"Hell yeah! First day of sophomore year!" Penelope shouted as she saw the rest of her friends gathered in the quad.
"No, don't call it sophomore year. Brings back bad memories of high school," Emily grumbled. Even at eight am she was still not a morning person.
"All right, then what should we call it? Because last I checked that's its name," the tall, dark-haired young man with a serious expression said.
The blonde next to him poked him in the side.
"Lighten up, Aaron," she said with a smile. "Or are we calling you Hotch? Since, you know, 'calling someone by their first name is unprofessional.'"
Hotch sighed. JJ was never going to let him live that down.
"How about we call it 'only-three-more-years-before-we-graduate year'?" said a voice from behind them.
"Derek Morgan! Look at you, you gorgeous hunk of man!" Penelope squealed, running to hug her best friend. "Doth mine eyes deceive me or did you get even more ripped over the summer?"
"Oh, I did a little bit of working out, yeah," he said offhandedly.
JJ snorted.
"You're the star quarterback. You're not fooling anyone, Derek," she said, giving him a hug as well. Emily also overcame her grumpiness to give Derek a hug, and Hotch gave him a fist-bump.
"So I hear the two of you came to your senses and finally started dating," he said as he settled down onto the grass, indicating JJ and Emily.
They both turned a bit pink and laced their fingers together.
"Yeah, I guess so," Emily said, leaning her head toward JJ.
"Oh, Lord, now you've really done it. They'll be all mushy for the next two hours," Hotch complained with a teasing look in his eyes.
"Oh, really? And you're sooooo above all this childish mushiness, right? Except when you're around that cute little thing - Beth?" Penelope teased back. Hotch turned red right up to his ears.
"Hotch! You have a girl? Man, you've been holding out on us!" Derek said, giving him a friendly shove.
The next half an hour or so before classes was spent by the five friends in catching up and teasing each other, until a passing stranger caused Penelope to gasp and shush her friends.
"Guys! Guys! That's him! Oh my god!" She was repeatedly hitting Derek on the shoulder and pointing to a painfully skinny boy walking past.
"Baby girl, slow down. Who's him? What's going on?" Derek took hold of her hands and turned her to face him.
"Okay. Okay," she said, taking a few breaths. "So you know that super bitchy junior-well, senior now-Erin Strauss? Well, she's apparently dating David Rossi, which yeah, surprised me too, so I went over to David to grill him about them and-"
"Penelope." Hotch laid a hand on her shoulder. "Pertinent information. Now."
"Right. Okay. Skinny boy who just walked past us is 1) a super genius here for like his third or fourth PhD, 2) extremely attractive, and 3) a TA in Chemistry 201, which our own dear Derek Morgan will be taking, so you have to scope him out!" She glared fiercely at him. Derek raised his hands in defeat.
"Okay, okay, I will, I promise," he said, trying to pacify her. "And what do you know - I have that very class in five minutes."
"Well, get moving! I want you to use every available minute!" Penelope chased him off.
"See you at lunch!" he called to the rest of his friends as they dispersed.
"If you don't him bring him with you, I don't want to see you!" Penelope called, only half-joking.
"Okay, okay! I got it," he said. "Yeesh."
But somewhere deep inside him, all Penelope's talk had made him curious. Maybe he should try to chat up this genius kid.