Honestly, Bonnie wasn't sure why she had agreed to it, but she had, and now she would have to accept her new reality. No, she would do more than that. She would embrace it, wrestle it into submission, make it her own reality.

Perhaps this was a dramatic way to handle the concept of a study date with Bianca and Marceline, but, to be fair, she was really dreading it.

The two had seemed reluctant to agree to study in the first place. They kept going on about how the midterm wasn't for a week and a half, and so on. They only agreed to study, with matching suspicious grins, if they could study with her. Marceline had said something about how she could really help them, and teaching them would help her memorize things. She'd seemed sincere.

Too sincere.

Bonnie lay on her bed, tossing a stress ball from one hand to the other, picking up the pace gradually. After approximately thirty seconds, it was hitting her palms hard enough to sting. She was fairly certain that wasn't the purpose of a stress ball. She bounced her feet impatiently, checked her watch again.

3:01pm.

She hummed to herself, waited ten seconds, checked again.

3:01pm.

Funny, that.

Funny, also, that where she was from, three o'clock meant three o'clock. She sat upright, clutching her stress ball in her hand until it hurt. She figured her doctor would have a thing or two to say about that, probably in an infuriating condescending voice, but she couldn't be bothered to care at the moment. Where were they? Oh, it was just like Marceline to be 'fashionably late', she was sure.

There was a knock on the door, and Bonnie almost tripped in her haste to reach it.

There Marceline stood, Bianca at her side, both grinning widely. Bonnie looked Bianca over with a frown, "Where are your notes?"

Bianca and Marceline shot her identical devious grins, and shrugged. Bianca rocked back and forth on their heels, "Gosh, I guess I forgot them at my dorm! We will have to take a perilous journey, across campus. Perhaps we shall encounter a frozen yogurt shop along the way, or that nice park down the road."

Marceline nodded solemnly, "That does seem like the only solution."

Bonnie narrowed her eyes, "We all have the same notes anyway, c'mon you two."

Marceline sighed and patted Bianca on the back, "Sorry for your crushed hopes and dreams, buddy."

Bianca nodded, allowing Marceline to escort them across the room, wearing a matching solemn expression, then, in a forced-sounding teary voice, "It is okay, Marceline. I am used to crushing disappointment."

Bonnie elected to ignore that and instead popped open her notes, "C'mon you two, maybe later. We gotta stay on schedule. We can start with Canterbury Tales, and-"

"Isn't that a chocolate brand?" Marceline interrupted, "the froyo place has really good-"

"Cadbury. As I was saying," Bonnie continued, "the professor heavily implied that there would be a written question concerning the excerpts we read on the Wife of Bath, so-"

Bianca giggled, "Hey Marcy, wouldn't it be weird if you married a bath? Like just the whole tub?"

Marcy shrugged, "I would. Taking a bath is mad relaxing, dude."

Bonnie gritted her teeth, "Perhaps you two would rather discuss morality with regards to the Pardoner first."

Marceline interrupted this time, "Begging your pardon, but did we learn this stuff? I don't remember psychology being involved."

"We spent a whole class talking about the Pardoner."

Bianca shook their head, "I can't remember either. I must not have enough energy to concentrate. I need frozen yogurt, Bonnie, or I will never concentrate and fail."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and reached into one of her desk drawers, pulling out a protein bar, which she tossed onto Bianca's lap, "There. How about we do something simpler? We can briefly go over Beowulf."

"Who?"

Bonnie crossed her arms, "You're just being difficult. The first thing we discussed in class."

Marceline shook her head, "Nah, look, my long-term memory's all donked up. Need fresh air and froyo."

"I told you both to eat before you came- Marceline you told me you were going to get something to eat!"

Marceline groaned, collapsing back onto her bed, "My frozen yogurt stomach is empty, Bonnie. I need it, dude. C'mon, the sooner we get it, the sooner we can actually study."

Bonnie sighed, examining the situation. She didn't like that she'd been tricked into this to begin with, but it seemed like it would be better to just go along with it. Besides, frozen yogurt was good- she wasn't against it on principal. She was mostly against not being in control.

That sounded weird, actually.

She didn't like when she was tricked? Something like that sounded a lot less control-freakish. Yeesh.

With a sigh, she pulled on the hoodie she'd discarded onto her bed and rose to her feet. Bianca made an exciting squeaking noise and joined her, bouncing happily. Bonnie just rolled her eyes. She may be going along with it, but she wasn't ready to give them the satisfaction of her having a good time- they'd have to earn that.

Marceline rested a hand on her shoulder, "Hell yeah, dude, I knew you'd come 'round."

Bonnie glared at her, "Yes, it's almost as if you orchestrated a situation where this would definitely happen."

Marceline grinned and pointed to her guitar, "Haven't orchestrated anything in a while, actually. Too busy"

"You know what I mean."

"Sure do."

"Jerk."

"Nerd."

"Guys, I would like to go now, please," Bianca interrupted, continuing with their bouncing by the dorm door. Marceline obediently removed her hand from Bonnie's shoulder, taking the last few steps towards the door and leaving Bonnie feeling a bit, what was it? Disappointed?

With a sigh, she trailed behind the two friends. As they walked, the other two dropped into casual conversation, and Bonnie allowed herself to become wrapped in thoughts, staring at the ground as they walked. She went over possible essay questions in her head, jotting down mental notes for points she could bring up in responses. Right, this was fine. This was-

"Oi, Bonnie," Marceline's voice cut through her. Bonnie looked up, meeting Marceline's gaze. Her brow was furrowed, "c'mon, bud, don't look so stressed. Some froyo will do you some good."

"I'm not stressed, I'm concentrated."

"Yeah?"

"Yes, Marceline."

Marceline wrapped her arm around Bonnie's shoulder and guided her to Bianca's side, "C'mon, we need your opinion of some stuff- thin crust pizza, yay or nay?"

Bonnie expected the other girl to move her arm at some point, but she didn't, and that was sending all sorts of panic signals jumping through her brain, "Uh," she muttered, "s'good."

"See? I told you Bianca, get taste pal," Marceline leaned closer to Bonnie as she spoke to her other friend.

Bianca huffed, "I have great taste. You are both gross."

"Yeah, tell that to Italy."

Marceline was becoming very involved in her debate, leaning close so that their faces were brushing so that she could make eye contact with Bianca as they walked. Her arm was still draped over her shoulders and suddenly Bonnie's skin felt a hell of a lot more sensitive than usual. She could have sworn the weather app on her phone had predicted it would be about twenty degrees cooler.

Hoo boy, maybe froyo wasn't such a bad idea.

"There it is!" Bianca shouted, bounding ahead of them.

Finally, Marceline took her arm away and ran to catch up with Bianca. Bonnie took a few moments to catch her breath.

She leaned against the outer wall of the frozen yogurt shop and ran over her thoughts in her head, chewing lightly on her lip. The old brick wall jutted uncomfortably into her back as she struggled to pull herself together. She hadn't been this affected by proximity since, well, high school. Since Shoko.

Well, hot damn, she had a bit of a crush, didn't she?

She wasn't oblivious, and her previous experience told her that ignoring crushes didn't help. It would probably be a few minutes until the other two realized she was gone, so she calmed herself by listing facts in her head.

One, Marceline was dating Ash. He was a tool, but she was dating him.

Two, she didn't know her that well, it was probably just aesthetic attraction.

Three, she had better things to do than pine.

Still, her brain didn't seem to be registering that last part, because when she felt a hand on her shoulder, her first reaction was to blush and turn towards the person, expecting to be greeted by Marceline.

What she got instead was Braco.

Her brain didn't seem to take that too well, because before she could so much as register the surprise jolting through her body, her arm was suddenly swinging towards him. She felt her fist collide with bone- ow- and suddenly she was staring, open mouthed, at Braco as he knelt on the ground, holding his cheek and staring up at her tearfully.

"Uh," she managed before Marceline rounded the corner, looking as if she was about to say something.

Her roommate looked down at Braco, then back at her, then started to laugh, "Dude, Bon, did you take him out?"

Bonnie looked down at her hands, flipping them over a few time, "Guess so."

Braco staggered to his feet, "I'm sorry, it's just that we're in the same Canadian politics class-"

"I recall."

"And it's just that you're really pretty."

"Correct."

Bonnie couldn't help but smile at the smug grin Marceline was wearing as she stood behind Braco. As Braco began to stutter his next reply, she pointed at him and stuck out her tongue. Bonnie laughed.

That was a big mistake, as it turned out, because Braco assumed she was laughing at something he'd said, and brightened up, "So, I was wondering, if you maybe wanna get coffee sometime."

Bonnie blinked, "I don't drink coffee."

Braco frowned, for some reason electing to look back at Marceline, who shrugged, "T-tea?"

"I'll pass."

"M-movie?"

Bonnie raised an eyebrow, "No. No date at all. Sorry dude."

Braco nodded, "Right. But I won't give up! I'll win your heart yet," he promised, turning again to Marceline, "thanks," he said, before dashing off.

Bonnie took a moment to process that last part, then she stared Marceline directly in the eyes, "Why'd he thank you? You didn't encourage him, did you?"

Marceline rested her hand on her shoulder, "Full disclosure, I think the dude's just dang weird. I threatened to punch him last time he asked me about you, so I'm gonna go with no on the encouragement thing."

"He asked you about me?"

"I didn't tell you?"

"I wouldn't have asked if you had."

Marceline stuck her hands in her jacket pockets and scuffed the ground sheepishly, "That was the prank weekend I think, musta' forgotten."

Bonnie sighed, brushing past her roommate and into the quaint frozen yogurt parlor. Bianca was already sitting at one of the tiny, two-person tables, having stolen a third chair from another table so they could all huddle together. Marceline hovered behind her, "Sorry about him. I really did tell him to buzz off, but as you probably saw, he's not easily persuaded."

Bonnie took one of the cups and stared at the self-serve machines, "It's cool, I'm sure if I keep punching him in the face he'll give up eventually."

"People consider that rude."

"I consider it effective."

"Can't argue that."

After a few minutes of consideration, Bonnie settled down with strawberry and banana frozen yogurt, topped with raspberries and balls of cookie dough. Bianca had already finished theirs by the time they sat down, and was eagerly discussing Pokemon with Marceline.

"You're into Pokemon too?" Bonnie asked around a mouthful of yogurt.

Marceline nodded, "Since I was, like, five. Who're your favorite 'mons, Bon?"

Bonnie shrugged, "Never played it, watched it, whatever."

Marceline's jaw almost hit the floor. She glanced over at Bianca, who just shrugged. Marceline shook her head, "No, we can't have that. Bonnie, we're gonna go home right now. You're gonna walk and eat your yogurt. We're gonna go back to the apartment and you're gonna borrow my Omega Ruby game and spare 3ds."

"You have a spare 3ds?"

"Rich parents. We've been over this, you were all bitter and probably thought I wouldn't notice, remember?"

Bonnie scoffed, "That's one way to put it."

Regardless of how silly she thought Marceline was being, the three began their walk home, with Marceline in the lead, rambling excitedly about something or other regarding the franchise in question. Bonnie wasn't really taking in any of it. Something, something, fire, water, grass, whatever. Unfortunately, what Bonnie happened to notice was that she quite liked the way Marceline's eyes lit up, her smile widened, and her voice went just a bit louder when she got really excited. She shook her head to try to clear it- she was pretty sure that worked in books, but in reality it just made he stumble a bit as she walked.

By the time they arrived back at the dorms it was past four, and the thought of studying flashed past Bonnie's mind again before being torn away by Marceline as a gaming device was shoved into her hands.

Following that, somehow, a few hours melted away. Everything began to blend together as the trio sat next to each other in bed- basically cuddling, really, and played their games. Bonnie picked up on the core mechanics rather easily, but Marceline was just so darn eager to help her that she entertained her by asking a few questions here and there, which resulted in a ramble that was always far longer than what she needed, but she listened regardless.

And then Marceline's treacherous, evil, abhorrent phone buzzed. If there was one thing she'd learned about that, it was that it meant Ash approximately ninety five percent of the time.

Marceline glanced down at her phone and frowned, "Alright, Ash wants me to come over, so I'm gonna split now," she turned off her device and, a bit more carelessly that she probably should, dropped it onto her desk.

Bianca whined, "But we are having fun, Marceline," they protested.

"Yep, Ash is a pretty big buzzkill," she agreed, "but my buzzkill, so I gotta go," she slung a purse around her arm, checked her hair in a mirror, and left with a wave.

Suddenly, Bonnie felt less interested in the game. She sighed and placed the second system more gently on Marceline's desk. Bianca shot her a sympathetic look, "I suppose I'll go to then."

They waited, perhaps expecting Bonnie to object, but she just nodded. Bianca shrugged and gathered their few belongings, wishing Bonnie a good night before slipping out.

As the door clicked behind them, a single thought prevailed in Bonnie's mind.

They hadn't done any damn studying at all.

Notes:

A couple days late this week- sorry about that, I had a bit of a rough week last week and couldn't find motivation. Hope you all enjoy it still!

Note: I'm pretty sure 90% of what happened in this chapter is relevant later, even if it doesn't seem like it.