The Christmas Star never happened and Vijay has just transferred to Penny's high school. Their inevitable courtship will cause many headaches, several awkward conversations, and - more importantly - greatly entertain their psychology teacher.
Proper Nerds
"Alright, attention, attention!"
Penny's head popped up from her book as the teacher started waving his hands to gain everyone's attention. She closed the novel, straightening up in her seat. Her gaze trailed over from the teacher to to the boy standing beside him.
"Mr. Dhar, you can take a seat beside Ms. Robinson," the teacher pointed her out and Penny flashed a quick smile as the boy looked her way.
Cute. The hair that hung down over his forehead even curled slightly, very superman-esque. He took his seat, fingers gripping tightly at the strap crossed over his chest.
"I'm Penny," she offered, leaning forward over the table they'd be sharing.
His lips twitched up in a tight smile, "Vijay."
The teacher started the lesson, something about ecosystems. Penny paid him half her attention, but Vijay zeroed in immediately. He quickly pulled out a notebook to start taking notes.
She recognized the system. Cornell Notes. And his handwriting was neat.
"He pulls his lectures from the textbook, verbatim," Penny leaned over to whisper. Vijay raised an eyebrow at her. She nodded around the room.
There was a reason no one ever took notes in this class. Even the honors kids were all doing homework from other classes.
Penny smirked. She checked that the teacher had his back turned before reaching behind her to grab her textbook from her bag. She pushed it across the table towards Vijay and flipped it open to where her bookmark was.
Vijay squinted at the page, frown forming as he abandoned his notes. Penny stifled a laugh and pulled the textbook back towards her.
"He doesn't like us to read along either," Penny told him, once she'd put the book back in her bag. She glanced down at his notebook, "Any chance you have Dr. Harris for Psych?"
"Yeah," Vijay finally spoke, head ducked low and voice pitched even lower. His eyes flicked back and forth from her to the teacher.
"I know who to bug for notes next time I'm sick then," Penny grinned and leaned back in her seat, novel tipped over the ledge of the table to hide it from view as she started to read again.
Vijay went back to his notes. She glanced up a few times to see him writing key terms in the cue column. It was almost adorable. He bit his bottom lip as he circled something, brow furrowing. Okay, maybe it was entirely adorable.
There was significantly less gusto to the process than when he first started, but he was certainly focused on the task. Gaze never straying too far, except to look up at the teacher. Long fingers flexed out as his thumb held the pencil each time. Vijay Dhar was incapable of sitting still. His leg even bounced slightly, though he squeezed his knee once when he caught himself.
"So..." Penny pursed her lips as she approached Vijay at his locker, "You're a proper nerd." He looked up at her, eyes fluttering as he closed the door.
"Because I took notes in class?" Vijay asked, brow rising. He shrugged, eyes shifting to the floor, "I won't have to read that chapter now. It's not a big deal."
Penny hummed, nodding as she followed Vijay into the traffic of the hallway. His feet slowed as they came to a traffic jam near the bathrooms. He glanced back at her.
"Do you..." Vijay snapped his mouth shut, shaking his head. His hair fell into his eyes. The cuteness factor was slowly shifting into hotness as she watched him walk.
"Which classroom?" Penny held out her hand, fingers gesturing back towards her palm till Vijay produced his schedule. She pulled him to the side, out of the flow of traffic. Vijay's shoulders hunched inward as people passed by them. Penny ignored them.
A smirk spread across her face as she read over the list. Vijay shifted nervously in front of her when she glanced back at him through her eyelashes.
"Definitely a proper nerd."
Vijay reached for the schedule, lunging slightly. Penny pulled it away, hiding it behind her back. His mouth fell open. He furrowed his brow.
"I didn't say that was a bad thing," Penny laughed, smiling broadly as she stepped back into the flow of traffic. Vijay followed her, eyes narrowing. Not like he had much choice, since she still had his schedule.
"Can I have my schedule back?" Vijay huffed behind her.
Penny looked over her shoulder at him. The wrinkles on his forehead emphasized the lines of his brow very nicely if you asked her. She puckered her lips, "Hm... maybe after Chemistry." His eyes fluttered again and Penny grinned, "We have all the same classes."
"Oh." Vijay pursed his lips. She watched his throat bob up and down before he ducked his head.
There was a certain pleasure in making a cute boy nervous. Penny very much enjoyed it.
-.-.-
Penny Robinson was probably the most frustrating person that Vijay had ever met. When she finally returned his schedule, it'd been marked up extensively. Almost making it illegible.
But it was all tips and information about the teachers. What their tests were like. Their grading preferences. A crude drawing of the best routes between each classroom with little stars where all the snack machines were. There were even little lists of what each one stocked.
It was, without a doubt, the most helpful piece of paper anyone had ever given him. But she'd teased him mercilessly through lunch before giving it back.
Her friends had been nice enough. It was obvious they'd known Penny a while. None of them had bat an eye at her antics. They'd also all side-eyed him when he'd followed her over.
That was where the actual problem was. Vijay was not a fan of extra attention. He had gone in to school with the intention of being as invisible as possible for at least the next week. Possibly the rest of high school. With Penny, following her from class to class, possibly just existing in her sphere of influence, that was impossible. Penny was pretty.
And not just regular pretty, but gorgeous pretty. Bright red hair, freckles, tall. He was fairly positive this level of pretty in high school went against the laws of nature.
Unfortunately, he was starting to *like* Penny. Which was part of what made her so frustrating.
"New guy, you're Penny's partner."
The attention part was actually beyond frustrating.
Dr. Harris didn't look up from her magazine when he entered the classroom. She sounded almost bored actually. Vijay stilled for half a second before Penny tugged at his wrist and dragged him over to her table. In the back of the room, same as every other class.
That was not technically frustrating. Vijay preferred the front, sure, but being in the back did have it's benefits. No one was staring at him for one.
Still not looking up at them, Dr. Harris laughed, "She hasn't picked a topic yet anyway."
Penny rolled her eyes, swinging her bag onto the table with a huff, "You don't *know* that."
At that, the magazine was lowered. Dr. Harris tipped her head back, gaze rising. She quirked a brow, "What's the topic then?"
"I didn't say you were wrong," Penny waved a hand at the curly haired teacher. She took her seat, chin in the air as Dr. Harris snorted, "And I'm not saying you're right either."
"A real Schrodinger's cat situation," Dr. Harris drawled, shaking her head. She turned her gaze to Vijay, eyes meeting his between the heads of his classmates, "There is only one rule. Do not pick anything that will make you parents call the school if they see you researching it." She winked and then returned to her magazine, "Not that I'm worried. I'll just throw you under the bus if they do."
Vijay blinked, shoulders hunching forward. Beside him, Penny pulled a binder from her bag labeled 'Psych.' She shoved her bag to floor with a flourish and plopped the binder down.
"We're in the middle of a project right now, so class is just work time. Dr. Harris is big on student exploration." Penny ducked her head close to his, smirking, "And by that, I mean she doesn't teach so much as give us topics and then grade our presentations based on how entertained she is." Vijay could definitely see that about the psychology teacher.
At her desk, Dr. Harris had her feet kicked up. She was flipping through her magazine. Her lips twitched up slightly.
"I hope that's an important text message, Liam," Dr. Harris called out, "You know I hate to get up to confiscate phones when there's nothing interesting on them for me to read." A boy at a table diagonal from them shoved his phone in his back pocket. Several of their classmates snickered.
"She's also annoyingly observant," Penny grumbled under her breath and opened her binder.
Smirking, Vijay looked from the color coded syllabus at the front of the binder to Penny, "So... you're a proper nerd." She shoved him lightly, blushing as Vijay laughed.
"Did you want to know about the project or not?" Penny drawled, scooting her chair closer. Vijay nodded, throat bobbing.
And then there was the one other thing that made Penny frustrating.
"This unit is on stress. So basically, we pick a stress reliever, explain how it works," Penny flipped to an assignment sheet. She tilted her head to look up at him, lips pursed tightly. Her notes all over the page were as legible as her advice on his schedule. He'd squint at it later to decipher the important bits, but the important information was front and center.
"So you picked a topic," Vijay cleared his throat and rubbed at his neck. His face flushed.
Penny's face was as red as her hair, "Yup."
Sex. She'd picked sex as her topic. Somehow, Vijay didn't think that was in line with the only rule Dr. Harris had specified.
Absolutely, terrifyingly frustrating.
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