Anonymous

53

Senior year was going by rather uneventfully.

Bonnie was hard at work – her grades had been nothing less than perfect so far – and other than spending time with Marceline (aka spending time kissing Marceline) nothing noteworthy had happened. It was nice. Admittedly, she was starting to feel a little stress at the workload from her A.P. classes, but she was willing to do it. School was important to her.

Upon being let out to lunch after her Wednesday Statistics class, she made her way out to the football field, expecting to see her friends. Nobody was there yet, but she did see Marceline lazing on the grass, reading her book. She'd had a free period, Bonnie remembered – she'd taken the liberty of memorising her girlfriend's schedule.

She had her cute grumpy face on like she usually did when she was in school and unaccompanied. It was one of those times where Bonnie wasn't sure if she wanted to be disturbed or not; she knew that sometimes, Marceline enjoyed her own company, and since she wasn't in the music room with her friends, maybe that was the case.

But her heart gave a pull, and she couldn't resist. She walked over to where Marceline was and dropped down onto the grass next to her. Marceline looked up in surprise and pulled an earbud out, her whole face lighting up in a smile. "Hey."

"Hi," Bonnie greeted her, and then asked, "I'm not intruding, am I?"

"You could never," Marceline said, marking the page in her book and closing it as Bonnie got her lunch out of her bag. "Enjoy your weird smart people math class?"

"Of course," Bonnie retorted, "did you enjoy not utilising your free period for actual study?"

Marceline waved the book she'd been reading in front of Bonnie's face. "Read the cover, brainlord. It's one of the books we're studying in lit class."

"Oh," Bonnie let out, effectively shut up, "Well, then. Colour me impressed."

Marceline rolled her eyes, but she didn't look offended that Bonnie had accused her of basically just lazing around. She stole one of Bonnie's grapes from the little tub she'd packed and ate it, and then rooted around in her backpack for her own lunch.

Because she was being so quiet, Bonnie tried something else. "How's Simon?"

She hoped that Marceline was happier with Simon. She had to be, because there was a marked improvement in the way she seemed to hold herself. Her movements weren't careful and calculated to avoid giving away that she was in pain. She seemed a lot lighter, except for in class with her dad. Even with Bonnie there, she wore a permanent scowl in the science classroom.

"He's okay." Marceline said after a bite of her sandwich. "Seems happy to have company, so... that's good. How's your uncle?"

"Peter is fine. He asked after you too, actually," Bonnie replied, and Marceline cringed, "What's that look for? It's sweet. He likes you."

"God knows why. You're an ultra-polite, super-smart, clean-cut kind of girl," Marceline pointed out, "I'm dumb and wear all black and glare at people all day. Not the kind of person you want your niece to date."

"None of that is true," Bonnie laughed, "You're actually really smart, you're not even wearing all black right now, and you don't glare at people all day, you've just got a cute little grumpy face. Plus, you're always polite when you're talking to him. Not so much when you're talking to me, though."

"Well, whatever," Marceline answered in a scoff, "I'm still in disbelief that a parental figure approves of me."

"What's not to believe? You're always a pleasure to have over," Bonnie said, and when Marceline laughed, she nudged her. "Come on. You know you are. It's just us here, you don't have to pretend to be a big scary troublemaker."