#stem romance

As she stormed up the stairs to the TA coordination overseer’s office, Elsie thought to herself that this was perhaps the most anger she had ever allowed herself to feel in all twenty-one years of her life thus far. Worse than her flare of irritation at Ceecee months before for allowing her evil spikeball to eat the rare cheese collection Elsie had sprung for as a self-gifted birthday present, certainly worse than that time when that same spiny ball of fury had taken a midday nap on the seat of her office chair,  and somehow, worse than the fateful publication in Annals of Theoretical Physics that had undermined her future field of study entirely for years to come. 

Yes, all of that certainly paled in comparison to the events that had been set into motion only days before when she had, naively and idiotically, she might add, assumed that becoming an undergraduate TA in the last year of her degree could lead to nothing but good things. A boost on her grad school applications? Check. The ability to endow the incoming freshmen with a lifelong love and passion for physics? Double check. Co-TA-ing with the absolute blight on theoretical physics that was Jack Smith Turner? Who also happened to be six and a half feet of unfairly cruel gorgeousness? Who also also had sealed his fate as her sworn enemy since the faithful day he’d taken the last first-row seat in their Physics 110 class?

Unfortunately, quintuple-check, which is why she was currently storming up the stairs to the TA coordination center, only footsteps behind said long-legged perpetual thorn in her side. 

“It isn’t too late to give up and turn around, Jack,” Elsie huffed, mentally making a note to join Cece on her early-morning runs more often as she charged forward, propelled by pure indignation alone. “This is my TA spot, and we both know it.”

“Elsie, for the last time, there is no reason why we can’t just do this together,” Jack sighed, unfairly calm and unbothered-looking for someone who had remained several steps ahead of her since they’d begun climbing four flights of stairs ago. “The class is too large for one TA. You can’t run labs by yourself, an-”

“Oh, I can’t run labs by myself?” Elsie seethed, her rage peaking more steeply than a displacement verses time graph with increasing velocity- a concept that she could certainly teach better than this elitist theoretical-physics-invalidator-robot masquerading as a science undergraduate. Typically, she would never allow herself to snap at anyone the way she was now, but there was something about Jack that single-handedly managed to unravel every last one of her meticulously curated alternate personalities, and she hated him with the fire of a thousand Wolf-Rayet stars for it. The logical part of her brain knew that more likely than not, Jack was only intending to point out the obvious- that a class of two hundred plus only one TA would undoubtedly lead to disaster regardless of said TA’s competence- but something about his tone, so smooth and careful and goddamn patronizing was enough for her to allow her irritation to show quite plainly. 

“Elsie, you and I both know that’s not what I meant.” Jack groaned, halting in front of her to hold open the door, and Elsie had to bite her tongue to hold back her thanks. As she stormed through ahead of him, she thought that she saw his eyes lock onto her face for a moment, his gaze rapt with attention. His next words were a bit softer, more likely than not an attempt to placate her into not begging the coordinator to remove him from the course. “You’re smarter than deliberate misinterpretations.” 

Elsie couldn’t quite think of a sufficiently snappy response. She settled on, “You don’t know that,” which was admittedly not exactly her best scathing retort. 

“I’d like to think I do.” 

Elsie paused at the note of sincerity, her eyes flicking back to meet his, which hadn’t left her since she’d passed him at the door. “If I have even a little bit of luck, which unfortunately seems unlikely considering that I’ve been assigned to TA a year-long class with the guy that tried to delegitimize my entire field of interest when he was seventeen, you’ll never know me well enough to confirm or deny that.” Elsie’s voice was cold now, any hint of teasing gone, and with that, she pivoted sharply. If she had cared enough to see his response, she would have seen his face falling for a fraction of a second before he re-composed himself, steeling his expression once more. 

After bickering back and forth for some time in the hallway outside the heavy oak door over which of the two would plead their case first, the TA coordinator on duty (who happened to be a very underpaid and understandably irritated graduate student volunteer) eventually shouted through the door that the two of them could come in together or flirt somewhere she wasn’t. Shuddering at the thought of seeing Jack in any sort of romantic light, Elsie had pushed open the door first, with Jack hot on her heels. 

After only five minutes of the pair repeatedly cutting off one another and glaring vehemently at each other, the coordinator cut through their chatter with a single raised finger and a glare that entirely silenced both of them more effectively than the mute button on a remote. 

“Enough, please.” The coordinator, whose name according to her desk sign was Ashley, slid her head into her hands in exasperation, her irritation evident. The beads at the end of her blond braids clicked against the thick wooden desk and then her chair as she straightened, facing the two head-on. Her British accent had been more subtle when she had welcomed the pair in, but its increased intensity seemed to be directly correlated with the length of time she spent with the pair. She couldn’t have been any older than twenty-four or twenty-five, but she looked as tired as if she had been dealing with the two for years. “I can’t shuffle the first-year’s TA’s on a whim just because of some…petty rivalry.” 

Both Elsie and Jack surged forward, their words overlapping urgently as they attempted to communicate that no, this was very much more serious than a petty rivalry, but both shut up upon seeing the single finger Ashley raised in anticipation of their protest. “It’s not my job to understand the distinction between a petty rivalry and whatever layered conflict the two of you have going on, nor is it my job to mediate said conflict, but it is my job to make sure that this class is staffed. The two of you will be working together, whether you like it or not, so I would suggest making your way to the counselling office instead.” Ashley’s eyes slid between the two of them, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe they can help you two sort out all this… tension.” 

Elsie and Jack, understanding all at once that they had managed to push Ashley to the end of her rope, rose from their seats and shuffled to the door as if they had been put in time-out. 

As they began down the hallway, Elsie’s ballet flats clicking sharply against the navy-tiled floor, Elsie swore she heard Ashley add under her breath, “...Or, you two could just hook up already and stop subjecting the rest of us to your weirdo version of flirting.”

-ch1, quantum entanglement, by quillthrills on ao3

*Buzz* *BUZZ* *BUZZZZ*

“Oh shit not again.” I look at my phone alarm and see 7:50am. “Damn it.”

I wake up with a blaring headache to my alarm letting me know I slept in Big Time. I rush to put on clothes and get ready before I am flying out of my on campus apartment towards the Biology Building.

I can’t be late. Not after last time. I need to measure my experiment at exactly 8:30 or I am screwed big time. My entire week thrown off. I can’t be late I just can’t.

It’s 8:07 when I get to the Biology building and quickly swipe my card to get in. I rush up the stairs and run into my lab bolting it to the bio safety cabinet (BSC). When I walk in with my lab coat half on I see that my efforts had all been in vain.

Sebastian was working in the BSC and clearly threw my overnights away. The overnights I needed to have grown. The overnights I needed to measure the OD of at exactly 8:30am or my entire week would be ruined. In the f*cking trash.

“Fucking Bastard” I say not thinking he would hear me but as though he was expecting it he turns around with that smug smirk I’ve grown to hate.

“Oh Violet, I didn’t expect you were coming. You were so late I thought you had well… given up on your silly little experiment” he says with a look that tells me he did it fact know I was coming but decided to throw my stuff out anyways.

“Of course I was, you know I was” I respond.

“Oh really, what am I supposed to expect when it’s 8:15 and you’re no where to be seen. Am I supposed to just wait around while you stake claim on the only BSC available for an experimental you’re going to sleep through anyways.” He proclaims angerly.

“It was hardly 8:15, I know for a fact that I entered the lab at 8:09 at the latest.”

“Oh big f*cking whoop. A six minute difference” He scoffs and rolls his eyes.

“Yes big f*cking whoop. I had enough time before 8:30 and you knew that. You just wanted to screw me over.” I retort back.

“And what if I did. Not much you can do about it now. You were late. Deal with it” he says turning back to the BSC.

“You knew I needed to do this today.”

“You aren’t the only one on a time scrunch sweetheart. Better luck next time” he turns one last time “And nice lab coat” before turning back again and putting in his headphones.

“I hate you” I respond, with silence in return. He doesn’t seem to hear me or at least if he does he doesn’t dignify it with a response.

I walk away looking down at my pink lab coat I was gifted. I never usually wear it because of Sebastians teasing but I was running late.

I throw it on the chair at my bench and grab my things to leave. No use being in lab with no experiments to do today.

I walk to the small shoebox of an office I share with poppy and sit down. Poppy hasn’t arrived yet like the rest of the lab who usually arrive at 9. So I allow myself to quietly curse Sebastian and everything he loves.

It doesn’t really make me feel better. So I try to get my mind off of it and I start preparing for the class I TA for at 9:30.

I work on grading for about 30 minutes before realizing that at the rate I am going I might as well be doing nothing. Clearly this isn’t working as a good enough distraction. I am still fuming.

Who does that. I understand possibly using the BSC while I am not there but to straight up throw away my media is insanity. I know me and Sebastian haven’t gotten along since… well thats not important, but the point is I would never do this to him.

What sucks the most is that we used to be friends. Oh how times have changed.

Poppy finally arrives at 8:53 and I explain the whole thing.

“No way did he do that” she responds

“You can go look in the trash for yourself” I reply with a yawn. I really would have been better off sleeping in.

“No it’s fine I believe you. It just. Doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t do this to anyone else. I know y’all had a falling out but this seems extreme.” She replies.

“He’s a demon from Hell who has come to torture me specifically” I state in response while grabbing the grapes from the mini fridge under my desk and popping one in my mouth. “He knows I have my committee meeting next week. It’s like he wants me to not graduate on time. Just another thing for him to make fun of me about I guess.”

“He is just jealous that you’re on tract to graduate early and he’s not. That must be it”

“Yeah you’re probably right” I respond even though I am doubtful that is the reason. If I wanted to argue It would require giving context I am not ready to share. Talk about things I am not ready to talk about. Not now, maybe not ever.

“Well it’s 9:15, you better head to class Violet. You can’t let him get in your head where you can’t do your job” she urges.

I check the time as well and respond “Yeah you’re probably right. No more thinking about him or how much of a dick he is”