Chapter 1

Jane juggled the binders of paper in her arms, unable to catch all the loose fly-aways that fluttered away behind her. Damned astrophysics, she thought with a scowl. Always so much paperwork.

She knew she was getting funny looks, but Jane hardly cared. She wasn't friends with these people. Their opinion wouldn't affect her life – what did she have to gain by caring about what they thought of her? She had a spread reputation anyway: brilliant, but cluttered. It was common knowledge that Jane was the most disorganised student at the Novem Regna University. She was lucky if she went even a few days without someone knocking on her apartment door to return some of her escaped work to her.

By the time she had reached the cafeteria, she was just about ready to throw the binders out the window, the weight making her arms ache. She dropped them down with a loud thud onto her table.

"I'm not sure I can take this much longer." She whined as she took her seat, her friend's eyes wide from the bang of the folders.

Darcy blinked, fries falling from her fingers back down onto the plate. Her mouth hung open at the shock of binders sat opposite her as Jane settled herself. "How do you carry that?" she finally spluttered in awe. "That must weigh a ton!"

Jane pulled a face and reached across to nab herself a fry. "It does, and I have the bruises to show for it."

Her eyes wondered round the cafeteria lazily. As per always it was packed, loud and noisy, the typical stereotypes grouped at certain tables. Jane sat at one of the science tables – and technically Darcy was intruding, being the political student she was, but being Jane's friend she was excused. She wasn't the only rule breaker. The most famous case was of the Odinson brothers: one studying Classics, while the other studied some Physical Health and Exercise course. They both sat together on the jock table.

Jane's eyes found them instinctively. The jock table was where most girls amused themselves to look when they were bored – the guys there were simply eye-candy.

Thor Odinson stood out like a shining star, his golden hair and electric blue eyes making him nothing much short of it. His body was thick with broad muscle, build and packed with strength that made Jane's stomach flip. Beside him, as always, was his smaller, leaner, and darker haired brother Loki.

"You need to bag yourself one." Darcy said, noticing where Jane's line of sight lingered and following the same. "They'd be able to carry your stuff easy."

Jane hummed in agreement, letting her eyes hover over Thor's bulking biceps thoughtfully. Then she remembered herself and tore away, facing back to Darcy with a far from happy expression. "As if." She scoffed. "We're the people they label 'geeks' remember? Like any of them would have the time for me."

"You underestimate us." Darcy dismissed, shamelessly leaning around Jane to stare some more at the well-built jocks. "We're hot. And smart. Deep down, it's exactly what those kind of boys crave."

Jane let her eyes roll and merely sighed, flipping open her folder to some random pages. Her eyes ghosted over the data but it was just numbers, meaningless to her unfocused brain. She had to make sense of it somehow. The deadline was coming in faster than she was working to it.

"There's a party going on down East Block tonight. Want to come?"

Jane didn't even look up. "Can't. Professor Selvig is drilling us for this data report. And I haven't even made a dent in it."

"Don't you understand the concept of balance?" Darcy groaned across the table, trying to draw her friend from her work. "All work and no play, and all that. I swear, you take one night to chill out and that stuff will come to you like God is putting it in your brain himself."

That drew Jane's up, and she fixed a look on her friend. "Will you keep it down?!" she hissed, eyes flickering to the science geeks along the rest of the table. They remained thankfully oblivious. "How many times do I have to tell you not to mention the G-word amongst the science lot? They get really touchy about it."

Touchy was an understatement. The science geeks reacted to religion violently, almost always sparking off a long, loud rant condemning the faith. Last time, the vicar students had got involved. It hadn't ended pleasantly.

"As if I care." Darcy blew off with a wave of her hand. "Come on – just come. Thor's going. And Loki."

Jane lowered her gaze to her work, knowing Darcy would read her mind if she could see the windows of her eyes. "I don't care." Was it a lie? … no. At least, not entirely. While she admitted vigorously that Thor Odinson was just… ugh, was there even a word to describe just how incredible he was physically? But she didn't pin herself to it like some of the other girls did, obsessing and dreaming. Jane just noticed. And that was where she drew the line.

"Yeah, right! You totally like him."

Jane's eyes lifted before she could catch herself, mouth shooting open defensively. "I do not!" She cursed her pinkening cheeks.

Darcy's grin widened, and she said nothing, knowing she'd got the upper hand. She didn't need to say it aloud; Jane's reluctant scowl affirmed she knew it too.

Jane sighed and let her shoulders slump, her work leaving her mind once and for all. She didn't like Thor… did she? She was meant to be a scientist, cold hearted and factual. She'd always assumed that was how she treated Thor. Like a test subject to be observed.

Would she really care if Thor got a girlfriend and it wasn't her? Would she be interested if he wanted her as a girlfriend? She didn't dare think about it, let alone answer, afraid of the result.

They were too different anyway, Jane decided in her head, spinning round in her chair to get a look at the guy in question. Just one look at his laughing face confirmed Jane's suspicions. All other reasons aside, the biggest difference was definitely in their levels of attractiveness. Jane was small and mousy looking, a calm strength blazing in her brown eyes, while Thor practically reeked of sex and testosterone! He was way out of her league.

And he did a sport course. That could give you a body like Hercules, but it didn't fight off the dumb-as-a-post stigma that was attached to the big arms and eight pack muscles. He wasn't the brainy type. One look at his naively happy smile told her that.

She couldn't fight the wave of disappointment though…

Then electric blue shocks registered in her orbs and her heart froze in horror – the sports star was looking back.

Her mouth fell open in dread as the handsome face lifted and returned her stare, his lips still pricked in a grin, crystal blue orbs just… wow. His face was soft, and open, no trace of a 'what you lookin' at?' hostility at all. His smile widened in amusement at her blatant dismay at being caught.

Jane spun around in her chair, heart hammering inside her chest. A laugh rose from the table behind her and she wondered paranoid if they were laughing at her.

Darcy arched a slyly questioning eyebrow. She didn't even need to say it.

Jane scowled, her pride bruised and shot her friend a narrow eyed look before she rose, made a hasty grab for her binders and practically fled from the cafeteria. Hundreds of eyes followed her, but one bright blue pair stood out more than the rest.