Zinnia and George

People like Zinnia and George, two students in her bio lab.

Zinnia is an attractive Asian girl whose neutral expression seems to be a big smile, like the opposite of resting bitch face. Her expression rarely turns serious unless she's focused or deep in thought. Which she frequently is, resulting in her scoring near the top of every class she's in. To her, the cameras that had been following Ashley around were a distraction to be avoided. Now that they're gone, she has no misgivings against working with Ashley.

George is a white boy with messy, slicked-back hair and carefully maintained stubble. His big passion is jungleball, and his test scores aren't the greatest, but in the lab it's like it's all second nature to him. He just needs to see the things he's working on, rather than a dry sheet of chemical formulas.

George doesn't care about publicity one way or another, but his position on the jungleball team keeps him busy outside of class and his social circle is mostly made up of jocks and girls who are into jocks, neither of which describe Ashley. What they do have in common is that both need some help with the coursework, George to keep his scores up and Ashley to catch up after switching schools.

Upon seeing Zinnia share her notes with George, Ashley asks if she can have a copy too and the helpful girl agrees. After that, the three start working more closely in the lab as well. They are both on board when Ashley suggests meeting up to study together, but Zinnia is **** when Ashley broaches the subject of taking pictures of a study session.

However, she seems to be developing a crush on George, and when he declares himself willing she lets herself be convinced as well. But that's only two new study buddies, and while some pictures with her new friends might be a nice keepsake they won't satisfy the uni's publicity requirements.

So the cheerleaders Ashley shares a class with join in after all, wearing their normal clothes instead of their uniforms. The study session is held in one of their rooms after class, and Ashley sends you a bunch of the pictures they take. First gathered around a table, hunched over a pile of opened books and snack containers, looking all serious. Some group selfies where they smile into the camera. Then they get silly taking pictures of each other in front of a whiteboard, playing teacher as they gesture at the formulas on the board. They don't all have to be pictures for the university after all!

Your are playing a video game with Tibby when you get a message from Ashley with the pictures they took. You message back to tell here you’re happy it’s going so well, and complain about Tibby getting better at video games. She's close to making good on her promise to kick your butt in Smash!

Ash sends you a grinning bunny emoji, laughing at your plight before she gets back to their study session. You're reminded that you have to hit the books too, so you finish the last round (winning by a hair!) and turn off the game. Grabbing an engineering textbook, you curl up on the couch with Tibby and get to it.

She's a surprisingly good study buddy too. She can be very distracting if she wants to, but she knows how to turn down the mischief when she has to as well. Leaning against your body, the cat purrs quietly while you stroke her hair with one hand, the other holding your book open. Much better than sitting at a table and boring yourself, and you know you understand something when you can rephrase it in a way that makes sense to your curious pet.

And then there's the rewards! Allowing yourself a gummy bear or a nilla wafer for every page is nothing compared to having them fed into your mouth by a giggling catgirl, or having her crane her neck to plant an encouraging kiss on your cheek. You soon find you can only take so much of that before you have to put the book down and kiss her back, but as long as you get back to the book eventually that's not a bad thing is it? It's better to take a break every now and then than to study in one long session.

Of course Ashley finds you taking one such break when she comes home, walking into the living room to see the two of you making out on the couch. Your hands are just making their way into Tibby's shirt, while hers hold on to your butt. Ashley laughs, exclaiming, "You two! What exactly are you studying here?"

You break off your kiss to give her a sheepish look. "We uh... we thought we'd do some biology too?"

Tibby grins at her over your shoulder. "We could use an expert though! Tutor us?"