The next week, when a group lab-prep was announced, she cornered him as he walked out the door after class. "We're doing this together, boy genius." She told him. "I can't stand half the idiots in this class, and I'm sure you can't either."

"Do you have to call me that?" he responded. But knowing he would be working with Temari came as something of a relief. She was right – he would be bored, or at least irritated, if he worked with almost anyone else. Temari didn't seem to mind that he was a freshman and therefore easily the youngest in the class, nor was she at all embarrassed about his being better at some of the math than she. Not that she cut him any slack if he happened to be wrong, of course, but overall she wasn't bad to work with.

He came back down to earth when she hit him. "Are you going to stand there all day? C'mon." She turned, but waited for him before leaving.

Why, he wondered, was she walking down the hall with him? Surely she wasn't planning on hanging out. If so, he took back everything he'd just thought about her being easy to work with. Projects and labs were one thing, but actually spending time with her … it was a horrifying thought.

She stopped when they got to the door out of the building. "When did you want to start this?" He asked, hoping.

"Just what I was going to ask you." She grinned. "Nine in the library work for you again?"

Perfect: now he could agree, and she'd leave him alone. "Sure, I guess."

"Good. Don't be late!" She walked away with a wave.


A/N: Sorry this is so late! I know it's way too long to have to wait for less than 300 words! Unfortunately, my updating is going to continue to be pretty sporadic - I finished my summer job but moved back to my parent's house and then out to my new job (nannying), so all the moving and settling in have taken a lot of time ... hence no updates till now. And until I really get settled here, it's going to be hard to do much writing or updating, even though the chapters are so short. But yeah, hope that at least explains my absence! ~A.P.