AN: Hey. So, school is starting again, so I'll only be updating once a week now. Thanks for the surge of reviews last week. It really helped! If you see any problems with Simmons' character, PM me or leave a review. I really want advice on how to write her.

"Welcome…" The professor breathed. "To another day of Cooperative Sciences." He sighed, obviously having given this lecture many times. Fitz looked to a nearby table where his newly acquired friend sat with her pre-assigned partner. Fitz wished he had taken this class from the beginning, so he wouldn't be sitting by himself at the lab table furthest from the front. That was one of the main drawbacks of going to a school of over-achievers; everyone struggled for a spot in the front. He drew pictures with the condensation from his water bottle on the smooth, black surface of his desk, waiting for the professor to continue his lecture. From what Fitz had heard, this class had been instated five years ago, when Director Fury needed a device with two complicated forms of science, and the two scientist chosen had trouble working together. They had successfully built the contraption, but with little alacrity. Since the inception of Cooperative Sciences, only two teams had gone on to be successful field agents building on-site necessities for S.H.I.E.L.D. One of the teams had just retired this year, after only two years in the field, because of how strenuous the work proved to be.

"Please confer with your partner about the following question," Professor Geoff droned on, "Imagine you are at the scene of an explosion. The bomb was made using Pu-239. If the half-life of the plutonium had not yet been reached, and the building is not entirely gone, use the dimensions of this building to discover where the bomb was placed." He sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time in this class period. "Find out how to re-create it, and what planet it was from."

Leo looked around the room, trying to see if there was anyone else without a partner. Of course there was no one. He walked up to the professor.

"Excuse me, uh, Professor Geoff?" Fitz cringed when the professor looked up at him.

"What?" He glared.

"I, um, I just transferred to this class and I have yet to find a partner." He glanced behind him at the other students, listening to their conversations while waiting for the bored professor to reply.

"Name and field?" Professor Geoff said, bringing Fitz back from his reverie.

"Oh! Oh, um, Leopold Fitz. Yeah, L-E-O-P-O-L-D," He leaned over the desk as he watched the professor type his name into the advanced screen that made up the surface of his desk. "PhD, Engineering."

"Engineering, eh?" The professor suddenly became interested. "I'm in engineering myself. I graduated top of my class at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, but I haven't got any imagination, so I decided to teach instead. But my field was full, so I'm teaching this waste-of-time class." Professor Geoff seemed to notice Fitz's growing look of reproach. "But maybe you can make it in this class. Aren't you one of the new recruits? Youngest ever, so I've heard. You and Miss Simmons over there."

"Um, yes, something like that." He glanced behind him at Jemma Simmons, who was finishing up her assignment already, her elderly partner looking slightly confused. "So, do you have a partner for me?"

"Yeah," the teacher slipped back into his melancholy drone. "I'll rearrange the students who aren't working well together, and put all the slackers in the same group, so no one has to put up with them."

"There are slackers at S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Fitz asked, wondering how, in a room full of geniuses, you could even identify a slacker.

"Sure. They're the ones who are nearing retirement and smell like dehydrated fruit. Excellent minds, no doubt, but sluggish."

Fitz's next class, Holographic Engineering, proved more productive. Jemma Simmons was in this class as well. Walking over to where she was sitting he asked, "Is, is anyone sitting here?"

"No, no one is sitting here. Join me!"

"Okay, thanks. Hey, did you hear about latest expedition of the Census of Marine Life? Over two-hundred new life forms… pretty exciting, huh?"

That was how the conversation played out in Leo's mind, but when actually executed went a little more along the lines of:

"Ex—excuse me, is, is anyone sitting… behind you? I mean, next to you? I mean here?"

"Yes, sorry."

"Oh. Sorry. Yeah. Of course. Sorry. Bye. Sorry." Fitz muttered, as he tripped over the other students while exiting the row.

Which was why he was now sitting in the only available seat in the back of the class, furthest away from the holographic table used in the front for demonstration. But by the end of the period, Fitz decided holographic engineering was his new favorite class. Being closest to the back, he was the first one out the door. As he left the class, he decided that making friends was too stressful, he needed to relax. He needed to go to the labs and tinker with something. He needed to talk to voice-activation interfaces instead of real people.

Leo tinkered well into the night; putting to use his mind in the creation of seven quad-copters he called "D.W.A.R.F.s". However, some of the science behind their ability to perform to their full capacity was beyond him. Fitz looked forward to having a partner from Cooperative Sciences who would, hopefully, be able to understand him. Pondering this at three thirty in the morning, he fell asleep on a chair in the lab.

When Fitz awoke, he was vaguely aware of where he was and had a terrible crick in his neck. He glanced at his swore mentally as he rushed from the labs, D.W.A. in tow, and back to his dorm to change for the day. In his haste, he accidently untied his father's tie; casting is unceremoniously on his floor. He threw open his dresser, in hopes of finding a clean shirt, but it was oddly bare. He looked around his room with comprehension this time, realizing all of his personal belongings were missing. "What the hell?" He opened his door, peeking into the hallway, but no one was there. He dared not venture into the hallway shirtless, and backed into his dorm, collecting himself. "Okay. You're a freshman. It's probably some prank. Phfft, yeah. A prank." He calmed himself. "Either way, you still have to get to class, preferably clothed." He put on his button up and grabbed his tie from the floor. Putting it around his neck, he tied it the best he could, a double knot, and smoothed it down. Walking to class, he heard the snickers of the senior students who had pulled this prank on his unshowered and unwashed person. He tried to hold on to his pride, but the crinkled shirt and poorly knotted tie he had slept in did not allow him much.

His first class of the day, Professor Vaughn's History of S.H.I.E.L.D, was not entirely embarrassing, since he could select a seat in the back of the class and sleep through the lecture for the day. Professor Vaughn had written the book History of S.H.I.E.L.D many years ago, and insisted on teaching it at the Sci-Tech Academy for the past fifteen years. In most recent years, however, with his memory failing on the extra details and fun stories, he just read a chapter straight from the book each day in his gravelly voice, making napping an easy task.

His next classes, however, did not offer him the same mercies. Cooperative Sciences being worst of all. When he arrived at the building, everyone was standing outside the door restlessly. He spotted Simmons in the back of the group, reading a book. Temporarily forgetting about his appearance, he walked up to her. "What's going on?" He asked.

Without looking up, she answered, "Professor Geoff has decided to reassign partners and hasn't finished his list yet. He demanded we… wait…" She began trailing off as she began reading her book more intensely. "…Outside…" Fitz leaned over to look at her book. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it read. He smiled to himself. He had read the book twice already, and could tell what part she was at with a quick glance. He was about to comment about it, when Professor Geoff greeted the group at the door.

"Students." He said without emotion, "I have rearranged your groups, since none of you were able to come up with an adequate answer to yesterday's question. The groups are as follows: Liesel/Abbot, Cho/Durms, Kinder/Zalaquieth, Henson/Chang, Fitz/Simmons, Shirazi/Giv, Zenith/Quasar and Grundtal/Smith/Hitzig. Please sit at your respective tables and continue to work on the problem from yesterday."

Fitz glanced nervously at his new partner, who was still thoroughly engrossed in her book. When she mechanically sat down in her usual seat, Fitz followed; sitting next to her but looking everywhere except her. Eventually she put down her book and looked at him. "Sorry, I am not usually… It's just, I haven't read it yet and…"

"No, I understand, I didn't even attend classes the day after it came out." She laughed, and then seemed to take in his appearance for the first time.

"Oh, you're from yesterday! The boy who tripped me…" She said with a smile on her face.

"Uh, yeah. Ha. That's me." He looked down again.

"Are you wearing the same clothes from yesterday?" She asked.

"Eh, yeah. Freshman prank. All my stuff was stolen." He looked at her, "SO, do you want to get started on this project or what? I already have some great ideas."