A bright sliver of moon shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the common room's exterior wall. Clusters of pearlescent stars studded the night sky around it, gleaming like dewdrops on an incomprehensibly vast spiderweb. The beautiful view was obscured slightly by the reflections and brighter lighting of the room's interior, but that hardly mattered. There was enough visible to appreciate the sight.

Kaitlyn sat back in one of the metal chairs and let out a long sigh. Her red hoodie hung over its back, useless for the moment due to the relative warmth of the indoor setting. Today was a Saturday, which meant that she was making desserts instead of the dinners she prepared during the week. The day had simply ended up being the best for both sales and people's availability. It also meant that people had a bit more flexibility in when they chose to pick up their orders, leading to a much sparser crowd of students bustling about the common room.

Well, that's not the only reason. This dessert is also perfect for eating on the go.

Kaitlyn took in the long table before her with a satisfied smile. Trays upon trays of triangularly cut sandwiches spread from one end to the other, the few remaining treats sitting upright on their edges to form little mountain ranges. Only, these weren't just any sandwiches. These were fruit sandwiches.

A thick layer of fluffy white cream filled the space between layers of moist sponge cake. Their interiors were studded with picturesquely sliced strawberries and kiwis and other fruits that glistened like cut gems set inside of clouds. Some had red or green cake instead of the standard yellow, indicating strawberry or matcha flavors that complimented their fillings perfectly. Others bore swirls of cinnamon sugar or berry preserves that she'd experimented with as a more creative twist on the more traditional varieties.

These seriously turned out awesome. Not just flavor-wise, either. The presentation is even better than I'd hoped. Getting someone to go down to that overpriced organic grocery store for fruit was definitely worth it.

Despite the relative simplicity of the recipe, it had taken a lot of effort to get the sandwiches looking just right. Ensuring that the cream remained even, the sponge cake didn't compact, and the fruit sliced perfectly every time had been an exercise in frustration. But based on how far her stock had dwindled, all that work was proving well worth it.

"Mmmmm! Kate, you've seriously outdone yourself this time!"

She looked over toward Esme. The girl sat at the next table over with perfect posture, one of the sampler boxes open in front of her. Her lab neighbor was here alone today, as Elliot's peculiar tastes didn't often entice him to come along.

The raven-haired girl took another bite out of the matcha and strawberry sandwich and sighed contentedly. Kaitlyn just grinned. "Thanks. I'm pretty happy with how they came out, too."

"I'd certainly hope so. I can't see what you'd be dissatisfied about."

She gave a small shrug. There were always things she could improve or add, of course, but there was also such a thing as diminishing returns. Something that she was learning to recognize. "True. Which one's your favorite?"

"The berry one, definitely." Esme answered without hesitation. "The others are fantastic too, of course, but it just reminds me so much of my childhood."

"Really? How?"

"I used to pick wild blackberries by the house and make all sorts of things out of them. Ice cream, cobblers, pies, smoothies… everything, really! The jam you used makes me think of that."

Kaitlyn whistled appreciatively. "Wild blackberries? I've only had grocery store ones before. That sounds like heaven."

"It was," the girl grinned, dabbing at her mouth with a napkin. "Well, kind of. The things are actually pretty invasive, so they're a bit of a problem for the local plants… But they sure were tasty. One day, when I buy a house, I'm definitely planting some of the things in a little walled garden of my own."

Shaking her head in wonder, Kaitlyn allowed her attention to wander around the room. Midterms were fast approaching, and she'd spent quite a bit of time studying with both Elliot and Esme. As a result, it felt like the trio had managed to bond more closely than the lunches and lab interactions allowed.

Still, she felt like she didn't really know Esme as much as she should. Considering how close she was to Elliot, she certainly seemed important to his route. Between that and her remaining questions about the male lead, she had more than enough reason to try and get closer to the dark-haired beauty.

Not to mention that she's just a nice person. I mean, she seems cool. I would want to hang out with her even if I didn't have ulterior motives for it.

Near the other end of the table, Kaitlyn saw a new customer approach Heather. With a long stretch, she stood up and grabbed a box in preparation to serve them up.

"I still can't believe you made all of this."

Kaitlyn glanced over at Esme. The girl was staring at the trays of mostly depleted sandwiches with wonder. "Me either, to be honest. It wasn't easy in a dorm, that's for sure."

That's the understatement of the century. There's literally no way I could have done this until recently, not without driving myself absolutely insane.

Today's prep work was just about assembly, but yesterday's? That had been a different story entirely. For most of the day, the common room's counter had been completely taken over by her newly-purchased army of toaster ovens, each draining what was probably an irresponsible amount of electricity from every socket available. They'd worked nonstop to produce batch after batch of sponge cake in her assembly line.

Was the expense of buying all those appliances completely superfluous? Yes. Did she regret it? Not in the slightest. It wasn't like she had much else to do with her higher-than-ever salary. But even with her unadvisable purchases, it had still taken hours to get all of the cakes done. Luckily, she'd been able to multitask and take care of it while working on her project at Gaggle.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The game hasn't cracked down on me for earning money the legitimate way. Here's hoping that it doesn't take issue with bulking up my cooking operation, either…

Kaitlyn quickly collected a selection of fruit sandwiches and nestled them into the box, closing it up and handing it to the customer with a smile. As she did, Esme shook her head in disbelief. "Really. If you can do all this in a dorm, I can't imagine what you'll do in an actual kitchen…"

Oh! That sounds like an opportunity if I've ever heard one!

Esme lived off campus, meaning that she very likely did have a full kitchen or at least an oven. Between that and her desire to have a one-on-one hangout with the girl, this very well could be the in she needed.

Kaitlyn chuckled. "Please tell me you're offering. Because I would gladly take you up on that. It's been way too long since I've had a full-sized oven."

The girl blinked in surprise. "I mean… I do have one. My roommate does most of the cooking, but I don't think she'd mind someone else using it for a bit… Would you really be interested?"

"Of course I'd be interested!" Hope and excitement grew inside her. The partially cracked door of opportunity seemed to swing open a little wider. "Heck, I'll even let you pick what I make! Chili, coffee cake, steak… you name it, I'll gladly whip it up!"

Hopefully I don't sound too desperate, but it's true. It's been too long since I've gotten to commandeer Vinny's kitchen, and I don't even get to do stuff at Chella's anymore…

"Oh my, you don't have to go that far!" Esme waved her off emphatically. "Although, if you insist… honestly, I'd love to bake something with you. Maybe you can teach me some of your recipes!"

Kaitlyn grinned. "I'd love to. I mean, I'll give you my recipes any time you want, but I've got no problem showing you how to make them, too! Seriously, you'd be the one doing me a huge favor."

Esme's smile widened. "All right. Then why not? We'll have a nice little girls night baking adventure! Though we might have to wait until after midterms. I'm just about swamped as is…"

The pair continued chatting for a while longer, tossing around ideas of what to make. After a little while, Kaitlyn was pulled away to handle another group of orders, leaving Esme to finish her sandwiches. Internally, she celebrated.

This is absolutely perfect. It'll be a hangout with just the two of us! I didn't even have to finagle a situation where Elliot wasn't around! AND we'll get to bake! Seriously. I don't know if I could have possibly hoped for something better.

She smiled despite herself, loading up another box of sandwiches. Finally. If I can't get some answers like this, then I'm absolutely hopeless.

***

The soft clicking of keystrokes filled the quiet dorm in intermittent bursts. As she typed, Kaitlyn's eyes flicked back and forth between the documentation on her laptop screen and the lines of output waterfalling down a second monitor beside it. With a few final taps, she nodded to herself.

Alright. Done with that. Let's see how it handles those tests now…

Leaning back in her chair, she allowed the code to run. If it worked as intended, then it would set her way ahead on her workload for the next few weeks. If not…

…Well, that's fine, too. I didn't think it would be an easy project in the first place. But I can still hope that I'm overthinking things.

Her latest software engineering job hadn't pulled any punches. After being offered an incredible variety of choices to pick from, she'd eventually settled on one of the biggest names on her list—Gaggle. It was one of the most prestigious and sought after companies out there, with an hour-long line at the career fair to prove it. They only hired the best and brightest, and so far, it had really challenged her. The projects were beyond anything she'd been asked to work on previously, often requiring her to actually spend a good amount of time on them. The expectations were much higher, too.

That being said, those expectations also came with appropriate benefits. Between the pay and the schedule flexibility, Gaggle represented a huge step up compared to anything she'd taken on before, especially Fink.

It's kind of making me feel weird, to be honest. Like, I seriously feel like I'm scamming these companies at this point.

Not for the first time, she wondered if she'd actually be able to hold down a position like this in the long term. The fact that each loop only lasted about four months meant that she had barely enough time to settle into a job before things got reset, much less fail hard enough to get herself fired. Sure, the impressions she'd gotten from all of her managers indicated they were satisfied, but how much stock could she put in that when they barely knew her?

Shaking her head, she looked over to her third monitor to check for any new messages. There was nothing pressing in any of her various work chats, nor had any last-minute meetings appeared in her calendar. Seeing that her tests were still running smoothly, she pulled out her phone for a brief break.

Let's see… I've already got more recipes than I know what to do with bookmarked, memorized, and ready to go. I could keep adding to it, but I'm not really craving anything right now… Maybe I should look up some more stuff related to my lab research? See if I can get new ideas on assays or something? I'm not sure I'd find anything that Professor Adams hasn't already thought of, but maybe if there's something really out there and cutting edge…

With a shrug, she began browsing through the latest and greatest on plant immune response research. Reading papers was something that had taken her a long time to get used to. The things were just obtuse by design. She was convinced that papers were written to show off a researcher's incredible lexicon of overly-specific words and abbreviations more than to actually communicate anything. However, once she'd realized that she could pretty much ignore that stuff and skip straight to the figures and methods, things had gotten a lot better.

Still not entirely sure if that's the way you're supposed to read them. But, well, it works for me. Besides, It kinda feels like people tend to stretch things a bit in their analyses and conclusions more than I'd like…

A notification caught her eye along the top of her phone screen, interrupting her reading. She had a new email. It was probably a delayed response from one of the other companies she'd reached out to. Still, she opened it anyway out of curiosity.

Hi Kaitlyn,

My name is Jeffery Munsk, and I'm the head of Software Development at John Avenue Capital. We're a research and data-based trading firm that uses mathematical models and automated approaches to make highly optimized decisions about market movements and trading.

I've had it on good authority that you're a bit of a rising star in the software field. Your work at Gaggle has been raising some eyebrows, especially considering your student status. Since we're always looking for bright and talented people to join our team, I'd like to extend a personal invitation to you.

Below is a link to a series of coding challenges that we send prospective candidates to gauge their experience. It's a short series of three prompts that will give us a better idea of what you can do, and will also tell you what we're expecting of our coworkers. If what I hear is accurate, then it shouldn't give you too much trouble. Just follow the directions there and, if we like what we see, we'll give you a job. An even better one than what you've already got, if my sources are correct.

Looking forward to seeing what you can do.

Best,

Jeffery