~As always, I only own the plot. I don't own the series or characters so don't sue me.

A for Effort

Misato Katsuragi, a beautiful young woman, currently stood pouting before her small classroom of high school freshman as the scribbled furiously on their desks. Why? Well, she had just unforgivingly given them a pop quiz. This was highly unusual as the purple haired vixen preferred to be buddy buddy with her students, helping them study, and giving them plenty of warning before a test was to occur.

So then why had the purple haired woman given her loving students a surprise quiz?

Like any woman scorned, she was pissed. Today was her 28th birthday and not a single soul had remembered. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Her father remembered as he sent her a loving text that morning wishing her a wonderful bitday. The man hadn't even bothered to correct his blatant error. The other person who sort of remembered was her now ex-boyfriend Kaji. The man had called during lunch break to let her know he was unable to make their dinner plans as his wife would be in town that night.

As a result of that conversation, she had stormed into classroom 1-D, a dark aura surrounding her voluptuous frame. Slamming her books and papers onto the podium at the front of the room, she bellowed, "Pop quiz!" delighting slightly in the immediate groans and moans of pain.

At least she wouldn't be the only one miserable that day.

Checking her wrist watch, she sighed before standing up to her full height. "Pencils down!" she ordered, brown eyes watching boredly as the students complied. Without further prompting, the students began passing the tests forward where Misato collected them from each student at the front of the rows. Moments later, the bell rang. The class representative stood, ordering the other students to do the same. The entire class gave a curt bow before returning to their seats.

With a sigh, the young teacher left the classroom, sliding the door shut before heading to the teacher's room. Even though it was her last class of the day, she had nothing better to do so she figured she'd go ahead and grade those papers now. Sitting at her desk, Misato pulled her hair up into a ponytail before tackling the stack of quizzes with her favorite red pen.

The class had done surprisingly well. Guess that meant she was a good teacher. With a smirk on her face, she finally came across the last test. Brown eyes widened in shock at the atrocity of the answers. Circling every incorrect answer, which was pretty much the entire test, she blinked at the little picture of a cake drawn below the last answer box.

'Katsuragi-sensei, I couldn't buy you anything, so I hope this drawing of a birthday cake is enough. Happy birthday Sensei. You really don't look 28.'

Misato blinked at the message a few times before reading it again to make sure she wasn't mistaken. A soft smile suddenly broke out on her supple pink lips as she put a check mark by the sweet message. Gaze shifting up to the top of the answer sheet, she carefully remembered the name.

"Shinji Ikari," she muttered. Tapping the pen against her lips, she instantly recalled the brunette at the back of the room. He was quiet, soft-spoken, and kept to himself for the most part. The young teacher had to admit, he did have a certain cute factor to him. "Well Shinji-kun," she muttered to herself as her red pen scribbled at the top of the paper. "You may not be intelligent, but you know how to win a woman over."

Placing the paper on top of the stack of other answer sheets, Misato stretched before grabbing her bag and exiting the teacher's lounge.

'15 points,' was scrawled in bright red ink at the top of the paper. Further down the paper by the adorable drawing of a cake, more red ink could be seen. 'You may have failed, but you get an A for effort in my book.'

(A/N: This is just a quick little drabble for Hubby's birthday today. Tanjoubi omedetou Shin-man! I love you~)