SUMMER HEARTS // Quackity X Reader

19

You plopped down in your seat next to Tercero with a smile, pulling out your laptop and your notebook. "Hey."

Per usual, he was buried in his phone, but looked up when you sat down, smiling at you in greeting. He slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Hey."

You had had to brace yourself walking into Classics today, expecting Tercero to ask you a million questions about your date with Alex a few nights ago, but he seemed perfectly normal. Internally, you sighed with relief, thankful that you weren't going to have to deal with that today. Hopefully, you would get time to work on your project in class today and actually coerce Tercero into helping you with the slides too-

"How was your weekend?" Tercero asked, nonchalantly twiddling a pencil between his fingers. "I mean, you had that date obviously, but, uh anything else?"

You tried not to be too disappointed. You had known this was coming. 

"Other than the date, not much." You said, playing it off as Professor Bernal took his place at the front of the room. 

"Good morning class." He greeted. The class muttered 'good morning' back. 

"How did that go?" Tercero asked. "Did you have a nice time?"

You nodded. "Yes, it was very nice."

Professor Bernal picked up his marker, scrawling the words 'work day' on the board. "As it happens," He started. "I have a bit of a headache today, and would rather spend my time nursing a nice cup of tea... but feel free to use the time to work on your projects and ask questions if you have any."

"Great." You said, opening up your laptop and pulling up the slides. You had touched on a few more things over the weekend, and were pleased to say that your sections of the presentation were coming along nicely. As you progressed, (and with some extra help from Alex) you were learning your way around Mexican law and Spanish legal terminology.

"So, I was thinking that for you sections-" You started. 

"I didn't think Alex looked like that." Tercero interrupted you. "I mean, he's kind of scrawny, right? I don't know, I always pictured him bigger, since you said he was really good looking."

"I think he's really hot." You said. "But anyway, have you added anything to your slides?"

"Uh, yeah a couple things." Tercero said, clicking around on his laptop. On your own screen, you checked the pieces of the slideshow he had been working on (significantly less pages than you) to see significantly less information than on any of your slides. 

You resisted the urge to groan aloud. 

Tercero was an angel for being nice to you those first few weeks of class, and you couldn't thank him enough for that. It was hard enough sliding into a culture and a country that you didn't know, harder when you weren't entirely fluent in their language. He had been patient and kind and exactly what you needed those first few days. 

Were you beginning to suspect that he had only done so because he thought you were hot and wanted to date you (especially with how he acted when you brought up Alex)? Yes. Was he still one of your only friends here? Yes. 

It was honestly not the best situation to be in. But, you couldn't really change it. 

"What else are you going to add?" You asked, hoping to prompt Tercero into actually working some. You really didn't want to get a bad grade for your midterms because of him. 

He shrugged. "I don't know, I'll probably go back through the book and add some more stuff from the text."

"Right, but the point of it being a mock trial is that you have to use outside sources too." You said. "So, for one of my points, I actually found a case - or well, Alex told me about a case - where the guy did almost the same thing-"

"I know he's a law student but what else does he do?" Tercero asked. "He doesn't look like he plays any sports or anything."

"He games." You said. "Anyway, like I was saying, if you could link an actual court case yo some of your evidence, it would make your slides so much stronger-"

"He games?" Tercero bit back a laugh. "Geez- no offence, but really? A gamer?"

"He's really funny and nice, and we should be working on the project right now." You insisted, looking through Tercero's slides some more. 

"It's a good thing he's funny, 'cause I'm not seeing much else." Tercero chuckled, pulling his phone out from his pocket. 

"You're being really rude right now." You said, desperately trying not to snap. You needed him for this project, but then as soon as you were done, you were going to drop him immediately. He was being such a jerk for absolutely no reason.

Tercero glanced sideways up at you. "I'm just trying to make a joke, calm down." He said.

"Jokes are meant to be funny." You said tersely, going back to your own work. You were almost done with your part of the presentation - you only needed a few more final touches and then anything else would just be extra material to work with. 

Tercero just rolled his eyes, going back to scrolling on his phone and paying the laptop with his slides open no mind. 

You resisted the urge to tell him off again, not wanting to risk him getting all moody and completely giving up on the project for the day - even if you really wanted to tell him that his part of the slideshow looked bad and had almost no support. 

You sighed, going back to your half. If only you had picked a different partner for the project. Someone who would put in as much work as you, and not just waste the time scrolling away on their phone for hours. Even further than that - if only you had kept walking on the first day of class and ignored Tercero calling you over to sit next to him. 

You glanced at your partner again and sighed. There was nothing you could do about it now.