The lecture hall buzzed with activity and conversation. A steady stream of students poured in through each entrance, branching off into tributaries as they broke off to find seats among the already-crowded aisles. There were still three minutes to go until the Intro to Programming lecture began, and yet the hall was already packed.

Geez. I'm glad it doesn't stay like this.

A quick glance across the assembled crowd revealed Ian's figure in the back corner, just where she'd expected. His laptop rested on the fold-out desk before him, its screen populated with dense lines of code. More importantly, though, the seat next to him remained vacant.

She couldn't help but let out a quiet breath of relief. Part of her had known that the situation would be the same. Why wouldn't it? But still, the sheer number of people packing into the space still had her worried.

I could've sat down first. But I didn't memorize the exact seat he took. Besides, who knows? Maybe he would've gone somewhere else if there were too many people sitting by him. He obviously cares about privacy. At least, as much privacy as you can have in a place like this.

Starting forward, she squeezed between the rows of seats with a muttered stream of "excuse me's" until she arrived at her destination. Even as she sat down and set down her belongings, though, Ian didn't look up.

Can't really say I expected anything else, to be honest. If anything, I would've been shocked if he did notice.

Once she'd gotten herself settled, she leaned over slightly to take a closer look at Ian's screen. He was clearly working on his game again. But even up close, she couldn't quite figure out what part was being tinkered with. It seemed to be something related to collisions, based on the "type_terrain" and "player_speed" variable names. But there were plenty of others scattered around that felt completely unrelated.

Rather than trying to piece it together, though, Kaitlyn cleared her throat. There was only a little time before lecture started, after all.

"Ian?"

The guy continued staring at his screen, completely transfixed. Kaitlyn gave him a slight nudge and tried again. "Ian? Hello?"

That got his attention. At the contact, he jolted upright in surprise, head whirling around to face her. "Oh! Hey, uh…"

"Kaitlyn," she finished for him with a smile. "Sorry to bother you. I just wanted to say hi."

"Yeah! Er, hi." Ian ran a nervous hand through his chestnut hair, returning a sheepish smile. "Didn't expect to see you here. I mean, well, I did, since we have the same class, but you know…"

"Yeah, the lecture hall's pretty big," she chuckled. "Your hoodie is easy to spot, though."

"Really? Does it stand out that much?"

"I mean, it doesn't stand out like a neon sign or anything. It's just… recognizable. Easy to pick out of a crowd. Only if you're looking for it, though."

He seemed to relax slightly. "Oh. Ok. I guess. Cool."

Kaitlyn gave him a shrug. It was easy to forget just how awkward Ian was at the start, especially before the first Bash Bros tournament. She flicked her gaze back to his screen. "Anyway, what're you working on?"

"Oh! Er, nothing! Don't worry about that."

Just like that, his walls shot right back up. He reached out to tab out of the window, bringing up a blank document for lecture notes instead.

Shoot, Kaitlyn inwardly cursed herself. She'd gotten too comfortable, there. As much as she'd gotten used to acting like a stranger at the start of each loop, it was still so easy to slip up. I was kind of hoping that would work, but…

"Sorry, didn't mean to peek," she eased off, but decided to plant another seed on her way out. "I was just curious. I thought maybe there was some assignment I missed, but this class isn't in D-Flat."

Ian blinked in surprise. "You know D-Flat?"

"Kinda?" She scratched her cheek. "I wouldn't say I know it. I've made a couple of basic things, that's it. I'm trying to learn, though."

"Oh. Huh." He hesitated for a moment. "Then—"

"Alright, we're going to get started here," the professor's voice boomed over the speakers, cutting Ian off. "Welcome to Intro to Programming. My name's Dr. Berlioz. You know when and where the class is, otherwise you wouldn't be here. Moving on…"

Dangit.

The hall quieted down over the course of a few seconds. As the man began to drone on about the syllabus and course structure, Kaitlyn chanced one last whisper. "It's good to see you."

Ian returned her smile, albeit a bit more shyly. "Yeah. You too."

***

Kaitlyn's fingers navigated across the white and black keys, tapping across them with purpose. The synthesized piano sounds filled her ears in answer, humming through her headphones as she played.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

The song was a relatively upbeat one. In fact, it was one of her favorites.

Except for…

She focused as a particularly nasty run approached, her fingers fumbling over themselves as they chased after the rapid series of notes. The dreamlike dazzle she'd been aiming for came out as more of a frantic mashing that hardly resembled the original song.

Kaitlyn gave a wince at the result, then sighed. Ah, well. I didn't quite get it last loop, either. Guess I need to start practicing scales again…

She gave it a few more tries—albeit at a slower tempo—before taking a brief break. Leaning back in her chair, she stretched her fingers and thought about what she'd managed to accomplish over the last few weeks.

Kate's Kitchen was hitting new highs this time around. Evidently, starting off with desserts really was the right play. They'd generated more interest and sales than she thought possible with such a small setup. The results were even more impressive considering how darn simple the recipes were. It was almost frustrating.

I put all this time into perfecting that mac and cheese recipe, and I made way more profit just selling those basic strawberries and cream fudges… I mean, they're good, but they're so quick and cheap to make! It feels like cheating.

Regardless, she couldn't argue with the results. She'd still keep selling her bulk meals whenever she made them, but it looked like the desserts would soon be replacing even the spice mixes at the top of her priority list. Especially once she learned a few tricks from Scarra.

I think I can ask about those soon. I'm already proving my worth in the kitchen, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch. He usually makes desserts before I get in, though… Maybe I'll have to look into pulling overtime and coming in early…

Between that and a few promising breakthroughs in her lab work, Kaitlyn was having a pretty great time. Things were looking up all around. Especially when it came to her main goal.

…And then there's the Ian stuff, she thought. The real meat and potatoes of this loop.

After that first lecture, the pair had continued sitting together for Intro to Programming pretty regularly. The lecture didn't leave much time for them to talk, and Ian had to hurry off to another class afterward. But the regular conversations were just meant to get them comfortable. It had been enough that the first Bash Bros tournament had come and gone without any sort of awkwardness.

The look on his face when I beat him… a devious grin curled her lips at the memory. Absolutely priceless. Maybe I can keep my advantage for longer this time. I'd love to sweep every tournament one of these days

Most importantly of all though, they'd finally made plans to hang out. Later this week, they'd meet up to take care of that first Intro to Programming assignment and play some friendlies. Though based on how simple the assignment was last time, Kaitlyn was sure that they'd end up spending a lot more time on the latter.

Finally. Things are about to really start picking up now.

It felt like it had taken forever to reach this point. Even though it had only been a few weeks, each day slipped by like grains of precious sand through her fingers. It was even more nerve-wracking since she still hadn't been introduced to Ian's game.

Patience, Kaitlyn, she reassured herself. Don't push it. That's what got me in trouble last time. I've gotta let Ian go at his own pace this time. Even if I'm even more sure that the game's important now.

Rolling her shoulders, she poised her hands over the keys again. Even though the Ian stuff wasn't moving quite as quickly as she'd have liked, there were plenty of other things for her to get in order. Recipes to develop, experiments to design, work to do… and music to play.

Her fingers slowly and deliberately plinked away at the notes of the run, repeating it over and over until it felt comfortable. Then, she slowly began increasing the speed, trying to maintain her precise finger placement as she did. Over and over, the notes rang through her headphones like a broken record.

Speaking of things to do… I still have another thing to figure out.

As she practiced, she once again began thinking about what to put in her Notepad app. The options were… fairly limited. A thousand characters seemed like a lot at first, but when she actually wrote something out, it felt so small. Even abbreviating words and sentences could only help so much.

There were a few things that obviously wouldn't make the cut. Class material, to do lists, and anything else that she had so deeply ingrained in her psyche that it would take surgery to remove it. That included recipes, most of which she knew by heart. Cooking ones were largely improv and adjusted as she went anyway, so noting them down wouldn't be helpful.

Maybe she could note down particularly complex dessert recipes? Or particularly useful blocks of code?

Both of those feel like a waste, though. The desserts aren't that important to have, and figuring out an approach is the most important part of programming. Why copy a thousand characters of code when I can just remake the thing, but better?

The best thing she'd come up with so far was a list of experimental conditions for lab. It was something that had a bit more value across loops, to her at least. True, she'd done just fine through brute force memorization, but it would save time and effort.

I would do stocks or lotto numbers or something, but I've already learned my lesson on that one. She shuddered at the memory. I don't know if I want to use this for anything related to money. Besides, I'm pretty good on that front usually.

A flash of motion caught her eye as the door swung open. Heather stepped inside the dorm, her head lolling back in a look of exaggerated exhaustion. "Ugh! I've already got soooo much work! Seriously! Did all my professors, like, get together to plan this?"

Kaitlyn giggled, tugging the headphones out of her ears. "Hey, Heather. That bad, huh?"

"Omigosh, yes! I have, like, two reports to write, one from International Relations and one for that stupid required Writing class. Then on top of that…"

Kaitlyn nodded along to the familiar spiel. As much as the girl complained, she knew it was mostly an act. Heather was more than capable of juggling her schoolwork and social life with no problem at all. It was almost enough to make her jealous.

Dunno how she pulled off the transition from high school to college so well. Maybe her high school was super demanding too? Or maybe it's just a Heather thing. Who really knows.

"Anyway," the blonde asked, tossing her hair over one shoulder. "I'm like, starving. Wanna grab dinner? Cappy's?"

Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow at her. "Depends. Are you gonna have me doctor up plates for your friends again?"

The girl's eyes flashed greedily. "Welllll, are you offering?"

She couldn't help but laugh. "Sure. C'mon, let's go. I've got time."