Who cares about merit?

Jenny and Jason had stayed out much later than they had initially planned. Once they started talking about their summer plans, they couldn't seem to stop. Jenny's enthusiasm had been contagious, dragging Jason along into her excitedness. The next morning, they were both not in the best condition, but where Jason chose to nap to make up for lost sleep, Jenny had to get up to revise and get ready for their test later that day. Reluctantly she dragged herself to her room, showered to wake herself up and grabbed her notes. She was an hour into studying, when Jason came up behind her with a blanket wrapped around himself. It appeared that his nap wasn't as enjoyable now that Jenny had gotten out of the bed, so he had come for some attention. He got close to her and wrapped her into the blanket along with himself. He pulled her in for a hug from behind the chair and placed his head on her shoulder, squishing their faces together.

Jenny was pleasantly surprised by him and placed her hand on his forearm, as she was rocked from side to side by him. "Did you miss me already?" "Hm" Jenny closed her eyes for a brief moment and let herself get lost in his hug. Her lack of sleep got to her as her eyes remained closed for some time. Seeing her not moving to get closer, Jason placed a kiss on her cheek. Still no reaction. So, he grabbed her chin and turned her face slightly to kiss the tip of her nose. A faint smile appeared on Jenny's face, but her eyes remained closed. Finally Jason cupped her face with his free hand and used it to turn and lift her face, before he placed a kiss on her lips as well. Jenny opened her eyes drowsily, before raising her arm and pulling his face down to kiss him back.

After she enjoyed this sweet moment, Jenny sighed deeply and tapped Jason's arm to make him let go. "Alright now scoot. Stop distracting me. I am nowhere near done and if I allow you to stay, there is no way that I will get any more studying done." "Why? I won't bother you. I will just stand here and hug you." Jenny chuckled. "That is exactly the problem. If I stay in this hug any longer, I will want to close the books up and just spend my time with you." "Why don't you? I don't hear a problem in that." Jason said, still holding onto Jenny. Unwilling to let go just yet. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can't all be geniuses like you. You will be fine if you don't study or revise. Me however? I will lose my spot in the rankings, that I worked so hard for. If I want to get into a good college with my own merit, I need to keep these results up and going. We only have one more year to go, so everything counts."

"If a good college is what you want, you can get in no problem. Who cares about merit? Just tell me the name of the college and I will take care of it." Jenny of course didn't budge at all at Jason's attempts to bribe her. "No. Who wants to win like that? I want to get there on my own. Only then will it have any meaning." "Hmm, why do you have to be so responsible. Thinking about merit and college." Jason said with a dejected voice, still unwilling to let go of her. "There is no convincing you to be satisfied with just being my wife is there? You could just enjoy having me spoil you and your job will be spending time with me and just doing whatever it is you want." Jenny laughed and pushed his head to the side teasingly. "Stop joking around and let go."

Jason knew that Jenny wasn't that type of woman and was determined to be independent. She could never settle for just being someone's wife and sit at home or spend her husbands' money. She wanted to contribute to society on her own and clear her debt for enjoying multiple years of education. A deep sigh followed and he placed a final kiss on the top of Jenny's head before letting go. Every few steps he would turn and look at Jenny, waiting for her to change her mind and allow him to stay. Jenny felt his eyes on her and turned to watch him walk towards the door. He had finally reached the door, when he turned around once more, faking a pout and flashing his puppy dog eyes. The deep blue pulling her like a black whole, making her get lost in his gaze. However the silliness of his pouty look, made Jenny laugh till her stomach hurt. This finally pushing Jason out the door.

Jenny brushed away the tears that had formed in the corner of her eyes from laughing too much using her index finger and thought 'Boy do I love this silly man.' She faced her papers once more and refocussed on her studies. Another hour passed when Jenny finally gave up and headed down stairs to eat something and replenish her energy before going back for round two. She came down and walked into an empty living room. Wondering where Jason was, she headed to the kitchen and there she found him standing at the stove. Once he turned around, she saw what he had been doing. "What's that?" Jason was holding two decorated plates. It appeared that he had prepared a sweet lunch for the both of them while waiting for her to finish studying. He said that he was just about to go get her, when he heard her come into the kitchen. He had baked pancakes for her with strawberries and blue berries. Making the plate look beautiful, with all the bright colours of the freshly cut fruits. She sat down at the bar table in the kitchen and started digging into Jason's well-prepared lunch. He always seemed to know what she wanted, when she didn't even know herself!