Work with Christina, let Vignesh work with Ruby

“Now, since this is a freshman class, for many of you, this will be your first quiz in college,” Professor Luck says. A small smile creeps onto her face, as if she’s reminiscing on old memories. “It’s understandable if you get nervous, so both the quiz today and on Friday will both be completed in pairs. You can pick who you want to work with, so as soon as you know who you’re partner is, you can come up to me and pick up a quiz. Remember, the one today is only twenty minutes long, but the one next class will last the whole hour! Alright? Alright! Now, go find your partners!”

You instantly give Vignesh a small shove, and he practically falls out of his chair and into Ruby’s.

“Uh… hey Ruby,” he says, giving her a smile. “Want to work together?”

“Of course I do,” she says brightly. “You’re always so quick with the answers in class!”

You don’t get a chance to catch the rest of their conversation, because you’ve got a partner of your own to secure.

“Christina,” you call out, catching the cute Asian girl’s attention from halfway across the room.

“Alex!” she calls back, scrambling across the room to get to you. “Let’s do this, yeah?”

“We’ll do East Hall proud,” you say with a smile.

There’s a bunch of people shouting and talking, and you see that a few pairs have already gone up to Luck to get their quiz. It doesn’t take long before you and Christina collect yours, and you huddle down by her desk, quickly reading over the problems.

“Okay, only two problems, both proofs,” Christina mutters, looking over the page. She bites her lip, and then glances at you. “Do you want to take problem one, and I’ll take number two?”

“Good plan,” you nod. “And if we’re got time left over at the end, we can check each other’s answers.”

With that, Christina rips off a piece of scratch paper from her notebook, and begins to frantically scribble down some definitions that seem like they might be relevant to her problem. You take a minute to read over your problem carefully, thinking about how you can go about solving it. It reminds you of another that was on the last homework, and you suspect that a similar technique might let you solve this one too.

You finally put pen to paper, sketching out an outline of the things that you need to show. The first few steps of the proof come quickly—induction tends to be that way—but then you get stuck, and stare at the paper, wondering what should come next. Christina, for her part, looks focused on her page as she draws a diagram, something to do with overlapping boxes.

Turning back to your page, you write down an equation that is technically true, but gets you no closer to solving the problem. But maybe if you manipulate it a bit, multiply that side by an expression equal to one… nope, still nothing.

You sigh and glance over at Ruby and Vignesh. The two of them are working closely together, heads leaned close to one another. They seem to be having a good time, glancing at one another, quietly giggling. Ruby’s doing most of the writing, and Vignesh a lot of talking. Meanwhile, you’re still stuck on your problem. You glance at Christina.

“How’s it looking?” you ask.

“I think I’m getting somewhere,” she says, though she doesn’t sound awfully confident. “No, not really, this makes no sense… What about you?”

“Kind of making progress? But it’s—wait, how the fuck are they done already?” you ask, pointing at Ruby and Vignesh.

They’ve just handed the quiz in after something like five minutes, and they return to their desks, chatting and laughing.

“That kid’s a god-damned genius,” Christina sighs. She pokes you in the arm. “I was kinda hoping you would be the same.”

“Who’s to say that I’m not?” you say, flashing her a cheeky grin. “Maybe we should talk over the problems together, like they did. Who knows, I might even be kind enough to share all the answers!”

Christina chuckles, shaking her head, but she turns her papers towards you. “Alright, so here’s the problem, I need to construct a set with these two properties…”

It takes her a minute or so to explain what she’s got down so far, and you immediately recognise what you need to do next, some intuition clicking in the back of your head.

“Hold up a sec,” you say, grabbing Christina’s arm. She glances up at you curiously, her dark eyes interested. You scribble down a couple lines onto her page, pausing only to double-check your work, and then you turn the page back to face her. “How does this look?”

She looks it over for a moment.

“You are a genius,” she exclaims, her eyes shining bright, and you swear that you could kiss her in the moment. If only there weren’t so many people around and a class quiz to complete…

“Only on Wednesdays,” you say, brushing your thumb across her cheek instead. “Let’s work on my problem now.”

“Somebody’s feeling bold,” Christina says, her gaze lingering on your hand, but then she pulls up your page, looking at your attempt at a solution so far. “Oh! I know this!”

It’s her turn now to scribble on your page. It takes her a minute longer than you to work out the answer—there’s some nasty algebra involved—but then the answer pops out at the end, clear as day.

“Turns out I’m a genius on Wednesdays too,” she says with a smile.

“Or we should have just started with each other’s problems,” you say.

She shrugs, saying: “Same difference.”

The two of you take a couple minutes more to write your answers up in a more legible manner, and then head up to Professor Luck to hand in your quiz, only the third or fourth set of partners to do so.

“We killed it,” you say, as the two of you return to your seats.

“Fuck yeah,” Christina says, giving your arm a quick squeeze, and the two of you quietly talk some hall gossip until Luck announces the end of the quiz and begins lecturing again.

Vignesh +15
Christina +10