A/N: Hi all,

As the current storyline has evolved, I've been trying to better understand the personalities of Kate and Sophie and what makes them tick. Within that, I've realized a lot of the nuances of their relationship is woven through their history and time at the Military Academy. So, that's what these next two chapters are: a throwback of sorts.

Both chapters are being released together, because I feel like the timeline and development works best as a single read [this is also why it's a wee bit belated compared to my normal posting schedule]. In truth it feels like it should be a single chunk of story confined to a single chapter, but I doubt I'll ever write as long a chapter as this would be ever again. This little writing task has allowed me to discover a lot about Sophie and Kate's personalities, and I'm super pumped to bounce between timelines in future chapters.

All my affection, EQT.95


"This seat taken?"

"Oh, no, it's all yours," Sophie smiled politely at the girl. She had expected her to take the chair to an adjacent table of cadets, but instead the chair on the opposite side of the table remained and the stranger joined her. Sophie was taken aback by the move, and felt a certain discomfort by it as she stared at this newcomer. She was clearly also a new cadet, but Sophie had planned on staying in the background for the morning, and this newbie was threatening to disrupt that.

"Think they'll have breakfast?" the transient guest asked in a way of small talk, waving and smiling to acknowledge two peers walking past who wore a variation of Sophie's nervous excitement on their faces.

Sophie shrugged in a non-committal way and remained quiet. She hadn't been able to settle the butterflies in her stomach all morning to consider eating anything, and now she found herself distracted by the curious female sitting across from her, wondering how she could seem so relaxed. More than that, she had apparently already acquainted herself with half the incoming class as she raised her hand again in a wave - this time to another group walking into the room. They responded to the gesture by making their way over to fill out the rest of Sophie's empty table.

It was her first day of Military Academy, and the first item on the agenda was a welcome session that introduced key officers to the incoming class. After that they would be assigned rooms and given the rest of the day to unpack followed by an Academy-wide assembly where the commanding officer, a Lieutenant General, would officially start the semester off with a speech followed by a meet-and-greet mixer. At the moment they were all being packed into the mess hall as first-year students began arriving on campus. Anxious not to be late, Sophie had arrived the night before, stowing her limited belongings in the school's gymnasium for the night while she and her parents stayed at a nearby hotel. It was an eight hour drive, which would have meant starting out in the middle of the night if they hadn't. After promising to write often, they reluctantly said their goodbyes and parted ways: her parents back to a quaint two-bedroom home as empty nesters, and Sophie walking to the campus that would be her home for the next four years.

It took a minute for the commotion of the new group to get settled, but once they did, a new string of sounds erupted between them as they chatted like old friends catching up after a summer apart. She wondered if they knew each other prior to the Academy, or if they were just boisterously social. In either case, Sophie felt sidelined at the very crowded table.

"So who's your friend," a blonde-haired girl with a slightly nasal voice and an overabundance of enthusiasm asked the original table intruder.

"Oh, actually, sorry, I didn't catch your name," she responded, addressing Sophie. She squinted across the table, trying to read the name etched into the patch stitched above Sophie's breast pocket as the rest of the table quieted and turned their eyes to Sophie expectantly. "Moore, is it?"

"Yea - I mean, it's Sophie - Sophie Moore," Sophie responded, feeling her cheeks blush slightly at the unwanted attention.

"And I'm James - James Bond," remarked a sandy-haired, freckle-faced kid with a sarcastic smile.

Sophie felt her cheeks burn redder. Her first day jitters were getting the better of her. She wasn't much of a socialite, and meeting new people always made her crawl into a shell of solitude. It was one thing she knew would need correcting if she was ever going to make it out of the Military Academy, but at the moment, she wasn't ready to take on that challenge.

"That's Henry, and you can ignore him. Pleasure to meet you, Sophie Moore. I'm Kate," the stranger said before rattling off the names of everyone else at the table in introduction. Sophie focused to remember the names so she wouldn't foolishly have to ask later, but by the fifth name she felt overwhelmed and lost track. As though sensing this, Kate interjected, "And don't worry about remembering any of our names. I've asked everyone at least twice already."

Sophie smiled in thanks when a bellowing voice came over the sound system, catching everyone off guard. Sophie quickly turned her attention to the main stage as did every other cadet in the room. She listened as the man on stage introduced himself as Brigadier General Smith. He spent the next ninety daunting minutes breaking down the week's agenda, menial advice about the mess hall services, and school-wide policies before introducing his counterpart, Brigadier General Savoy. The hall's attention was piqued when she took her time to explain the room assignment process that would take place over the next three hours. After nearly two hours of dry administrative monologuing, the cadets were eager to learn their dormitory assignments.

Savoy advised that all cadets would be given their assignments in blocks, with surnames determining the order. The first batch, A-H, would assemble to check-in before receiving their keys and room assignments. After that, they were free to begin moving their things. This would last for an hour. After that, the second group, I-Q, would go, followed by the remaining letters.

She finished by announcing that a late breakfast would be available for the next hour and a half before transitioning over to the lunch hour. Sophie heard Kate whisper 'yes' with unabashed enthusiasm. She nearly turned to scold her for talking but caught herself. Telling off a classmate on the first day wasn't the way to make any friends. Instead, she sat silently and watched Savoy direct the first group to a series of tables lined along the back.

A wash of white noise overtook the hall as nearly a third of the cadets raced toward the tables.

"Looks like we're group two, Sophie Moore," Kate called at Sophie from across the table and over the noise. Sophie turned back to face the others at the table only to realize only she, Kate, and one other was left.

"They all were in the first group?" Sophie asked, more out of statistical amazement than anything else.

Kate's look of curiosity and amusement didn't go missed by Sophie. "Well, it's their loss. I'm grabbing a waffle before they're gone."


"Moore, Sophie, you are… Murray Hall, room: 419, roommate: K. Kane. You know how to get to the building?"

Sophie didn't, but before she could say as much, she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder and Kate's voice chime in, "I do. I'll take her."

The cadet who had been helping Sophie nodded in Kate's direction, and Sophie wasn't positive, but she was sure Kate winked back at him.

"Then you are all set. Here are your keys, and this form is for listing any existing damages in the room so you aren't charged for them at the end of the year, ok? It needs to be returned by next week Thursday or it won't be recorded."

Sophie nodded, trying to absorb all of the information with mental notes. She regretted not having a notebook handy, but she also saw that no one else was taking notes and figured the last thing she wanted was to not look cool on the first day by nerdishly writing down every bit of information.

"Where's your stuff, Sophie Moore? Trailer in the parking lot?" Kate asked, guiding her away from the mess hall.

"Uhm, no, it's - I don't have a trailer. My stuff-"

"Ah, yours is coming later like mine. My dad offered to make the trip with me, but I figured it'd be easier to just fly and have the stuff shipped. I'm working out of this suitcase for the first week until it gets here," she said, pointing to the rollaway luggage trailing behind her. "When's your stuff arriving?"

"Oh, no, I mean… my stuff is here - it's just in the gymnasium. I got in from the Gotham area last night, and my parents helped me unload it. They said I could borrow a cart to haul it to… wherever we're going," Sophie said, trying to gauge the direction they were walking with the gymnasium.

Kate skipped a step and paused, taking a moment to piece together Sophie's words. She muttered to herself for a second, as though searching for something. Sophie was about to ask her if she was ok when Kate piped up, "Oh! You are the Sophie Moore!"

Now was Sophie's turn to stare back in confusion, "Pardon?" She couldn't tell from Kate's tone if it was said as an accusation or enthusiasm.

"You're here on the General Nelson Fellowship, right?"

"Uh, yea, how did you… how did you kn-"

"Because you beat me out for it," Kate said casually, beginning to walk toward a sea of generically designed dormitory buildings. "I heard some local named 'Moore' took top prize."

Sophie shrank back at this, "Oh… I'm sorry."

Kate laughed, "Oh, don't be. It would've been nice to throw at my dad, but I don't need it. Besides, that must make you a genius, so I'm lucky to have found you before anyone else could claim dibs."

"But wait, what did you mean 'local'?" Sophie asked.

"I'm from Gotham, too. Born and raised," Kate said proudly.

"Oh, well, I'm not from Gotham. I grew up in a suburb of Gotham," Sophie quickly clarified. She knew from experience that people who lived in Gotham-proper were quick to critique those who lived on the outskirts of the city-center, and she had grown accustomed to self-correcting.

"You kidding? Suburbs of Gotham deal with the same gritty shit as the rest of us," Kate countered. "The corruption doesn't end just because you live in a neighborhood with a standalone home and backyard," Kate reasoned.

They spent the next few minutes going back and forth talking about the parts of Gotham they were from or knew with ease. Sophie felt a strange kinship with this Kate-person: it was clear they were the same age with completely different backgrounds and experiences, but what she said resonated with Sophie.

"Aaand, we're here!" Kate announced. Sophie barely realized they'd walked across campus until Kate halted in front of a low-rise, all-brick structure with a monotonous pattern of punched windows. It looked exactly like five other buildings in the same vicinity, and Sophie wondered how Kate knew which was which.

"Oh, that was fast. Uh - th-thanks for walking me here," Sophie said, not sure how to continue or end the conversation. Surely Kate would move on to her own dormitory, but maybe they'd meet up again later. "I guess I can take it from here. Worst case I just wander the hallways until I find my room number."

Kate's eyes were bright with amusement as she grinned back at Sophie. "Whatever you say, Sophie Moore."

Sophie blushed slightly. She silently kicked herself for being so uncool. Kate was obviously the cool kid from school and that kind of person would never befriend someone like Sophie - bookish and quiet. Her entire life she had accepted that as her make-up, but she suddenly wished she could be as relaxed and confident as Kate. "Ok, well, see you around then," she said with a small wave before walking to the entrance. She glanced back when she got to the door and saw Kate had already left. An unexpected wave of sadness cut through her. Her imagination quickly hyperbolized a scenario where Kate was running off to interview better candidates for 'friend' status.

She cast this thought aside and turned her attention to finding her new room. Fortunately Sophie was able to quickly deduce that the first number designated the floor level. She walked up to the fourth floor, negotiating around the hustle and bustle of other cadets moving in. Taking a slight detour, she located the fourth floor's common space and observed a lounge space and small kitchenette just to the left of the staircase. On the opposite side was the bathrooms and shower stalls. Taking a right from the staircase, she identified doors near her room number. She ticked off the doors as she walked toward the end of the hall: 413… 415… 417… when she got to 419 she realized the door was ajar.

She paused, both excited and anxious to meet her new roommate. This was one of her biggest worries about entering the Academy. As an only child, she had never roomed with anyone, and more than anything, she wanted to get along with whoever she was. Sophie had read too many horror stories of first-year roommates who were terrors, and the worry had kept her awake on more than one occasion and built out strategies for addressing different kinds of roommates. Key to most of those plans was a heavy use of the library or lounge space. She hesitantly pushed the door open all the way and paused in slight shock, taking in the familiar grinning face lounging on one of the twin beds. That surprise quickly melted into a full smile.

"You know, for being a genius you definitely overlooked some pretty obvious details," Kate grinned pointing to her own shirt that had 'Kane' embroidered on it.


Kate was crushing hard. And worse, it was on her roommate. While she didn't believe in love at first sight, she definitely felt a pull toward her on their first day, and she'd been struggling every day since to appear unphased by her roommate's jaw-dropping beauty, shy wit, and uncompromising will.

She had caught herself staring again in class, and quickly reminded herself that Sophie Moore was off limits: it was already difficult enough being out on a campus that had a zero tolerance policy for "homosexual conduct," and adding a failed pass at a roommate you were stuck with for the next two semesters was the cherry to seal that fate. Kate mentally groaned as she watched a lock of hair fall out of Sophie's bun and fell with a delicate bounce onto her shoulder.

It had already been three excruciating weeks on campus, and that assessment hadn't included the rigorous course load and training. Two cadets had already been sidelined with injuries, and when they weren't running drills, they were studying. For most of the students, this was exactly what they had signed up for. Unfortunately for a lesser handful, that wasn't the case. One in particular was facing class-wide ridicule by the math professor at that very moment:

They had just finished reviewing precalculus material which was a required prerequisite to the Calculus I course, and a kid named Erwin Rice was having a time trying to recall his education from before the summer break. Kate learned quickly he was short-tempered with a reliance on acting like he didn't care enough about anything to let it bother him. The professor was also wise to this, and, after it became clearer over the weeks that math was not a strong subject of Erwin's, the professor used the opportunity to make an example of him. It was a classic maneuver Kate had seen her own dad perform to keep a group of comrades in line, and Erwin's combination of personality traits generally meant he'd sit stubbornly at his desk until Gilmet had finished having his fun. That didn't make watching Erwin squirm uncomfortably under the critical gaze of Professor Gilmet any easier, though.

"As Erwin has once again proven, his very presence in my class is an insult to the intelligence of everyone here. Now Mr. Rice, perhaps you'll have better luck at trigonometric functions," Gilmet said, clicking ahead in his presentation. "Let's look at this one, shall we? The angle of elevation of an airplane is 23 degrees, and its altitude is 2500 meters. How far away is it?" he read off the slide.

Erwin's already red face turned a shade darker as he sat silently, cross-armed in his chair.

"As expected," Gilmet said, turning his attention away from Erwin. Gilmet took the opportunity to glance at the clock before continuing, "No one will leave this room until our friend Mr. Rice can give us the answer we need."

The class groaned loudly. It was Friday, and this was the last course of the day - everyone was eager to get their weekends started, and Kate was no exception. She watched Erwin gape at the unfairness of Gilmet's ultimatum and glanced uncomfortably at the students shooting him glares. At that moment the bell rang marking the end of the period.

"No one is to move until Mr. Rice can provide us the correct answer. To the nearest tenth, please," Gilmet said, settling into the chair at the front of the class. A grin was plastered on his old, wrinkly face as the frustration in the room grew.

"Come on Rice, just answer the damn question," Mike Miller whined from the back row. He was far worse at math than Erwin, but that didn't stop Mike from taunting him for not being up to snuff. A few voices rose in support of this, causing Erwin to sit more stubbornly in his chair, his own temper and pride getting in the way of risking being wrong.

Kate leaned back in her chair, observing the room. For what it was worth, she had already solved the problem and was equally ready to get her Friday evening started. She glanced over at Sophie who also happened to be looking back at Kate - she offered a half smile and a shrug at the situation.

Minutes quickly turned into fifteen, and the class's aggression only grew. Finally Kate had had enough. She leaned forward, and with the most authoritative voice she could muster, she addressed her stubborn peer, "Erwin, get out your calculator."

It wasn't a request, and for the first time all class, Erwin reacted. He turned his head to Kate in surprise.

"You have a calculator, right?" Kate continued.

He nodded sheepishly before reaching into his bag for the mini computer.

At this, Kate's tone changed. Now that she had his undivided attention, she could drop the act.

"So we're looking at trigonometric functions for this - remember there are six in total?" she asked, pausing to see if Erwin nodded in understanding. When he did, she continued, "All six have relationships to a triangle, and three of those are reciprocals of the others. Each function uses a part of the triangle to solve another part. So, if we look at this problem, we need to find the hypotenuse, and to do that, we use which of the functions?" Kate asked patiently. She watched his brow furrow in thought and ignored the peering gaze of Professor Gilmet from his chair.

"Cosine?" Erwin asked, shrinking defensively at the groans from a few members of the class. Kate's sharp glare quickly muted that reaction, and she returned her gaze to Erwin who had shifted to a shade of red again.

"Close, but let's think about it. The information you have is an angle and the length of the opposite side, right?"

"The opposite… yea, I think so," he said, straining to recall.

"Did you ever learn SOH-CAH-TOA?" Kate continued, taking a different approach. She kept her focus on Erwin as though they were the only two in the room.

"Oh! Yes… yes, I know that," he exclaimed. "The… the function is the first letter. 'SOH' stands for sine and opposite and hypotenuse. That… that's what I need, right?" he stuttered, starting to piece it together.

"That's exactly right."

"And O is over H, so I'm getting opposite over hypotenuse?"

"You got it. The equation assumes the sine of theta equals opposite over hypotenuse. We know theta is 23 degrees and the opposite is 2500 meters," Kate said slowly, allowing Erwin to write it out. "So if you do a little adjusting, you can get the answer for the hypotenuse."

Kate's gaze didn't leave Erwin as he wrote through the equation before turning to his calculator. After another minute, he slowly read off his calculator, "6,398?"

"Rounded to the nearest tenth?" Kate gently reminded him.

"Uh, right - 6,398.3?"

"Is that a question or an answer," Professor Gilmet cut in. Kate only just realized he had gotten up from his chair and had been slowly walking toward Erwin.

"An answer, sir," Erwin gulped nervously.

Gilmet stared at Erwin for a moment before turning, "You may go."

There was a round of cheering from the class as everyone quickly jumped up from their seats and began scurrying to the door.

"Ms. Kane, a word," Gilmet cut through the noise. Those who heard glanced apologetically to Kate as they left. Erwin shot her a look of sincere thanks as he shoved his things into his bag, eager to get out of the room.

Once the room had emptied, Gilmet walked to the edge of his desk and leaned against it, seeming to take a moment before speaking.

"That was an unexpected twist, Ms. Kane," Gilmet began. "Normally someone will break and just shout out the answer, and I get the privilege of assigning double homework for the weekend."

"I'm sorry for ruining your fun?" Kate offered.

"Tell me, Ms. Kane, what compelled you to do that?" he continued, ignoring Kate's remark.

"Well, I'm not good at literature," Kate answered simply.

"Pardon?" Gilmet responded, his brow tucked in confusion.

Kate sighed at having to elaborate before continuing, "I'm bad at literature but good at math. Erwin is bad at math but probably good at something else. If we're going to survive as a team, we need to lean on each other's strengths. If Erwin is good at literature, I'm going to need him when the time comes in the same way, when he's bad at math, he can lean on me. This is a military academy, right? We're training to work as a team meaning we shouldn't be making someone wrong for their weaknesses because somewhere they've got a strength that makes the whole stronger."

Gilmet broke into a grin at this. "Interesting rationale, Ms. Kane. You'll make a fine leader someday. It's not often a cadet has the foresight to approach the academy as an exercise in team development this early on, but when they do, it tends to lift all ships."

"Yes, sir."

"You may go. I hear Wilfred Hall is having an unsanctioned gathering tonight - not to be missed," he said, smiling almost as though recalling a time when his younger self attended such a gathering.

Kate grinned back at Gilmet before gathering her things and leaving. As she turned into the hall, her eyes fell on a shadow leaning against the wall, and Kate immediately identified it as Sophie. She jumped at the sight of Kate, grabbing her bag and walking up to her.

"That - that was amazing, Kate," she said, her awe written all over her face, "Like… just… wow. That took guts."

Kate couldn't help but smile back at Sophie. Gilmet's words were encouraging, but they had nothing on the wave of accomplishment she felt at having impressed Sophie. She felt her cheeks burn at Sophie's praise. One of Kate's new hobbies was making Sophie smile, and she considered this outing a particular success.

"You didn't have to wait on me," Kate said, trying to feign a natural tone but was secretly over the moon at a chance to walk alone with Sophie back to the dorms.

"Are you kidding? It was the least I could do." Sophie said, bumping lightly into Kate as they started walking. "You saved the day - he didn't even assign homework over the weekend! So, what did Professor Gilmet want?"

"Oh, nothing. Just threatened to expel me if I ever spoke out of turn again," Kate said nonchalantly. She turned back to see Sophie had paused mid-stride, her face now a look of horror. Kate broke out laughing, "Sophie Moore, we need to work on your humor radar."


"Hey, you want to watch a movie tonight?" Sophie asked suddenly, interrupting their study session.

Kate looked up in surprise. "But we haven't finished Gilmet's assignment… and we still have an essay on 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and the subtle symbolism employed by Hemingway's use of Kemmerich's boots..." she said with heavy sarcasm before trailing off as the mundane reality her evening homework became clear.

"Yea, I know… but, what if we just took the night off? I mean, it's not like everyone else doesn't do it all the time," Sophie reasoned. "And neither of those things is due tomorrow, anyway."

Kate's surprise turned into skepticism. In the two months she had been around Sophie, she never knew her to want a night off - that included weekends. Sophie was the epitome of the golden student - sometimes Kate wondered if she was the inspiration for Hermione Granger. Kate was usually the one trying to convince her that it was okay to take a Friday night off, but it was Wednesday, and there was a mountain of work to do. They had drills the next morning, to boot, but Kate sensed there was more to this than Sophie was willing to share.

"All right. Movie night it is," Kate surrendered, eyeing Sophie closely for her reaction.

A strange relief appeared in Sophie's smile that Kate couldn't place. "Thanks, Kate."

"So what's it gonna be? A classic? A horror slasher? A chick flick?"

Sophie pondered for a moment, "Oh, I don't know - you choose."

Kate scowled at this. "Ok, what's going on?"

Sophie looked back at Kate in surprise, "What? Nothing's going on."

"So you're saying you were suddenly struck with the desire to abandon all responsibility in the middle of the week for a movie you hadn't picked? I may not know everything about you, but I think I know you well enough to tell when something's bothering you."

Sophie set down her pen. Kate noted her shoulders were slumped defeatedly, and she wore a strange look of frustration and sadness. She stared at her notebook for a moment while Kate waited for her to speak.

"My dad got laid off of work," Sophie began, "and I'm worried about my gpa."

Kate almost laughed but restrained herself. The sadness for her dad, she got, but the other bit felt entirely out of context. "I don't understand. What do those two have in common?"

"If I don't keep a 4.0, I lose my fellowship," she replied, averting her gaze to hide the tears threatening to fall.

It dawned on Kate that Sophie's studious nature, while part of her personality, was also strained by her fear of losing her scholarship. For a military academy, it was lax about many things, but one thing it held to the highest standard was the class of scholars, and that meant they were expected to perform above and beyond. That, paired with Sophie's financial situation, clarified for Kate for the first time why she took school so much more seriously than their classmates: without the scholarship, she couldn't afford to be here. It was a privilege Kate overlooked coming from a wealthy family.

"Sophie Moore, you are the most dedicated, hardworking, intelligent person I've ever met. AND, one night off to relax will not in any way inhibit your trajectory to succeed. We can put in some extra work tomorrow to make up for it," Kate said, beginning to understand Sophie's motives. If it had been up to Kate, they wouldn't have been studying in the first place - it wasn't really her thing. Her real motive was to be around Sophie, and if that meant suffering through hours of chemical compounds, she was happy to take it on.

Sophie quickly wiped away a tear, keeping her gaze fixed to the textbook in front of her. Kate had also become wise to Sophie's reluctance in talking about finances, and it didn't help that Kate had never lived a day of her life in want. This all made her worried any attempt to console Sophie would be seen as belittling of her worries. Instead, she took the pause to change course.

"All right, I'll narrow the selection down to two options, but you have to make the final selection: The Incredibles or The Mask of Zorro."

Sophie laughed in surprise, "You know, for someone who has it out for Batman, you sure do like your masked heros," Sophie commented, smirking at Kate's contrarian opinion. The reemergence of it was a relief to Kate.

"That actually hadn't even crossed my mind. Elastigirl is just super badass and Zorro is Catherine Zeta-Jones' hottest performance."

"Are you kidding? That's easily Entrapment," Sophie quipped back before her eyes widened in surprise. Kate's eyebrows raised in equal shock, and she didn't try hiding the grin now plastered on her face as Sophie melted into a fit of discomfort.

It had taken less than a week for Kate to out herself to Sophie, and after months as roommates, it wasn't uncommon for Kate to casually comment about women to Sophie. For her part, Sophie always remained tight-lipped in response, simply nodding at Kate's remarks. It was this silence that sparked Kate's curiosity; most people she knew would play along. She'd never met a straight woman who didn't have some opinion about the attraction of other women, but Sophie never played, and that always struck Kate as odd.

"I mean, we can watch Entrapment…" Kate offered with a grin. "I didn't realize you had such strong opinions about Miss Catherine's performances. Although it would be remiss of me not to put Chicago in the running."

"The Incredibles is fine," Sophie replied, unwilling to make eye contact with Kate.

"If you say so."


"Ok, ready?"

"Bring it on, Kane," Sophie responded, her concentration at an all time high. Kate was learning that Sophie had two modes of studying: 'normal' Sophie studied approximately four hours each night while 'midterm exams' Sophie never stopped studying. This was 'midterm exams' Sophie.

"During (blank) only energy is released. Is it alpha decay, beta dec-"

"Gamma decay.!"

"Correct!"

"Next question: Carbon-14 emits an electron and it becomes Nitrogen-14. Which of the following is this an example of? Positron emission, alpha decay, gamma decay, or beta decay?"

Sophie wrinkled her nose in concentration, "Beta decay?"

"That's a guess, but it's a correct guess, so I'll take it. Next question: wh-"

"Hey, you guys studying?"

Kate's attention was broken as she looked up at the now open doorway of the dorm room to see a silhouette filling out the frame.

"Yes, Melvin," Kate answered unenthusiastically. "At least we were until you barged in."

She ignored Sophie's scowl of disapproval.

"Classic Kate Kane - always razzing me," he laughed dismissively, stepping into the room and leaning against Sophie's dresser. Kate rolled her eyes as he directed his attention to Sophie - making his intentions clear.

"So, got room for another study buddy?" he asked Sophie who smiled back at him. Kate noted it wasn't a full, genuine Sophie Moore smile, but it also wasn't completely forced either, and that only made Kate more jealous.

Melvin had been scouting Sophie out since the beginning of term, and Kate didn't like that he came around to compete for Sophie's attention. It just so happened that most of the class knew Kate was out with little fanfare, including Melvin. He was a jock-turned army brat, and, while he was generally nice, had undeniable charm, and was born with the symmetric proportions of a Greek god, Kate couldn't shake a lingering suspicion that Melvin knew she was crushing on Sophie and intentionally made a show in front of Kate to flirt with her.

"Yes, but, oh shoot - you aren't even taking chemistry this semester, are you?" Kate pointed out, feigning disappointment.

"Oh, well, maybe we could switch over to math or literature?" Sophie offered.

Kate cursed Sophie's inherent goodness. Why couldn't she be a selfish prick? Kate wondered to herself. She knew the fault in her thinking was that it probably wouldn't have made her interested in Sophie in the first place, but it didn't stop her from wanting it in the moment. "But Sophie, you just said not even twenty minutes ago that you were most worried about chemistry," she tried reasoning.

"We can come back to it - it's still early in the night," Sophie countered, giving Kate a 'why are you being so rude' look.

Melvin took the opportunity and chimed in, "Literature would be great! How 'bout it Kate?"

Kate realized there was no getting around it. "Yea… literature sounds great," she said, defeated.

Melvin settled himself in and, in a display of zero subtlety, set next to Sophie on her bed, eliminating nearly all personal space between them.

"There's a couch right there, Melvin," Kate pointed out, slowly simmering in annoyance.

"I'm good," he winked back.