I'm glad you guys are liking it so far! I'll be sure to update as fast as I can. I totally BS'd the whole "update on Friday" because, let's be serious. I'm me. I'm never gonna be able to hold up to that. xD

However, I will be posting the cover photo to this story soon and I hope you guys will like it when it shows up. It's my own artwork and I work very hard on it so make sure to leave a little something about it. Makes me happy.

About the songs: I only take songs that you have written. I use to do song fics but it's against the rules to use other musical lyrics from real life artists or some whacky chiz. So I stopped doing song fics entirely and I take requests from songs that other writers on this site have written so if you write a song, send me a PM and I'll be sure to put it in with your name. You're also in the credits at the end. You can look at my other Adventure Time fics for more examples. Sorry if I was unclear. :3

Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time but I do own the story, Love Like This.

They continued to walk down the campus until they reached the local cafe beside the small furniture store that students went to for new pieces for their dorms or rooms. Marshall led the way inside the cafe and they all took a seat in a booth near the window. A waitress came over and took their drink orders. Fionna ordered hot chocolate with whipped cream, Marshall Lee ordered a cappuccino, Gumball ordered a regular decaf coffee with cream and sugar, and Cake ordered a small frappucino with whipped cream. The waitress bounced away, winking at both Marshall and Gumball. Gumball blushed bashfully but Marshall sent her a wink right back. The waitress blushed, not expecting that from him, but walked away with a slight bounce in her step.

"Do you do that to everyone?" Fionna asked him.

"Every girl," he said slyly, winking at her too. But Fionna didn't buy it. He snickered and leaned back in his seat. "Aw, Fionna. Don't you love me yet?"

"No," Fionna said. "And I don't think I will anytime soon, you player."

He feigned hurt. "Oh! My poor little heart!"

Cake and Gumball laughed as he hunched over in his seat, pretending to cry. Fionna rolled her eyes but smiled a little in spite of herself. He started to laugh into his arms and his head popped back up, grinning a toothy smile at Fionna. It was then she noticed that his two top canine teeth were a little longer than they should be. They were like fangs and it gave him the appearance of a vampire. It almost made him seem cooler. The waitress came back with their drinks and then asked them for their food orders. The cafe served up plenty of varieties of food but tended to stick to cafe styles of food. Cake got a slice of carrot cake, not really caring whether or not that was an actual lunch. Fionna decided on a BLTA sandwich. Marshall Lee got a hot dog that was surprisingly on the menu. And Gumball ordered a chicken salad.

They spent their time waiting by talking about their plans for this semester. It started to get a little out of hand, in Fionna's eyes, as Marshall brought up the more sexual part of his plan.

"I think I might go to one of those parties that dude, ah, what was his name? Well, whatever his name is, he threw an awesome blind date party where it was all dark and you could get with whoever you wanted and-," Marshall began but he noticed the sour looks on his three companions faces. "Oh, come on, Bubba. I know you're a virgin but you gotta give it up before senior year," Marshall said.

"That's a stupid thing to say, you pervert," Gumball said, fiddling with his sweater's sleeve. "I'm not a moron, like you, so I didn't give it up in high school, like you. I'm waiting for the perfect person."

"Pussy," Marshall Lee said. Gumball glared at him. "And, Cake! You and Mocro-."

"Shut your face, Marshall," Cake said. "This isn't appropriate conversation and I'm not going to reveal my sex life to-."

"How about you, Fionna?" Marshall said, eyeing her body in a more appreciative way than LSP had done an hour previously. "With a body and face like that, I'm sure you've been able to score one or two lucky guys in your high school days."

"No... I haven't," Fionna said.

"Really?" Marshall said, sounding genuinely shocked. "So... you're a virgin?"

She nodded, not feeling ashamed in the slightest. She was actually proud of herself for lasting this long. Cake had told her it was something worth waiting for. And she would know since she and Mocro had done it senior year of high school.

"It's not pleasant, your first time," Cake had said after Fionna had asked her. "Wait for the right person to come along. Even though I love Mocro with all my heart, I should have waited until I was a little older."

Fionna took Cake's words to heart and kept them as guidance throughout her junior and senior year of high school since everyone was trying to get rid of it back then and it horrified Fionna that there were really some mega morons like that. And she was going to continue this until she graduated or found the one.

"Why?" Marshall asked incredulously.

"I dunno," she shrugged, looking around awkwardly. The food came to the table but Marshall kept staring at Fionna as everyone else dug into their lunch.

"Please tell me you actually kissed a boy before," Marshall said.

"Does the second grade count?" Fionna said.

"No."

"Then I guess I'm still, uh, innocent." She laughed a little and Cake snorted into her whipped cream.

"But... you're good looking," Marshall said.

"Let it go," Gumball warned. "You don't know what Fionna was-."

"You're really, really attractive," Marshall said, ignoring Gumball's protests.

Fionna's face flushed. "Oh, thanks. But I've never had a lot of luck with guys I've crushed on. Hanging out with them and being buds is one thing but asking them out or admitting my crush is a whole different story."

"But I don't understand."

"Marshall Lee Abadeer!" Cake hissed. "Drop the goddamn subject! Not everyone can give it up as easily as you have!"

"I don't see what the big deal is," Fionna said, picking at her sandwich.

"It's not a big deal," Gumball assured her. "Marshall Lee is just used to everyone being... uh... never mind."

"Sexually active?" Cake supplied.

"Yes. That." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat before addressing Fionna. "Just ignore him. Quite frankly, I think you're very wise not to give it up so easily or try and get rid of it so fast," Gumball said. "Despite its admirable education and campus and whatnot, AAA's students are pretty sleazy when it comes to off campus activities."

"Try and avoid those as best as you can," Cake warned Fionna. "They aren't pretty."

"Some of them are okay," Marshall said defensively.

"Yours are fun," Cake said. "You only invite friends and you don't always have people dry-humping in the corners like some parties do." Fionna giggled and Gumball sighed with a smile while shaking his head. "Plus Gumball is there to keep things in check."

Marshall pursed his lips and finally dove into his food. Fionna observed them and realized something that shocked her. Not only did they know Cake and hung out with her but that meant Fionna was making some friends on the first day. Cake would never let Fionna be alone in any situation and always made sure they had the same friends so they could watch each others backs. These two boys, Mocro, and possibly others were going to be Fionna's newest friends.

And, somehow, she was okay with that.

After lunch, Gumball kindly paid the bill and they left the cafe. They still had about ten minutes until they scattered to class. Cake would be going to her animal care class, Gumball to his chemistry class, Marshall to his motor and small engines class, and Fionna would be heading over to her gymnastics class. They spent their remaining minutes in the quad, talking again and steering clear of the "Fionna's a virgin" topic that Marshall Lee was still so confused by. It really started to make Fionna self conscious about her choices. Wasn't it a good thing to wait until you're ready? And why was it suddenly such a big deal to Marshall? He barely knew her so what did he care?

Someone tapped Marshall on the shoulder and cleared their throat. They all looked up from where they were sitting on the ground and saw Ashley glaring down at her boyfriend.

"I was calling your name," she said to him, wedging a seat for herself between Marshall and Fionna. "Why didn't you turn around?"

"I didn't hear you," Marshall said so casually that Fionna almost believed him.

"Bullshit." Apparently, Ashley didn't.

"Can I spend one lunch without you?" Marshall growled. "With my friends?"

"You're calling her a friend now?" Ashley said, jabbing a thumb at Fionna and talking about her as if she wasn't there.

"Yeah. So what?"

"Marshall Lee..."

And that seemed to be all she had to say. Marshall's defiant face evaporated and he slid an arm around her waist.

"Sorry, Baby. Just playing around is all," he muttered, giving her a smile.

Fionna stared at them, absolutely confused. She looked at Gumball for an explanation but he just shook his head at her. What just happened? One minute Marshall Lee was standing up to Ashley and the next, bam!, he was apologizing to her for speaking his mind. What game was this chick playing? The other three took Ashley's appearance as a signal to head to class. Cake jumped up, followed by Gumball and Fionna. They bid the couple goodbye as Ashley started to kiss Marshall forcefully. Cake rushed over to building seven, Gumball over to building two, and Fionna running to the gym.

The locker room wasn't what Fionna expected it to look like. In her high school the lockers were old and rusting, some falling off the hinges. The showers, dirty and also rusty, were never used by any of the girls unless they were a part of swim team and had to wash off the chlorine. The bathroom was missing tiles and the doors to the stalls were taken off. The wooden benches that ran along the middle of the lockers were so old that several girls got splinters on their legs when they sat. But this locker room was different.

The showers were clean and polished and several puddles were on the floor indicating that girls actually used them after class. The lockers looked brand new and were in the school's pale yellow color. The lights above the lockers gave them a glow which made the entire room glisten. The floor beneath Fionna's feet was gum-wad free and clean, smooth tiled. The benches had new wood that was polished to perfection, not a splinter in sight. The bathroom had four stalls, one of them being a handicap stall, and all of the doors were there. The tiled floor was all together and the sinks were sparkly clean. Fionna's jaw dropped at the sight of it. This school certainly took care of itself.

She checked her locker assignment on the door and walked over to it with her own personal lock. She tugged open her locker and smiled at its cleanliness. She changed into her gymnastics team shirt and shorts and tugging on her sneakers before hanging her backpack on one of the hinges and neatly folding her clothes and shutting the door. She locked it tight and proceeded into the gym where other girls and boys were waiting for their coach. Their season didn't start until mid-January but they had a lot of practicing to do before the end of this semester.

A door at the end of the gym opened and a tall woman with orange hair strode over to them.

"Good afternoon, everyone," she said.

"Afternoon." "Hi!" "Hey." "Good afternoon."

"To you new kids, I'm going to be your coach for the rest of the year," she said. "Coach Legend. But you can call me Becky."

"Weren't you an Olympic gold medalist?" a kid asked in the back of the group.

"I certainly was," Becky said.

Fionna was so giddy with a fan-girlish excitement. She was actually meeting her hero for the very fist time and was going to be taught by her! Fionna was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, a bright smile on her face. Becky noticed this and Fionna felt herself go red in the face but she couldn't stop smiling. But Becky also smiled.

"I'm glad to see you're ready for this," she said to Fionna. "What's your name? I don't think you were on my team last year."

"I'm Fionna Mertens," Fionna squeaked, so honored to be spoken to by Becky.

Becky flipped through her clipboard and smiled. "I see you were quite the little athlete in your high school career. Are you going to do anymore sports this year?"

"Maybe. Basketball always seemed fun and I'm not too shabby at baseball," Fionna said honestly.

"Well I hope so. Glad to have you on the team, Mertens," Becky said.

Fionna could have died right then and there. But she was able to keep her cool and calmed down as they began to run drills. Becky kept them on their toes, running them around the gym to get them into the groove of the semester's curriculum. Afterwards, Fionna's forehead was shining with sweat and her body was aching in places that she didn't think should ache. Becky soon released them to their locker rooms and Fionna dashed off with the other girls to shower off their stink and sweat. Fionna put her hair up in a bun, her wet bangs dangling in front of her eyes. Fionna changed into her clothes and hitched her bag on her shoulder, slamming and locking her locker behind her before walking out of the room. She waved goodbye to some girls that were smiling at her. They waved back and one complimented Fionna on her splits. Thanking them, Fionna continued her way back to the quad. Suddenly, two boys appeared on each side of her body and they beamed at her.

Both of them had been in the gym but they weren't on the gymnastics team. They were on the wrestling team. Their group was on the other side of the gym while Fionna's team was opposite.

"Hello," one said. He had striking blonde hair and green eyes. He talked slow and his arms were huge. "You are Fionna Mertens?"

"Yes. Who are you?" Fionna asked politely.

"Samson Berk but my friends call me Samson Strong," the boy said, a slack grin on his big face. "And this is Andrew Berrett. But he's got big muscles so-."

"You can call me Muscle Prince. That's my wrestling name," the other boy said. His voice was incredibly deep but his face was kind. He was also large in build like Samson. "You're very athletic, Fionna."

"Oh, thank you," Fionna said with a smile. "You guys are pretty badass too."

Samson laughed a warm laugh and Andrew grinned a toothy grin.

"You're also in my singing class," said Samson.

"You can sing?" Andrew said, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm just as surprised as you are," Samson said, making Fionna giggle. "Do you like to fight, Fionna?" Samson asked.

"Heck, yes!" Fionna said. "For fun of course but I've always turned out on top."

Andrew turned to Fionna. "We like girls who are tough. We have a fight club after school every other Friday. You should join up."

"Sounds fun," Fionna said. "You guys are in what grade?"

"Oh, we're both in our sophomore year," Andrew said. "We started the club last year and it's pretty popular."

"I'd love to. Thanks a lot," Fionna said.

They had reached the outside of the gymnasium and the two boys waved her goodbye before walking away to their friends on the other side of the campus. Fionna made her way down the paved path through the quad until she heard someone call her name. Fionna turned her head and saw Cake running over, waving happily, her bag bouncing on her curvy hips. Mocro was walking behind her, listening to whatever Gumball was talking about.

Cake launched herself onto her sister and started giggling.

"Dude! How was your first day?" Cake squealed.

"It was great," Fionna admitted, Cake's laughter becoming contagious. "I made a lot of new friends, thanks to you."

"Girl, you did that on your own," Cake insisted. "You don't have to hang out with Gumball and Marshall Lee."

"Where is Marshall anyway?" Fionna asked as Gumball and Mocro caught up.

"Over there," Mocro mumbled, pointing towards the main building where the bad boy was making out with Ashley.

Fionna and Cake made faces at one another before lapsing into giggles. Gumball sighed.

"I'm surprised he even hung out with us today," he said, eyeing Marshall Lee. "He usually goes home for lunch or hangs out with his biker friends."

"Biker friends?" Fionna repeated.

"He likes to drive a motorcycle around so naturally he has some friends like that," Cake said.

"Yeah," Mocro added.

"Don't get offended if he stops hanging out with us," Gumball told Fionna. "Marshall tends to stay away from people like us."

"People like us?" Fionna repeated again. "What exactly is his deal? First, he was a total douche bag. Then he was nice and joined us for lunch. Then he was a douche again! Now he's making out with a girl he clearly doesn't like."

Gumball sighed. "Just don't try to understand Marshall Lee. He's complex. Always trying to get the approval of everyone around him... and yet..." Gumball trailed off and headed down the road to the block where his dorm was, waving goodbye to his friends. Mocro kissed Cake goodbye, promising her to call her later, waved bye to Fionna, and caught up with Gumball. Cake told Fionna she had a few errands to run so she grabbed her bike from the bike racks and pedaled off to the little collection of stores.

Feeling a little alone and a little left out, Fionna decided to trudge the mile home. Her hands were clutching the straps of her backpack, she wandered down the first block, not really paying attention to where she was going. Suddenly, the rev of an engine startled her and she turned to find a shiny black motorcycle cruising beside her, rumbling on the blacktop. The bike was beautiful with so many great flame finishes and a sticker on it that read: "The Vampire King" and below it was "Nightosphere Companies". And riding it was Marshall Lee, grinning at her with windswept hair.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," she replied.

"Walking home?"

She nodded.

"Well, wanna take a ride with a bad boy?"

Fionna giggled. "What?"

"Oh, come on, Fionna! You know you want to." He revved the engine again, making his eyebrows bouncing up and down. His auburn eyes were scanning her face, wondering if she was going to agree and jump on.

"My dorm isn't that far," she said. "I can walk."

"It'll be fun!" he insisted.

Even though she kept walking, he followed her at a slow pace, waiting for her to give in. She finally sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Gimme a helmet, you moron," she snapped.

With a triumphant laugh, he handed her a black helmet (that he should have been wearing) and she hopped on, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Hold on tight," he said, revving the engine one final time but shot down the street instead of making her wait. Fionna's eyes widened and she tightened her grip.

"Do you even know where I live?" she demanded of him.

But her question was answered as he came to a graceful stop right in front of Fionna's dorm. She blinked, surprised at how fast it took getting here, got off the bike, took off the helmet, and handed it to him.

"Thanks for the incredibly short ride," Fionna said.

He got off the bike too. "You're welcome. Mind if I come in for a drink? I'm parched."

"Uh, sure," she said.

He followed her inside and made his way into the living room, waiting for her to bring in a drink. Fionna found this incredibly rude but she shrugged it off.

"What do you want to drink?" she asked him.

"Have any beer?"

"Um... no."

"Pfft, lame. Fine, I'll just have a Coke or something."

Fionna returned with two bottles of Coke and handed him one. "What gives you the right to order me around and invite yourself over?"

"I just thought I deserved a little since I gave you a ride home."

"That lasted for about ten seconds." Fionna watched him chug the drink. "Plus, you're a big jerk anyway."

He choked on his drink and swallowed hard. He openly laughed at her. "Whaaat? You're kidding right? You're actually admitting it."

"Well... I guess I was wrong about the jerk thing. You're a jerk but you aren't bad," she said, continuing her statement from hours before. She put her drink down and crossed her arms, sitting in the recliner and facing him. By then, Marshall's laughter had died and his smile was receding.

"Don't they usually go hand in hand?" he said.

"Not necessarily," Fionna said. "You could be a 'bad boy' without being a total jerk. Hanging around and doing nasty shit but you can always be nice to people."

"Nasty shit?" he repeated, a smirk growing on his face. "Nicely put."

"Like... did you ever read The Outsiders?" she asked him.

"Yeah. That was my favorite book in freshman year of high school," he said. "Come to think of it, that's my only favorite book entirely. I stopped reading the books after that."

"Okay. Do you think Pony Boy was a total jerk?" Fionna pressed. "Sure he was in with the greasers and the 'bad boys', if you will, but he was genuinely a nice person. You really found that out near the end and when he spoke to the reader and what he was thinking on the inside."

"That all depends on the reader and what they see him as," Marshall said.

"But don't you agree?"

Marshall pondered her question a moment, narrowing his eyes at her and then shrugging, not bothering to answer. She grinned at him, knowing she had won this little battle.

Fionna loved to read. She would spend time in the library at her high school reading books upon books and practically excelled in her English class. For some reason, Fionna wasn't looking for an English major and had even debated whether or not she should take English 101. She had decided to by the end of senior year but was still iffy about it since she just wanted to focus on her gymnastics more during college instead of reading and writing.

She watched as Marshall finished off his bottle of Coke and placed it on the coffee table. He stood and marched over to Fionna and Cake's DVD collection stand by the TV and was scanning through it.

"What the hell are you doing?" Fionna demanded.

"Just browsing," he replied simply. "You own the Harry Potter series?"

Fionna blushed. "So what? I like the books and the movies."

"The movies were better."

"Take that back!"

"No. Ew, Twilight? That just put vampires to shame."

"Th-those are Cake's."

"Geez, you suck at lying Fionna."

"I only liked the last movie... But those really are Cake's."

"Whatever you say."

He continued to browse, stopping every so often to comment on a movie. He spent about five minutes laughing at Fionna's Disney and Pixar collection she hid in the back of the other movies.

"And they're all the special collectors edition!" he snickered, making her face glow red.

"Alright, you've had your fun," she snapped at him, grabbing Monsters Inc. out of his hand and placing it back into its slot. "Can you please leave me alone so I can start dinner?"

"Cool, what are we having?" Marshall said, standing up and closing the collection's door.

"I'm having some frozen pizza. You are leaving," she said, getting behind him and poking him in the back. To Marshall's surprise, the poke turned into a push and he found himself in the front hall. "Thanks for the ride, really, and it was nice having you over. I'll see you later."

He chuckled. "Fine. Thanks for having me. Ta-ta, Mertens." He went for the the door and opened it to find a surprise waiting at the front door. Cake was standing there, her keys in her hand and her arms struggling with groceries. Marshall seized the opportunity. "Lemme help you with that, Cake." He took both bags from her and stepped aside so Cake could come in.

"Oh... hi, Marshall!" Cake said, shocked to see that he had come to call. She shut the door behind them. "Thanks. Did you wanna stay for dinner or something?"

Behind Marshall, Fionna smacked her forehead with her hand and moaned. Marshall Lee grinned at Cake.

"I would love to but I was just leaving," he said.

"No, it's cool," Cake assured, not noticing Fionna's rapid head shaking behind the older boy. "Gumball was actually going over to Mocro's for a study session so he wasn't going to cook dinner. He told me to tell you that if I saw you."

A golden ticket for Marshall to stay, huh? "Alright then. I'd be honored to stay."

"Great," Cake chimed. "Just put the bags on the counter."

"Cool," Marshall said, walking into the kitchen.

FIonna grabbed Cake by the arm and dragged her into the living room.

"What the hell?" Fionna whispered frantically. "I was just kicking him out!"

"Why? He's my friend and I thought he was yours too," Cake pointed out.

"Not according to Gumball," Fionna said, checking to see if Marshall was eavesdropping.

"Gumball's just acting paranoid," Cake assured. "I mean, I can't stand Marshall Lee sometimes but he's okay most of the time."

Fionna faced Cake and placed her hands on her shoulders. "He made fun of your Twilight collection."

Cake's stony expression stunned Fionna for half a second. The next thing she knew, she was holding Cake back from charging towards the kitchen.

"Let me go so I can kick that boy's ass!" Cake roared, struggling like a caught fish in Fionna's strong grip.

"No! Wait! Stop!" Fionna cried. "He'll tear you to shreds, Cake!" She mumbled, "Plus he had every right to make fun of those pieces of crap." Thankfully, Cake didn't hear Fionna's little comment so she was still trying to get to Marshall Lee in the other room.

Marshall walked inside the living room to announce his putting away of the canned foods but stopped, seeing the two girls wrestling with one another in the middle of the room. He could have sworn his nose started to hurt.

"Um... as sexy as that is," he began, earning death glares from both girls, "I gotta run."

"Why is that?" Fionna asked, dropping her sister, who landed on the floor with a thud.

"Ashley just called... wanting to go out for dinner so..." he said. "Thanks for having me, honestly. And you're canned foods are put away. You sure eat a lotta tuna, Cake."

"Hey, don't you judge me, boy," Cake growled. "It'll be the death of you."

"She means it," Fionna mouthed to Marshall.

He raised a hand in farewell. "See you girls later." Marshall strode out the front door and shut it behind him. They listened as the sound of an engine roared into life and then died away as he drove off towards his destination.

All of that had happened so fast, Fionna didn't even know what to think.

Kind of a strange chapter, yeah? But I hoped you liked it! I promise Flame Prince (aka Blaise) will be introduced really soon. Other characters will come into play later so... just use your mind or some shit (lol jennamarbles).

And pardon me if I don't get the whole college thing right. I'm still in high school (senior year so soon-to-be college student). It was originally going to be a high school fic but I decided against it because I didn't want to promote underage drinking and other things that people my age should NOT be doing. So I changed it to make it more "appropriate."

You'll also see references to Anime and other things I like. Twenty cookies if you can guess why Marshall Lee's nose started to hurt when he saw the two girls fighting in the living room.

As always:

See you next time!