Cosima wasn't quite sure what she expected her junior year at Sheldon High to be like, but she definitely didn't think she'd be greeted with something startlingly close to… popularity? She had never exactly been not popular. She was nerdy… she was fully aware (and rather proud) of that. But she was also quite talkative and charming, and she'd never thought of herself as unattractive. She figured she was cute enough, even if she was rather small and child-like when all the other girls seemed to be getting curves and loads of attention. Her friend group wasn't particularly huge either, but they were all amazing, and her parents were the best a kid could ask for. She knew she was absolutely going to kill it in college; her future was bright with promises of scientific discoveries, Nobel prizes, and hopefully a sweet pad by the beach with a super-hot babe (or maybe even some stud) by her side. Yeah, she was pretty damn happy with her life just the way it was.

Which is why the first day of junior year thoroughly rattled her. There seemed to be an endless parade of hello's and variations on "How was your summer?" coming her way as she wandered about the courtyard in front of the school, skateboard and book-bag in tow, looking for her friends. Some of the people who talked to her were acquaintances, people she vaguely recognized from classes before. Some she had no clue who they were. They came in all shapes and sizes… which is a nice way of saying "from every clique-affiliation." Sheldon High School wasn't the school from The Breakfast Club by any means… cliques weren't nearly that strict or "fixed" there. But high school does have a way of categorizing people. And Cosima couldn't help but notice some of the people vying for her attention were actually legit popular kids: attractive, rich, sporty, preppy, smart, or any combination of those. Most kids would be over the moon to receive so much attention, and from such a wide variety of their peers. But it just confused her to no end.

She was just about to run inside and take cover in the ladies' room when she saw Sarah, her signature smirk painted across her face as she swaggered across the courtyard toward Cosima. She wasted no time. "Bloody hell, Cos. What did you do? Text someone your tits or somethin'? I've heard your name like twenty times already and I just got here."

"Holy watershed, I have no freakin' idea! I feel like Ashton Kutcher's gonna jump out at any minute and tell me I got punked!"

"So… no tit pic, then? Ow!" Sarah rubbed her arm where Cosima had smacked her. "What was that for? It was an honest question."

"I'm serious, dude." Cosima was starting to fidget nervously, picking at the chipped paint on the bottom of her skateboard. "No one has said anything specific, and none of them are being rude. In fact, they're all being super nice. I don't know why, but that worries me even more." She looked around then. People were still looking at her every now and then, and most likely talking about her, but the presence of Sarah seemed to discourage most of them. She couldn't help but smile at that. Sarah had just gotten out of juvie at the beginning of summer.

Sarah looked her up and down for a moment, her face thoughtful before finally relaxing back into her natural smirk. "Well, stickin' with my theme of the morning, which seems to be tits… maybe it's because you finally went through puberty. Seriously, Cos… where did those come from and how can I get some? You had to have gained an entire cup size over the summer!"

Cosima blinked in confusion, as if the thought were entirely ludicrous, then she looked down at her chest. "Well… yeah, I mean… maybe they are a bit bigger. Maybe it's the style of the new bras…"

"And your hips!" Sarah interrupted, accusatorily. "Yeah, no way it's just the clothes… you bitch! I thought we were gonna be on the Itty Bitty Titty Committee together forever." She tried feigning a pout, but pouting wasn't really Sarah's style, and she immediately busted out in throaty laughter.

"Oi! I thought I heard a cackling hyena around here somewhere." Felix, Sarah's foster brother, bumped up against Sarah good-naturedly. He was a year younger than they were, and very fabulously gay. "What's so funny?"

"We're trying to figure out why everyone's being so nice to Cos," Sarah said matter-of-factly, as if she hadn't just been cracking boob jokes.

"As if that's so strange," Cosima said wryly. It's not the niceness, she thought. It's the amount of it.

"Maybe it's because you're the cover story on the school website," Felix said in the most nonchalant tone Cosima had ever heard. Both girls looked at him in shock, eagerly awaiting an explanation.

"I'm… what?" Cosima all but squeaked. Then all of the questions came out in a rush. "Why? What is the cover story about? When was it put up there? How and why did I not know about this?"

Felix sighed, looking less than interested as he gazed off towards where some of the jocks were hanging out. It took Sarah smacking him across the back of the head to bring him back to attention. "Oh! Uh… it was something to do with science. You won that award over the summer, yeah?"

Cosima grinned proudly. "Yeah, the Intel Foundation Young Scientists Award."

"Well, they've put you up on the school website to show you off. And of course everyone has to go through the website to check their email and get their schedule, so yeah… they've all seen it."

"I still think it's your tits," Sarah said. "I mean, they've known you were freakishly smart forever. Why would that article on the website make any difference?"

Felix looked confused for a second before looking down at Cosima's body. "Shit, you're right. They went from plums to AT LEAST sizable oranges!" He and Sarah snickered at their crassness for a moment, only laughing harder when Cosima cleared her throat conspicuously.

"Come on, guys… seriously!" she pleaded. "My newly-found bosom aside, Sarah has a point. My nerdiness is common knowledge. What's the big deal if I'm on the website?" A thought hit her all of a sudden. She sat down on one of the benches and dug in her bag, pulling out her tablet. She swiped it on and clicked on the browser, which opened automatically to the school's website. Sure enough, there she was. The article was the main story on the home page, just as Felix had said. It was titled, "Sheldon High's Brightest Star Shines at Intel ISEF" and was accompanied by a photo of her standing next to a screen showcasing her project, a program depicting the effects of epigenetics on clone cells. She was wearing her medal and smiling her brightest smile in the picture, and she couldn't help but smile now. That was the best moment of my life, she thought. Sarah's voice by her ear startled her.

"Yep, look!" she said, pointing at the picture. "You were looking quite curvaceous that day. And you were dressed nice and smiling pretty. Plus it says you won $50,000, and you're kinda famous in a way, too. Like, in the smart people community. People know who you are. Important people. No wonder people are being nice to you! Success, money, good looks. You're lucky I'm not trying to jump your bones!"

"Same here," Felix chimed in. "But I mean… even though 50k is a lot of money… don't think I could go straight for it. Sorry Cosima."

"No offense taken. But it wouldn't matter how much they gave me because it's all scholarship money. It all goes to whichever university I end up attending." To someone like Cosima, that was perfect. Her parents made decent money as college professors, but having all that money put back for college now was such a relief.

"Well it's not like you have to tell everyone that," Sarah said. "Just go with it."

"What do you mean?" Cosima asked.

"Soak it all in. Be popular or whatever." She paused for a beat before adding (with her most mischievous grin) "And get me into their sick parties, of course."

"Oh come on, Sarah… like we want to be associated with a bunch of 'normals' like-"

"Hey Cosima!" called a seriously buff, handsome young man as he walked past, smiling and waving at Cosima. He didn't stop, just kept walking and made his way up the front steps of the building, followed by a few of his friends. He was wearing a letterman jacket, and Cosima thought she saw the name 'Dierden' on the back of it.

"Holy Tilda Swinton! Paul Dierden just said hi to you! Like… senior football star, body-that-would-put-Channing-Tatum-to-shame Paul Dierden!" Felix was practically drooling.

"Oi! Earth to Fee! What happened to 'we don't want to be associated with a bunch of normals?' Big Dick Paul Dierden is the twattiest normal of them all." Sarah said. "Besides, Cos won't do it anyway. She's too academically oriented to try and have much of a social life. Aren't ya, Cos?" Cosima didn't answer. "Cos?"

Cosima didn't answer because she was staring at the next article that had popped up on the school's homepage. Or, more specifically, the picture that went with the article. The girl in the picture was without a doubt a total knockout. Golden-blonde curls, a dazzling smile, big beautiful eyes, and a body that every teenage girl in the world would be jealous of. Cosima wasn't jealous, but she was struck by how much she wanted her in other ways. Apparently this girl was a new transfer student. She had just moved here from France with her parents and was set to join the school's "elite" cheerleading squad as well as the volleyball team. Her name was Delphine Cormier, and Cosima was pretty sure she was already halfway in love with the girl just from the picture and the little bit the article said about her.

"EARTH TO COSIMA!" Sarah shouted. "Deaf or what?! The bell's ringin'. We'll talk more about this later, yeah? No decisions about future popularity without consulting us. Try not to suffocate under so much attention. I still need to copy your notes and shit." And without another word, she and Felix were headed off to their classes.

Cosima looked at the picture for a second more and then sighed, putting her tablet in her bag. She sat there for a minute, her foot idly rolling her skateboard back and forth along the ground, as was her habit. Maybe being popular wouldn't be such a bad thing, she thought. Delphine will totes be hella popular. She's gorgeous and athletic and most likely highly sociable. Wait… WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER NIEHAUS! YOU HAVEN'T EVEN MET THIS GIRL! She could be a raging bitch or completely brain-dead… or both! Plus, why the hell should I want to change my life now? Everything is perfectly fine just the way it is! Isn't it?

She sighed again and looked up… she was already going to be late for class. There was hardly anyone left out in the courtyard. Being late on the first day was so not the thing. She stood up slowly, one of her feet still resting lightly on her board, and started to sling her book bag over her shoulders. As she did it, though, her foot lost purchase on the board and it went skidding out from under her and down the walkway. Cosima recovered easily, barely stumbling before taking off after it. The board was just coming to a halt and Cosima was just about to reach it when it happened.

Someone had been running from the other way, but Cosima had been so focused on her skateboard that she wasn't paying attention. And apparently they weren't paying much attention either because they stepped right in the middle of the skateboard, their forward momentum carrying them a few feet before the board skidded out from beneath their feet and they started falling face-first. Cosima barely had time to react… all she saw was blonde hair and long limbs… but she jumped forward (Why? She didn't know. Some chivalrous instinct kicked in, she guessed.) with her arms extended, intending to catch them. It was a poor idea, in hindsight… or maybe just the best idea she ever had. The person (a girl, it seemed, from the screams) collided with Cosima and the pair of them went reeling backwards and (luckily) into the grass. They still hit pretty hard, and Cosima took the brunt of the impact, which knocked most of the wind out of her.

Cosima didn't know how long they were lying there, not moving or saying anything. It was probably just a few seconds, but it seemed like minutes at least. The girl smelled amazing. Cosima wasn't a big scent specialist, but she pegged it for something like… cherry blossoms? Maybe? Whatever it was, the girl's hair smelled delicious. And the weight of her sprawled on top of her was equally so. The girl lifted her head, looking around like a startled deer before bringing her gaze to meet Cosima's.

Oh shit… Cosima thought to herself, with a sharp intake of breath. Delphine Cormier.

"Quoi?" Delphine asked, her expression dazed, confused, and more than a little embarrassed. Cosima didn't answer, but she did immediately register that she had said Delphine's name out loud. Well… not SAID exactly… more like muttered it under her breath. It was all lost in the moment, though, as Delphine sat up bolt right and started apologizing profusely. "Oh, je suis vraiment désolé… I mean… I am SO SO sorry, Miss…?"

She was looking at Cosima expectantly. Cosima didn't know what to say. Well, she DID. She should tell her what her name was. But something about the situation was just so oddly funny to her. There she was, with a girl she'd never met, but was wildly attracted and even drawn to (the same girl whose photo and story she'd been drooling over only moments before, no less), straddling her hips after tripping on her skateboard and tumbling right into her. They could have been seriously hurt. But they weren't. And it was funny. Cosima couldn't help herself; she started giggling. Delphine was confused by her laughter at first, or maybe Cosima's laughter was just that infectious. But eventually they were laughing together and Cosima was shaking, wiping her eyes and trying to get a hold of herself.

"I think perhaps you hit your head too hard," Delphine said once she caught her breath. "Seriously, are you alright? I did not even see you until it was much too late. Was it your… thing… I slipped on? I do not remember the English word."

"Skateboard," Cosima said, still a bit breathless. Oh god her accent is cute AND sexy! "And yeah, it's mine. My bad, though. I shouldn't have let it get away from me. And no, my head's fine. Or at least, I didn't hit it. I'm just weird. So the jury's still out on whether there's anything technically wrong with my head or not."

Delphine considered this for a second, her brow furrowing in the most adorable way, before relaxing. "Ah, you are making a joke. Sorry… I'm still a bit shaken up." Then she smiled her brightest smile, the one from the picture… except now Cosima could see that she had a dimple in one cheek and it was officially the cutest dimple she'd ever seen. She didn't even know she liked dimples. But, despite how much she enjoyed this, they were in quite an interesting and compromising position.

"Umm… not to be a drag or anything, but…as much as I love a good first-day-back scandal… not sure how us getting caught like this would pan out. For you, I mean. It could do nothing but help my rep, I'm sure. It's not every day I get a hot French chick sitting in my lap before I even ask for her name and number. Or say hello for that matter." She grinned cheekily and for good measure extended her hand and added, "Hey, I'm Cosima."

"Delphine," she took Cosima's hand in hers, her grip surprisingly firm. She stood up carefully, pulling Cosima with her. They both busied themselves with brushing the grass of their clothes and hair, and looking for any scrapes or damage. "This was quite an unusual way to meet someone, yes?"

"Hella unusual," Cosima replied, still grinning cheekily. "But I mean, normally it takes more than just my skateboard to get a cute girl to fall for me, so maybe unusual is good." Ugh did I seriously just say that?! Holy evo-devo, I'm lame!

But Delphine smiled, and her cheeks took on a rosy hue that was equal parts endearing and enticing. "Maybe so," she said, reaching up to brush a piece of grass or something off of Cosima's shoulder that Cosima wasn't entirely sure was even there. Delphine's touch lingered and Cosima felt it even after she finally pulled it away. Cosima felt herself starting to blush too, and that was very strange because Cosima just DIDN'T blush. Even when she felt awkward, she was able to make some smart-ass joke or comment and that was that. But this girl was something else.

"I… uh… I'm already insanely late for class…" Cosima began.

"Oui! Moi aussi… me too. Would you mind showing me where room…" she rummaged around in her purse for a sheet of paper and pulled it out. "… C-312 is? I was in the wrong building, I think. That's why I was running to get over here and then we… ran into each other."

"Sure thing!" Cosima said with way more enthusiasm than she intended. "Uh… my first class is in building C as well. So it shouldn't be a problem."

"Super!" Delphine exclaimed, and she smiled that smile again. Then she was looking around for something. "Oh!" She walked the few meters over to get Cosima's skateboard, lifting it gingerly and bringing it back to her. Cosima barely suppressed her laughter. Delphine had clearly never been around skateboards before. It was cute and Cosima thought she'd love to show her how to skate, or at the very least show off some of her own moves. "Here is your… skateboard." She pronounced the word very carefully.

"Merci beaucoup mademoiselle," Cosima said in an exaggerated French accent, which Delphine giggled at. They walked the rest of the way to class in relative silence, but it was a companionable silence. And Cosima could have sworn she caught Delphine sneaking glances as much as she was sneaking her own. Their hands even barely brushed a few times. Once they were at the door to Delphine's classroom, they both stopped. "Well, here we are. Thank you for flying with Air Niehaus. We hope you enjoy your stay at Room C-312, and hope to see you again soon."

Delphine giggled again. Cosima decided she loved that sound. "Thank you. It's umm… it's very nice to make a friend in the brave new world."

Those words sunk in for a second and Cosima was smiling in spite of herself, nodding in agreement, "Yeah."

"I better get in there," Delphine said, a bit hesitantly.

"Yeah, okay," Cosima replied. And then Delphine was leaning in, and Cosima barely had time to think "French! She's French! This is what they do!" before they were kissing each other's cheeks. Their lips stayed maybe half a beat longer than what she would have expected was appropriate, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Ciao," Delphine said with a little wave. And then she was inside her classroom and Cosima was standing out in the hall with a stomach full of butterflies and a head full of warring ideas.

"Wow. Either I'm seriously screwed, or junior year is gonna be the best fuckin' year of my life," she muttered to herself before she practically skipped down the hall to her class, skateboard still under her arm. Before she entered her classroom to no doubt get berated by her calculus teacher, she looked down at her skateboard, with its chipped edges and its custom double-helix patterned paint on the bottom. "Thanks, little buddy. Best wingman ever! Scott and Tony aren't gonna believe this!"