When Lina arrived for her Advanced Calculus III course, she wasn't surprised to find most of the students were kids she didn't know. That was how the mathematics department seemed to work — kids would foolishly declare mathematics as their major or minor, usually in conjunction with IT or Economics, and then they'd end up in Dr. Eris's class or Dr. Rezo's class, and drop within two weeks out of fear. As far as Lina could tell, there were eight such students in this class, all laughing and cutting up with each other. She smiled evilly. It would be fun to watch Dr. Eris put them in their place.
"You didn't email me back last night," a sardonic voice said behind her.
"Go to hell, Zelgadis." Without looking back at him, she went to the back of the room and plopped into a desk next to the window.
She wasn't remotely surprised when Zel sat down in the desk next to her. "So it's true? Rezo has you tutoring a jock?"
"I'm a jock," she reminded him dangerously.
"Hockey and football are two entirely different sports, and you know it. What's he like?"
"Rezo? Oh, you know your grandfather. Sadistic and evil as always."
Zelgadis gave her an annoyed scowl, and Lina sighed.
"Fine, fine. The person in question is an idiot. There, happy?"
"Better you than me tutoring him, then." Zel glanced around the room grimly. "But as long as you get him to pass, Rezo shouldn't care."
"That's the general idea."
The door suddenly opened and Professor Eris whisked in. She slammed the door behind her without even looking at it, and her six-inch heels clicked menacingly across the tiled floor as she made her way to the podium, though how she could walk in that tight-ass black leather mini skirt, Lina wasn't sure.
"Shut up and sit down," she barked at the class, and the kids in the front rows immediately jumped and looked at each other in horror. "This is an advanced calculus course, not a single's bar!"
Lina and Zelgadis only exchanged satisfied smirks.
oOo
By the end of the class, they were instant messaging each other over their laptops, betting on which kid would drop first. Lina was positive it would be the blonde girl in the front row who looked like she would rather play excessive rounds of beer pong than study; Zelgadis was sure it was the guy with his hair swept up and back like a stupid 17-year-old pop idol.
It was a hard call, really.
As soon as the clock hands hit the hour, students were already shoving stuff in their bags and bolting out of the room to escape.
"Miss Inverse and Mr. Greywers, if the two of you would remain behind?" Dr. Eris's voice was cool, as students ran in front of her in their mad race to the door.
It didn't take but seconds for the rest of the class to exit, and Lina and Zelgadis packed their laptops up with resignation. They approached Eris together, slightly wary at her expression.
After glaring at them for a few seconds, she finally snapped, "Were the two of you even paying attention today?"
"Yes," Lina insisted. "You want all the problems in chapter one competed by next Monday. Syllabus is online."
"And," Zelgadis added dryly, "We can get extra credit if we correctly complete the exceptionally difficult problems you post online under the discussion section, by this Sunday night."
Eris's eye twitched. "Who did you bet on?"
Lina shrugged. "The blonde girl, she's an idiot. Did you see her tits? Nearly falling out of that tight-ass top she was wearing. Bet she's already fucked half of frat row, and the semester just started."
"The Beiber look-alike," Zel interrupted. "He's a moron. He's probably a closet Twilight fan. Did you see those skinny jeans? Who the fuck came up with that fad?"
Eris's eye twitched. "What am I going to do with you two?"
"Let us leave for our next class, I hope," Zelgadis mouthed off, while glancing at his watch. "We have Advanced Chemistry with Dr. Milgasia in ten minutes, and it's an uphill hike across campus to the science building."
Eris only laughed, and Lina exhaled in relief.
oOo
"So I hear you're tutoring the star football player this semester!"
Lina growled and lunged at Xelloss. "I will fucking kill you," she snarled. She felt Zelgadis grab her arm and snatch her backwards, away from Xelloss.
"Oh, goodness, I certainly didn't mean to upset you!" Xelloss smiled brightly. "I was just asking a simple question!"
"It was a statement, not a question," Zelgadis reminded him. "How did you find out?"
"Now, that's a secret."
"Everything's always a fucking secret with you," Lina snapped sourly.
"Well, it certainly makes things far more entertaining," Xelloss replied, running a hand over the smooth, black granite counters of the lab before taking a seat.
Dr. Milgasia entered, his face pinched and scowling, as usual. Though he wasn't as bad as Rezo and Eris, Milgasia was still strict and demanding, and he didn't appreciate anyone messing about his his classes.
"Sit down," he announced quietly. His gaze swept over the students until it fell upon Zelgadis, Lina, and Xelloss. Sighing heavily, he muttered, "God help me, not you three again. Haven't you had enough science to graduate yet? Or are you just taking my classes to give me hell?"
Lina rolled her eyes, Zelgadis flipped his laptop open with a smirk, and Xelloss beamed in a way that was by no means innocent.
oOo
By the time Lina made it through the first two days of classes, she was exhausted from the amount of work she had to complete, not to mention the training sessions she had to attend for hockey. However, Gourry did email her back quickly, so she was able to make out a detailed tutoring schedule, which she forwarded to both Gourry and Rezo. Rezo approved it, Gourry gloomily said he would attend, and that was that.
The time slot Gourry selected was Tuesday and Thursday mornings, from 8:00 am until 10:00 am. This didn't particularly bother Lina, though she was slightly surprised that a jock would want go get up so early. She had rather expected him to pick the Sunday afternoons and sleep in whenever he could.
As for herself, she hit the gym each morning at 6:00 am, ran two or three miles, lifted weights, and then headed to the library or class.
But on Tuesday morning, after she finished her run and went to the weight room, she was surprised to find Gourry himself there, lifting two hundred pounds at the press beside her. He was concentrating and didn't noticed her immediately, so she slowly added weights to her press as she watched him from the corner of her eye. Just as she sat down, he finished his reps and sat up, dripping with sweat.
"Lina?" His eyebrows knit slightly, as though he was trying to make sure he remembered exactly who she was.
"Well, at least you remember my name," she muttered, before flopping on her back and beginning to push the weights, relishing the sharp sting in her muscles.
He rubbed his neck, seemingly embarrassed. "That's a lot," he observed, glancing at the total number of pounds.
She ignored him. "Coach constantly tells me I'm not normal for a girl. I don't need to hear it from you, too."
"I didn't mean it like that." His face reddened. "I just haven't met a girl who can lift so much."
"Well, the good thing is, this shows you know how to count," she grunted, pushing the weights up again and remembering what Amelia had suggested, about finding some common ground to help Gourry learn better.
Gourry's brow furrowed. "Huh?"
"You can obviously count, because you know how much weight to put on the bar," she repeated. "So you can at least do arithmetic and subtraction."
"Oh." He glanced at his own weights. "I never thought of it that way. But weights are just in increments of five and ten. It's not that difficult."
"Some people can't even count that well," she reminded him. "How many reps have I done so far?"
Without thinking, he replied, "Twenty-three?"
"Very good. That means you're paying some attention. See? This won't be as hard as you thought."
He sighed. "I wish it were that easy."
"I'll make it easy." She grunted and kept on. Weights always seemed to get heavier the more reps she pushed. "Mathematics is my speciality, remember?"
"Wish I had a speciality. I'm not even that crazy about playing football."
"Then why do you play it?"
He shrugged half-heartedly. "Because I'm good at it. Because if I didn't play football, I wouldn't be in college at all. I'm not too bright. That's what my family tells me."
"Maybe you shouldn't listen to them," Lina responded dangerously, thinking of her own family.
He didn't say anything to that, he just looked gloomy.
"Hey listen." She put the weights back in their slot, sat up, and crossed her arms against the bar so she could look at him better. "I know what it's like to have a family that doesn't appreciate you for who you are. But you gotta just stop listening to them at some point."
"But you're great at school! Why would your family not appreciate you?" He looked confused, and almost like a Labrador puppy staring at her with wide, innocent eyes.
Lina shrugged and tried to ignore that. Instead, she replied, "My sister. She's their favorite. Everything she does is just better than anything I do. I can't compete. So I moved far away, so I wouldn't be in her shadow all the time."
"What does she do?"
"She's a chef."
"Wow. That's…not what I expected." Then, as an afterthought, he added. "I love food."
"So do I, but I can't look like she does, so I eat out most of the time."
"Me too. Hey! We should get together and do a restaurant crawl!" His face brightened. "Kinda like a pub crawl, but for food! That would be awesome!"
Wait, what? Was he asking her out on a date? Or just to hang out as friends?
Friends. It had to be just as friends.
Lina stared at him incredulously. "Restaurant crawl?" she repeated.
"Sure! None of the guys on the team like to do that. They just like to see how much beer they can drink. But I prefer eating. So… would you like to hit some places up tonight?"
Nope, definitely not a date - there was too much enthusiasm in his voice over food. Still, Lina loved food, and Amelia normally stared at her in disgust whenever she saw Lina actually eating. Pakota loved to eat too, but he was busy with Freshman classes and she hadn't seen him but once so far this semester.
And then her mother's voice entered her head: If this young man sees you eat, he'll be completely disgusted and never ask you out again. Is that what you want? To never be married?
Oh, to hell with it, Lina thought angrily. She'd never really had high hopes of snagging a boyfriend anyways, not with her temper or her size A cups. Might as well give it a shot and see if Gourry Gabriev could handle her stomach. If not, what was the worst that could happen? He needed her to tutor him, and even if he told the football team about how she could stuff her face, it wasn't like she had much interaction with those guys.
"Fine, seven o'clock tonight."
His face lit up. "Great!"
oOo
Their first tutoring session was a lesson for patience for both of them. Gourry really was dense, and Lina had never been terribly patient. She focused on basics - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. There were some struggles, but not as bad as it could have been.
After an hour, she could tell that Gourry was getting tired and losing what little focus he had, so she called it a day and they went their separate ways for the rest of the morning and afternoon, agreeing to meet up on a street corner in downtown at seven that night.
When Lina arrived (in jeans and a t-shirt, because she wasn't dressing to impress some stupid football player), she wondered briefly it he would ditch her. If it had all been a big hoax. But Gourry was only a couple of minutes late, dressed much the same as she was, and he grinned enthusiastically.
"Hey, you came!" He looked happy at this revelation, and she tried to ignore the way her stomach swooped slightly. Stupid body parts reacting for no reason whatsoever - what the fuck? And such a pain in the ass. He wasn't that good looking, she told herself sourly.
Gourry claimed he knew a great place, so she let him lead, and he took her down an alley to a hole-in-the-wall. Lina didn't complain; such places typically had good food, even if the atmosphere wasn't ambient. Sure enough, the inside was rather rough-and-tumble, and a bored-looking waitress showed them to a table.
"Not big enough," Gourry complained.
The waitress looked confused. "What's not big enough?"
"The table. Can we have that one over there?" He pointed to a larger table.
"Uh, sure?"
"Great!"
When they received the menus, Lina ordered several things right off, while watching Gourry to see his reaction. Instead of looking appalled, he beamed and told the waitress to double Lina's order for him.
"You mean my order didn't freak you out?" Lina asked in surprise.
"Why should it?"
"Most guys look at me and get grossed out when I order so much off the menu. They want to know where I put it, since it obviously doesn't go to my boobs. Or if I'm going to pay for it myself. Which I usually do," she added darkly.
He looked slightly bewildered. "You play hockey so... don't you burn it off in practice? Same as me, I guess."
It was irritating to be compared to a football player, but he had a point. That was exactly the problem - she burned a hell of a lot of energy.
The waitress's expression, however, was similar to most of Lina's previous (and few) dates' expressions. It took several waiters to help her bring out all of the food, and as soon as the food hit the table, Lina and Gourry immediately dug in.
"MMM TRY THE FRIES!"
"GIMME THAT POTATO SKIN!"
"NO WAY IT'S MINE!"
"GIVE IT BACK!"
They finished dinner in roughly fifteen minutes, still fighting over the last plate of cheese fries, which ended in Lina winning when she threatened to stab Gourry's hand with a fork.
"That was really good," she admitted, still toying with the fork and eyeing his hand. "I've never been here before. Good choice."
"Yeah, one of my teammates brought me here once. After he watched me eat, he swore he'd never go out with me again," Gourry said.
"Well, your eating didn't bother me," she assured him, tossing the fork onto a dirty plate.
"That's good to know." He grinned at her. "So… dessert?"
"Know a good place?"
"Sure do! Soft serve ice cream just around the corner."
"Phibrizzo's!" Lina said knowingly. "That's Xelloss's favorite place."
"Who's Xelloss?"
"He's in the science program. His speciality is chemistry. He's a real pain in the ass, but I've had several classes with him the past three years, so I suppose he's an acquaintance at this point. He's brilliant in his field, and I study with him occasionally."
"I'm no good at science, either." Gourry sighed as they walked back into the alley. "I took Earth Science my first year and barely scrapped by. I'm not good at much of anything, really. I forget stuff easily."
"Well, at least you don't have to worry about taking another science class," she reminded him.
"No, I just have to worry about passing algebra."
"That'll be easy. We've only had one tutoring session."
"I hope it gets easier."
They rounded the corner and Phibrizzo's came into view; the ice cream parlor was crawling with girls who had hauled their guys out on a date. A number of them eyed Gourry appreciatively as he and Lina made their way to the counter, and Lina scowled in disgust.
The woman who ran the place was a co-owner, and all Lina knew about her was that her name was Zelas. She was an tall, attractive woman who, despite that, dressed far too skimpily, though without remotely giving a damn. She brought in the guys just on her appearance, which was probably why she ran the counter instead of hiring college kids to do the job for her. The other owner, the actual Phibrizzo, was never in the place and Lina had no idea what he did. Probably a whiz with finances and running multiples businesses, racking up millions and living like some fat cat in a posh hotel in New York or LA, if she had to guess.
She ordered strawberry and Gourry ordered chocolate; they found a bar table outside to sit and watch the crowds go by.
"It's kind of disgusting the way those girls stare at you when they have boyfriends right beside them," Lina finally declared loudly, glaring at a blonde chick who quickly flushed and looked back at her own table. She had indeed been blatantly staring at Gourry instead of the guy she was with.
Gourry seemed confused. "They do?"
"Uh, you don't notice that?"
"No."
"You're apparently the star of the football team. You could have any girl you wanted. That one over there would ditch her boyfriend and bang you all night if you told her you were remotely interested."
To her surprise, Gourry flushed as bad as the girl had. "Oh. Well, I guess I'm not interested in…"
"Are you gay?" Lina demanded, cutting him off.
"What? No!" He looked horrified.
"It's not a bad thing, I was just wondering." She tilted her head. "So then, why are you so against dating? Or one-night stands? I thought most guys enjoyed the occasionally fuck."
"I don't want to have sex a random girl for no reason, and I don't want to date just anyone." He looked annoyed.
A group of girls passed by, giggling and pointing, and his annoyance quickly turned to embarrassment. He leaned across the table and hissed, "Like those girls! Are they interested in me?"
"Uh, yeah. I'd say so."
"What about you? Are you interested in me?" He looked totally baffled and a bit frightened as he glanced back at the girls, who were tripping over the sidewalk and waving at him at the same damned time.
Lina felt herself flushing slightly. Was she interested in him?
Hell no, she told herself. He was a stupid-ass jock who couldn't do math (or any other subject, apparently) to save his life. He was obviously as dumb as dirt, and she had more important things to think about, like hockey and graduate school.
But… well, he was rather attractive. Like Gracia had said - built like a brick shit house and all that silky blonde hair…
She looked down at her ice cream and muttered, "Me? Nah, I mean, you're attractive and all, but I just met you."
"See, that's how I feel about girls!" His blue eyes grew huge. "I don't even know them, why would I want to have sex with them?"
Well shit, he had a point. Instead, she observed dryly, "You're kind of unusual."
"You don't have to remind me. Most of the team already does. If I didn't score all the goals I do, they wouldn't care about me one way or the other." He looked miserable.
"Then why stay on the team?"
"I wouldn't be in college otherwise," he reminded her. "I'm here on a scholarship. I barely graduated high school."
"Oh. Right."
They finished their ice cream in silence, and then started walking back. Their apartments weren't but a couple of blocks apart - Gourry in a basement flat in an old mid-century bottling plant that had been turned into apartments, and Lina with Amelia in an old house that had been converted into several apartments. They agreed to meet up again on Thursday for tutoring and then head out to another good restaurant Thursday night, which suited Lina just fine. Maybe it would be nice to have a restaurant buddy, since Amelia couldn't stand to watch her eat.
