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Marinette’s leg bounced up and down as she tried to focus on the page of the textbook in front of her. She began tapping her pencil quickly, trying to expel some of her anxious energy. She glanced over the words in front of her, absorbing none of them. She tried again, going through each line, but still understanding none of it. Growling in frustration, Marinette threw down her pencil, digging her hands into her hair as she exclaimed, “This is impossible!”
Alya looked up from her own book, startled. “Jeez, Mari, you alright? "
“No!” Marinette slammed her textbook shut, shoving it away from herself. “I don’t understand any of this! And I never will! I give up, I’m going to fail the chemistry test, and then science class, and then school, and I won’t be able to get a job and I’ll have to become a stripper in order to make money and not die!”
“Okay… first of all, let's not look down on strippers. We shouldn’t shame sex workers, and what strippers do is an incredible physical feat a lot of the time.” Alya slid out of her seat and sat next to Marinette, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Second of all, you are not going to fail this test.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said the stripper thing. But I am going to fail! I wasn’t in class when we learned this and nothing in our textbook is helpful at all. I’ve always been rotten at chemistry anyway, I might as well give up”
“Don’t say that! Plus, I think you and I have great chemistry.”
Marinette couldn’t help but smile at the dorky finger guns Alya made as she cracked that crappy joke. “Oh shove it you useless lesbian. I said I’m bad at chemistry, not that we don’t have chemistry.”
“Hey, watch it! That's your girlfriend you’re talking to!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
“Ok, here’s the plan. I’m going to go and get us one of those giant chocolate chip cookies they sell at the counter, and we are taking a study break.” Alya planted a kiss on Marinette’s cheek before standing up. “No worrying about grades, no school talk of any kind, no exceptions. Got it?”
Marinette bit her lip as she whispered “Got it.” Alya broke her mock-serious eye contact and walked to the cafe counter to get their snack. She knew the bossiness was just a joke, but Mari really did love it when Alya took charge.
Alya plopped back down by Marinette a few minutes later, bringing their giant cookie and some lemonade with her. “Ok, so, steering away from school things, you never finished raving about romantic layering to me earlier.”
Alya smiled as Marinette instantly started talking a million words a minute. She was really cute when she got all worked up about fashion, waving her hands in the air as she explained trends and the history of different looks. Alya was just happy to see that her distraction worked and that Marinette seemed less anxious over their upcoming test.
“Hey.” Marinette had paused her fangirling to poke Alya, bringing her out of her thoughts. “What are you staring at?”
“I’m not staring, I’m listening intently!”
“Oh if you are listening so intently, what did I just say?”
“You uhhh… mentioned something about how the flowy fabric is going to make everyone look like fairies?”
“No! I’ve moved on to how velvet is back in! You. Weren’t. Listening!” Marinette punctuated every word with a poke into Alya’s sides, making her laugh.
“I’m sorry! I got distracted by your cuteness and couldn’t focus.”
“Not a valid excuse, you’ve had years to adjust to my cuteness, you should be used to it by now.”
“I could never get used to your cuteness, no one ever could.” Alya leaned forward and cupped Marinette’s face.
“Ugh, that line is too cheesy,” Marinette said, still smiling into and returning the little kisses Alya was placing on her lips.
“Okay,” Alya leaned back. “Now that you’re feeling a little better, let's work on these questions together.”
---
“Hey!” Marinette ran full speed at Alya, who was surprised to suddenly have her arms full of a very giddy girlfriend. “I got an A!”
“You did!? See, I told you you weren’t going to fail!” Alya hugged Marinette back. “Though it is kind of a shame.”
Marinette pulled away, confused. “What? Why?”
“Well just seeing how freakishly flexible you are, you would’ve made an amazing stripper.”
“You are the worst.” Marinette rolled her eyes before getting up on her tiptoes to give Alya a kiss. “Thanks for tutoring me.”
“Any time, babe.” Alya grabbed Marinette’s hand, “Now! Let’s go celebrate!”
“And how are we celebrating?”
“Well, maybe you could show me some of your moves.” Alya wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“Sometimes I just cannot BELIEVE YOU, OH MY GOD.” Alya began to laugh, running off to avoid the rolled up test papers Marinette- who was laughing too- threatened to bat at her for the joke.