Kid peered at his study guide, but the light glancing off the water made it hard to read. On the other side of a table holding a stack of books and an elegant pitcher of fresh lemonade, Maka sifted through perfectly organized, highlighted and reference-tabbed notebooks. Liz said that only a pair of true dorks would sit by the pool on a gorgeous spring day and study. Kid reminded her that Lord Death had promised to ground her for the rest of her life if she flunked one more test. She'd called him a buzzkill, announced that she was going to study in the library like a real scholar, and stomped off in a huff. Kid was cheered by the thought of how ridiculous she must look while reviewing Modern Poetry in a purple bikini.

The wind ruffled his papers and brought him back to task. He shaded the study guide with his hand.

"Okay," he asked, "Which two countries compromise what used to be known as Yugoslavia?"

"Bosnia and Herzegovina" came Maka's prompt reply.

Kid frowned.

"Is that how you pronounce Herzegovina?" he asked.

She leaned back in her deck chair and took a sip of her lemonade.

"How should I know?"

"Let's look it up."

"We'll do it later." Maka made a careful note to ask Lord Death how the word was pronounced. He would know.

"My turn," she said, picking up their Physics textbook. Kid groaned.

"You know I hate physics."

His girlfriend gave him a "don't-mess-with-me look over the top of the book.

"Yes, I do, which is why you need to study it."

"It doesn't even apply to me." he protested

"What about gravity?" Gravity applies to you."

"Most of the time." Kid conceded, "But only when I want it to." he added smugly, "Ditto the conservation of mass-energy and most of the laws of thermodynamics."

Maka reached over and smacked him on the arm.

"Smartass. Exams are in three days and you need to know this, even if you flout every rule of the natural world."

Kid caught her hand and held it against his chest.

"You know what we really need to brush up on?" he asked, putting down his notes and sliding over onto her chair.

"What?"

"The law of attraction. "

"Nice try," she giggled, "But we're studying now. Besides quantum chemistry and chemical thermodynamics have pretty much replaced that law. Work on those instead ."

Kid leaned in and kissed her neck. Her sunscreen didn't taste all that good, but he didn't let that stop him.

"What about the theory of manifestation?" he whispered into her ear, "The theory that I can make something physical happen just by thinking about it?"

He slipped a finger under the strap on her swimsuit, making it perfectly clear what kind of physical he was thinking about manifesting. Maka laughed harder and pushed him off of her.

"That's not even a real thing, Slacker Boy. And no physical manifestation for you until you get an A on this practice test. I can't believe you're trying to use pseudoscience to get out of studying. Sex, yes, but pseudoscience?"

"It was worth a try," he grinned, hopping back into his own place and picking up his pencil, "But it's not pseudoscience, by the way."

Maka looked at him askance,"How do you figure that? It's a completely insane, utterly false concept. Have you got sunstroke?"

He shot her a challenging smirk as he stood.

"Thought..." he announced, pointing to his head. Then he gestured and purple light flashed across the pool, accompanied by billowing black smoke.

"...And physical manifestation" Kid finished, indicating the large, framed mirror now floating just above the water. "I told you the laws of physics don't apply to me."

"Showoff." Maka snorted, "You're kind of right but you're still a showoff."

"This is something you could use some study on," he told her, pulling her to her feet, "We'll have a little Reaper test here. I put the mirror there...now you make it go away."

"I suck at this," she whined. Using the bit of Kid's soul that was blended with hers, Maka had had decent success using Reaper magic to power up a resonance. She was also getting pretty good at opening a portal with an existing mirror, but creating objects out of thin air and then making them disappear had, so far, eluded her.

She copied his movements, but was only able to produce a weak, pale and short-lived shimmer of energy. The mirror rocked a little but remained perfectly solid.

Kid got behind her and put his arms over hers. He opened a resonance link and let his power course through her.

"See? Like this," he said, summoning up the appropriate energy and setting it loose through their entwined fingers. The mirror disappeared as dramatically as it had entered.

"Ugh," Maka exclaimed, shaking her wrists, "My hands itch."

Kid rubbed them for her.

"The more you practice, the less that'll happen." he told her in a taunting fake-professor voice, "You've been neglecting your studies, Miss Albarn. The law of attraction: you need to study, study, study it."

Without warning Maka hipchecked him and sent him flying into the pool.

"What was that for?" he sputtered, surfacing and clawing his wet hair out of his eyes.

"A demonstration of Newton's First Law of Motion. An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by net force." she replied, jumping into the cool water and embracing him, "Plus it's really freaking hot out here. Now give me another review on the Law of Attraction.""

Five minutes later Liz, annoyed by their splashing and shrieking, appeared on the terrace.

"Nice," she called, "You pick on me for not studying and the minute I turn my back you go make out in the pool!"

She didn't believe them when they told her they were studying physics.