"Kate, you've gotta stop making these things."

Heather lounged on her roundish pink chair with her eyes closed. One hand rested on her stomach contentedly while the other draped over its edge. Kaitlyn stopped what she was doing and stared, her brow furrowing with concern. "Why? You don't think they'll sell?"

"No, they won't." Heather sighed. "Cuz I'm gonna eat 'em all.

She looked at the dead serious look on the blonde's face. Then, she burst out laughing.

Heather cracked an eye open and continued her insistent plea. "I mean it, Kate! Like, I dunno if you understand how totally addicting these things are! You're gonna have riots if you put these out! We're gonna get swamped!"

Kaitlyn put a hand to her forehead. "Heather, I know they're good, but they're not that good. Besides, these are just a prototype! I've still got so many changes to make–"

"Don't even think about it." The blonde sat up sharply, her crystal-blue eyes snapping open. "They're absolutely perfect, Kate. If you make them taste any better, they'll be weapons. People are gonna, like, start fighting over these things."

Kaitlyn looked down at the tray in her hands. On it sat a small collection of innocuous-looking candies – caramels, to be exact. A smooth layer of dark chocolate lay atop the chewy base, and an attractive garnish of flaky salt finished them off.

What had started as a simple attempt to recreate her salted caramels from last loop had quickly evolved into an entirely different beast. There were just so many more options and ideas to play with that Kaitlyn couldn't help herself.

These ones obviously seem to be working well. At least, if Heather's response is anything to go by. But I still want to experiment with some different brands of chocolate, and the tempering isn't as good as I'd like. Maybe I should look into adding a peanut butter layer too? Oh, or candied orange peel! Both of those could work well…

"Kate? Are you listening?"

She shook herself, mentally adding the ideas to her to-do list. "Sorry. Just thinking. There's so many more recipes I want to try, I'd feel bad just sticking with these."

"Honestly, girl. How are you so creative? Like, it's unreal!" Heather pouted. "I know I said you should start a restaurant, but really? I'd like, totally invest in Kate's Candies. For real."

Kaitlyn's grin broadened. Heather had always liked the food she made. That much was obvious. But this kind of reaction was on an entirely different level.

Maybe she's right. Maybe we're really onto something, here.

"Alright, we'll run with these for now and see how they sell." Kaitlyn reassured her friend. "But I'm not gonna give up on trying some new stuff, either. And I'll definitely need a taste tester for those."

"Kateeeeee!" Heather let out a plaintive whine. "I'm, like, trying to be healthy! This is so unfair!"

***

Only a few days later, Kaitlyn found herself once again sitting with Ian in their usual practice spot. Only this time, they were here for business.

They sat across from each other, each occupying one bench on either side of a table. The seating reminded her of a restaurant-style booth seat, complete with red vinyl upholstery and a few errant crumbs from some unknown student's earlier snack. Their laptops were already open and ready to go, the assignment pulled up on screen.

"Ok. So…" Kaitlyn began. "It's just making hangman. Right?"

"Right," Ian agreed. "At least, unless I missed something."

She shook her head. "I don't think so. It's just some basic for loops and list stuff. We haven't gone over too much that's more complicated than that, so…"

Kaitlyn hadn't done this assignment in particular before. When she'd audited the class initially, she'd done it with a different professor who had his own way of going about things. But the core concept and expectations were similar enough.

This is gonna be a piece of cake.

Cracking her knuckles, she shot Ian a confident grin. "Alright. Let's see how quick we can knock this out."

With that, she dove into the work. Lines of code materialized on the screen before her as she worked, tossing together the relatively simple program. But after a little while, she began to frown.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Hmm… it is pretty straightforward to just make it work. But that's kind of boring and easy.

To be fair, it was supposed to feel that way. She was well past this level, so it would have been more concerning if the assignment did pose a challenge. Still, the thought gave her pause. Leaning back against the seat, she hummed in thought. Do I want to do boring and easy?

Ian eventually noticed that she'd stopped typing and looked over at her. "What's up, Kay?"

"Hmm? Sorry, I'm just thinking…" She crossed her arms.

"Something not working?"

"No, that's not what I mean." She waved a hand dismissively. "I'm just trying to figure out how I'd make this better. Like, I know I can just make a basic hangman game. But is there a way to make it more efficient? Could I add a UI? What if I make the game itself pick a word automatically? Stuff like that."

"I mean, you can definitely do that… you could use some libraries for UI or hook it up to an HTML webpage to display, if you wanted. Iterating through the list of guessed letters to see if you've guessed the word isn't bad, either, and I get why they suggest it. But it's also not the most efficient."

She paused. "Good point… I don't actually know much about HTML, though. How would you do that?"

"Well, there's a few ways…"

They went back and forth for a while, swapping strategies to go completely overboard on this relatively simple project. Apparently, there were plenty of ways to build on it far past the class's actual expectations. And as they spoke, she began to gain a firmer grasp on just how experienced Ian was.

I'm not surprised that he's good at this stuff. Not really. And I know this is a really easy project in the first place. But it really does feel like he knows what he's doing.

Kaitlyn tilted her head. "Do you think they'd still count it if we turned something like that in? Or would we get docked for going about it so differently?"

Ian just shrugged. "No idea. I couldn't imagine you'd actually get punished for it. But why are you so set on doing extra, anyway?"

A conflicted expression crossed her face. "I don't know. I just… I feel like, if I do it the way we're supposed to, I won't even learn anything new. I might as well get something out of this assignment, right?"

Ian's brow furrowed. "I guess… I can see that. But it feels like a waste to spend extra time on it. You obviously know what you're doing, so why not just get it done and do something else that's more interesting?"

She blinked. Oh. I hadn't told him about my own programming experience, but… I guess it's easy enough to pick up on.

"I get that. I do." Her hand rose to scratch her neck. "But really, that's the question I should be asking you."

Ian stiffened. "Er, what do you mean?"

"I mean, do you hear yourself?" She chuckled. "You're the one who knows what they're doing, here. I don't even know why you're in this class."

"Well, I kinda have to be here." He scratched his head. "It's a requirement for most of the later programming and CS classes."

"Yeah, but…" she almost asked about testing out of the class again, but held her tongue. She already knew the answer, and rehashing the whole conversation seemed pointless. "That seems so dumb. You could probably do this class blindfolded. You should be way further ahead!"

He just shrugged. "Not much I can do about it now. But…" he hesitated. "I kind of wanted to take this class."

Really? That's new. Kaitlyn was taken aback a little bit by the idea. "Why?"

"I dunno. I just figured that…" His gaze went distant as he searched for the right words. "Well, most of the stuff I've learned, I've taught myself. I figured there's probably a lot of gaps in what I know. So maybe, if I took a real class on this stuff…"

"...Then maybe you'd be more well rounded," she finished.

Ian nodded. "Right. Plus, the stuff I do know is pretty… specialized, I guess? So it's not like I can claim to be an expert in the first place. I just know a few niche things really well"

She thought about that for a moment. His argument made sense. That was the impression she'd gotten from looking over his game's code, as well. But it simply didn't hold up in the face of reality.

He's definitely giving himself too little credit. But I can't really fault his reasoning…

"I know it sounds a little dumb," he said quickly. "But it made sense at the time. Even if it doesn't feel like it's exactly going as planned right now…"

"No! No, it's not dumb at all." Kaitlyn held her hands up soothingly. "I totally get it. I was just curious, you know?"

"Yeah. I get it." He nodded, some of the tension leaving him. "Still, I didn't expect stuff to be this basic. So… sometimes I get a little distracted… I'm probably not the best study partner, to be honest, so if you want to find someone else–"

With as much confidence as she could muster, Kaitlyn shot him a smile. "I don't mind at all. I like working with you! And I mean, there's not that many people who are down for post-homework friendlies."

"Well, there are a few more first years in the club," he pointed out. A hint of a grin crept back into his expression. "But I'm pretty sure you'd scare them off with how hard you go. Your Corgo is downright nasty sometimes."

"Exactly. You get it." She chuckled. "I'm too scary for most people, obviously. So really, you're doing me a favor here."

Ian stared at her, his aqua eyes meeting hers straight on. He didn't say anything for a few moments, to the point where Kaitlyn started to get nervous.

"Uh… is there something on my face?"

"What? Oh!" He finally blinked and broke eye contact. "Sorry. I was just… thinking."

"Well, hopefully it was about this assignment." Her hands hovered over the keyboard once more. "You're right. The sooner we finish this, the more time we'll have to practice before I gotta go work."

"Right."

With that, they both returned their attention to their screens. The interaction filled her with a bit more hope than she'd had before. Hope that things really would turn out differently this time.

I still don't know exactly how advanced Ian is. Or whether I'll be able to help with his other classes… Her gaze lingered on the figure across from her. But at least I'm helping in this one. One step at a time.