Chapter Text
Ada.
The first day of senior year started like every other first day. Ada woke up at 6:30, showered, pulled on a black tee and jeans, clipped on her choker, and walked to school exactly twenty minutes early. Routine was safe. Routine was comfortable. Routine meant no surprises.
She slipped into AP Bio like she owned the place. Found her seat. The one she had claimed sophomore year and never surrendered. Third row from the back, window side. Perfect angle to see the board, close enough to the door to leave quickly, far enough from the front to avoid being called on. She unpacked her things with the precision of a surgeon. Highlighters in rainbow order. Notebook open to a fresh page. Pen clicked and ready.
She took a breath. She was ready.
Then Claire Redfield walked in.
Ada recognized her immediately. How could she not? Claire was the kind of person that stuck in your brain like a song you couldnt shake. Leather jacket even though it was September. Dark red hair pulled back messily. Sunglasses pushed up on her head like she was in a movie. She scanned the room once, twice, and then her eyes landed on the seat directly to Ada's left.
The empty seat. The one that had been empty for two years.
No. No, no, no.
Claire walked over and dropped her bag on the floor with a heavy thud. She slid into the desk like she owned it, stretched her legs out, and turned to Ada with a grin that was probably illegal in at least three states.
"Hope you dont mind, nerd. My view's better from here."
Ada opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
"I... thats my..."
She couldnt finish. Because Claire was looking at her. Actually looking at her. Green eyes, sharp and warm, and Ada felt like she had forgotten how to breathe.
"Your what?" Claire asked, tilting her head.
Nothing. Ada's brain had left the building. It was gone. It was somewhere else entirely, maybe on a beach in Hawaii, living a better life.
"...Nothing."
Claire's grin widened. "Cool. Got a spare pen? I forgot mine."
Ada handed her a pen without thinking. It was her favorite one. The black gel ink one that wrote smoother than any other pen she owned. Claire took it like it was nothing and clicked it a few times.
"Thanks, Wong."
She said Ada's name like they were already friends. Like they had known each other for years. Like it belonged in her mouth.
Ada turned back to the front of the class and stared at the board without seeing any of it. Her heart was doing something stupid and irregular in her chest. She could smell coconut. Faint, but there. Claire smelled like coconut and leather and something warm underneath, and Ada was going to die. She was going to die in this classroom on the first day of senior year and no one would know why.
The teacher started talking. Ada didnt hear a single word.
Claire.
Claire walked into AP Bio with a plan. The plan was simple: sit next to Ada Wong, act cool, and absolutely do not make a fool of herself.
She failed within thirty seconds.
"Hope you dont mind, nerd. My view's better from here."
Nerd. She called her nerd. That wasnt smooth. That was the opposite of smooth. Why did she say that. Why did her brain choose nerd out of all the words in the English language.
But Ada looked at her with those dark brown eyes and Claire forgot how to be anyone except the loud, messy girl who said dumb things when she was nervous. Except Ada didn't look annoyed. She looked flustered. Her cheeks went pink and she fumbled over her words and it was the cutest thing Claire had ever seen in her entire life.
Then Ada handed her a pen. Her favorite pen, probably. Claire could tell by the way she hesitated before letting go. And Claire took it like it was nothing, like she didnt want to frame it and put it on her wall.
She clicked it a few times just to have something to do with her hands.
"Thanks, Wong."
Ada's name. She had been practicing it in the mirror for weeks. Ada. Ada Wong. Hi, Ada. Hey, Ada. You look nice today, Ada. She had a whole script. She had practiced scenarios. And then she walked in and called her nerd and asked for a pen like a beggar.
Smooth, Redfield. Really smooth.
The teacher started talking. Claire propped her chin on her hand and pretended to listen. Instead, she counted the number of times Ada tucked her hair behind her ear. Seven times in the first ten minutes. She memorized the curve of Ada's jaw, the way her nose scrunched when she was concentrating, the small huff of breath she let out when she wrote something down.
Claire was so, so fucked.
At the end of class, she packed up slowly. Ada packed up fast. She was already standing, ready to flee, and Claire felt a spike of panic.
"Same time tomorrow?" she said. Casually. Like she didnt care.
Ada stopped. Turned. Looked at her like she was trying to solve a puzzle.
"I guess so. We have the same seat."
"Good. I mean. Yeah. Cool."
Ada nodded once and left. Claire watched her go and immediately dropped her head onto her desk.
"Cool?" she whispered to herself. "Cool? Who says that?"
The empty classroom did not answer.
Ada.
She made it to the hallway before she had to stop and lean against the wall.
Her heart was pounding. Her palms were sweating. She had just spent sixty minutes sitting next to Claire Redfield, and Claire had called her nerd and smiled at her and borrowed her favorite pen and Ada was never going to survive this year.
She pressed her hand to her chest and took a shaky breath.
This was fine. This was completely fine. She just had to sit next to Claire Redfield for the next nine months and not combust. Easy. Simple. Doable.
She was going to die.