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“Fuuuuuuuuccckkkkk,” Ellie groans, her hands balled into fists and pressed against her face. She kicks her legs out restlessly, almost hopping on her feet, her ears pink and her movements jerky.
Dina bites her lip trying to hide her smile, it’s the closest she’s seen Ellie to an overwhelmed five year old having a tantrum in a grocery store and it’s adorable.
“Ugghhhhh,” Ellie almost growls, throwing herself onto the ground so harshly that Dina winces in sympathy, some gravel kicking up with the impact.
“It’s okay, we’ve still got twenty minutes,” Dina says, her mirth showing in her voice as she watches Ellie. “Come on, what’s the formula for working out a ‘cos’ compound angle?”
“I don’t knoooooowww,” Ellie whines.
“You’re good at math, come on,” Dina says, scanning back over the notes in front of her.
It’s the mid-year exam week. Ellie knows that. Ellie should know that. They are halfway through the week, three tests down and three more to go.
She’d gotten her days mixed up though. Showed up reciting dates from a history fact sheet, her face turning white when she registered the amount of math textbooks the other students were pouring over. Dina had to physically push Cat away when she started laughing.
Ellie mutters something into her hands.
“What was that?”
“It’s like cos A plus B so it equals cos A cos B plus sin A sin B?” Ellie repeats tiredly.
Dina winces, following the formula with her eyes. “It’s minus sin A sin B,” she corrects.
Ellie groans loudly.
Dina smiles, sitting next to her on the ground. “It’s plus for sin though. It’s hard to get the three right, don’t feel bad.” Dina recites the three out, stressing the differences in addition and subtraction and when the functions swap.
“I don’t wanna do this,” Ellie whines. “I’m gonna fail the test and then Joel’s gonna be mad, and I’m gonna be in trouble.”
“Joel will be fine and so will you, you big baby,” Dina grins, leaning over to squeeze Ellie’s knee.
Ellie huffs, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face.
She’s so beautiful, Dina thinks, tracing Ellie’s freckles with her eyes.
Green eyes flick over to meet Dina’s. “What’s the next one?” She says sullenly, her bottom lip jutting out and making her jawline seem more defined somehow.
“How about the formulas for binomial distribution?” Dina asks brightly.
Ellie’s eyes roll back into her head and she mimes stabbing herself in the gut, hands trying to emulate the blood spraying from an imaginary wound.
“It would be closer to jazz hands!” Abby distantly calls.
Dina rolls her eyes and flips her off. “That’s not true, abdominal wounds work that way,” Dina yells back to her.
“Why do we have to do tests? Why can’t I just run away and live my true live as a lesbian lumberjack in the forest?”
“Because then you’d be too hot,” Dina mumbles under her breath, cheeks flushing pink as she watches Ellie’s lips curl. She definitely heard that. “It’s not too bad, trying to repeat the formulas out loud when its detached from the question is hard. Maybe you should just have a look at my cheat sheet of worked examples.”
Ellie rolls onto her side facing Dina, still pouting overdramatically as she holds her hand out.
Dina hands it to her with an affectionate smile.
Ellie grumbles to herself quietly as she reads through the sheet. It’s a comical sight and Dina silently snaps a photo on her phone. Ellie’s body is completely limp, her head tilted onto the ground, cheek smooshed against the gravel, an arm held awkwardly out to hold the sheet up, and her legs are splayed dramatically like she’s fallen like a ragdoll.
Inevitably they’re called for the exam, Dina helping Ellie to her feet and grinning at the impression the gravel left on her cheek.
“You got this, just remember that a logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation,” Dina says as they join the back of the line outside the school hall. She cups Ellie’s cheek with one hand and leans in to kiss the other thoughtlessly as the teachers begin to bring people in.
Ellie splutters, cheeks turning red at the kiss.
Dina smiles shyly, attributing the nerves in her stomach to the exam. She squeezes Ellie’s arm one last time before they step inside.
--
Ellie’s nerves don’t seem calmer after the exam, she’s still jumpy and antsy long into the afternoon.
“Just think about it this way,” Jesse tries to reassure her. “You’re already super ready for the history exam tomorrow!” He says brightly.
The three of them are tucked into a corner booth of the only diner in town, Ellie’s face in her fries and her shoulders slumped.
“Do you need another chocolate shake?” Dina asks teasingly, her tone soft.
“Don’t taunt me with another shake,” Ellie mumbles lowly.
“It’s not taunting if it’s a real offer,” Dina says, bumping her shoulder against Ellie’s.
“Then maybe,” Ellie says, her eyes flicking over to look at Dina.
Dina laughs, squeezing Ellie’s knee under the table as she heads over to order at the counter.
Ellie’s cheeks are pink when she returns.
--
The marks from the math exam take the longest to come back. The English teachers pour over multiple essays and poorly written short stories and yet still manage to always come back quicker than the math department.
Figures.
They are most of the way through the lesson when her math teacher Mrs Henderson brings it up. Dina’s fingers itch to reach for her phone, to text Ellie in the classroom across the hall, but she ignores the impulse.
The papers are handed out right before the class ends, Dina half-heartedly smiling at her ‘A’ but her thoughts are stuck on Ellie. She watches the clock restlessly as it ticks forward slowly, so focused on rushing out of the classroom when the bell finally rings that she bumps her hip hard against the edge of the desk in her haste.
She meets Ellie’s eyes almost immediately across the hallway, searching through the surging crowd of students.
Ellie is beaming, sporting a large grin that is undeniably a good sign.
Dina laughs in relief, pride bubbling up in her chest.
“Dina!” Ellie calls as she rushes over, almost knocking over Cat in her pathway. “Dina!”
Ellie jumps at her, essentially throwing herself at Dina to hug her.
“Ooft.” Dina feels the air whoosh out of her lungs at the impact, clutching at Ellie as she attempts to stabilise herself. Her face is pressed almost completely into Ellie’s chest, arms wrapped around Ellie’s lower waist and it takes a couple moments to be confident they’re not going to end up on the ground.
“I fucking passed!” Ellie yells, squeezing Dina tighter against her.
Dina is mortified, her face is red and she wants to melt into the carpet. “I told you,” she says weakly.
“Yeah, but I didn’t knooow!” Ellie says, dragging out the last word.
Dina laughs, her grip loosening on Ellie’s waist as she slowly lowers the other girl. She’s unsure if the feeling of Ellie’s body sliding against hers has made her face even more red.
Ellie smiles at her goofily, hands almost shaking Dina’s shoulders as she meets her eyes. “I owe you, you’re amazing, you’re great, I love-”
Dina kisses her.
Ellie responds enthusiastically, cupping Dina’s cheeks and kissing her with a level of eagerness that Dina wasn’t entirely prepared for.
It’s overwhelming and overdue and desperately wanted.
“Girls!” Mrs Henderson’s outraged voice calls.
They separate immediately, smiling sheepishly at one another.
“That is inappropriate for school.”
So they take it elsewhere.