the academy ➢ fitzsimmons

➢1

I walked into the lab that morning, my mum had just called me to tell me that she was going to be out of touch for the next couple days while she travels through Africa. Go right ahead.
My mother would call me up on random occasions with the same starting sentence:
"Jemma, darling, I am about to tell you useful information."
Not like all information isn't important, but she still never fails to remind me.

So here I am, not a single person to phone, besides Leo who was on his way to class like me, and heading to a very exciting day in Professor Vaughn's and Professor Hall's class.
Today, since we are finally out of introduction week, we are getting paired up with someone else to do our basic experiments and studying with. Obviously, with all expense, me and Leo were the perfect partnership and there was nothing I wanted more than to be with my friend through the class.

Our professors explained the basics of the whole partnership case, and they soon started to read off lists of names in which were our partners.

Me and Leo were brought up to the front of the class, almost the last ones called and did some sort of an announcement like they did with the others;

"Leopold Fitz, meet your new partner, Jemma Simmons."

"Oh yeah, I know who she is."

"We're best friends."

Both of us smiled at each other and then went to go sit next to each other in the front and center of the class.
The academy was full of geniuses and people with the minds of Einstein and one day when we all leave the academy we will help save the world in some way. Leo could be a major factor in that idea. He always liked to tell me about his plans for -his words-"a rifle that fires non-lethal bullets with heavy stopping power that breaks up under the subcutaneous tissue (or skin). From there, the bullets deliver a minuscule amount of dendrotoxin, incapacitating the target long enough for them to be secured and with no further harmful side effects."

It sounds absolutely brilliant to me and he continues to tell me that he needs my help working with the dendrotoxin. I have some knowledge of such a powerful toxin such as dendrotoxin and I will certainly give it go to help Leo.

"So for our first assignment shall we work with X-ray technology, and create a device with actual S-band antennae embedded in some sort of sheet which allows a user to see through a solid object, such as a wall."

"Leo you are brilliant!" I said with a cheerful smile. I feel like every time I call him Leo he gets more awkward than usual, and Leo is a very awkward friend.

I have know Leo for quite some time now and it's safe to say he is my closest friend in the academy. We usually study with each other or go get food once and a while like friends would.

"So for the sheet I was thinking we use a plasma base compressing sheet which will allow the wires to flow through smoothly and detect any objects beyond a wall." I said with excitement. Scientific brainstorming came naturally with me and Leo, we could honestly come up with a useful device in just a few minutes as you can tell from just a few seconds ago.

"Jem you genius." He said smiling back over at me. I thought it was quite weird that he always called my 'Jem' instead of 'Jemma', the name is already reasonably short. I also could take a hint and infer he doesn't like me calling him 'Leo' ...

"Would you want to come over later and we can work it out, yeah?" He asked putting away his notebook that he was unnoticeably jotting notes down in.

"Of course! Swing by my room whenever."

"Okay, um, I'll see you later Jem." He said getting up and hustling out of the large room, the pins on his bag rattling as he took off up the steps. I laughed to myself as I continued to get ready to leave.

➢

"No no no, Jem, these wires have to be cut with long nose wire cutters, not flat nose." Leo scolded from behind me as he finalized the size of the sheet.

"If you use long nose, the thin end could damage the smaller fibers within wire." I pleaded back to him.

"No, the flat nose have more force behind the handle which can crush the small fibers."

"Ugh fine, Fitz." I cleared my throat as he stopped working behind me to turn around.

"Fitz?"

"My bad I meant-"

He cut me off; "No, I like it, call me that. It feels less awkward than 'Leo'"

"But that's your first name." I shook my head with a small smile.

"I know, but I like Fitz better."

"Okay, than that means you can't call me 'Jem'"

"So that's how you want to play this, Simmons." He said tilting his head forward to look at my reaction to his new name for me. I couldn't tell whether I like it or not but I feel like it would catch on soon.

"Fitz."

"Simmons."