Chapter Text
You were vaguely aware of Giovanni Potage’s existence.
Keyword: vague. You’d seen him around on the campus of your school, shared a class or two with him, and sure you had occasionally heard of his rebellious exploits, but that seemed to be it for what you thought about him. You didn’t really give him a second glance when you saw him in the library this random Monday morning.
The library was a place you chose to take solace in, away from your loud roommate and the nosy RA. It wasn’t the kind of place you would have expected to see Giovanni Potage in at all. He was sat at one of the smaller study tables, pouring over what you easily recognized as the textbook for your shared English class. His brow was furrowed in concentration, as he absentmindedly chewed on the tip of his pen and flipped the page he was on rapidly back and forth. He frowned at the page and groaned, wincing when the librarian shushed him from the nearby front desk.
You couldn’t help but be a little nosy, wandering over and peering over his shoulder. You tried to be nonchalant about it, just wanting a glance at what he was struggling with is all, but the moment you were near close enough to try and squint at the book, he whirled around.
You jumped, embarrassingly enough- how had he even noticed you were there?- and he had the nerve to smile a little at you being caught. You stuttered on the thought that he had a somewhat nice smile, before it twisted into more of a smug smirk.
“Heyyy, don’t I know you from somewhere?”. He said, and his eyes darted down to your own textbook in your hands for the exact same class. How he’d spotted it while it was mixed in with several other books, you had no idea.
You pushed your glasses up your nose- a nervous tick, they truly didn’t even need adjusting- and huffed. “Mrs. Smiths class. You having trouble with the homework?”. You taunted a little. If he was going to tease you, you were going to tease him right back.
But he didn’t rise to the bait, sighing as he slumped back in his chair. “Yeah you could say that again. Her work is always the worst! She just never explains stuff right, y’know?”.
You did know. Mrs. Smith had a tendency to go off on tangents, assume students could understand the subtext she left behind and would move on from unit to unit without a trace. You could keep up pretty easily, you’d always been good with English, but you could definitely understand how someone could get confused and left behind. And it seemed that Giovanni had.
You felt a little bad, after all you’d had major struggles with math before in the past and it was never fun to be seriously stuck on a school subject.
“Do you uh, want some help? With the work?”. You tried to sound casual about it, ready to immediately rescind the offer if he decided to tease you for even offering but to your surprise his face lit up.
“Really?!”.
The librarian shushed him again and he lowered his voice. “That would be so awesome! This class has been totally kicking my ass”. He moved to slide another nearby chair over and you glanced at the library clock. You had some time before class started to try and steer him onto the right path. You sat, scanning over the rough notes he had written down. Rough being an understatement. His thoughts seemed to have been scrambled all over the place, and the random doodles scattered throughout the page didn’t help.
“Alright”. You flipped his notebook to a clean page. “You’re working on the essay due this Friday, yeah?”.
He nodded. “Mhmm, but I’ve never been good at writing essays. I mean, who decided that we needed a certain amount of words for some of this stuff? Some things can be said in like, two sentences, easy!”. He crossed his arms and you nodded, silently agreeing with him.
“Well you seemed to have an idea of what you wanted to write but it isn’t very.. organized? I usually try to get down the specific why’s of my topic. Y’know, why I’m writing about it, why it matters, stuff like that”. You continued on about details and paragraph organization, only belatedly realizing you were somewhat rambling before snapping out of it and turning to look at Giovanni.
“What?”. You questioned at the weird look he aimed at you.BHis smile was entirely too bright, an eyebrow raised as he spoke.
“You’re smart, huh?”.
You blinked. “Well, I mean, I guess? I-“.
“Let me guess, 3- point something gpa?”.
You hoped you weren’t blushing right now, but you could feel your face heat up anyways. “3.5”. You murmured.
“What was that?”. He placed a hand to his ear, to mockingly attempt to hear better.
“3.5!”. You shout, and the librarian glares at the two of you so hard you both avert your eyes with embarrassment.
How dare he get a rise out of you like that anyway? Did he want to get the both of you banned from the library or something!?
He looking at you when you finally turn your eyes away from the floor and he nods at the paper. “So all that organization shit really works huh?”.
You nod and he grins. “Well I guess I’ll just have to try it. Thanks dork”.
Dork.
It’s not said with any malice or cruelty like you’ve often heard it said before. It’s only laced with a teasing tone and a thankful smile that he sends your way.
With that he checks his phone, stands, and casually says. “We’re gonna be so late”.
You frown, confused, and glance at the library clock again, eyes widening. How had time flown so fast?!
You copied his movements, gathering your books in your hands and rushing out of the library, with Giovanni close behind you. Your class was all the way across campus, there was no way you’d make it in time without running.
“Gimme those!”. You heard Giovanni shout and suddenly he was taking your books in one arm and grabbing your hand with the other, pulling you along with him faster than you’d been running on your own.
You absentmindedly wondered how he was so fast, but the thought quickly dissipated as you put all your energy and focus into pumping your feet against the grassy ground of the campus lawn. You both shouted out apologies as you cut through the crowds of your fellow students, zigzagging around without knocking into anyone or dropping any of your stuff.
You arrived outside of the classroom, out of breath and significantly more sweaty than when they’d left, but on time. With less than a minute to spare.
The two of you shared a glance, holding each other’s gaze for a moment before bursting into laughter, trying but failing to quiet down. Eventually your laughter subsided, and you wiped at your eyes, looking up and catching Giovanni staring at you, a smile way too soft to point at practically a stranger painted onto his face. His eyes were a unique shade of light salmon pink, you noted absentmindedly. He turned and busied himself with readjusting your books in his hands, as soon as he caught on to you looking back at him.
You were about to question why he was gazing at you like that at all, but the sound of heels clicking against the floor echoed out loudly from down the hall, cutting you off, and startling you both out of your shared glance. The two of you shared another quick glance as you both rushed in tandem into the classroom.
-
Mrs. Smith was strict about being on time, tardiness was usually rewarded with being constantly called on in class and being harshly glared at while she waited for an answer. If she even let you into the room at all once the class had officially started.
But surprisingly she wasn’t in the classroom yet, which was entirely rare and practically unheard of. Still the two of you weren’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, and you both hurried to sit down.
Your spot was typically more towards the front, but as you sat down, you realized you’d instinctively followed Giovanni to sit with him. You were both seated towards more towards the back, and Giovanni settled in easily enough that you could tell it was his ‘unassigned-assigned’ seat. You realized you didn’t entirely mind sitting with him instead. But it was the principle of the thing.
Mrs. Smith walked in and you realized you wouldn’t be able to move with her targeting you anyways, so you settled down more into your seat. You caught Giovanni looking slightly surprised at you choosing to sit there, but all he did was give you one of his grins- they were starting to become slightly insufferable-like he knew something you didn’t. You ignored the thought though, and turned to face forward and focus on the lesson.
It was as annoyingly distracted and unorganized as all Mrs. Smith classes were, and you listlessly followed along, rather bored. You chanced a glance over to Giovanni who was frowned down at his papers, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Seemed to be that he was struggling again.
You didn’t necessarily mind the thought of helping him again with the work later either. You looked up from your notes, checking to make sure Mrs. Smith wasn’t watching, and slid your foot over to nudge against his. He startled slightly, relaxing when his eyes met yours. You tilted your head towards your professor who was droning on about something entirely off topic and rolled your eyes with a grin. He stifled a snicker, bumping his foot back against yours.
It was a weirdly intimate exchange between two people who were nothing but strangers less than an hour ago.
You pushed the thought away, and got lost in the lecture. A few minutes later a note was slid your way. You turned, peering at Giovanni over your glasses. What was this, fourth grade?
‘U gettin any of this?’
You glanced towards the front of the room to make sure your professor hadn’t spotted you, before scribbling back a response.
‘For the most part, yes. Are you?’ You slid the note back, watching slightly amused as Giovanni read it and huffed. He slid the note back over a moment later.
‘Smarty pants’
You stifled a smile.
‘If you want, we can study together after class?’
Giovanni read the note, and sent you a thumbs up, with a silly over exaggerated wink.
The smile fully bloomed across your face.