Title: Day 4
Author: tarotgal
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: OMC/OFC
Summary: During class, Angela encounters an unexpected allergy.
Notes: Written during my 12 Ficlets in 12 Days in 2015 project for webmeistro

Sometimes, you have luck on your side. So far this week, I knew what that felt like. One more final exam and the semester would finally be over. Just one more final before winter break. Only one more final and I would be free as a bird.

And, yes, that pun was intended, as my final final exam is on ornithology. “Ornithology 101 Final” it says at the top of my paper, right next to  where I printed my name: Angela Martins. Species identification is the easy part of the test for me, even though I’m not a hundred percent certain about some of the scientific names and countries of origin, so I skipped to it first. The history portion is a little more difficult. I spent the past three days studying all about Archaeopteryx and avian evolution, of course, but there is a big difference between studying and recalling. Was it Germany or Austria where the first fossils were found? What was the taxonomic breakdown between Paleognathae and Neognathae? Did the theropod ancestor have feathers or not?

As more possibilities than confident answers pass through my mind, I barely notice the light tickle in my nose. I had had a rough beginning of the semester. A city girl out here in the countryside wasn’t used to the fields and crops and grasses of this part of the country. I went through probably about eight different brands of allergy medicines before finally settling on one that seemed to work all right. But I stopped taking it after the first frost and my nose hadn’t tickled once since.

So why is it happening now? Well, there goes all that luck, right out the window. I give my nose a rub which does absolutely nothing. Tickle tickle. Tickle tickle. So I drag my nails down the bridge of my nose and scratch at one of my nostrils. I hold my breath, evaluating in a scientific sort of way, because that’s where my head is still at. The tickle is gone. Excellent work if I do say so myself. Congratulations, Angela.

Hanging my head, I turn my attention fully back on the final exam. I’ve got to ace this thing. Question twenty-two is about… fossil… about…

I scrub a finger back and forth under my nose. There it is, back again. That faint little tickle I’d known so well during the height of allergy season. What is this desk made of… ragweed? Is the classroom suddenly outdoors? And it can’t be a cold. Colds don’t come on this strongly, plus I feel perfectly fine, apart from the tickle in my nose. That darn tickle!

Question …

Rub.

…twenty-two…

Rub.

What…

Rub.

What is…

Rub.

Okay, this is crazy. What is making my nose itch so much? Frustrated, I do the only thing that comes to mind, knowing that it’s also incredibly stupid: I take a deep breath through my nose. Both the solution and the problem strike me at once. There is a strong scent, a little bit musky and a little bit spicy. At first, I think maybe someone has smuggled food in to snack on during the exam. But that doesn’t make as much sense as the next thought that comes into my mind: cologne. Some cheap cologne that someone slathered on far too thickly. Freshman, probably. Maybe heading off to his first date after this exam, so he got nervous and put too much on. The scent is so strong. Why doesn’t anyone else smell it?

“eh-IhShhchhhhh!”

Apparently, someone else does. I look around and spot a brunette two rows below me, digging a tissue pack out of her purse. Well, that was smart. I don’t think I have anything like that in my purse. Maybe a napkin left over from some meal in the dining hall last week. But maybe it wouldn’t come to that. I’m pretty good at holding back my sneezes. They’re not silent or anything, but if I get an attack of sneezes, I’ll probably be all right without a big box of tissues at my disposal. If anything good came from that hayfever a couple months ago, it was that.

I try to concentrate on the exam. We only get two hours for it and it’s twelve pages long. But that smell is strong. And my nose won’t stop tickling. Seriously. It’s practically burning the insides of my nostrils now. I shouldn’t have taken such a deep breath. What the hell was I thinking? Stupid, Angela. Stupid!

Question… oh forget the questions! I’ve got to sneeze.

I put down my pencil and pinch my nose. It’s a last ditch effort, but worth it. The tickle dies down a little. But the second I let go, it comes right back. Okay. Okay. This is going to happen. And maybe once I sneeze, I’ll be able to get this tickle out and concentrate on the test.

So I close my eyes and lower my hand. The tickle pricks at my nose now. No, not pricks so much as flutters. It’s like the birds in my test have come to life and a hundred tiny little feathers are tickling the inside of my nose. Going to sneeze. Going to sneeze. Going to… to… “Uggle!” There’s sharp pressure in my nose and at the back of my throat when I hold it in, but it’s nothing too unpleasant. My nose it too ticklish for anything to actually hurt.

But the one held-in sneeze didn’t do anything to quench the tickle and the need to sneeze flares up just as strong. I purse my lips and squint my eyes closed. “Uggle! Uggle! Uggle!” I breathe out louder than expected, which I feel bad about. My classmates are trying to take the exam. I’m trying to take the exam. So if I have to sneeze, I want to be as quiet as possible about it. “Uggle uggle uggle… uggle! UhhhKTchhooo!”

Crap! One got through. I pinch my nose at the bridge and, when the tickle still doesn’t go away, I pinch at the end, squeezing tight. My nose twitches against my fingers. I abandon my pencil and cover my nose and mouth with my left hand as I still pinch with my right. “Uggle! Uggle! Uh-KTchhew!”

“Shhhhh!”

I don’t know who shushed me, but it’s not like I can control this. And I’m trying to be quiet, I really am! People I’ve been sitting next to all semester start glaring at me. Thanks, people. I feel bad enough already.

Bad and sneezy. So sneezy. “uhh… uh-Uggle! Uggle! UHKTchhhhh! Sniff! Sorry,”  I whisper back.

“Quit it!” someone behind me whispers.

And someone else whispers, “Just sneeze like normal!”

I want to die. But, probably if I did, I’d still sneeze. I squeeze my nose, but that scent has already wormed its way in, tickling irresistibly. So I give in. “UhhhKTshhhh! UhhKShooo! Uh… uhhhhKIHTschoo!”

When I open my eyes and drop my hands, I see the professor is standing at the end of my row. He’s staring at me. And lots of my classmates are staring at me. I can feel the heat rising in my cheeks. There are over two hundred and fifty people in this class and here’s the professor noticing me.

“Do you have a problem here?”

I start to answer, but my nose is still ticklish and full, so I sniff a few times. “Yes, Professor. I think I… I…” My eyes flutter close and I do my best to hold it in again. “Uggle!” Rubbing my nose, I look back up at him. “I think I’m allergic to something. Sniff! Sniff! Can I move to a different seat?”

He sighs, as if this is the last thing he wants to worry about this far into the semester and this far into the test. But he waves a hand, gesturing for me to get a move on. I grab my bag, but there isn’t enough space here to sling it over my head. So I carry it with the exam papers in front of me as I inch out past my classmates. Several huff impatiently, but more than one look jealous of me as they rub their own noses. I head down the stairs to the base of the stage and walk across the room to the far set of stairs up. The auditorium seats three hundred, so there are a few dozen empty seats scattered around. I see two empty ones right by the aisle. I throw my bag onto one of the seats and sit down in the one beside it.

Now it’s time for question twenty-two.

“ihhPTchhhhh!”

I look up and can’t pick out the person who sneezed, but it was a guy this time, and it sounded like that person was over on the other side of the room. Good luck, buddy.

Tickles still flutter a little at my nose, but rubbing at it helps. I make it through the rest of the test, glad it’s the end of the semester and no one will tease me about it after this.

*

“I think I did all right on the test,” I tell Rick as I walk into his dorm room. It was embarrassing enough to live through it that first time with everyone glaring at me; I don’t really want to tell him about it and rehash the whole thing. Besides, he probably wouldn’t believe it anyway, because we only just met about a month ago, after my hayfever had died down. Thank goodness. I wasn’t very attractive back then, tissues always at hand. “How was your calc final?”

“Sucked. Don’t think I failed, but I probably only just squeezed by.” He falls back against his bed. The metal bedframe bang against the wall and the springs creak. “Help me forget it, Ang?”

I, too, have something I want to forget. So I shut his door behind me and throw myself onto the bed with him. He laughs as I snuggle close. Then his lips find mine and the kiss takes me over. I forget all about the embarrassment and the sneezing and the exam. It’s so easy to do in Rick’s arms. They’re warm and strong; he plays football in the quad every Saturday afternoon and works out, so I feel so secure in his arms, like nothing at all can touch me.

But then it does. It hits me when I’ve melted, bonelessly, into my boyfriend and his lips dance against my mouth. It hits me as his hand strokes my back and my body warms against his. It hits me at the absolute worst time it could possibly come. I need to sneeze again.

That scent is back, stronger than ever, like it had just been hiding in my nose and was back again, fluttering and powerful and urging me to sneeze and sneeze and sneeze. I try to ignore it, try to fight it. But I can’t wiggle or rub my nose while he’s kissing me without him noticing. I try to tilt my head and rub my nose against his, but even that makes it tickle. It’s almost as if I’m suddenly allergic to Rick. How fantastic for me.

I try to hold my breath, which doesn’t work because kissing. I try to will it away, which doesn’t work because I really am that unlucky today. I turn my head and gasp at the very last moment. “Uggle!” At least I manage to hold it in. But the tickle is almost worse now. “Uggle uggle uggle uggle!”

“Oh my God.”

“Sorry! I… uggle!” As I pull back and sit up, I rub at my nose. “I have to sneeze.”

He reaches up to stroke my arm. “Those are sneezes?”

Once again, the flush finds my face. I can’t meet his eyes, so I stare out the window. From the bed, all I see is a tree branch and the blue sky of early winter. A small, dark shape flies past, and I can tell from just a glance that it was a sparrow.

“I’ve never heard sneezes like that. Do you always sneeze that way?” I squeak, nodding, feeling as though my face is on fire. “Babe, hey, they were adorable.”

I’m still unable to look at him until he touches my chin and directs my gaze toward him again. Then I see he actually means it. He thinks they’re cute? “You… uhhh… think they’re cute?”

“God, babe, so cute. How’s it possible for you to be even cuter than I thought you were, like, ten minutes ago?” He sits up and nuzzles his nose against mine. It’s sweet and tender, which is not usual for Rick.

But the smell is so close and strong now. I gasp and turn my head at once. “Uhhh uggle! Uggle! Uggle! Sniff! Rick, what are you… uhh… wearing? Uhhh… uggle!”

He looks down at his outfit, a flannel shirt on top of a t-shirt and jeans. “Um… nothing different.”

“What… uhhhhh-UHSchooo! Sniff! What is that sniff smell!?”

He looks at me, confused. Then it’s like a light bulb turns on above his head. “The cologne?”

I nod enthusiastically. “That. Uhhh-UhKTchhhh! Uhhkshooo!”

“It’s this new stuff they just got down at the Sup.” That’s the supply center, the store where most kids on campus shopped for groceries and other necessities. “I’m guessing you don’t like it?” He scoots back and then climbs off the bed entirely to give me some space. Thank goodness. Then he grabs a washcloth, wets it in the dorm room sink, and starts scrubbing his neck. “I’m sorry, babe. I had no idea you were allergic.”

I hadn’t known either. And I think the topic of my allergies can probably wait a while, at least until after winter break. If we’re still together in the spring, he’ll definitely need a warning. What’s cute today could get old really quick. But I smile as I watch him pull off his shirt and wash his chest, knowing how quick he sprang into action to make me more comfortable.

Or maybe so that we can get back to kissing. Whatever the reason, I feel lucky to have him.