December 16th, 1987 -- Cambridge, MA
7:42 PM, EST

"You've got to be kidding me, Shelby. Not even a little?" Donna questioned as she futzed over the redhead's eyeshadow.

"No, Donna. We go to a school with such a high male density, and you really think I can't just be friends with a boy? If I was interested in every boy I was friends with, I'd have a lot of boys on my mind." Shelby laughed.

"Okay, okay." Donna nodded, putting her hands up. "And you don't have to remind me." She groaned. "It's hard enough for the boys to find a girl to go out with them ... much less those of us that like a little girl-on-girl action."

"One more semester, then you can escape all this testosterone, Don." Shelby laughed.

"Finally." Donna sighed with a smirk. "An escape from this masculine circus."

"Oh, please. You're still going to miss it." Shelby stated.

"Well, of course I will. Especially you and Lisa. You've got NASA, and Lisa is dead set on moving out to California. What am I going to do?" Donna sighed.

"New York, remember?" Shelby laughed.

"Right, New York. There's no way I'm going back home." Donna said, shoving her makeup brushes back inside her kit.

Donna was from a small-minded town in Ohio that didn't think much of anyone that wasn't straight, white, and a male. Donna happened to be none of those things. The fact that she was going to school to be an engineer, which was a field heavily dominated by these straight white men, didn't help her reputation in her hometown, either.

"You could always come down to Florida with me." Shelby suggested with a grin.

Donna laughed. "Oh yes, my hair would do lovely in that humidity. You're going to have a hard enough time managing this." She said, flicking one of Shelby's red strands.

"I know." Shelby agreed, standing as she inspected herself in the mirror. Her red waves were beautifully managed, and Donna had brushed on some pretty eyeshadow. Her lips were painted with a light pink gloss. She felt pretty, and confident, but not entirely her. "Wow, Dons ... you really did a number on me." She said with a laugh as she spun around in the little black dress, tights, and heels she'd borrowed from Lisa.

"You're welcome." Donna said with a smirk, running a hand through her short, dark locks. "First stop, Tony Stark's party. Next stop, NASA."

"NASA." Shelby sighed with grin as she flopped down onto her bed. "I still can't believe it."

"You deserve it." Donna stated, plopping down on the bed next to her. "You've worked so hard for everything, Shelbs. And NASA is your dream."

"That it is." Shelby agreed as she stared up at the ceiling, which was covered in pictures of space and the night sky that she had cut out of magazines. It was probably breaking some sort of fire code, but their landlord had never come up to look at Shelby's room.

"Are you going to tell your dad?" Donna asked, turning to look at the redhead.

"Oh." Shelby frowned as she sat up. "You know, I hadn't really thought about that. I guess I could write him a letter."

Donna nodded. "Yeah."

Shelby's father had been in prison for the past 6 years after he'd gotten caught trafficking drugs. Her mother had died after childbirth, leaving Shelby just with her father. After her father had gotten arrested, Shelby had gone to live with her mother's mother in New Hampshire. She'd already called them with the good news.

"Hey hey hey!" The door to Shelby's room burst open, and Lisa walked in with two bottles of champagne in her hands. "Come on come on! Stark's party awaits!"

Shelby and Donna stood up, slowly moving off the bed. "Champagne?" Shelby said, glancing at the bottles.

"You bet! Anything for you, Miss Astronaut!" Lisa grinned. "Miss Sexy Astronaut, because damn Shelby! Tony is going to drop his pants for you tonight!"

Shelby's eyes went wide. "Good God, I hope not." She said with a shudder.

Donna and Lisa exchanged a glance before Donna said, "We already discussed that. It's a no."

"Really?" Lisa pushed out her bottom lip in a pout. "Damn, I was really hoping he'd stop trying to get with me."

"He's not going to do that anymore, Lise." Shelby said, making some final adjustments in the mirror. "Your love of green olives has turned him off forever." Something still felt off. She glanced around her room, her eyes landing on the pink patterned shirt of Tony's she'd never returned, because she'd grown to love the pattern.

"No, no no." Lisa said, walking towards the shirt. "You cannot --"

"Too late." Shelby grinned, slipping her arms through the sleeves. She left it unbuttoned and tied it in a knot around her stomach, then kicked the heels off and slid her feet into a much more comfortable pair of Converse. "This is everything."

December 16th, 1987 -- Cambridge, MA
8:02 PM, EST

"Shelbster!" Tony cheered as he watched his redheaded friend walk in with Donna and Lisa, drawing the attention of the other people around the room.

Shelby sheepishly hid behind Lisa, who was a bit taller, and waved to Tony. "Are you drunk already?"

"No, I promise." Tony said, shaking his finger at the girl. "I was waiting for you." He noticed Shelby's eyes on something, or someone, behind him, so he spun around to see Rob behind him. "Robbo! Tell her! I'm not drunk."

Rob grinned from ear to ear, revealing that he was, in fact, the one that was drunk. "He's not as drunk as he could be, but he's had a few." Rob's eyes shifted from Shelby to Lisa. "Heeeyyy."

"Hi, Robbo." Lisa gave him a smile. "Can you show me to your fridge?" She asked, holding up the bottles of champagne.

"Oh, I'll take that." Tony turned away from Shelby and took the bottles from Lisa.

"Wait, Stark --" Lisa started after him, but the Stark boy had one hand on the bottles and the other was grabbing Shelby's wrist.

"Tony --"

"Hey everybody! Can I get your attention?" He set the bottles on top of a table, then attempted to climb on top of the table as well, stumbling a bit. "Shelbster. Come on up." He said, holding out a hand. She hesitated, but eventually took his hand and joined her on the table. "Friends, this is my good pal Shelby Colewell." He slipped an arm around her shoulders. "Is that my shirt?" He asked, noticing the button down.

Shelby nodded. "It is."

"Okay." He laughed to himself and looked back at the confused college students that were watching him. "Shelby is the best damn engineer I have ever met. She is so smart and awesome, and NASA has offered her a job for after graduation. She's the freaking best." He turned to look at the redhead, the girl that had turned his life upside down in a semester, the first person that he'd ever been able to truly call his best friend. "To you, Shelby Colewell." He said, handing her one of the champagne bottles as Shelby's cheeks turned a light pink.

"To you too, Tony Stark." Shelby replied before popping the cork off of the bottle.

Tony joined her in laughter as the fizzy drink began to spill all over them, coating his AC/DC tee and Shelby's dress. He aimed the fizz towards his mouth while Shelby did the same. "Tonight is for you, Shelbster." He said, giving her a grin. "I'm so proud of you."

Shelby smiled back at him as she handed the bottle off to Lisa. "I haven't even accepted the offer yet, Tony." She said, hopping down from the table before holding a hand out to him.

He took it and jumped down as well, then handed his bottle off to Rob. "But you're going to, aren't you? You've got to." He said, pulling on her arm with the hand he still held.

"I will. I just ... It still seems like a dream. I'm not used to things always going the way I hope, you know?" Shelby said, wiping off her dress with a paper towel.

"Yeah, I know." The Stark boy replied.

"Everyone thinks that since I've got all these brains, my life is going to go perfectly, but ... it's been far from perfect these past 18 years that I've been on this planet so I just ... I guess I got used to being disappointed." She said.

"You deserve everything good in this world. NASA is just one part of the life that is yours to come."