The sound of her phone alarm dragged Kaitlyn out of her dreams, thrusting her into the early morning light. She cracked a sleepy eye open before reaching out with one fumbling hand to silence it.

Alright. Today's the big day.

Rolling out of bed, she quietly washed up and got ready. These days, she usually woke up earlier than Heather did. Thankfully, the girl was a heavy enough sleeper that she hardly noticed, even when Kaitlyn accidentally banged her toe against the dresser or knocked over a stack of notebooks. Still, even knowing that, she took a little effort to not disturb her roommate too badly.

After pulling on her hoodie, she stepped toward the small desk near the window. Reaching for one of the higher shelves, Kaitlyn pulled down her PlaySphere controller, tucking it into her backpack alongside her laptop and food supplies. She shouldn't need much for Bara Bash, but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

A thrill of excitement coursed through her. She'd been to the biggest Bash Bros tournament of the loop plenty of times over the loops, both with and without Ian. But this time would be different. This time, she wasn't just looking to practice. This time, she was aiming to win.

Well, ok. I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen yet, she admitted to herself. But it's within the realm of possibility at least! If I just turn up the jets a bit…

Kaitlyn headed down the stairs, her footsteps echoing up and down the empty stairwell. It was still a bit early to head out for the event, but that was alright. It meant she had plenty of time for breakfast.

Cappy's was pretty empty on weekend mornings. The students and staff working within wiped their bleary eyes, wiping down counters and idly waiting for anything of interest to happen. Of course, most students wouldn't bother to wake up so early, much less actually get out of bed until hours later. But Kaitlyn had places to be, and so here she was. The fact that the make-your-own-waffle station was empty was just a bonus.

She doctored up a few cups of waffle batter, mixing a few of her sweeter spice mixes into cups of it before toasting them in the waffle iron. She was particularly hopeful about the triple berry waffle. While it wouldn't exactly blow any minds, It didn't have to. Sometimes, tried and true flavor combinations really did work best. Though that didn't mean she'd give up on making the raspberry white-chocolate waffle mix work. One day…

With her assortment of nonstandard waffles in hand, she settled down at a table to test them. As she bit into the stacks of crisp deliciousness, Kaitlyn thought about the upcoming tournament.

Between practicing with Ian and her own wealth of experience, Kaitlyn had finally become a force to be reckoned with. One that was seriously becoming a threat at the biweekly tournaments in her own right. In fact, she'd been consistently placing in the top five of every one, sometimes even higher. It gave her a nice bit of bonus cash, too, though it wasn't much compared to working or Kate's Kitchen.

She still wasn't the best. There were plenty of instances where bad matchups or particularly risky plays would lose her games that she should have won. But she could be the best. Maybe. Or give everyone a hard time at least. Especially Ian, even if he still managed to outpace her in practice and in tournament.

He's been getting better almost as much as I have. I'm closing the gap, but still… I guess I should be grateful, since he's on my team and all. It just means practicing together is actually making both of us better.

He continued to place just above her, even if he had yet to win first in singles. Though at this point, Kaitlyn was able to take games off of him just under half the time. Outside of tournaments, of course. When they played in bracket, he had a tendency to absolutely play above his level, to the point she almost accused him of sandbagging. IT was just unfair.

I need to learn how he does that. She quietly stepped out of the dorm, locking it behind her. Is that even something I can learn? Or is he just built different? If he can do the same thing against Zog…

Eventually, she finished eating. A solid half of her waffles remained on the plates before her – less than she'd expected, honestly. She'd made way too many in the interest of testing all her recipes, and they'd all tasted pretty good, so she'd overeaten a bit. It was totally worth it.

Alright… she checked the time. Still way too early. Dang, why didn't I sleep in, too? Now I've gotta find something else to do in the meantime.

There was still an hour before Bara Bash even started, not to mention the Bash Bros tournaments themselves. Maybe she could go early to hang out, but there wouldn't even be that many people there. Plus, she'd already told Ian that she'd walk with him to the event.

She sighed. An hour felt like such an awkward amount of time. Still, maybe it would be a good chance to work on her Software Engineering project.

Pulling out her phone, Kaitlyn decided to shoot off a text.

Kaitlyn: Hey! Do you want to hang out before Bara Bash? Not sure if you're awake, but figured I'd check.

It was a longshot, but there was no harm in asking. Especially not if it meant getting a bit of extra practice time in.

She tucked the phone back away, pushing her food aside and replacing it with her laptop. The well-used computer blinked to life. Rolling her shoulders, Kaitlyn sank into her assignment with gusto.

Despite her initial fears, Software Engineering wasn't as hard as expected. Not remotely. The project they were assigned seemed pretty reasonable and approachable, even for someone like her. Maybe it meant that she'd finally solidified her hold on the basics of computer science. Or maybe Algorithms had completely thrown off her expectations for class difficulty.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The only problem was time. The work took ages to finish, especially for someone working alone like her. She'd already had to adjust the time allotted for the class once or twice to keep up, and that was without having to worry about any others. How people were supposed to handle more than one class like this still baffled her.

Kaitlyn focused on the screen, alternating between resting her chin on her elbow to think and typing. The world fell away around her as she worked. Eventually, the dribble of students turned into a stream as Cappy's slowly hummed to life with conversation and the clinking of dishware. Tables filled with hungry students and sent them away satisfied. But she ignored it all.

"Kay?"

She shook herself out of her flowstate. A tap on the shoulder drew Kaitlyn's attention to her left. Her green eyes locked with Ian's own clear blue ones.

"Oh! Hey, Ian!"

"Hey." He tapped his pocket. "Did you get my texts?"

Oh, shoot. Pulling her phone back out revealed that she had, in fact, completely missed his responses. Not only that, but a lot more time had passed than she'd realized.

"Er, sorry…" She ducked her head apologetically. "I kind of got wrapped up in something…"

Ian nodded with understanding. "I know the feeling. It's ok."

She grinned. Yeah. I know. "Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just going to grab some food before heading over." He gestured toward the serving area. "I just thought I'd come say hi first. I kind of figured you were already there."

Kaitlyn shook her head. "Nope. I told you I'd wait for you to head over, didn't I? Though I guess I kind of messed that part up a bit…"

Ian chuckled. "No worries. It all worked out. Anyway, I'm gonna grab some waffles. Do they have some sort of special today? Cuz those look really good."

"Oh?" A sly grin slid across her features. "Well, good luck finding these. They're a custom-order product."

He cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean… well, here." She dug around in her backpack for more of the waffle seasonings. "Which one sounds best? Cinnamon spice, triple berry, or cider pumpkin?"

"Uh…" He looked at her with confusion. "Cinnamon, I guess? Why?"

Kaitlyn pulled out a little baggie of the mix with a grin. "Here. Mix that in the batter before putting it in the waffle iron. You'll thank me later."

***

After successfully getting Ian hooked on her cooking – to the point that she gave him a few more samples of spice mixes, free of charge – they finally headed out to Bara Bash. It was a bit later than Kaitlyn had hoped, but that was ok. They'd still have plenty of time to check out the booths and other attractions, as well as enjoy some friendlies before the real tournaments started.

The pair walked toward the center of campus. The arching oak trees that loomed over their path had long since lost their leaves, allowing the daylight through their spindly branches. Compared to during the week, there weren't nearly so many students wandering about now. However, the place was nowhere near deserted.

"So… what were you working on?"

Kaitlyn glanced over at her brown-haired teammate. "Me? Ah, just a Software Engineering assignment."

"That's the class you're auditing, right?"

During their hangouts, they'd found a few opportunities to revisit the whole concept of Kaitlyn taking CS classes. In fact, Ian had been the one to bring it up. He seemed pretty interested in the prospect of auditing, which made sense. She couldn't imagine that his current classes were doing much for him.

"Yeah," she nodded. "It's not bad, but it's supposed to be a group class, so it's kind of a lot."

"Yeah, that scans." He shrugged. "Still, better than actually having to do a group project. Those things usually suck."

"True. Well, only if you're responsible." Kaitlyn admitted. "If you're a slacker, then they're great."

He chuckled. "I guess. Still. I was thinking of taking that class eventually, but maybe not…"

"It's still pretty useful," she pointed out. "I'm learning a lot from the projects themselves, even doing them solo. Plus, it's not like you'll be able to stay away from group work forever. I was told this is a pretty good stand-in for how actual software jobs work."

Ian scratched his head. "I guess. Good point. What's the project you're working on now?"

"It's making a phone app."

He blinked with surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah. Mine's supposed to be a basic framework for a social media site based around recipes and cooking. It's supposed to count as our final, too. So at least there's that."

It was a small mercy for the poor students with other exams to study for. It was one less exam to worry about, and the project was even due before finals week began. Sure, it was a ton of work, but so was every other class on this campus.

She laced her fingers behind her head and stretched. "At least they gave us a decent amount of time for it. So I can't really complain."

Ian didn't respond. After a few moments of conspicuous silence, Kaitlyn glanced over at her friend. "You ok?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I just…" Ian's gaze turned skyward as he though. "I guess I just expected more."

Kaitlyn nodded. "Me too, honestly. But maybe I just got too used to getting my face kicked in by these classes. Something like this feels downright fair now."

He let out a dry chuckle. "I guess. I more meant the project itself, though. It's… it seems a bit too basic, don't you think?"

Kaitlyn's eyes widened. "I mean, I guess? I'm trying to add in some stuff where you can filter recipes based on what region they're posted from, too, so you can get variations on a recipe from around the world." She shrugged. "That might be ambitious though. Maybe it is too basic though, if even I can handle it..."

"Ah, I wasn't saying that to insult you!" Ian backpedaled immediately. "I didn't mean your project! I just meant–!"

"It's ok," she clutched at her chest, her voice filled with mock despair. "I know that you look down on me. You don't have to pretend."

"I don't–"

"We can't all be genius programmers like you!" She looked away dramatically. "Some of us had to scrabble and claw for every inch of knowledge we have!"

"I'm no genius…" Ian grumbled, receding into his mint hoodie like a turtle into its shell. "That's what my grades say, at least."

"Your grades?" She asked, dropping her act. "What do you mean?"

"I, uh…" Ian's eyes darted around before alighting on something in front of them. "Looks like we made it! There's the ballroom."

He quickened his pace. Kaitlyn hurried to keep up with a frown. That had felt a little more ominous than expected. What was wrong with Ian's grades? Were they really that bad?

Even if they are bad, it's not the end of the world. Alex's were, too, and mine were at one point. Maybe he's just embarrassed about it?

Still, she let the subject drop. There would be time to revisit that topic later. For now, it was time for Bara Bash.