CHAPTER 3
"Good, quarter to one."
He was early.
Leo had just left his dorm room and was heading to meet Jemma after her exam. Jemma never ever left an exam early because she liked to stay in and check her work. Leo had a different attitude though – he would happily leave an exam early if he felt fairly confident and had checked his work a couple of times over.
He emerged from the artificially lit hallways of the student accommodation and walked out into the blindingly bright sunlight that had engulfed the campus. That was the only problem with having exams and projects in May, you always missed out on more than a few sunny days but maybe he and Jemma could have lunch outside in order to make the most of it.
As he was walking through the modern campus, he could only admire the way that the sun hit the buildings. On an ordinary day the steel grey colour of the buildings made the entire campus look a bit cold and heartless but in the dazzling sunlight he could see true beauty in their design. Leo looked down from admiring the architecture and nearly tripped, scuffing his navy converse even more.
Should he turn around and quickly rush back? Should he duck into the nearest building for cover? Or should he just continue walking to meet Jemma? After all he was doing nothing wrong. He ran his fingers through his short curly brown hair.
The source of Leo's dilemma was, of course, none other than Rachel Hunter. There she was, phone in hand, walking towards him in a blouse so red it could've been considered camouflage on a classic London bus. Her black hair, normally straight and brushing around her shoulders, was being blown in her face. She had to keep sweeping it back with her manicured milky-skinned hand. Leo prayed that her hair blocked her view enough so that she didn't see him. As soon as his thought had finished though he realised she'd seen him. Her smile had turned into a grimace.
"Hi Leo!" Rachel's red lips faked a smile.
"Hello Rachel" Leo lazily responded as he rolled his eyes.
"Where's your precious girlfriend?" taunted Rachel as she swept her hair around one shoulder.
"Jemma is not my girlfriend" Leo retorted angrily although he had dreamed of the day he could take the 'not' out of that sentence.
"But she's a girl and she's your friend right?" she asked rather seriously.
"Yes" Leo groaned, he knew where this was going.
"Well there you go" she said very purposefully, like she had just proved a brilliant theory wrong.
"No, that's not..."
"So how's your project coming along?" she cut him off, she must have been bored of that conversation.
"It's going well thanks, yours?" Leo asked, he was always too polite with Rachel.
"I'm doing excellently. My project has been called some brilliantly innovative work so I'm sure it's much better than yours. Remember, you can only do your best."
Rachel started to turn and walk away.
"Don't put too much pressure on yourselves, you'll never beat me anyway" she giggled as she left, almost skipping away.
She always had to have the last word. Not only did Rachel think she was the best in her field, and many others, but she was ridiculously childish. Her taunts, although annoying to Leo, didn't worry him. He could beat her no problem. Just because she thought she was the best didn't mean that she actually was. Leo would prove that to her once and for all with his new invention but now it was time to think about Jemma, her exam and their lunch. Leo looked at his watch, he hadn't factored in time for a pointless chat with Rachel. It was just before five to one so he still had just enough time to get there.
"Time's up!" came the shout from the strict lecturer that signalled Jemma's exam was over.
She put down her pen and neatly piled all of her papers on the desk. The exam hadn't gone as badly as she thought it would. Jemma often felt that way because she usually went into an exam panicking even though she managed to keep her composure in front of most people.
"Once someone collects your paper, you're free to go" the lecturer called.
He seemed keen to make sure everyone exited smoothly.
Jemma was used to the processes of exams though, as she was sure most students were, the process had barely changed since high school. The only differences here were the difficulty of the exams and the lecturers who replaced invigilators as this was a high security S.H.I.E.L.D. facility after all.
Jemma sat patiently at her desk waiting for the lecturer to come but she knew she could be in for a long wait. She was seated only a few rows from the back of the exam hall, because of her second name, and there were usually at least a couple of students who hadn't written their personal details on the paper and kept the lecturer waiting while they did. The lecturer arrived at her desk surprisingly quickly, she had got lucky with the row she was in. As he lifted the exam papers off of the desk Jemma felt like a huge weight was being lifted off of her shoulders. She had done all she could do and felt fairly happy with her performance. She stood up from her desk as soon as the lecturer had moved on and hurried down to the front of the hall to get her back. The next question of what she would have for lunch was so trivial, at least in comparison with her exam.
Leo had made it to the exam hall with time to spare and was busy dreaming about burgers when he was interrupted by the doors to the exam hall suddenly flying open and students steadily pouring out of the hall.
He pressed himself up against the wall to avoid being swept away by the river of students as they babbled about what questions they had done, where they'd gotten stuck and what mark they thought they'd get. After several minutes, he saw Jemma emerging through the doors. Her eyes were desperately scanning the corridor for Leo and he managed to wriggle his hand up to wave over at her. Jemma managed to fight through the torrent of nattering students and got just close enough to Leo so that she could grab his hand and pull him into the crush.
"How did it go?" Leo asked loudly so his voice could be heard.
"Remarkably well" Jemma smiled. There was no point saying anymore now as Leo would never catch what she said.
They clung to one another as they were propelled along the hallway and out through the double doors into the bright sunlight.
