Author's note: The hiccups have GONE! YAY!
So, for the next week, Gemma and Rimmer settled into a new routine. Gemma would sneak out of school at the end of the day, being careful not to be spotted by Faiyre. By twenty past three she would be at Rimmer's, who would have got rid of Lister if he was there. For an hour they would study whatever Gemma felt she needed to and then leave at twenty past four to be back at home for half past. Rimmer would then spend the evening making learning sheets and revision notes for Gemma's next session until Lister returned. Lister would ask what Rimmer was doing and Rimmer would fob him off with some astronavigation exam revision spiel.
On the Friday afternoon, Gemma noticed that Rimmer wasn't being as fastidious as he usually was. In fact, he hadn't straightened his pencils so they were parallel to the desk once.
"Done it," Gemma said, pushing her answers over to Rimmer.
"Mm-hm," Rimmer said distractedly.
"Er, aren't you gonna mark it?"
"Yeh," he mumbled. But he didn't move.
"Rimmer…" Gemma said gently, "Are you OK? You seem a bit distant. Is anything wrong?"
Rimmer shook his head firmly, "No. No, everything's fine."
The truth was, he wasn't fine. He wasn't fine at all. He was completely and utterly unfine. And the reason for this was: Nicole. He heard from her or seen her since the previous Saturday and it bothered him. She had said she wanted to do see him again. Had that just been a line? Just something to book-end the date and get rid of him? It seemed hard to believe; they had had such lively conversation, and he definitely felt something between them. And that kiss…
He blinked rapidly to wake himself up and glanced over Gemma's answers. All correct.
"Well done! You're definitely improving," he told her.
"After four sessions? Yeah, right!"
"You are, look. One hundred percent!"
Gemma took the paper and stared at it in amazement.
"Woah…"
Rimmer smiled. Gemma had been getting good marks pretty much since Rimmer had explained it all to her, but she never failed to be amazed at it.
"You know, I got quite high marks in school today," Gemma had remarked the previous day, "I even got the simultaneous equations one right! Can you believe that?"
"How was school today?" Rimmer asked in the hope of another 'high marks' story.
"Awful," Gemma replied, and Rimmer's heart sank, "I don't see why I'm forced to go there. I hate the kids at my school. I find it hard enough to talk to people as it is, but when they despise you from the second they set eyes on you…what are you supposed to do?"
She lowered her head so her chin was resting on her folded arms. She looked so sad and lonely. Rimmer could recognise the look of isolation in her eyes; he used to see it every time he looked in a mirror.
Rimmer looked at his watch, "Smeg! It's almost half four!"
"Oh, God!" Gemma hastily scooped up her belongings and stuffed them in her bag, "Thanks, see you on Monday!" and she sprinted out of the room.
"Bye," Rimmer said to thin air.
Later that evening, as Rimmer was constructing an A3 poster to explain about compound metals (he felt that they had covered enough maths, and next week they were moving on to science) there came a knock on his door. He closed the book he was copying from and walked over to open the door.
"Nicole!"
"Hi. I, er, I'm not disturbing you or anything am I?"
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no. No. No, no, no. Er, no."
"I came to see you, just to let you know I'm still interested. I'm really sorry I haven't been in touch, I've just been rushed off my feet. I hope you can forgive me."
Rimmer couldn't believe his ears.
"Er, well, yes, of course," he managed to mumble.
"Great!" she said with a smile, "Well, whenever you feel like it, just drop by my room. You know where I am."
Rimmer nodded mutely. Then, in hideously accurate timing, just as she was kissing him on the cheek, Lister came back from the bathroom.
"Hey, Rimmer, get in there!"
"Lister…"
"OK, sorry, sorry."
The trio stood in silence for a while before Rimmer piped up, "Oh, Nicole, this is Lister my bunkmate. Although I use the term 'mate' lightly."
Both Nicole and Lister laughed.
"So," Lister said, "You're Nicole then. Rimmer told me about you."
"Oh, really? Nothing incriminating I hope."
"Oh, God, no. He really likes you-"
"OK, thank you, Lister!" Rimmer interrupted forcefully, "I can make a fool of myself easily enough, I don't need you to do it for me."
"You really like me?" Nicole asked curiously.
"Well…" Rimmer cringed. He'd never been in this position before, and he didn't relish the way he was going to have to get out of it: "Yes, I do."
After an awkward pause, Nicole threw her arms around Rimmer's neck and kissed him passionately. A good four minutes later, she finally let him breathe. She appeared speechless. Mainly because…she was. She turned to Lister, "Nice to meet you."
Lister nodded, making strange choking noises. She walked away from the scene before she did anything else. Rimmer looked at Lister and shrugged slowly. Neither of them could quite believe what had just happened. Both were torn between bursting out laughing and fainting.