Tall shelves of books surrounded Kaitlyn on either side as she headed toward the far wall of the library. Streaks of sunlight beamed down from the windows hanging above to illuminate dust motes floating through the air. Between the emptiness of the place and the sleepy atmosphere, the place felt almost peaceful.

I'm sure I saw some around here…. There!

Near the back of the main hall, nestled against the wall, stood a row of desktop computers. Their bluish backgrounds glowed passively as they waited. Settling into one, she logged in.

Ok. Is there any setup I need to do? Probably….

She logged into the class website. Luckily, her professor had posted both an introductory guide and the first assignment itself. Opening the guide, she pulled up a black box that looked completely incongruous with the otherwise sleek computer.

Gigaware Doorway [Version 5.0.11045.4064]

(c) Gigaware Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Kaitlyn>

Dang. they really haven't made programming look any more modern, huh? This thing still looks like it's from a few decades ago.

She tapped in a few commands hesitantly. Although the guide was detailed enough to essentially hold her hand, she didn't know exactly what she could or couldn't do. That, and the idea of breaking anything frankly spooked her.

Wait, what? She squinted at the screen. I thought I did it right. So why did I get an error?

Reading over the command confirmed that she had, in fact, typed the correct thing. Yet the error message still hung before her in accusatory red. Resubmitting the same command resulted in the same error.

Great. I'm still on setup and I've already messed it up. She stifled her grumblings with a deep breath. But that's ok. Just another problem to solve.

After an hour or so of tinkering and looking things up online, she settled back. I think… I fixed it. Maybe? Another command revealed that the error had, in fact, disappeared.

Finally. With that done, she moved on in the guide and installed another program. Opening it up revealed a sleeker interface that was divided into sections.The text itself still used that old-timey block font that screamed "programming nerd", but at least there were help menus and options to look through here.

She pumped her fist in triumph. Now I can really get started.

Pulling up the first assignment for Intro to Programming, she began tapping away once more. A few quick keystrokes later, she was ready to run her very first program.

Hello World!

A grin spread across her face. Sure, it was the most basic thing ever, but it was hers. With the small victory under her belt, she kept going.

Against all expectations, she found that she did actually enjoy herself a bit. The process of identifying a problem, figuring out how to approach it, then actually implementing that approach had a certain appeal. It almost felt like playing a puzzle game, if an extremely open-ended one.

Of course, it came with its own share of unique frustrations and issues, some of which she'd already experienced. Not to mention that the concepts didn’t exactly come easily to her, despite this being far and away the most beginner-friendly courses she'd taken in this damn school. But there was a kind of satisfaction in it.

It’s definitely a different mindset than most classes. It's all about solving problems and figuring out what the best way to get from point A to point B is. Really, this feels more like lab than anything else. She typed out a few experimental lines of code. Only, it’s almost better than lab because when things don’t work, I can figure out WHY they fail eventually. There’s an understandable reason why things do or don't happen. Even if I might not personally see it yet.

It was both a blessing and a curse. It was incredibly frustrating to see something that by all means should work simply fail over and over. Even more so when she got stuck on the same issue for far too long, only to realize what minor and stupid mistake she’d made. But on the bright side,the fact that every issue with her code came back to her personally messing up was almost liberating.

There’s nothing hidden there. There’s a specific set of rules, and if I stay within them, things work. If something breaks, it’s just because I didn’t understand the rules well enough. There’s no mystery or ambiguity to it. It’s always fixable. I just have to figure out how.

Stretching in her seat, Kaitlyn glanced out the library's tall window and blinked. At some point, the sun had dipped below the horizon, plunging the sky outside into a dusky twilight.

Shoot. How long have I been sitting here? She checked her phone. Five hours?!

A look back at her code made her heart sink. Five hours, and most of it spent on troubleshooting and dumb issues. She'd barely gotten anything done. Certainly not as much as she'd hoped.

It's ok. A deep breath calmed her down. It's not like I have any other classes to worry about, right? I don't have any plans tonight, either…

After a moment of consideration, she shook her head. There was a strong temptation to finish one last thing, go just a little longer. But she held herself back. It’s all about balance. No more obsessing over things. I'm not letting this consume everything like lab did, not again.

Kaitlyn saved her work and logged out, collecting her things. There would be plenty of time to keep working tomorrow. Right now, she needed to rest. And maybe eat dinner. Her stomach rumbled in agreement at the last part.

***

The sounds of simulated combat and grainy chiptune music blared out from the sleek monitor. Kaitlyn leaned forward slightly in her chair, focusing. With a flick of the joystick, she sent her character - a living purple pom-pom with oversized googly eyes - across the stage. As it approached the opponent’s swordsman, a gaping maw opened up as the fuzzball attempted to eat its opponent whole.

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The swordsman dodged the attack, immediately following up with a grab. But Kaitlyn was already one step ahead. The puff ball floated into the air just pixels above his outstretched arm. Then, the fluffy pom-pom turned spiky as it reversed course and fell to earth.

The damage sent the opponent flying to one side. She chased after him, trying to dash forward and capitalize, but even as off-balance as he was the opponent’s sword kept her comfortably at bay. It made any advantage nearly impossible to take advantage of.

After one particularly ill-advised charge earned her a sword slash across the back and stole away her final life, she settled back into the chair with a sigh.

“Good game.”

She turned to glance at her opponent - a rather gruff-looking older student who went by the tag Burger Bob. Despite the name though, he was one of the most humorless guys she’d encountered at the regular Bash Bros. tournaments. She’d tried to pull the origins of the uncharacteristically silly tag out of him a few times, but to no avail. He would just shrug and say he liked it.

“Yeah. Good game.” She shifted, readying herself once more. “Mind if we go again? I want to try something a bit different…”

With a sullen nod, the guy loaded in once more. Even if he was humorless, at least he was a great practice partner.

Along her journey to find a better-fitting character for herself, she had made sure to identify the best players for each among tournament regulars. Burger Bob was a clear go-to for his swordsman character, named Martin. She’d actually tried playing Martin herself a few times as well, but found he wasn’t quite her style.

But considering how awful the matchup is for Pompuff here, I made the right choice practicing with him. Kaitlyn struggled once again to find an opening against the guy’s superior range. Martin’s common enough that I need experience against him. And so far, it’s not looking like I can deal with it well at all.

She couldn’t feel too bad. It was a game she was set up to lose, after all, and Pompuff didn’t quite seem to be the right fit for her personal style either. But still, seeing how impossible these games felt really drove the point home. Especially considering that she could take out Burger Bob fairly easily with her main nowadays.

That’s fine. Pompuff is a kind of unconventional character anyway, so I wasn’t really banking on it. It just makes me appreciate what having options feels like. She grinned as the purple fluffball slipped through Martin’s defense and swallowed the guy whole, spitting him into the air and kicking him off the stage. Though it is pretty fun to get these combos off.

After another loss - though a less convincing one this time - John’s voice boomed through the small room. “Last call for doubles signups! Last call! We’ll be starting in twenty minutes!”

“Thanks for the games.” Kaitlyn nodded graciously at Burger Bob, who met her expression with a dead-eyed nod. Then, she unplugged and headed toward the corner of the room.

Away from the flashing monitors and ongoing games, Ian sat facing the wall. His shoulders hunched forward as he stared at his laptop screen, blue eyes glued to the text displayed across it.

Kaitlyn took a moment to read over the guy’s shoulder. Now that she’d been learning programming for a few weeks, she was seeing marked improvements in her understanding. Instead of complete gibberish, the screen only looked like mostly gibberish.

I have no idea what programming language that is. It’s definitely not the one I’m learning. She squinted a bit. Or is it? Some of the terms are similar…

Leaving the matter aside for now, she cleared her throat. “Hey, Ian?”

He didn’t respond. After a moment of waiting, Kaitlyn stepped a little closer. “Ian?”

Still nothing. The guy’s eyes continued to dart about the screen.

With a sigh, Kaitlyn reached forward and gently tapped his arm. Finally, he blinked and shook his head as if dazed. “Huh? Oh! Hey, Kay. Sorry, what’s up?”

“Doubles is starting soon. Want to warm up?”

“Oh is it really?” Ian ran a hand through his chestnut curls. “Completely missed that. Sure. Thanks for the heads up. Give me one second.”

She nodded and waited as the guy packed away his laptop and retrieved his favorite mint-colored controller. As she stood there, she wondered how long it would be until she could really understand what Ian was doing with his game.

It seems like he’s really in the weeds with it. He’s a first year CS major though, so he can’t be that advanced. Right?

She settled in front of an open PlaySphere with Ian and plugged in. Ian’s CinnaBun appeared on the screen, facing down her own Ray-Chu. The fiery mouse was still her strongest character, and she wanted to put her best foot forward in team games. No point in dragging Ian down as she failed with every other character. Plus, it helped to keep her main in practice.

As the pair sparred against each other, she considered Ian. The skill gap between her and her friend was shrinking smaller and smaller each loop. Well, if he could be called a “friend”. Kaitlyn certainly considered him one, even if she hadn’t earned his friendly ending in quite a long time.

Not like I’ve been trying to go for it though. I’m not focusing on endings right now, anyway, so it’s no big deal. She sent a gout of fire toward the ninja-rabbit as it overextended, scorching its ears. Besides, wouldn’t it be better to wait on that again until I’m better at programming? Then I might be able to actually appreciate what he’s doing. Maybe even help with it somehow.

“All right!” After a few games, John called out once again. “Last round of friendlies! Doubles is starting in five!”

Kaitlyn glanced over toward Ian. “Ready?”

“Yeah. Think so.” Ian stretched slightly. “We’ll see once pairings get announced though.”

She grinned. “What, you don’t think we can take on anyone here?”

He chuckled. “I mean, you played against ZoggyWoggy last week, didn’t you? Think he’s any easier in doubles?”

“...No,” she answered honestly. If anything, the guy was even more of a terror in doubles. Especially during the last tournament of the year. “But I think we have a shot. You gave him a pretty hard time yourself.”

“Yeah, sure.” Ian gave another chuckle, drier this time. “Is that what it looked like? Because it felt like I got destroyed.”

“Give yourself some credit.” She nudged the guy. “You give him more trouble than most of the people here. It’s not a great matchup, but you make it work.”

It was an honest compliment. She’d tried out CinnaBun herself a few loops back, so she had firsthand experience to draw from there. Even if playing the character felt strangely like she was stealing Ian’s style.

“Well, guess we’ll see.” Ian shrugged. “We did pretty well last time around, so who knows? Maybe we just need to develop our super-secret-team-combo technique.”

Kaitlyn’s grin widened. “What, you haven’t been thinking about that? Because I totally have.”

They shared a laugh as John began to call out pairings. As teams moved toward their designated setups, she wondered idly about how their teamwork had developed.

Well, my teamwork really. I’ve gotten a lot better at working off of him. But… She stood as their matchup was called. I think that any real team combos will have to wait until I start going for endings again.

When that would be, she didn’t truly know. The thought kept nagging at her more and more recently. Learning to program could take a long time. Actually, I’m sure it will. So… I just need to take it slow. There’s no rush. I still need more time to process everything, anyway.

She plopped into a chair next to Ian, plugging in and preparing for their first match. Right. Just a little bit more time. Then I’ll be ready.