He was already there when she walked into the classroom. Wonderful.

Leo Fitz. Quite possibly the most aggravating, irritating and downright rude boy Jemma Simmons had ever had the misfortune to know. The nicest thing Jemma had ever said about him was one lesson the previous year in which he was "bearable, for once."

She couldn't deny he was intelligent, because he was extremely smart. Not quite at her level, but certainly the second brightest student in college. It's just a shame that his personality was incredibly off-putting; otherwise they probably could've been the best of friends.

Jemma couldn't place a time when they weren't rivals, always trying to best each other in tests and exams. They quite simply had never gotten along. They had known each other ever since secondary school when Fitz's family moved to England. Jemma had actually tried to welcome him to the area, but he was so rude to her she retaliated and they'd been feuding ever since. And now they were in their first year of college, and after five torturous years with him, Jemma finally thought she was free.

But of course he'd taken exactly the same subjects as she had, and of course he was in every single one of her classes. Not her friends Skye, Bobbi, Lance or Grant, not even so much as her acquaintances like Phil, Melinda or Lincoln. Him. Her nemesis (even though she thought it was childish to have a designated "nemesis", she had one nonetheless).

So, she'd probably have to put up with him for another one or two years. At least she know she'd work hard and get good grades as she would die before getting better grades than he did. Plus, after college she'd be free of him forever; that would keep her going.

However, she hadn't banked on her new biology teacher, Mrs Henderson, being quite as nice as she was, as she had a plan to make everyone more comfortable in their first few terms at college.

"I wanted to make sure you were all comfortable, so I'll be sitting you next to someone you went to school with, and you'll also work with someone you went to school with on a project you'll do outside of lessons up until Christmas." Mrs Henderson explained.

But of course the only other person in her new class that went to school with her was Leo bloody Fitz.

…

Jemma thanked the heavens that their first biology lesson didn't involve group work; they simply had to read the first chapter of their textbook and make notes for a test on it the following week. The rest of the room were happily chatting about being at college and catching up on what they'd done over the holidays, but she and Fitz were sat in complete silence at the back of the room.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Why did he always have to tap his pen when he read to himself? She'd noticed it years ago and now every time since it had bothered her.

"Could you please not tap you pen? It's rather irritating." Jemma asked, turning to him.

"Sorry, Mrs Henderson." He sighed, making a fuss over putting his pen down on the desk and moving his hands away from it. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Fine, you're still going to be like this? Whatever." Jemma snapped, returning to her reading.

After a couple of minutes, Fitz turned to her again.

"Look, I'm not very happy about this either, you know! What were the chances that we'd both pick biology, chemistry, physics AND engineering? And what were the chances even then of the four biology classes, three chemistry classes, four physics classes and two engineering classes that we'd both end up in exactly the same one?"

"Evidently not low enough. Okay, we're going to be in every single class together for at least our first year here, and in this class we not only sit next to each other but we'll have to meet up and do whatever project Mrs Henderson gives us outside of classes for the next four months. We're going to have to at least try and be somewhat civil here and get the work done. The thought of spending so much time with you makes me want to stab myself in the heart with a sharp pencil right now, but we have to accept it and get this over with." Jemma explained.

"Fine, but we'll have to set some ground rules here, and know where we stand. You have so many habits that annoy me. I have a list." Fitz stated.

"A list? You wrote a list?" Jemma asked, disgusted.

"I finished the work early in class a few years back and you were doing something that annoyed me, so yeah, I wrote a list. Sue me." Fitz said.

"That would be a pointless lawsuit, but go on; I could use a laugh. Tell me what I do that's so very irritating to you." Jemma prompted.

"You have to have the last word, you tidy up other people's desks when you judge them as untidy with your ridiculously high standards, you have a poor choice in friends…Skye, really? And that's about half of the list." Fitz recalled. Jemma rolled her eyes.

"You're a terrible human being, you know that?"

"You've told me many times over the years. At least 1000, I'd say. Maybe I should add that to the list." Fitz groaned.

"Well, if I wrote a list about your faults…let's be honest, it'd be a novel…number one would be you DON'T STOP TALKING." Jemma said.

"Well why don't I just leave you to your work then, if I talk so bloody much?" Fitz suggested.

"Smartest thing you've ever said."

"Fine!"

"Good!"

…

The second Jemma got home she ran up to her room, fell onto her bed and screamed into her pillow. She wasn't looking forward to the year ahead, and definitely not the next four months having to work with Fitz outside of lessons for at least an hour a week.

The task was tedious enough; decide upon any part of the body and write a joint report of 5000 words on it. Jemma herself could easily do that in a week, yet she not only had four months to do it, but had to work with Fitz too? Oh, Mrs Henderson.

She knew the hardest part would be agreeing with Fitz on anything; it'll probably take them two months just to agree on what to focus the report on.

"Hey love, how was your first day?" Jemma's mother asked as she burst into her room.

"Fitz is in every one of my classes, and not only do I sit next to him in biology but I have to work with him on a project outside of class for four whole months! We exchanged emails after the lesson and he is adamant that he has to come over here whenever we work together; I'm not allowed in his house, it seems. The cheek of the guy!" Jemma complained.

"Oh, I'm sorry honey. Look on the bright side."

"What bright side?" Jemma wondered.

"Um…he might bring over some shortbread now and again?"

…

Fitz first came round on Friday at 5pm so they could choose what to focus their project on. However, she was not going to let him take too much control, so had prepared a brief essay on why they should focus on the brain to try and convince him. He'd probably want to focus on the toenail or something just to spite her.

"No shoes on in the house." Jemma explained the second she opened the door to him.

"Hello to you too." Fitz said. Jemma immediately groaned as she pointed at the side of the hallway, where pair after pair of shoes were lined up against the wall. Fitz nodded as he took off his shoes and put then on the end of the line.

"Mum and dad are out shopping, so we have the place to ourselves." Jemma said.

"Oh, that's good because I'm actually in love with you and now we can share our passion without worrying about being caught." Fitz grinned.

"…Sorry?" Jemma asked, confused.

"…It was a joke, Simmons." Fitz sighed.

"Not a funny one." Jemma said.

"Did you leave your sense of humour with your shoes?" Fitz grinned.

"No. In fact, I wanted us to be alone so it gave me time to hide your body before they got back. THAT was a joke." Jemma smiled.

"Not a funny one." Fitz said as Jemma led him upstairs to her bedroom.

"Everything tidied up and not a speck of dirt in sight. How unsurprising." Fitz commented as he walked in and placed his bag on her bed, looking around.

"Can we just get on?" Jemma asked as she sat on her bed, picking up her folder of notes from the table beside her.

"…Okay, not one for small talk." Fitz sighed.

"Look, I never thought you'd ever be in my bedroom and I'd rather get rid of you sooner rather than later, that's all. You might stink up the place." Jemma said.

"Ouch, hit me where it hurts, Simmons. I'm deeply offended." Fitz sighed sarcastically, pulling out the contents of his bag as he sat on the bed.

"Good." Jemma faked a smile.

"You're single right?" Fitz asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Again, unsurprising."

"Shut up. At least I haven't been single for my entire life." Jemma stated. Fitz didn't respond to that, just stayed sat in silence.

Jemma would normally worry she'd hurt his feelings but she was pretty sure he didn't have any.

"I've prepared an argument as to what I think we should focus on for the project, just so I don't have to endure talking to you for as long as we need to." Fitz said.

Jemma sighed. Here we go.

To her surprise, Fitz took out an essay of his own and saw it was titled 'The Brain'.

"It's the logical choice. There's so much we could talk about, and with a whole four months to work on it we could go easily over 5000 words; she never said we couldn't. The gist of it is-"

Fitz's speech was interrupted by Jemma placing down her own essay, which he quickly deduced was about the brain too.

"…Oh." Fitz said, surprised.

"…I'm a little shocked myself, yes. I thought we'd be discussing this for hours." Jemma admitted.

"Me too. I don't think we've ever agreed on anything before." Fitz replied.

"Except the fact that we both agree the other is annoying." Jemma argued.

"…Apart from that, yeah."

"Okay, the brain it is. Now, we should start off by explaining how the brain connects with the other features of the body." Jemma said.

"Oh Simmons," Fitz chuckled, "you could only be more wrong if you suggested we begin the report with a rap."

Jemma just sighed and refrained from plunging her pen into the boy's curly haired head.

Back to normal, then. This is gonna be a long, long year.