February 15th, 1988 — Cambridge, MA
3:20 PM, EST

The three girls stood in a circle peering down at the rose, still inclosed in it's yellow box, that rested on the kitchen table.

"Who's is it?" Donna asked. A day later and they still hadn't been able to pinpoint the secret admirer, and who he or she had been admiring.

"Maybe it's the barista at the coffee shop you think is cute, Don." Shelby suggested.

Donna shook her head. "She doesn't know where I live." She said with a frown, then turned to their blonde friend. "What about your lab partner, Lise?"

"Jeffrey?" Lisa groaned. "God, I hope not. But he does know our address." She admitted, glaring down at the box. "And you're 100% certain it wasn't Robbo, Shelby?"

The redhead nodded. "He would have admitted it, and I told him not to get me flowers."

"Then it must be Jeffrey." Donna said, smirking at Lisa.

The blonde groaned and shoved the box across the table. "I thought he had a girlfriend that went to Harvard!"

"So then it wasn't Jeffrey." Shelby stated, crossing her arms as she stared down at the box.

It seemed that the friends had a real mystery on their hands.

They continued to stare in silence at the box until the phone rang, interrupting them. Shelby stalked off to answer it.

"Hello?" She said cautiously into the device.

"Hello, I'm trying to reach Shelby Colewell?" The man on the other line responded.

A nervous feeling settled into the pit of her stomach. "That's, um, me, actually." Was something wrong? Was it her father? Her grandmother? As much as she hated the both of them, she was still concerned with their overall aliveness.

"Hi, Miss Colewell. My name is Joe Feldstein, I'm a head engineer at NASA. I'll be your supervisor when you arrive here in the spring. I just wanted to give you a call and introduce myself."

Shelby's mouth fell open. Joe Feldstein was going to be her boss? She could hardly believe it. Joe's team was always the best of the best, and she was going to be a part of it?

"Well, it's great to meet you. I mean, not meet you, but ... well, you know. Speak with you." She stuttered, mentally cursing herself for being so jumpy.

"Likewise. I've heard some very impressive things about you from your time up in Boston. I look forward to having you on the team. It will be nice to get some new blood down here." Joe told her.

"I can't wait to get down there. I've ... I've wanted to work for NASA since I was a little girl." She admitted.

"Well, we can't wait to have you, Ms. Colewell." He chuckled. "There's something else I wanted to discuss with you too, though."

Shelby's smile faltered. "Oh?"

"We know you'll only be completing your bachelor's degree this year, but NASA is interested in pushing you further." He said.

"Further?" She questioned. "Like, more school?"

"Yeah. If you would be interested, we'd like to set you up with a correspondence course to get your PhD. You'd be doing all your hands-on work down in Florida, working alongside me and my team, while also working towards a doctorate. We know you're smart already, but having that doctorate would open up a lot more doors for you." Joe stated.

She wasn't even down there yet, and NASA wanted her to get her PhD so she had more potential to grow within the organization? This had to be a dream. She could not be awake. It was most definitely just a cruel trick her sleeping mind was playing on her.

"Shelby?" Joe's voice echoed in the phone, bringing the redhead back to attention. "Is that something you'd be interested in?"

A grin filled her face and she bluntly replied, "Hell yeah that is."

She heard Joe laugh loudly on the other end, causing her to pull the receiver away from her ear. "That's what I like to hear. I just wanted to get that out to you now, before you get down here in May. We'll talk again soon, Shelby. Stay out of trouble." He joked.

"No promises." She replied. They'd only talked for a few minutes, but Shelby could instantly tell that she liked Joe. They'd clicked instantly.

She could absolutely not wait to get down to Cape Canaveral.

Shelby returned the Donna and Lisa in a daze, with a big smile on her face. The mysterious rose was the furthest thing from her mind.

February 15th, 1988 — Cambridge, MA
3:20 PM, EST

"We really shouldn't be playing beer pong on a Wednesday night, Robbo." Tony said as he stood across the table from his friend with a ping pong ball in his hand.

"But we only filled the cups up halfway. See?" Rob replied, holding up one of the red plastic cups for emphasis.

"Weekday Beer Pong." Tony chuckled. "I like it."

Rob stood still and carefully lined up his shot, then plunked his ball into one of Tony's cups. "I knew you would." He replied.

"Though we're technically supposed to have partners for this game." Tony asked as he picked up the cup of beer Robbo's ping pong ball had landed in.

The other boy simply shrugged his shoulders. "That's minor."

Tony chuckled and finished off the cup. Robbo was right; there wasn't much beer in them at all.

"So," Tony began as he lined up his own shot. "How was dinner yesterday?"

A look came over Rob's face that Tony had begun to simultaneously despise and associate with Shelby. "It was great." Robbo stated, catching the ping pong ball and Tony missed all of his cups. "We went to this great French restaurant and then went back to the girls' house and had macarons."

Tony narrowed his eyes at him from across the table. Was that some kind of code for something that was, well, not actually macarons?

"That's it?" Tony asked as Robbo dunked yet another one of his cups. The two friends typically told each other everything revolving around their dealings with girls, but it was like they were both walking on eggshells when it came to talking about Shelby.

Rob's eyes flicked over to him with a questioning gaze. "Tony."

"What?" The Stark boy asked as he drank another one of the cups. "I thought we talked about that kind of stuff."

The other boy scoffed. "Not when it involves Shelby. Wouldn't want to make you jealous."

"I'm not jealous of you, Rob." Tony chuckled as he finally landed his ping pong ball into one of Robbo's cups.

Rob grabbed the cup and drank it quickly, his eyes narrowed at Tony. "What do you want me to tell you? If I tell you stuff like that, Tony, you know you're only going to get pissed off. That's why I don't want to talk about it."

The door bell rang, causing the two boys to momentarily halt their argument.

"That's the pizza." Tony replied as Robbo started off towards the door. "Here," Tony handed him some cash from his wallet. "My share."

"Thanks." Rob replied shortly as he took it and went to get the food.

Tony stewed silently in anger while he was gone. Robbo was right. Tony would only get mad if he knew what he was doing with Shelby, but part of him still wanted to know. He was so mad at himself. He should have been over this silly little crush months ago, but it was just slowly taking over his entire life.

He heard the door slam shut very loudly before the smell of pizza began wafting its way towards him.

"Did they do the pepperoni right? Double order?" He asked as Rob came back into the room.

Robbo's face was as cold as ice as he set the pizza on the table, knocking over one of Tony's cups of beer.

"Dude, what the hell?" Tony asked as he frantically grabbed a napkin.

"No, dude," Rob hissed, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket. "I'm the one that gets to be pissed." He shoved the paper in Tony's face, and the Stark boy noticed it was a receipt. "This was in with the money you gave me. Must have gotten stuck in your wallet."

Tony took the paper and read it, his stomach dropping as he realized what it was for. The florist he had visited the day before. "Rob, listen, you have nothing to be upset about --"

"I don't?" Robbo laughed, an angry, short laugh that Tony had never heard before. "You listened to me and Shelby talk about that rose. She thought it was for Donna or Lisa! You know why? Because she has a boyfriend, Tony! So why would she expect anyone to mess with her like that? And her boyfriend? That happens to be me, your best friend! What did you think you were going to do? Send her a secret rose and steal her from me? That's a low blow, man."

Tony clenched his teeth together. "You don't deserve her."

Rob's eyes flicked over to Tony. He was downright furious. "Why not? Because I treat her with respect? Because I really like her? Because I make her happy? Because I acted like an adult and told her my true feelings about her? Or is it because I'm not you? I know that you're in love with her, as much as you refuse to admit it. But I asked if you were okay with us going out, and you said yes. You had your chance. You had plenty of chances. But now? Now you do not get to have a chance, okay?" He hissed before adding in a quieter voice, "Low blow. Real low blow."

Tony frowned and looked down at his feet. He'd made a big mistake. "Listen, Rob ...."

The other boy spun around, waiting for an apology or something. "What?"

The Stark boy grimaced before saying, "Don't tell Shelby."

"Grow up, Tony." He snapped before grabbing one of the pizza boxes and storming out.