So, I had a little extra time on my hands and decided to see if I could write another chapter so I did. 2 chapters in one day! I wanted to just tell you right now that this story will spend a lot of time in the past before it gets to the present with a few present moments in between, so don't expect to see 2026 Fitz and Olivia too much just yet. Also, you will see that this chapter takes place 2 months after the events of chapter 3 and that things might be a little more different than you hoped, but our couple will find their way to each other eventually ; ). Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Expect the Unexpected
Fitz wakes up to the September sun shining in his face through his window and his alarm blaring out one of his favorite songs and as soon as he comes to, he lets out an annoyed groan as he remembers what day it is. He climbs out of his mess of sheets and sees a black bra on the floor. He guesses that whatever her name is from the bar must've left during the night or in the early morning, which he's grateful for because for some reason the last couple of girls had had a hard time leaving when need be. He heads to the bathroom, taking in his extra disheveled appearance in the mirror and curses Harrison, his adoptive brother, for convincing him to go clubbing the night before one of the most important days of his life.
He takes a shower, switching between hot and cold water to help him get out of his groggy hungover state. He puts on a blue dress shirt with some beige trousers and a pair of leather shoes. He had always been more of a t-shirt and jeans guy but his new job required otherwise.
He's in his kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal when he gets a call from Harrison. "Good morning, Fitzy!" he greets in a chipper tone.
"You're a son of a bitch," Fitz tells him, partially meaning it.
"Come on, bro, getting ready for the worst day of your life can't really be that bad."
"Well, maybe it wouldn't suck so much if I wasn't still half hungover," Fitz says, hanging his throbbing head in his hands.
He hears Harrison laugh on the other end, making Fitz wish he was there so that he could punch his guts out. "Speaking of that, was your girl any good? With the way she was working it on that dance floor, she was probably super freaky in bed, too," Harrison says, not even trying to hide the giddiness in his voice.
"Uh…yeah, man, super freaky. I hit that so hard," Fitz says, telling Harrison what he wants to hear. Honestly, he didn't even remember the night before. He never did. For the past two months he had been getting himself blackout drunk at every bar so that when he got laid, he would feel the satisfaction in the heat of the moment but he didn't want to remember anything the next morning. He didn't even want to remember the faces of the girls he slept with. He just wanted the sex because it made him feel better. During sex, he was able to temporarily forget about the love he left in Hawaii two months ago.
"That's what I like to hear. Well, I gotta go. Mom is having an early morning pie-crusting crisis and she needs me."
"Alright, see ya. And wish me luck."
"Yeah, you're gonna need it for dealing with those snotty kids. If they're anything like how I was in high school, you are in trouble."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Bye."
"Bye, teach!"
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"Matt, hurry the hell up! Last time I saw you, you weren't a girl so why are you spending an hour in the bathroom?" Olivia yells to her brother from downstairs in the kitchen. They were running late already and Olivia didn't want to get a tardy on her first day back.
"Really, Dad, we need to go. I don't want to be late either," says her brother Simon, the only one out of the sausage clan that she actually got along with. Maybe it was the fact that they were twins and understood each on some weird molecular level or maybe it was because he just wasn't like her other three brothers. While they were loud, obnoxious, dumbass jerks in her book, Simon was reserved, super intelligent, wise beyond his years, and he just understood certain things. However, he was incredibly socially inept and a bit of a dork which sometimes made him an easy target for bullies but since he was such a sweetheart most people stood up for him, the first of them being her.
"Matt, come on!" Their dad yells, agreeing with her and Simon. "You're making your brother and sister late and I still have to drop Xavier off at the junior high but I want to make sure you're all out of here first."
"Screw them!" Matthew yells back. "They can wait."
Eli's face twists into an angry expression. "Watch the language, Matt. If you're not down here in five minutes, I'm letting them leave without you."
"You know, technically it's not even legal for someone under eighteen to drive around other passengers who are also under eighteen," Simon tells their father. Olivia smiles and giving Eli a look, nodding in agreement with her brother.
Eli frowns at this. "Shut up, Simon, and both of you wipe those grins off of your faces. You'll both be eighteen in four months anyway."
"Three," Olivia and Simon say at the same time.
"That's what I meant," Eli says nonchalantly, pouring a glass of orange juice.
13 year old Xavier and Rebecca come down from the stairs, probably laughing about something stupid. Rebecca goes over to Eli and he takes her in his arms as they exchange a slow kiss. Olivia rolls her eyes at this display of affection, grabbing a toasted bagel and slathering it with jelly.
"So, are you guys ready for your first day back?" she asks, beaming at them with that too perfect of a smile of hers. "Simon and Liv, you guys are seniors now. How does that feel?"
"It feels great," Simon answers, knowing his sister wouldn't. "Though I think that I'm more excited for college next year. MIT here I come…" He says with a proud smile on his face.
Rebecca smiles along with him. "Any school would be lucky to have you, Simon. How about you, Liv? Are you ready for senior year?"
Olivia gives her a long mean look before grabbing her schoolbag and her toast and saying evenly, "I'll be waiting in the car." With that, she takes the keys from Simon, turns around and walks out the door, leaving the kitchen in an uncomfortable silence.
She sits in the passenger seat of her and Simon's 2000 silver Ford Taurus and turns on the radio to her favorite station, hoping to focus her thoughts and keep them off of freakin' Rebecca and the awkward scene she just caused. She knew that she was being a bitch but she didn't care—she wasn't ready to warm up to Rebecca like everything was fine and dandy and treat her like she was just part of the family like her brothers had.
Within the next two minutes, she sees Simon and Matt exiting the house and starting towards the car. "Finally," she mutters as Matt hops in the back and Simon slides into the driver seat, starting the car and taking off down the street.
They ride silently for the first fifteen minutes as Olivia looks out the window, taking in her familiar route to the school. She glances in the rearview mirror and sees Matt with his eyes closed as he bobs his head to the music in his headphones. He was like her in the sense that he still put on his headphones even when there was already music playing in the car. Stubborn as hell.
"Becca says that your skirt is too high," Simon says out of nowhere.
Olivia rolls her eyes and snorts at this, muttering, "Screw her. I'll wear it however I want."
He shakes his head at her. "I agree with her. You don't realize how many guys stare at your ass whenever you walk by and then make demeaning comments about you because of it."
"They would still do it no matter what."
"But you're giving them even more of a reason to."
"When did you turn into my mom?" She says sardonically.
Simon sighs, giving up as they turn into the school parking lot.
"Fine," Olivia tells him, hating the frown on his face. "I'll lower it. Happy?"
His mouth cracks in a small smile. "Yeah. I just care about you, Livs, I'm not trying to play the parent here for no good reason."
"I know, Si. And thanks for caring," she says, giving him a slight smile.
"Okay…is this Dr. Phil episode over now? 'Cause I'd really like for you to open the door so I can get out of here," Matt says from behind them.
They turn around and glare at him, saying, "Shut up, Matt."
Simon unlocks the car and they all get out, parting ways.
As Olivia goes through the halls, she takes in the many familiar faces of kids she's known since middle school and a few of new faces, not including the freshmen.
She takes a quick three minutes to set up her new locker and when she's finishing, she hears a female voice say in a sing-songy tone from behind her, "Heeeey, Livia."
She turns around to see her friend, Abby smiling back at her.
"Hey!" Olivia exclaims, reaching out to hug her.
"Hey, you bitch, was it really that difficult to call once in a while?" Abby asks in that playfully sassy way of hers.
Olivia laughs but does feel guilty for not interacting with her as much. "I'm sorry, I was just really busy. A lot happened this summer," she says, thinking about the mystery man who she had shared a short summer romance with.
They hear the bell ring for them to go to class. Olivia closes her locker as Abby hooks her arm through Olivia's and they start towards their class. "Mmhmm…well, you'll have to tell me all about it at lunch."
"Yeah, okay." They continue down the hall, passing a group of seniors on the football team. One of the jocks, the one she had quite a history with, flashes her a charming, teeth-filled smile and says suavely, "Hey, Olivia."
She gives him a polite smile. "Hi, Edison." He seems surprised by her somewhat formal greeting to him but he shrugs it off, continuing down the hall.
"What's up with you and Davis?" Abby asks.
Olivia tries to play it off. "Nothing. I've just hung out with him and some of his crowd at a few parties—that's all." Abby nods acceptingly, but Olivia knows that what she said couldn't be further from the truth.
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The day goes by painfully slow as her teachers go over class guidelines and syllabuses in every class, boring her out of her mind. In the last period of the day, Olivia takes a seat in the middle of her English class, glad that she's finally made it to the end of her first day, even though she still has practice for the swim team afterwards. She looks around the classroom, making eye contact with Simon, who's with his geeky friends, and waving at him as he returns the gesture. She had only signed up for the AP class because Abby didn't want to do it alone but now Abby was nowhere to be seen and Olivia was almost positive that she had dropped the class at the last minute. Now, she was going to make a fool of herself all by herself.
As she's taking out her essay on To Kill A Mockingbird, she hears a male voice say, "Hey."
She looks up to see a boy, smiling back at her as he takes the seat next to her. He's extremely handsome with Asian features mixed in with sandy blonde hair and baby blue eyes, though they were nothing compared to the ones she had spent every night since July dreaming about.
"Hey…" she says, not really sure what he wants from her.
"This seat isn't taken, is it?"
"Um, no, it's not…"
"Good. You seem like the perfect person to next to."
She quirks an eyebrow at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, I didn't mean that rudely. I meant, you seem smart and believe me when I say that I'm going to need someone smart to copy homework from and eventually cheat off of during tests that I won't study for—and I know that you're thinking that Asians are supposed to be geniuses or something but I didn't inherit that gene and while I know that there are more smart people in this class, you seem to be one of the cool ones."
She stares back him, trying to decide whether or not to peg him as eccentric or just someone with a different sense of humor.
"I'm sorry—that was me trying to funny but I guess I really am just as socially inept as I thought."
She smiles. "No, it's fine, I got your humor, but I was just trying to figure out if you were a weirdo or not."
"Oh, believe me, I'm all kinds of weird. It's hard to not seem that way when the number of countries you've visited outweigh the ones that you haven't been to. I'm like an encyclopedia of cultures up in here. I feel like a misfit at almost every school I attend."
"You've travelled around the world? That's cool. Where have you been?" Before he can answer her, the bell to begin class rings.
"Perhaps another time," he says and she nods. He sticks out his hand to her. "My name is Kenny, by the way."
She smiles pleasantly at him and takes his hand, shaking it. "Olivia."
They turn towards the front of the classroom but as soon as Olivia sees who the teacher is, all the breath is knocked out of her.
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Fitz had had a long day and was ready to go home as soon as his last class was over. He wasn't sure he'd be able to handle being a high school teacher for more than a month, much less the four months that he still had left, but this was a good opportunity and he had basically been given the job so he just had to suck it up. It's just that these kids were irritating the hell out of him because they wouldn't stop talking. He had to hold himself back from shouting 'shut the hell up' at the top of his lungs. He barely made it through the class syllabus in all his periods because he had to stop every five seconds to tell some disrespectful kid to keep his mouth shut. It didn't help that he was extra drained from the hangover he had that morning. He just hoped that this last class wouldn't give him crap. One more class, just one more.
This last class is pretty small and that's when he remembers that it's the AP English class. Hopefully they would be different.
He stands in front of the whiteboard and points to his name for the fifth time that day. "Hello, everyone, my name is Mr. Grant. I will be your temporary teacher until your real teacher comes back from her maternity leave."
He pauses, noticing that the class is dead quiet and are all patiently looking back at him, waiting for him to proceed. Maybe they were just as tired as he was. I hope they stay this way.
"Okay…I'm going to take roll now, uh, if you're here just say 'here', I guess." He starts to read off names, glancing up at each kid every time they respond to get a visual of everyone. He would be with these kids for the next four months, so he might as well start matching names to the faces now.
"Simon Pope," he calls out and a familiar-looking boy says 'here', slightly raising his hand. Why did he look so familiar? He shrugs the thought away and continues with the list.
"Olivia Pope." Hmm, siblings. He looks up and drops his clipboard the moment he sees who the name belongs to. The second they make eye contact, the wind is knocked out of him as all of the moments they spent together months ago come rushing back to him. He continues to just stare back at her, frozen in place until she breaks eye contact, gazing down, looking just as flustered as him.
"Uh, Mr. Grant…are you okay?" Simon asks as the whole class looks back and forth between him and his line of vision.
He literally shakes himself out the trance and picks up his clipboard. "Y-yeah. I'm—I'm perfectly fine. Sorry about that." He quickly resumes reading down the list, now not looking up from the board, afraid that the same thing that just happened will occur again.
He quickly goes over the class syllabus and talks a little about To Kill A Mockingbird, trying to keep his mind off of the fact that her eyes have been on and off him for the past forty minutes. The bell effectively ending the school day sounds like a hallelujah to Fitz, giving him time to gather his thoughts as the class files out. He sparingly watches Olivia as she hurriedly gathers her things but no matter how hard she tries, she ends up being the last one in the classroom. He stares at her fully now, unable to tear his eyes away from her anymore. She still refuses to look at him as she slings her bag over her shoulder, ready to bolt. He walks over to her blocking her way, standing a few feet in front of her.
"Olivia," he says softly, loving the sound of her name on his lips. He smiles. "Olivia. It fits you perfectly."
She keeps her eyes away from his but her gaze seems to be wavering as she seems to be deciding to look at him. "Hey, it's okay. Please just look at me."
He reaches out his hand to her cheek and she flinches at his touch but slowly relaxes at the familiar feeling. She finally meets his gaze and says shakily, "Fitz."
He gives her small smile. "Hi."
"H-hi."
And there we have it. I know some of you may dislike the whole student-teacher idea since so many other stories are already doing that but it won't be like this for the whole story, maybe just for a quarter of it. Anyway, Olitz is again reunited, but not in the way either of them would've ever thought of. What will they do now? Also, what do you think of Liv's family? We'll learn more about Fitz's unique family in due time. Other thoughts? Thanks for reading!