After several trying weeks their classroom was left with a cozy set of 23 people. There weren't any group projects but class discussions were mandatory. It was an upper level course and Kara expected the class to attend having read the papers she assigned for them. They were to interact and facilitate some kind of dialogue with one another before sharing their insights as a group.
Lena had always been a very productive team with Jess so these groups were lacking in every department. Where Jess and she delegated the tasks evenly and rarely had disputes, these groups were grating. Lena met Jess in first year and they had seen in one another a kindred spirit. They weren't here for small talk or friendship. They were here to attain their education competently and then continue onwards and upwards.
Along the way of her double majors and Jess' pre-law and then scholarship acceptance they had become acquaintances. Then roommates then to the kind of friend that Lena would ask to be her bridesmaids if she were to ever get married.
Kara turned eyes that were far too blue to be real onto Lena and set their class onto an assignment.
When she got married.
Lena guessed they were both staring now, she wasn't sure if her prof was distracted by her intensity–she has been told she has a lot of that–or if she was just giving away too much. She tried to scowl cause god forbid she was giving her prof the puppy dog eyes Jess had been teasing her about.
Lena knew this paper front and back, it was a simple but elegant study on multimodal therapy for children with ADHD. The chemical effects were more in line with their class' focus but the outcome of the study had proven the usefulness of the combined methods of behaviour and medicinal treatments in a time when people were still quite against medicinal aids.
The consensus was still debated even with countless studies as backing, honestly, at the end of the day the disorder was on a spectrum and resulted in a multifinality of cases. She had said as much to her group but the pair she was with remained tight lip and stone faced until Kara walked by and only then did they speak.
They verbatim repeated her words for their prof to hear.
Well at least they were paying attention to her.
A Luthor wasn't good enough to befriend but apparently her ideas were still sound and trusted.
She's dearly missing Jess.
…...
"Lena, can I have a moment?" Kara asked as the class hurriedly filtered out, it was Friday and nothing was due this weekend.
Lena nodded, took off her side satchel and leaned as casually as she could against her desk. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't bolted to the ground. The room was made for intensive studies in very particular fields which meant there was rarely a set sum of people, desks were meant to be added or exchanged out. That was what she got for choosing an Art's elective, an underfunded field bound to this archaic building's horrid little layouts.
Lena tried to maintain her awkward angle without applying pressure so she could avoid sliding along with the desk; she would had just straightened if Kara hadn't already made her way over.
Kara took one look at her and hopped up to take a seat on the desk to provide much needed counterweight.
They were unbearably close, Lena didn't exactly gulp but she wasn't breathing either.
"I'll pay more attention to those two for academic plagiarism though I think it'll be quite obvious if they tried something like that… they aren't particularly bright to think your voice doesn't carry in a room this size."
Lena was either delusional or Kara had stressed with rather keen fondness when she said the words 'your voice'.
"Thank you, Dr. Danvers."
"Of course, have a good week." Kara's smiles were always warm like the sun and Lena found her fabled frozen heart melting under that intense charm.