Chapter Text
"Good evening, Reese." Professor Stark greeted as the girl with the strawberry blonde hair walked briskly past him. Reese had one thing on her mind, and her focus on getting to it almost caused her to ignore her favorite professor entirely.
"Evening, Professor!" She called back after processing what he had said. She felt it was necessary to reply, not only because it would be rude not to but because she was his star pupil.
The chilly air on campus, mixed with her rushing movements, made her nose burn. She just needed to get to the library, where her new project awaited. Reese was excited but knew it might not last long once she got her volunteer hours in for graduation.
She burst through the double doors to the stone building the students knew as the library and past the books and bookshelves. The place smelled like old literature and printer ink, which had a nostalgic feeling behind it for Reese.
Upon spotting the sheet of paper hanging on a lone pillar in the middle of the room, she hurried over and examined it to see if she had made the cut:
Tutors:
Peter Parker - Mathematics and History
Jane Foster - Astronomy, Physics, English
Reese Majors - Sciences, Mathematics, Spanish
Harley Keener - Engineering and Robotics
Please see Professor Stark for details. Office hours are 8 AM to 5 PM.
Once her name was spotted, she immediately turned back around and through the doors again, hoping she might still be able to catch Stark walking back to his office. Reese picked up her pace, running like the former track star she was until she eventually caught back up to Stark.
"Professor!" She called out between heavy breaths. Man, I need to run more. She thought to herself. Stark pivoted around to face her with a stack of papers in his arm.
"I knew you were going to the library. You could have just stopped me before, Reese." He laughed, shuffling through the papers until he found the one he needed and pulled it out, handing it to her. "Your orders. You start with two mentees, who have already picked the times that work best for them, and when they understand the subject you're mentoring them in, you sign off on them, and I assign you a new mentee. Easy, peasy." He explained.
Without fully absorbing the information, Reese scanned the paper for a moment before thanking Stark and running back to her dorm.
Reese's roommate Yelena was sprawled out on her bed when Reese arrived.
"You been doing cardio?" The Russian woman asked, pointing out Reese's shortness of breath. Reese sat at her tiny desk and skimmed the page that her professor gave her, quickly trying to work out who she was starting with:
Valkyrie Brunnhilde, Monday and Tuesday, 4 PM, Chemistry
Thor Odinson, Wednesday and Thursday, 3 PM, Calculus
The day was Sunday, so her first tutoring session would be the following day with someone she had never seen or heard of.
"Who the hell is Valkyrie Brunnhilde?" Reese asked Yelena, still trying to catch her breath fully. Yelena cocked her head,
"Dunno, why do you ask?"
"I'm supposed to be tutoring her and- fucking Thor, of all people- but I have no clue who she is," Reese explained, falling deeper into her desk chair.
Yelena began to chuckle, "You gotta tutor Thor? That's amazing. It'll be so awkward for you!" She exclaimed. Reese was fully aware of how awkward it would be for her. The only thing that would be worse was if she was tutoring Loki or even Barton. In that respect, she was thankful it was merely Thor.
"It could be a lot worse, but I'm still not happy," Reese stated aloud. Her roommate thought for a moment before agreeing,
"Da, it could be. Why even take on this program? You're busy enough already."
Reese realized how crappy she was about to sound, but if she couldn't be honest with Yelena, she might throw the towel on their friendship. "I need the volunteer hours, and I'm ahead, so I have time to kill." She says with a shrug.
The blonde rolled her eyes, "Right, it's easier counting on your fingers how many spare hours you have in one day. It's eight for sleep." She continued to laugh. Reese wasn't offended, knowing she had put herself in this situation.
Reese sat at a round table in the library, getting everything set up and spread out for her first tutoring session. She was nervous, not knowing who she was meant to work with, but excited to be doing it all the same. The only problem was: her mentee needed to be on time.
She was bookmarking the pages that Doctor Banner was going over in his chem class when she heard a voice speak up from behind her,
"Excuse me, are you Reese?" The English accent asked. Reese turned her body and was immediately stopped dead in the water by the most gorgeous girl she had ever seen.
It was as if the world had stopped turning. This couldn't be my mentee, could she? She's insanely hot! Reese thought to herself, studying her perfect face, long braids, plump lips, and big brown eyes. Reese was always a sucker for brown eyes. Suddenly, even more nervous, she responded.
"I am, yes. And you're Valkyrie?" Reese asked, trying not to trip over her words. The woman smiled at her, and Reese's heart froze at sight: she was simply stunning.
"Yes, but my friends call me Val." She informed, taking the seat next to her. Val took to Reese right away. When she first entered the library, she saw the nearly-red-headed girl with glasses and hoped, even pleaded, with the Gods that she was her tutor. Even if Reese weren't into women, it would still be a treat to Val's eyes.
In Reese's time at this university, she had never seen Val. She was quick to find out why through bits of conversation: she was a transfer student and a sophomore, and ultimately, Reese didn't get out nearly enough to notice this severely captivating woman. Now, she needs help in chemistry: a subject Reese excelled at. Reese was smitten from the jump.
"You sure you need help with this? It seems like you have it down already!" Reese said, complimenting Val for understanding more than she let on. Val gasped,
"Seriously, I don't understand half of this stuff! You just caught me on a good day, I guess." She joked. Reese couldn't imagine Val having a single bad day. Val's laugh was enough to make her nearly double over with heartburn, and her smile was so goddamn sweet that it hurt her jaw.
Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service. Reese thought of the Shakespeare quote. She was never sappy or cheesy with romance or this drawn to anyone. Reese couldn't even remember having this feeling when she first met her ex-boyfriend. Yet, she was always a sucker for pretty girls. Oh, the bisexual woman's plight.
Reese feared that if she were to continue getting lost in her thoughts, she might not be of much help to the beautiful Val, but they got a lot done for their first session, though it seemed time went by far too quickly.
The pair parted ways after exchanging numbers, declaring they would see each other tomorrow. Reese returned to her dorm, where Yelena asked how it went. She explained how it went, sparing details she wanted to keep for herself.
The following evening, Reese was in the library again, setting up at the same table as before. She was anxious to see Val again and planned on getting to know her better in between actual tutoring. Once again, Val was late, but Reese didn't mind.
Once Val arrived, they got to work relatively quickly. This, in part, was because Reese wanted to have some time to spare for banter. They were going over the study guide for the upcoming chem exam, and to no surprise, Val understood it better after a single explanation.
"This stuff really wasn't clicking for me before when Banner was teaching it. You're good at this." Val complimented Reese, which made her blush and quickly diverted her gaze. God, could I be any more transparent? Reese thought to herself.
Though it was difficult for Reese to read Val, Val was taking an internal inventory of how much having a pretty girl talk her through things improved her ability to learn. They continued to sit closer and closer together as the lesson went on, each hovering over the packet and Val's body nearly hugging into Reese's.
Reese wanted to kiss Val, but the idea of attempting froze her. What if she's not into me? What if Val's not into women at all? She thought to herself. Val had the same thoughts scrolling through her head, like the end credits of a movie.
"Alright, ladies. Closing time." The library aid spoke up, spinning a keyring around his finger. They were both startled out of the moment and backed off from each other, disappointed with their time cut short.
Reese hadn't even realized what time it was. Hell, she couldn't even remember whether they had entirely made it through the lesson plan entirely or not. She knew that her time with Val was cut short, and she couldn't bring herself to sort out another time to see her before they declared that they would see each other next week.