Work Text:
Wow.
She stares wide eyed at the room before her, clutching her neat new notebook tightly in her hands. Her eyes dart from here to there; from the marble pillars to the giant chandelier, from the patterned walls to the detail on the mantle, from the leather couches to the glass ceiling.
Students of all ages and majors bustle around her. Some greeting old friends, some asking for directions, some looking at their new schedules with eyes squinted in concentration. The whole hall is filled with life and excitement and knowledge.
Jemma Simmons takes a deep breath, puts on her biggest smile, grips her luggage case tight, and lifts her foot to take a step toward the welcome tables, when out of nowhere… SMASH. Suddenly, she is on the floor, her shoulder bag falling open and all her notes and papers spreading flying everywhere. Everyone turns to look at her as she stumbles, keeping her footing but still managing to make a complete fool out of herself.
Gasping at the mess she’s made, and blushing madly, she turns furiously to the offending force that has ruined her first impression at the Academy, the school she had dreamed of going to since she was visited by that nice man in the suit who told her it was for "only the very best". There, sprawled out on the floor beside her, is a scrawny, mousy looking boy, looking down in dismay at his own mess- a bag of crisps he had been paying too much attention to when walking through the hall.
“What is your problem?” She hisses gathering up her papers, red faced. Out of embarrassment or anger, even she can't tell. Everyone is still looking at her. “Can’t you watch where you’re going??”
The boy (Must be a freshmen, like me. She thinks. Too young for anything else. ) looks up at her, and does just the opposite of what she thought he would. His face pinches up, making an ugly offended kind of expression. Very unflattering. And rude. “Oh yeah? Well maybe you’re the one who should watch where she’s going, instead of dragging that four wheeled trap of death all over the place!” he snaps in a strangely familiar accent (Not now, Jemma.), pointing at the, admittedly large, suitcase she had been dragging.
Jemma feels her cheeks turn red with anger. She will not be humiliated on her first day. Actually, not ever. She squares her shoulders. “There is nothing wrong with bringing a case through the front hall! How else would I get it to my dorm?” She bends to pick up her papers, stacking them neatly back in her folder. “Besides, at least I didn’t make as big of a mess such as your did, with your crisps and-”
“Don’t go off about my crisps!” he says, looking around to try and clean them up. “I’m not the only one with them! How many other bags as big as yours do you see? It’s not my fault you weren’t looking-” He pauses, catching sight of her research paper to hand in to her professor that afternoon. She catches him and snatches it away, face heating up even more.
His lip turns up nastily and he scrunches up his face like he’s smelled something vile. “Oh. That explains it."
Frowning, she asks "What?"
"You’re a biochemist.” He sneers, with malice enough to give tell her just enough about how he apparently feels about her subject. And how dare he.
Finished gathering her things, Jemma stands up, towering over him. “Yes, I am. And? What of it? It’s better than whatever you’re here for. Which would be what- a theorist?” she asks spitefully, scoffing at the word. Everybody knows theorists are the runt of the litter. It’s not a real job.
The boy stands up, fists clenched at his sides, fuming. “Engineering.” he grits out.
Her lips twitch up slightly, mocking him. “Even worse.” Rather make the guns than use them. At least she saves lives, not end them.
Before he can respond, another boy comes up, slightly older than the Engineer. “Leo! Come on, I’ll show you to your dorm.”
The boy, Leo, reluctantly turns away, glaring at Jemma as he does, and Jemma counts it as a mental point in her favor. This is a feud she can see lasting the whole year.
However, after only two months of glaring, tripping, sabotaging, and insulting; the most unexpected thing happens. It involves a prank, toads, and two hours stuck in a closet. Two hours spent alone, with toads, and a newly aired Doctor Who special is hard to walk away from without becoming friends.