Chapter 3:

Enjolras stood at the front of the classroom with his mouth hanging open, staring at Lucie who was sitting at her desk with her arms crossed, grinning smugly (having just high fived Musichetta).

"Hey, Enj" Grantaire shouted, "might wanna close your mouth before you start letting in flies!" He then looked over to Lucie, "Way to go, Lucie, you're the first person to silence our fearless leader in history."

"I do my best," Lucie grinned as she stood up and took a bow.

Combeferre stood up and announced, "If anyone has a class at 1:00, you should probably leave now."

Marius, Bahorel, and Bossuet all stood up to leave at the same time.

"Contract interpretation?" Bahorel asked.

Marius and Bossuet both nodded in response.

"Alright let's go," Bahorel said more excitedly.

"Shit!" Grantaire said louder than he wanted to, "What time is it Ferre?"

"12:45, why?" Combeferre responded.

"My drawing class started 15 minutes ago that's why," Grantaire sighed, "I gotta go, see you guys at the next meeting."

"Joly, we have to go, too," Combeferre said placing a hand on his shoulder, "anatomy."

"Thanks, Ferre," Joly said jumping out of his seat and almost tripping over the leg of the desk, "almost forgot."

"See you back in the dorm, Lucie," Ferre called over his shoulder as they left.

"I'm out, too, Enj," Jehan said, "Poetry class! Sounds fun, hope I won't need to write any though."

"What do you mean, Jehan?" Enjolras asked, "You're great at writing poetry."

"So everyone else says," Jehan responded, "try telling that to my brain, it seems to disagree."

"I have to go practice," Musichetta said as she got up, "Maybe we can get dinner later, Lu?"

"Sure, that would be great," Lucie smiled.

Feuilly was the next to stand up, "Well, I have to go work on a project. I know right? First day of the semester and I'm assigned an art project due Friday," he was still muttering to himself as he walked out of the classroom.

Courfeyrac practically ran out of the room after checking his schedule. He barely even had time to say, "Math class; gotta go!"

That left Lucie and Enjolras alone in the classroom.

"Do you know if there's a class in here before 2?" Lucie asked.

"I don't think so," Enjolras replied, "I was going to just stay here and read."

"Really?" Lucie asked, "Me too."

Lucie and Enjolras both went into their backpacks and pulled out the book they were reading. As it turns out, they were reading the same book, A Lion in the Whitehouse, a biography of Teddy Roosevelt.

Lucie looked at Enjolras (who hadn't yet noticed they were reading the same book) for a minute before saying, "Oh yeah, I forgot that you're a history major."

Enjolras looked up from his book, confused, "You like Teddy Roosevelt, too?"

"Of course I do," she said, "He was the last good Republican president."

"What about Regan?" Enjolras asked laughing and raising an eyebrow.

"He was alright until he was too senile to do his job. I honestly don't understand the hype about him," Lucie said.

Enjolras smiled, "Yeah," he agreed, "neither do I."

Lucie looked back down at her book and continued reading. Enjolras did the same. An hour of silence later, there were students filing into the classroom.

Lucie looked over at Enj, who shrugged his shoulders in response. The two of them collected their things and left the classroom.

After a few minutes of them walking in silence, Lucie began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Enjolras asked.

"Can you imagine how confused they were when they got to their classroom and saw you sitting at the professor's desk and me sitting in the front row, both reading the same book?" she managed to get out through her hysterical laughter.

Enjolras started to laugh too, "It must have been priceless. They were probably so confused. They were all thinking 'Only one person signed up for this class? What kind of class is this? Why Teddy Roosevelt?' and we just made it worse by not explaining ourselves before leaving!"

Lucie could barely breathe, "Oh my god! 'Why aren't they talking? Why aren't they discussing the book? Do they just sit here in silence? Why is the professor so young?' they must have had so many questions."

After the two of them had caught their breath, Enjolras broke the silence, "Lucie, I'm sorry for my behavior during the meeting. It was wrong of me to assume that you weren't there for the right reasons. It was sexist and arrogant of me, and I apologize."

"It's alright," she responded. After pausing for a moment she said, "I have to get to class."

"What class?" Enjolras asked.

"Art history," Lucie replied.

"Me too," Enjolras said, "I'll walk with you—that is—if you don't mind."

"I don't mind," Lucie said, smiling.

They got to class on time, and it turns out it was the most boring class either of them had ever taken.

After class, Lucie asked Enjolras, "Was it just me, or was that horribly boring?"

"It wasn't you," Enjolras said, "That was terrible."

"This is not art history, this is analyzing art in chronological order," she said distraught, "I thought this was going to be art throughout history, you know like learning about the artists and stuff, almost like in world history in high school. I learned the Renaissance's history and all the important people and then we looked at their paintings and talked about them without analyzing them."

"I know what you mean, but I need this class, and being a history content major, so do you," Enjolras groaned.

"It's only one semester, how bad can it be?" Lucie said, trying to remain optimistic.

"We should probably exchange cellphone numbers, just in case one of us needs to miss class," Enjolras suggested.

"Yeah, good idea," Lucie said before pulling out her cellphone.

They exchanged numbers and went back to their dorms.

When Lucie walked into her room, Combeferre was already there.

"So," Combeferre asked, "how'd it go with Enjolras after Joly and I left?"

"Not bad," Lucie replied, "We were actually alone in there after everyone else left. We just sat there and read a book, but hey, we didn't kill each other."

"Really?" Combeferre said.

"Yeah, and it turns out, we're in the same art history class, and we exchanged numbers in case one of us misses class."

"So you guys are like BFFs now?"

"No, but he apologized for his behavior, and we're going to coexist peacefully."

"Wow, you got an apology out of Enj. He must really like you," Combeferre said almost in shock.

"You think he likes me?" Lucie asked.

"Well," Combeferre explained, "he apologized to you, and he hates admitting he's wrong. Also, did you see the way he was looking at you during that meeting?"

"What do you mean 'the way he was looking at me'?" Lucie asked.

"Lucie, he was staring at you every chance he got once he heard you like history. I can only imagine his interest increased even more when he heard you like reading."

"You really think so, Ferre?"

"Why, do you like him?" Combeferre asked.

Lucie blushed, "No, it's just no one has ever really liked me before."

"Lucie Pontmercy, you are a terrible liar," Combeferre said.

"Oh, shut up!" Lucie yelled at him, "But seriously, Ferre, do you think he could…you know?"

"Yes, Lucie, I think he really does like you. I've known Enjolras a long long time and I know when he likes someone."

Lucie blushed again and Ferre laughed at her.

"I'm going to dinner with Chetta, are you coming?" Lucie asked Ferre.

"Yeah, let's go."

"I'll see if Marius and Courf want to join us. I know I'm not the only one of us who happens to maybe like someone."

It was Ferre's turn to blush now, "I hate you."

"You don't and you know it."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Do not tell anyone about Enjolras, please Combeferre," Lucie said as they were walking out of the room.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Lucie," Ferre responded.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful.

The next morning, when Lucie woke up there was a little envelope slid under their door with one word written across it.

"Combeferre"