Extra Credit Addiction
Maka's steel-toed boots clicked down the hallway of the DWMA. She was a senior, and the only thing she was focused on was her grades- well, almost.
She had grown closer to Stein than she ever would've thought of at the beginning of her freshman year. Obviously she was his favorite student, and he her favorite teacher. But through the consequences of having to teach each other and save each others' lives from deadly situations, a stronger bond formed.
Once she got to the correct door, she walked into the classroom.
"Maka! A pleasure to see you again," Stein said as he turned around.
Maka had mostly gotten used to the creepily-sounding greetings caused by his extremely keen soul perception.
"Hello yourself. Let's not waste any time, okay? My grade has taken a turn for the worse, and I need this extra credit."
Stein smirked. "Oh, I'd forgotten. Your awful 99.9 percent in this class has truly made you unacceptable. We must start at once."
Maka rolled her eyes at that. "Can you at least tell me what the assignment is?"
Stein took out a cigarette and started to smoke. After he took a drag, he blew the smoke at Maka's face as she coughed. "Part one: Please identify the object I'm holding."
"A cigarette," she said dryly.
"Bright as ever, I see. You just passed the question that half of the students couldn't answer," he said in response.
"Is that really true?"
"You'd be surprised. Now tell me what this cigarette consists of."
Maka sighed. "Nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia..." She rattled off in a monotone.
"Good. What makes smoking so addictive?"
"Nicotine."
"Perfect! Flawless answers, just like normal. Just try to give a little more enthusiasm on the next part," he said as Maka crossed her arms and smiled.
"So, as I told my younger classes, I'm trying to quit smoking-"
Maka snorted a laugh. "Yeah, look how well that turned out for you last time," she retorted.
"Well, that's what your assignment is for. To come up with a way to stop a smoking addiction, and if it works I'll use it. And you have a time limit," he said with a smile.
"What? How long?"
"It was originally a day, but now that you insulted me, it's going to be five minutes."
Maka's face fell. "Are you serious? Something no one has able to come up with before I have to create in five minutes?"
"You want extra credit, don't you?"
She set her jaw. "Fine."
"Your time starts now."
"Burn all of your cigarettes."
"Not going to take care of the addiction."
"Nicotine gum."
"Still delivers nicotine."
"Nicotine patch."
"Same thing. Come on, give me something new! This is a question that freshmen should be able to answer creatively; surely you can too!"
Maka took a deep breath. "How about... Eating differently?"
"How would that affect anything?"
"Umm... Does willpower count?"
"No. That's what I'm trying to avoid. You really can't think of anything else?"
"Well, maybe if you didn't give me a time limit, I could come up with some better ideas," she grumbled.
"You have a minute left."
"What?!" She stopped giving ideas and looked at the cigarette for a moment. 'I need to think outside of the box for this. Maybe it's not the contents inside the cigarette, but it's something else... Maybe how it smells? No, that would be part of the way it was made... Maybe the way the flame looks?'
"Twenty seconds."
Maka's mind raced with ideas, but all of them were futile. She began to grow frustrated; she wanted perfection in her classes, and this was the only was to correct her grade.
To make matters worse, he started antagonizing her by counting down. I can't concentrate! If only I could shut him up- then an idea struck her. No, I couldn't possibly- How bad do you want the extra points? Well, that's a bonus... And I could just blame it on the extra credit... Could I really do that?
The countdown was on three. "Wait! I have an idea!" She practically screamed to no avail. Her teacher seemed content watching her fail.
There's no way I could say it in time. The thought flashed across Maka's mind. In a flurry of color, she gathered her courage, and made a split-second decision.
Before Stein could finish saying "one", Maka had crossed the distance between them and kissed him.
Yes, it was true that she had harbored a crush on him for a while. When she had nothing else to do, she would think about him. But she never thought anything would happen like this. She knew it was considered wrong to like a teacher. But if there was a chance to get extra credit, kiss him, and if he asked, be able to BLAME it on the extra credit... How could you go wrong?
Her hands were clenched around his lab coat, preventing him from moving. But that wasn't really necessary, because he was frozen in shock. He definitely wasn't expecting THAT to happen. Maka couldn't tell if he was kissing back, but when she pushed her tongue up against his mouth, he opened it (much to her surprise).
After a few seconds, Maka let go and backed up. "If you would've let me speak, I wouldn't have had to demonstrate my idea, Professor," she said as she turned on her heel and walked out of the room. She hoped it had enough of an excuse and sass to make it seem like she didn't want to do it. But once in the hallway, her heart began to beat erratically and she wondered if she had made the right decision. 'What if he fails me for that? What if he makes me leave his class? I probably won't even get extra credit for that. It was so stupid of me!'
She made her long walk of shame back towards her and Soul's apartment and awaited the oncoming school day with dread.
~~The next day~~
Maka sat down in the auditorium to an onslaught of questions. "Did you try the extra credit?" Tsubaki asked. Maka nodded. "It was so hard, right? I mean, who cares what the guy smokes? How are we supposed to know what that thing is called?" Black Star said incredulously.
Maka stared at him. He didn't know what a cigarette was called? Maybe Stein wasn't joking about the half that failed the first question...
"We shouldn't have had to try to solve his problems. He should be able to do that himself," Soul said.
"The real question is: What was Maka's idea?" Kidd said as the six friends turned to look a her.
The color drained from Maka's face. "Uh... I gave a number of methods...," she giggled nervously. Luckily class had just started.
"Maka, I need to see you after school," Stein's voice carried up to her seat. She wanted to melt into the floor.
Maka knocked on the door of the classroom she now hated the most.
"Come in."
She walked in and faced him. "Why did you want to see me?" She asked innocently.
"Oh, please. Don't give me that crap." He sighed. "Did you really want the extra credit that badly?" He asked as he looked up at her.
"Yes, obviously," she responded.
"That was the only reason?"
She paled a small bit. "Of course."
"That's funny, because your soul is saying something different," he said.
Maka had forgotten about that awful talent of his. "Well... You're acting like it was such an awful thing, but you let me kiss you, and you didn't seem to hate it then!" She countered in exasperation.
With the tables turned, Stein was the one to be defensive. "What am I supposed to do? Give you a detention? You technically were demonstrating your idea, so I shouldn't have stopped you!"
"I see your soul disagrees with that statement, too," Maka retorted.
"So you actually did want to?"
"How could I? Even if I wanted to I'd be shunned by my peers," she said in an exasperated voice. "Did you want to?"
"No! If anyone found out, I'd be fired," he responded in an equal tone.
"Well, it appears we're at a standstill," Maka said after a moment of silence. "But one more thing. Why is my grade at one thousand percent? You said in class that the extra credit was only worth one percent," she said cooly.
"You... What? I did that?" He said with a dumbstruck look on his face.
"See for yourself," she said as she crossed her arms.
In a few seconds, Stein had gotten the girl's grades pulled up. "1000 percent..." he mumbled in a trance.
"So, why exactly did you do that? I mean, it wasn't just a typo, because you hit the key three times... were you under the influence of something? Beer, maybe? But you don't drink. Maybe you were just... off in some dreamland from my method?" She said with a smirk.
Stein's usually pale face slowly got redder as Maka went on.
"I mean, I knew I was okay at kissing, but I never thought I would have that effect on someone. I guess you liked it after all, huh, Stein?"
At first, all Stein could do was open and close his mouth. Finally, he spoke.
"Well, how did you feel about it?"
"I guess you'll just have to find out," she said cooly.
Stein stood and started walking toward her. "When did you get so bold, Maka?" He asked in awe with a dumbstruck smile on his face.
Maka stared back up at him, still smirking. "I've always been brave. You should know that, Professor."
Stein pulled an arm around her waist to bring her flush against him. "I'm going to wipe that smug little grin off of your adorable little face," he said as their green eyes met.
"And how are you gonna do that?" Maka asked innocently as she snaked her hands over his chest and around his neck.
Stein's face changed from the smile into his signature sadistic grin. "You're the best student in this school. Figure it out."
Maka'a grade returned to normal the next day, but Stein never picked up another cigarette.