and applied the light mascara that Kally said made her cornflower-blue eyes pop. A layer of cherry-flavored lip gloss (the stick itself went into a pocket) and she smiled brightly into the mirror: That would do.

She half-traipsed, half-skipped to where they had arranged to meet, it would be right outside the mess hall, a rather innocuous and safe place to start out and she checked the silver nail polish on her fingers for any chipping as she made her way there.

Corey checked over the outfit he was wearing in the bathroom mirror of the Valleroy quarters. He was wearing a solid black t-shirt (not too big but not too form-fitting, either) and beige cargo shorts along with sneakers, but wondered if it was right for the planned activities of the day. Normally he didn't worry too much about what he wore - as long as it was clean, it was generally fine in his viewpoint - but this... this somehow seemed different. He didn't want to make it seem like he never cared about what he wore, but at the same time he didn't want to go overboard and make it seem like this was something very formal that you had to wear what his mom called "Sunday best" to.

He finally decided that this was appropriate (it wasn't like he was taking Tessa out to the opera or anything like that!) and after discreetly checking (even though no one else was even in there, much less watching what he was doing) both his breath and that he'd remembered to use deodorant, he headed out of the bathroom and headed towards the door.

"Where you headed to?" his Uncle Mark asked.

"Just, um, going to hang out with Tessa," Corey replied, suddenly beginning to feel a bit self-conscious. "She, uh, wanted me to show her some stuff that human teenagers like to do."

"Finish your homework?"

"Yes."

"When can I expect you back?"

"I don't really know," Corey admitted. "I guess it depends on how much Tessa wants to do today. I will be back well before bedtime, of course!"

"All right," Mark said. "Say hi to Tessa for me."

"Will do!"

"Have fun," Mark called out as Corey rushed out the doors.

Within a couple of minutes Corey arrived at the mess hall. He spotted Tessa and headed over. "Hey, Tessa!" he said with a grin. "Wow, you look really nice!"

Tessa's eyes brightened as she saw Corey approached, her smile brightening as well, "This? You said nothing fancy, so I went all casual-like. I suppose it's closeish to what Lady Kellerman lets me wear in sickbay, but it's comfortable!" She spun on the ball of one foot to show him the back as well before coming to a stop facing him again, "You look nice yourself! So, what do you have planned for us?"

"Come with me," Corey said, leading the way. "I've booked us some time on the holodeck for this. Back on Earth many years ago, there were these places called amusement parks. They had a bunch of things that you could ride, like roller coasters and merry-go-rounds, that go at a variety of speeds. There were also games that you could play for prizes and food that most adults would say was very unhealthy but would still often eat anyway."

Fun and games, now that was more like it! Tessa grabbed his hand and started trotting towards the Holodeck, she knew where THAT was at least, “Then what are we waiting for?” She asked him, tugging him along with a wide grin, “Food and games and prizes? And especially food? I don’t see anything bad with this at all!”

They soon arrived at the holodeck and entered. Crowds moved about (though part of the parameters Corey had made sure to set beforehand was that the crowds weren't too big), and rides went along, producing shrieks and laughter from their riders. Midway games made a variety of sounds, depending on what each respective game did, and people reacted upon either winning or losing the games they were playing.

Corey pointed at some of the rides. "These are called roller coasters. They move about on tracks that take then in a variety of directions, usually at a quick rate of speed. This ride over here is called a merry-go-round. It goes around in a circle, while many of the places you can sit go up and down at the same time. Over here is called a log flume. You go on a boat on a sort of man-made river, then up a hill and then go down a sort of slide and have a big splash at the bottom. There are others that we'll see as we move around the park. Games are over in that direction while food stalls are over there. Is there anything that looks particularly interesting that you'd like to try first?"

Tessa released his hand and excitedly hauled herself up into a small tree that was just sitting there to get a better vantage point, eyes wide open and drinking in the excitement all around them. Truth me told, she had no clue where to start with this place, but the speed of one of the roller coasters really caught her eye and she pointed it, making eye contact with Corey before she dropped out of the tree with agility and grace, "I think that one! The faster, the better, don't you think?"

"I like the way you think," Corey said with a grin. "Come on!" The two headed over to the roller coaster Tessa had indicated and got into the queue for the ride. Within a couple of minutes they were on the train itself ('conveniently' right in the very front, though Corey had, of course, previously set that up as part of the parameters as well). The train started off, slowly at first in getting to the top of the first hill, before they went plunging down the first steep drop. Corey let out a whoop as the wind whipped through his hair.

The grin on Tessa's face was wide as she couldn't keep herself from laughing as she faced forward, her blonde hair whipping back behind her at the speed of the coaster. As she heard the stylized screams from behind her, she glanced over and did the same, despite her same laughter and giggling. She kept throwing looks over at Corey until the ride was over and while she wanted to go again on this one, there were other rides that looked just as fun. As soon as they were off the coaster, she grabbed Corey's hand and started to pull him excitedly over to the next one, the log ride with the water, happily skipping as she tugged him along.

The two soon got on the next boat (each boat was designed to look like an actual log), with Corey in back and Tessa in front. The boat floated along the channel of water in roughly a semi-circle before reaching the start of a hill, where a mechanized pulley system took it to the top, about 40 feet up. The boat moved for a few more yards giving the two a good view of the area before reaching the downward part of the ride, and as the boat went down the "slide" part Corey threw his hands up in the air, with the boat reaching the bottom moments later and sending water splashing all over the place.

Clearly this was designed to get the riders wet and Tessa laughed as she leaned as far forward in the ride as she could, enjoying the water that splashed them, giving a shriek as the cold water hit her. but it was clearly what all the others were doing as well. Slower than the other ride, the water made this one all the more fun. She kept glancing over at Corey, he was having just as much fun as she was if she had any sight and once again once they were off the ride, Tessa grabbed Corey's hand and gave it a squeeze, but let him lead her off this time.

They went on a couple more rides - one was a ride that took a group of swings, lifted them up into the air, and collectively spun them around in a circle, and another one that took riders gradually up a large pillar and then suddenly dropped them towards the ground - before they spotted the midway games area, with chances to win any of a variety of prizes like ridiculously oversized stuffed animals. The two moved over and started playing several of the games.

A few minutes later, Tessa saw one of the roving vendors with little paper cones topped with big fluffy red poofs on top, 'Get your cotton candy!' He was calling over the ruckus of the games and Tessa patted Corey on the shoulder to let him know she'd be back in just a moment, grabbing one of the cotton candy cones and being back at his side within fifteen seconds, already stuffing the pillowy sugar into her mouth and gave a moan of pleasure, "You've got to try this!" She exclaimed as she pulled off a tuft of it and brought it towards his mouth so he didn't have to lose focus on the game he was playing.

Corey took the offered treat. And a part of the effect was that he had actually made a prior arrangement with Michelle to put a selection of actual non-holographic treats at various locations, in which the holographic person distributing said food item would be programed to access the food item in question when Corey and Tessa approached within a certain distance of that particular location (with proper storage as needed before then, to help with things like keeping hot food hot and cold food cold).

"Good, huh?" he said to Tessa, winking at her.

"Omigosh, this is! It's sweet, fluffy and just melts in the mouth!" Tessa stuffed another handful into her mouth before tearing off another piece for him to consume out of her fingers, "I'll have to make sure I check my levels later on tonight, I'm sure none of this is fortified with the extra phosphorous I need." She gave him a wry smile, "One of the downsides to coming along, I need the supplements."

"It's all right. Uncle Mark will probably get after me for eating a lot of junk food too that doesn't have anything of nutritional value in them," Corey replied, saying 'nutritional value' in a goofy imitation of an adult voice. "Anyway, if you think the cotton candy tastes good, you should try something called a 'beaver tail.' Dough is rolled out, fried, and is topped with any of several different dessert toppings - cheesecake, or cinnamon and sugar, or chocolate spread with pieces of candy sprinkled on top."

Tessa's eyes opened wide and she nodded quickly, "Yes, yes, yes, we have to get one of those!" Her eyes looked around to see if these 'beaver tails' were anywhere near where they were at, "Like, right now!"

Laughing, Corey led her over to a food stand that served beaver tails, and they ordered a couple. They tried several more midway games and treats, and rode on several more rides. Before they knew it, it was almost the time Corey was expected to return back to his quarters for bedtime. Uncle Mark might have let him have more freedoms as he got older, but Corey knew that part of getting more freedoms was that he had to show that he could act responsible (or at least responsible enough) and treat such freedoms wisely and not be seen as trying to take advantage of them. The two sat next to each other at a table enjoying something Corey told Tessa was called a milkshake (though, as he told her, it was actually not, as the name might suggest, made by shaking milk) and looked out over the now night sky.

"I don't know about you," Corey said, "but I had a great time."

She let the straw slip out of her mouth and grinned at him, already saddened that most of the milkshake was gone, "I think this was an amazing idea, we should do this again! I've had so much fun today, and basically none of this was available on Tial, it's all so new and fun and exciting!"

Corey hesitated for a moment, knowing what he wanted to do next but unsure if he should actually do it. What if Tessa was somehow put off by it? But then he figured that based upon just what he'd seen so far that day, it would be surprising if she was somehow offended by it. So he made to move like he was stretching his arms up above his head, then as he dropped his arms he 'conveniently' dropped his left arm over her shoulders.

She scooted over next to him as his arm gently landed on her shoulder. Maybe he thought she was cold and was trying to warm her up and she shivered slightly, realizing that the milkshake, and this was actually her second, she'd insisted, may have indeed lowered her body temperature. He was such a nice guy, predicting this would happen and being willing to share his body heat with her to make sure she was okay. She sighed happily as he held her next to him.

"I have some ideas for future dates," Corey said, feeling a bit on the bold side at this point. "I don't know if it's too early to be calling them dates or not, since I don't know know if we're at the point where we could say we're technically dating or anything like that..."

The words caught Tessa by surprise and she stiffened for a moment before shrugging his hand to slide of her shoulder and scooted away from him by a couple inches, some distress apparent on her face, “Corey?” she asked, searching for his eyes; this was the need for a serious conversation, “I wasn’t thinking this to be a date, I thought you had invited me out as a friend?” She had started to panic a little bit. If this was a date, was she breaking her promise to Henry? No, she’d never do that willingly.

"Uh...well, I kind of thought of it as a date," he sputtered out, unprepared for the response she'd just given. "I mean, yeah, I get that I'm not a grown-up yet, not quite like you, but I'm single, and you're single..." He hesitated for a moment, a horrifying thought suddenly coming to him. "You are single, right?" he asked in a somewhat quiet yet almost strangled voice, as if he were afraid of the answer.

“I have a boyfriend.” Tessa said directly, “You met him: Henry. I convinced him to let me come here with you to see what ‘normal’ teenagers do and as a reward for being so bold as to approach me to even ask me to go somewhere and have some fun.” Her eyes searched his, still worried despite the explanation, “I truly have had an amazing time-“ She cut off as Corey, red-faced, had already leapt up.

"Henry? You mean...Nurse Taylor?" he almost choked out. "Wait, you...you're dating him?!" Certain things suddenly stared making so much sense to Corey now that had only seemed like minor oddities earlier - how Tessa and Nurse Taylor seemed to be together so much outside of sickbay, the physical forms of affection between the two like the kiss to the forehead the day before... "But...but...what about that stuff between us earlier? The winking, always grabbing my hand, feeding me cotton candy, that hug a moment ago..." he managed to get out, his still-developing voice raising an octave or two, with notes of panic in it.

"As I said, I was enjoying today, it was really fun and that's what friends do, right?" Confusion crossed Tessa's face as she tried to understand why Corey was freaking out about the fun day, "I see Kally doing stuff like that with the other girls and when we had that sleepover, everyone was laughing and snuggling together and we're just all friends." She was speaking more to the table, "And I like to think we're friends, Corey, aren't we?"

"But...but...I thought this was, y'know, romantic stuff," Corey managed to get out, his face still bright red, even in the dim light. "I, I didn't know you didn't see it that way!" He groaned out, his eyes widening in terror. "Oh no, what have I done?!"

“Corey? Wait!” Tessa called out, but it was too late. Corey had already fled.

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