193. Chapter 193

It starts in bio lecture.

Because bio is amazing, bio is incredible, bio is everything.

But this lecture? This lecture is too damn boring, this lecture is too damn easy, and the girl sitting in the row in front of and slightly below her is chewing her pen and doodling different kinds of neurons in her notebook, and there’s a leather jacket slung over the back of her chair and she is fine.

And, if the state of her notes – and her doodles – is any indication, she isn’t bored because she doesn’t care about enzymes. She’s bored, it seems, for the same reason Alex is – because this shit is too easy.

So Alex does something she’s never done in her life: she passes a note in class.

Hey – sorry to bother, but you look about as bored as I am. Bio’s great – I can tell you think so too, your dendrites are awesome – but this stuff is too easy. Wanna keep each other occupied? What’s your name?

She rips the page full out of her notebook and tosses it down onto the girl’s desk. The girl stiffens, hard. Stiffens like this isn’t her first time getting passed a note in class, and like it hasn’t been a pleasant experience in the past. She glances up to see where it came from, and her eyes – god, her eyes, her eyes are gorgeous – change somewhat when she meets Alex’s gaze. She’s still wary, but now, maybe something else, too. Maybe something hopeful?

She opens the note skeptically, slowly. And she huffs out a smirk as she reads it.

Alex grins down at her and her heart races as the girl scrawls something back.

Her fingers brush Alex’s as she reaches back with the paper without turning around, note in her hand, and Alex gulps because she swears electricity passes between them. She wonders if the girl felt it, too, and her normally steady hands tremble uncharacteristically as she reopens the note. She grins as she reads.

Thank god, someone who knows a neuron when they see one. Name’s Sawyer. Maggie Sawyer. Yours?

Alex doesn’t hesitate.

Maggie’s a beautiful name. Definitely suits you. You know I could write it on my calculator. And mine’s Danvers. Alex Danvers.

Maggie full out chuckles this time, and Alex blushes as Maggie writes.

Their fingers brush again when Maggie passes the piece of paper back, and Alex could swear she did it on purpose.

You this smooth with all the girls, Danvers?

Only the ones who’re made of as much copper and tellurium as you are.

Maggie laughs out loud this time as she turns around and flashes Alex with a dimpled smile. Alex’s heart stops, and she doesn’t care that the kids sitting near them start to glare.

CuTe, Danvers. Very CuTe.

Alex blushes, and Alex squirms in her seat, and Alex knows she’s a goner, because Maggie got the joke, got the line, perfectly, perfectly, perfectly.

She holds the door for her as they leave the lecture together forty-three minutes later, by unspoken agreement, and they realize – as they talk through their schedules for the term that started just yesterday – that they’re in the same lab, too.

They’re dating within a couple of weeks – because Alex passed her a note in lecture (their rapidly-developing tradition) that asked if Maggie was her appendix, because she really wanted to take her out – but that doesn’t mean that Alex stops with the lines.

“Maggie, how many protons do you have?”

“Probably several billion, Danvers,” Maggie answers without looking up at Alex, her head buried in her physics text book during one of their library dates.

“No, I think you only have eleven.”

Maggie furrows her brow and tilts her head and looks up slowly and groans with a growing smile. “Oh no, Alex.”

“Because you’re sodium fine.”

“Jesus Christ, woman, you have no nerd limits,” Maggie says, but what she means is you’re adorable.

Sawyer, is it getting hot in here? Alex scrawls during bio lecture, and Maggie looks askance at Alex’s sweatshirt and knows that she most certainly is not warm. She smirks and she writes a question mark and she waits for Alex’s next move.

Must be our bond forming, Alex writes, and Maggie snorts.

Nerd, she writes, but what she means is I love that you care about making me laugh, I love that you care about complimenting me.

“If I were an enzyme, I’d be DNA helicase,” Alex murmurs in her ear when they finally have Maggie’s dorm room to themselves, and Maggie laughs breathily as she pulls Alex by the belt loops toward the bed.

“Wanna unzip my genes, Danvers?” she asks, but her heart is racing with more than just adrenaline, with more than just lust, because Alex is laughing and Alex is touching her gently, gently, gently, and Alex is putting her hand under Maggie’s head as Maggie lays down, and Alex is the biggest nerd she’s ever met, but she’s her nerd, and Maggie wouldn’t have it any other way.