Polar Planes [Luffy x Nami]

1. Thaw

Golden sunlight began seeping through the foggy windows along the hallway, but Nami could still see her breath due to the remnants of last night's chilly rainstorm. The trees started to replenish themselves, the young leaves sprouting from the branches that had grown weary through the winter's relentless turmoil.

After stepping through the door of her first class, she was met with every pair of eyes in the room. Mr. Newgate, however, kept his eyes fixed on the blackboard and continued talking.

"Second-semester Nami is a bit unhinged," Vivi whispered behind her as she settled into her seat. "Is your tardiness gonna be a new thing now?"

Nami chuckled sheepishly. "I can't help it. It's getting harder to wake up now."

Mr. Newgate cut in. "Ladies. We have a test this Thursday. If any of you fail even with this much in-class review, you'll get no sympathy from me."

"Sorry," Vivi said.

Nami squinted at the board. "Mr. Newgate?"

"What is it?"

"You set the kinetic energy of the balls before collision equal to the kinetic energy after the collision, but isn't it inelastic?"

"Hm... I knew something was odd. Zoro, can you reread the question in your textbook again?"

Zoro blinked awake. "Uh, yeah... what page are we on?"

"We're on the same page, dumbass," Usopp whispered.

"Right... 'two masses - a bowling ball and a yoga ball - collide head-on, each with speeds of 5 meters per second. The bowling ball has a mass of 3 kg and the yoga ball has a mass of 1.5 kg. Given that the collision is perfectly inelastic, find the amount of kinetic energy lost between the two objects'."

"Inelastic..." Mr. Newgate murmured. "Zoro, I'm firing you from your position as a textbook problem reader."

"What did I say?!"

Tashigi sighed. "You said 'elastic' the first time you read it."

"How could a collision between a yoga ball and a bowling ball be elastic?" Usopp asked. "That doesn't make sense, realistically."

"You didn't say anything the first time," Zoro grumbled.

"Alright, alright... that's enough," Mr. Newgate said. "What's done is done. Nami... thank you for the catch. That changes how we approach the problem now."

"She's always gotta act like such a smartass," Zoro whispered, but not quietly enough.

Nami suppressed a cocky grin and opened up her textbook to follow along.

When the bell rang, she headed out the door with Vivi.

"Is there a reason why you were late this morning?" Mr. Newgate asked before she could escape.

"There was a lot of traffic."

"I suggest you wake up earlier."

She nodded and made her exit.

"You can't lose your teacher's pet privilege just yet," Vivi complained. "I'm benefitting too, you know."

Nami rolled her eyes. "He likes you because you're smart."

"It's a bit hard to tell when I'm being compared to you."

A giant crowd clogged up the hallway, blocking their path. Nami couldn't distinguish any sentences from the incoherent yelling. Her second period was across campus; she couldn't afford to wait here. She pushed through the students.