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Day One
The first day of school had always been her favorite day of school and even now at university, even now as a professor at a university that hadn’t changed. Her lab was clean, the floors and counters freshly scrubbed, new supplies thanks to her own generous donation, even the white boards were pristine. She dreaded not getting to spend everyday there but with her research work she could only teach classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The poor lab would be left alone on Tuesdays and Thursdays. At least she could rest easy knowing she’d find everything in its proper place on Wednesday.
Day Two
When Jemma walked into her lab on Wednesday she had to lean on the door to stay standing. Her students walked past her unfazed by the chaos. Her tables are crooked, there’s new equipment, covering the entire back counter, and her white boards, her perfect pristine white board are covered in numbers and equations that she didn’t write.
“Are you okay Dr. Simmons?”
Jemma glanced at the student watching her tentatively. “I-Yes, I’m alright-ah.” Her desk. She couldn’t bare the sight.
“Dr. Simmons?” Another student asked.
“It’s just, I don’t know where all this stuff came from, I’m so sorry for the mess.” She apologized suddenly mortified. Her students only glanced back and forth at each other unsure of what she was rambling about. There were folders on her desk all labeled but with drawings hastily stuffed inside. One of the bottom drawers of the desk was half open with wires dangling out and an old worn looking cardigan hung over the back of the chair.
She could certainly understand the need for the cardigan, the lab’s stayed quite chilly, even in August, but truly it shouldn’t just be left lying about.
“It’s probably Dr. Fitz’s things.”
“Huh?” Jemma looked up, not realizing how transfixed she’d become on the plastic novelty cup of pens and pencils and highlighters sitting in the corner.
“Dr. Fitz,” the student said again, what was his name, she couldn’t even think straight in this disaster area. “He teaches his Tuesday Thursday classes in here.”
Jemma blinked. She didn’t know she’d be sharing her classroom. Her classroom had always been just hers. Although it made sense, to not let a classroom sit empty when they could offer a few more classes.
“Yes, well I may just have to leave a note for him about wiping down these white boards before he leaves.” Jemma spent the first five minutes of class trying to remove all the numbers and symbols from the board, having to resort to using a cleaning spray to remove the last bit of red ink. Honestly who used the red markers. Didn’t he know how impossible they were to clean up.
A short time later Jemma gave the class a quick assignment solely to give her a moment alone with the desk. She gathered up all the manila folders and set them to the side of the desk in a neat pile. The shallow drawer at the center of the desk was in somewhat decent shape although all the supplies she had brought in had been broken into and slid backwards, clanging into the back of the drawer as it was pulled open. She stuffed the pens and pencils back into their original packaging and moved on to the drawer that had been left open. She had a desire to wrap the wires and tie them off neatly with the rubber bands, the one package that had not been opened, but was hesitant not being able to identify what the mysterious machine was. Instead she carefully folded the wires inside and pushed the drawer fully closed.
Maybe this Dr. Fitz would be able to learn by example. If she left her belongings and his in proper order he would understand that that was what she expected of their shared space.
Day Three
Jemma walked into class on Friday expecting her space would be neat and that this Dr. Fitz would have taken the hint. To her dismay Dr. Fitz was a bit denser than expected. Equations covered all three wall-length white boards once more. On a positive note her stuff was miraculously unmoved. However, it was buried. The same manila folders sat sloppily on the desk, now stuffed with more loose papers and one even had a long equation scribbled across it.
More drastic measures were going to have to be taken.
A shopping trip would have to be made.
In the meanwhile she cleaned the desks and whiteboards once more. At ease knowing that thanks to her schedule that when Monday rolled around everything would be exactly where she left it.
Day Four
On Monday morning, Jemma entered a shopping bag in each hand, she had purchased a multi-tier tray and a drawer organizer as well as additional pens, pencils, high lighters, dry erase markers, removing the red ones and leaving them at home, and a package of labels.
She was currently rummaging through her purse and dropped the bags down on her desk unaware of the mess spread across it until she heard the flutter of papers as they fell to the floor. She looked up and was startled to see not just the usual folders but a pile of sketches all draw by obviously different hands with an application stapled to the back.
She picked one up, not wanting to pry but determined to figure out what happened. Her room should have been empty all weekend. His classes were Tuesdays and Thursdays and they didn’t have any Saturday classes that semester.
“What do you think?” Jemma turned to look at the student that had snuck up on her. Hope, a bright intelligent girl, only three classes in and Jemma could see her being head of the class.
“I’m sorry.”
“It was my submission for Dr. Fitz’s Robotics and Engineering Club.”
A club, of course.
Jemma took a moment to really look at the design. It was quite brilliant. “It’s fantastic.”
Hope shot her a beaming smile.
Jemma got her class settled, focusing on teaching and deciding to worry over the mess before lunch.
“You cleaned, that was your solution.” Bobbi looked at her exasperated.
“Simmons you could teach a class on how to be passive aggressive.” Daisy waved her fork at her, splattering her with cheese sauce with the motion.
“Only if I can teach it on Tuesday and Thursday so I can have my classroom back to myself.”
“And Saturday?” Daisy teased.
Jemma looked up with a spark of hope. “Maybe I can start a chemistry club, or biology and you could help.” She turned excitedly to Bobbi.
“Not a chance, I need my days off, both of them.”
“It doesn’t even make sense for him to be in that room, physics, robotics, engineering, they are completely different from biochemistry.”
“It was an available classroom Jemma, the university doesn’t care what its being used for as long as its being used.”
“That’s easy for you to say, your room can only be used as a computer lab.”
“Jemma why don’t you just talk to the guy about it, I’m sure he’d clean up after himself if he knew it was sending you into hysterics.”
“He’s only here on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I can’t get away from the lab.” She groaned and dropped her head into her hands. “What am I going to do.”
“Hire a maid?”
Day Six
By Friday she snapped. At the end of the day after the students poured out of the classroom Jemma hung back with a pen and a brand new stack of sticky notes in her hands. She surveyed the room carefully making a quick but though list of all the points that need to be addressed. First and foremost the white board.
Please wipe clean the white boards at the end of the day.
She pulled off the sticky note and stuck it to the board. After staring at it for a moment she began to write again and stuck a second note next to it.
Please also refrain from writing with red markers.
A half hour later and the room was left perfect and spotted with polite bursts of color asking that it be kept as such. Finally, Jemma turned to collect her belongings to leave when she noted Dr. Fitz’s cardigan hanging on the back of the chair. She hadn’t left a note about it. But he’d likely get the picture.
Day Seven
On Monday morning Jemma returned to her classroom ready for a new week and a new start with her classroom roommate. She stopped short when she caught sight of her sticky notes unmoved.
“What?!” Jemma dropped her belongs at the desk before circling the room, examining the notes. Not even budged. Not one out of place.
Had he just ignored them?
“We didn’t have our robotics club this weekend.” Jemma looked around at Hope who was standing behind her with a knowing smile on her face. “Dr. Fitz wasn’t here yet.”
“Oh.”
Well at least he wasn’t ignoring her.
Day Eight
Jemma just stood outside the classroom door on Wednesday. She was desperate now and dreading the thought of having to scrub the whiteboards once more. Steeling her nerve she pushed open the door. She examined the room from a distance at first, it looked perfect.
Her eternal optimism had taken a hit in the last week and she suspected that he simply missed his Tuesday classes. Upon closer inspection she noticed her sticky notes were gone. With a renewed energy she dashed to her desk. It was clean, neat and free of scraps of papers with doodles of circuit wiring and monkeys.
In fact the only paper on the desk was a sloppily folded sheet of paper with Dr. Simmons printed across it.
She hesitated. She realized rather suddenly her actions may have been possible to misinterpret. She only meant her notes as requests to keep their shared space clean but now she was sure she was coming off as bossy.
Dear Dr. Simmons,
I’m afraid I owe you an apology, I didn’t even realize I was sharing the room with another teacher. You are extremely tidy. In the future I will try to clean up after myself more thoroughly. If you don’t mind my asking what is the issue with the red markers?
Sincerely, Fitz
Didn’t know? How could he not know? Did he really think a maid was coming in at the end of the day and cleaning up after him?
Jemma flipped over the paper, prepared to write back her own thoughts when someone clearing their throat grabbed her attention. The entire class was seated in front of her, obviously waiting on class to begin.
Oh this Fitz fellow was going to be an even bigger problem than she originally thought.
Day Nine
Dr. Simmons,
I’ll admit I sometimes get tunnel vision while I’m working on something. I certainly don’t remember the state that I left all my papers in. I appreciate that you’ve tried to put them in some order for me, especially with the trays. I hope I’ve left the desk acceptable today.
Thanks for the info about the red markers. I used them because they last longer, I guess that’s because no one else is using them.
Sincerely Fitz
Jemma reread the note trying to decipher his tone. She had read his first one with some hostility but now she thought she couldn’t tell. Was it sarcasm or was he genuinely apologizing for his oversight.
She reviewed the desk. He certainly tried to clean it. He was using the tray although Jemma couldn’t make much sense of his organizational system. She wished she knew more about him. She would be able to make better sense of his actions.
“Have either of you met him?” Jemma asked her friends while they ate their lunch in Daisy’s classroom.
“I can’t believe you are dwelling on this so much.” Daisy said, “he’s cleaning up his mess, what more do you need.”
“I just can’t figure out if he’s doing it because he’s genuinely sorry or because he doesn’t want another reprimanding from annoying Dr. Simmons.”
“Jemma you’re not being annoying, if he’s sharing the space he should be considerate and clean up his mess,” Bobbi interjected, “that being said I do think your obsessing.”
Jemma groaned.
“Look you’ve not seen him yet, you probably won’t see him at all given your schedules but if it make you feel better, I’ll do a little spying for you.” Daisy offered.
Jemma looked at her suspiciously. “Don’t do anything creepy.”
Day Twelve
“He’s cute.”
“Who is?”
“Your roommate.”
“Huh?”
“Dr. Fitz.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted to know.” Jemma rolled her eyes as she and Daisy walked down to the courtyard.
“Not in a movie star, take me now, kind of way, but I could see him being your type, he’s got really nice eyes.”
“Daisy.”
“He’s a huge nerd too, got his doctorate young, like you young.” She continued on. “Teaches a few different classes this semester, physics, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering which I think might be his favorite as it’s the only one he is consistently on time to.” She grinned. “He does have a tendency to be late to his classes which I know would normally be a deal breaker for you but he’s British, Scottish specifically I think, so I thought that gained him back enough points to cancel it out.”
“Daisy I wanted to know more about his attitude, I wasn’t looking to date him, just live with him.”
Daisy smirked and Jemma shoved her shoulder. “You know what I mean.”
“He seems like a cool guy.” Daisy said honestly. “The students really like him, he’s got a full classroom for a Saturday robotics club so he must be doing something right, quiet, I tried talking to him a couple times, hard to get a conversation started but if you hit the right topic he’s got a lot to say.” She paused. “I imagine you two would spend a lot of time talking over each other.”
“Again Daisy, I’m not looking for a boyfriend.”
“I wasn’t implying anything that time, just stating my opinion.”
Jemma sighed. Based on what Daisy had told her she had to assume Fitz’s attempts to keep the classroom clean were real.
When she got back to the room after lunch she had a few minutes before her next class and decided to scribble down a note to Fitz.
Do you know the color method of categorizing a lab?
Day Fourteen
No?
Day Fifteen
I get the B is for Blue is for Biological bit but what is Ecru and where do I find folders in that color.
Jemma laughed at the note she found on her desk on Friday Morning. Any concerns she still had regarding his commitment to organizing their lab were gone and replaced with an excitement that came whenever she took on a new project or in this case a new challenge.
Day Sixteen
Will you need all three whiteboards for you class Wednesday? I need to do a large scale diagram but will need it for both of my classes this week. I can come in early and redraw, but it would be more consistent to just leave it up.
Jemma frowned. She tended to use all of the boards during class. Not necessarily for notes but when a student asked a question she usually went for the nearest one to break down the problem so that everyone can see it. She supposed she could compromise for just the week.
At the bottom of his note she wrote back.
Just leave me a corner and I’ll make due.
Day Nineteen
Thank you for letting me hog the whiteboard for the week. I’m working on a solution.
Solution? It had hardly been a problem, why would it need a solution.
She hoped she hadn’t made a big deal of it. She was actually rather impressed with the diagram he had had to draw up for his students and left Dr. Fitz and series of a questions about what exactly it was all to be left with a copy of the students’ assignment with notes in the margins.
Day Twenty-Two
It was supposed to be like any other day. She didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary. Certainly not a handful of students excitedly waiting by the classroom door. As she passed between them to open the door giggles and shushes overtook her.
“A good morning?” She asked.
“Excellent breakfast in the dining hall.” One of them hurriedly explained.
Jemma pushed open the door not sure what to expect. At first glance nothing appeared different. She set her stuff down, checking the desk for any notes from Fitz. Nothing today. With a twinge of disappointment she took her seat and looked up at the class.
She was startled to find nearly the entire class seated a good five minutes before class was set of begin.
“Eagar to learn this morning?”
“It’s a good learning day don’t you think?” Flint, a charismatic young man at the nearest lab station, replied. “Everyone’s here, we should get started.”
Still unsure what was going on Jemma grabbed up a couple dry erase markers and moved to the board to write down the agenda for the day. She was three points down when she realized something wasn’t right. Her eyes moved to the metal frame. It was different. In stopped midway down? She ran her hand over the edge. It was raised?
She stepped back and stared at the board.
“Bottom corner.”
Jemma glanced at Hope who pointed to the corner where a metal lip protruded out far enough to get a good grip on it. She took hold of it and with surprising ease the entire board slide on a track that had been installed.
A sliding whiteboard of course. And here she was just going to request those bulky mobile ones.
“Dr. Fitz installed them this weekend.”
“Yeah, he said he put in a request to have them added but that he’d see us all graduate before maintenance came to install them.” Jemma snorted at the insult, knowing the classroom was almost entirely freshman. She was impressed though, at his proactive nature and more than a little flattered that he wanted to surprise her with the boards instead of just telling her what his plan was.
“Well you know what this means don’t you?” Jemma said enthusiastically to the class who looked back uncertainly. “More room for notes!”
A collective groan echoed through the classroom as Jemma happily slide the white board down to the other end.
Day Twenty-Four
I’m glad you liked the surprise. Keeping the students quiet about anything is miracle.
“We think he likes you.”
“Excuse me?” Jemma asked
“Dr. Fitz, you two would make a really cute couple.”
Jemma felt herself blushing at Tess and Hope’s implications.
“Now that’s rather silly considering we haven’t actually met before.”
They looked stunned. “Really?!” Tess asked in disbelief.
“Do you girls have your assignments ready?” She asked, moving past the awkward and inappropriate topic they had started on.
They handed over their assignments. Jemma was excited to read over them. Hope, especially, was a brilliant student and excelling at biology even though her real interest was engineering. Although that true love of hers often seeped into her papers and Jemma had to do research of her own to properly grade the assignment. She wondered briefly if she could have Dr. Fitz take a look over the girl’s work to insure she was fairly grading.
It would be nice to finally meet the man in person.
Day Twenty-Six
I’m sorry we weren’t able to meet up, you’re right, it is strange we haven’t met in person. Hopefully our schedules will lighten up soon. I took a look at Hope’s paper and left some notes, let me know if it helps. I may have also left some notes on a few of the other essays. Just where I thought it might be beneficial
Jemma’s eye brow arched as she read the note on her desk. She quickly pulled the pile of essays from the proper tray where Fitz had left them waiting for her. She flipped through them quickly at first and smiled at the sight of brightly colored sticky notes. Upon closer inspection she found they held commentary on nearly every students’ work.
Hope’s paper sat on top.
She brilliant, you don’t even have to take the time to read it just stick an A on it and use the time to make a nice cup of tea.
The majority of them were more helpful. This one is choppy. This point was well researched but wordy.
And on the occasional note he was direct and funny, she would admit out loud only if her arm was twisted.
You’ll need coffee with this one.
I’m not sure how this one ever made it into your class.
I’ve stuck a neon orange sticky note on every page to help keep you awake.
“More notes from Dr. Fitz.” Jemma looked up at the door where Daisy had peaked her head in.
“Maybe.”
“Is that maybe a yes.”
Jemma didn’t reply.
“Are we on for lunch at the new campus café?”
“Yes.”
“Great, see you later.” Jemma nodded goodbye to her friend and leaned back in her chair. The sleeve of Fitz’s sweater was draped over the arm of the chair and Jemma found herself unknowingly tracing the cable knit design with her finger.
Day Thirty
She was finally feeling better. Days of being at home. Days of being not at work. Days of being holdup in her bed blowing her nose, watching obscure movies and barely keeping down any food, she was done with it.
It may have been her childhood perfect attendance awards mocking her from their shelf all the way from her parents’ home in Sheffield, but she absolutely hated missing school. Even as the teacher. She had and stuck to a thorough lesson plan and absences tended to throw that off schedule.
The other professors had done what they could to cover for her. Bobbi even covered her office hours.
She did expect to play some catch up and even came in early to sort through whatever mess the subs had left behind.
To her pleasant surprise her desk was perfect. Not even a sticky note out of place.
In her drawer was her daily note from Fitz. She had missed them. A fact she realized on her third day stuck at home. The note wasn’t that long.
Everything should be exactly where you left it. I hope you’re feeling better.
Day Thirty-Five
Their notes were starting to get flirtatious. Maybe. Hers were. She hoped they were. She had honestly never been very good at the flirting thing. Bobbi tried to help sometimes when they went out. Daisy had given up long ago.
It was even harder for her on paper. She wasn’t really an emoji person in text messages so adding a cutest smiley face to her notes seemed out of place.
She asked him about his work instead.
Day Thirty-Nine
Their notes had become letters and her tiny crush on him had grown into something intense considering they still had yet to meet in person or even talk. She considered scribbling down her phone number at the bottom many of times but chickened out.
The students were going in to finals mode now. Starting to look panicked and tired. She tried to ease them through it without taking away from the importance of her own exam. She even took a day off of work at the lab to devote entirely to office hours. She secretly hoped she’d have a moment to step away and peek in on Fitz’s class but her students grabbed up her time like lifelines.
It occurred to her that finales meant that the semester was coming to an end. She had only about two weeks left of sharing her classroom with Fitz. Then it was winter break and then what?
She had written a letter back to Fitz while her students were identifying slides. But took a few minutes at the end of the day to add to it.
What’s next semester look like for you?
Day Forty
Actually I’m not teaching next semester. Not technically at least. I’ll be supervising a team of students who have been selected for a program at Stark Industries. I bet you’ll be excited to have your classroom back all to yourself.
Jemma set the letter aside without finishing it. She’d come back to it later. She really should be getting ready for class.
Day Forty-One
“You okay Jemma, you’re not eating much.” Bobbi and Daisy were both making a bigger deal out of her half-eaten lunch than necessary.
“Do you want something else, I can go back through the line.”
“I’m fine, I had a big breakfast.”
Day Forty-Two
Hey Simmons, I hope your alright. The kids said you hadn’t missed class, but you didn’t leave a note or anything. Though I guess you might not have had anything to say. Or maybe finales are stressing you out. I hated taking them, I wish I didn’t have to inflict them on my students. Sorry if this is bothering you.
Jemma frowned. Did she imply at some point that he was bothering her. She thought she had made it clear that she didn’t mind sharing her lab with him. It had become their lab over the course of the semester.
I’m fine, I think it is just stress. Or maybe the cold.
Day Forty-Three
Her classroom was freezing. Her students had come in bundled from the chill outside and opted to leave their hats and scarves on. She had pulled on her lab coat over her jacket and was still shivering. When she dropped down into her chair she felt immediately warmer. Fitz’s wool cardigan was tossed over the back of the chair as it always was, the thick cable knit texture quick to capture her body heat as it tried to escape.
Maybe she could? No, she definitely shouldn’t. He already thought she was annoying, if she borrowed his sweater without his permission that was crossing the line into creepy.
Day Forty-Four
The last official day of classes left no time to be cold. Maintenance had been in and out all day long trying to fix the heating issue to no avail and she had spent the day weaving in between the intruders, moving from board to board and answering any question her students could throw at her.
When she was packing up at the end of the day after finally clearing her classroom of worried freshman she eventually found herself staring at a blank sheet of paper. She should say something. It was her last chance to leave a message for him. Her phone number. She could just leave her phone number and if he wanted to call her he could and if not, well he wouldn’t be here for the next few months anyways.
Have a good winter break. She wrote. She tapped her pen a few times before setting down the pen. She stood, turned out the lights and left the room.
Day Forty-Five – Finales
She chose to oversee her finale exams. Many of the professors left the students on their own but Jemma felt that if they had to sit through it, she should go through it with them. It would have been nice if they had fixed the heat in the week since the last day of class.
Fitz had left his sweater behind. Based on the schedule his finales were over and done with. It was a shame, it really was a nice one. Handmade maybe. He mentioned his mother a couple times in passing during their letters. She seemed like the type to knit him a sweater. Jemma played with the cuff of the sleeve.
She really was freezing. And he had just abandoned the sweater. When the cleaning crew came in over break they’d probably toss it. She considered that a terrible waste.
Giving up her resolve she pulled off her lab coat and tugged on the sweater.
It was nice and warm and smelled like wool and soap. It was a very pleasant combination.
She glanced up at her class to make sure none of them had dozed off from exhaustion. Everyone looked alert enough. Including a few students who had apparently been watching her and quickly redirected their eyes.
It was an hour into the exam when the classroom door opened. She stood to request the disruption leave only to come face to face with a man she didn’t know. She blinked a couple of times, prepare to tell him he had the wrong classroom, only to freeze when she saw his eyes drawn to the stolen sweater.
Oh god. It was him. This was Fitz. He was cute. She thought as she recalled Daisy’s words from the beginning of the semester. And he did have really beautiful eyes, bright blue and looking at her shocked.
Because she was wearing his sweater. Because she was a creepy teacher who couldn’t bring her own sweater to the classroom she knew was negative 20 degrees.
“I’m sorry. Here.” She pulled off the sweater hastily. “I-I was cold and uh, I figured you weren’t coming back for it, obviously I was wrong and I’m uh sorry.”
Fitz stared back at her. He was looking directly at her face and ignoring the sweater in her hands.
“I can have it cleaned, I only wore if for like an hour but I don’t mind.”
“I didn’t come back for the sweater.”
She likes his voice. Daisy was right again.
“I didn’t want to finish this semester and not meet you, really meet you,” he explained. “Not that our messages weren’t great, I enjoyed them and then they stopped and I thought you were angry with me or that I said something that offended you-“
“You didn’t.” She interrupted.
“I didn’t?”
“No – uh – I actually,” She stopped. It suddenly occurred to her that they had an audience. Most of the students were not even giving the illusion that they were still focused on their exams. “Can we talk in the hall.”
“Yeah, that would be better.” She followed Fitz out the door into the quiet hallway. They stood in silence, the momentum of there conversation before had halted.
“You didn’t offend-“
“Are you sure I didn’t say something-“
“No-“
“But then-“
“I was angry – but not at you!” She insisted her voice raising. “I was frustrated with myself, I wanted to meet you and I just wouldn’t put myself out there and it would have taken two seconds to write down my phone number or ask to meet up and then you were leaving and the notes were going to stop and I didn’t want them to but I was scared I liked you more than you liked me and – “
She was cut off suddenly by a hand on her cheek and a pair of lips on hers. It was quick and tentative kiss and he stepped away from her all in the same motion.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay, that was certainly welcome and needed or I may have just kept going.” She laughed. Her lips tingled. She’d never kissed someone within five minutes of meeting them. It was strange. But very nice.
He smiled nervously down at her. “I was thinking about keeping up the robotics club, so I’ll be around at least some next semester, maybe you could come by some time.”
“I could do that.” She agreed. “But those meeting are pretty far apart, maybe we could squeeze in a dinner or two in between.”
“Yeah, that would be nice, better even.”
“I think so too.” She glanced back at her classroom. “I have to stick around till the end of this exam are you –“
“I’ll hang around for a bit.”
“Good.” She held out his sweater to him and a means of concluding their conversation. Not that she wanted it to end.
“You hang on to it.”
“Yeah, its cold.”
“Thanks, see you in a bit.”
He nodded. She smiled and opened the door to her classroom, pulling on the cardigan as she went. As she entered a chorus of ‘oooo’s’ echoed through the room.
“Eight year olds, I’m teaching a bunch of eight year olds.” She muttered.