Kaitlyn sat cross-legged on her bed, a pillow sandwiched between the wall and the small of her back. Her computer sat in her lap, pinning the comforting warmth of her blankets in place. Its upward-angled screen displayed a compact list of her recent emails.

Not bad. Not great, but not bad, either.

The results were in. After a few weeks of applications, resumes, and interviews, she'd finally finished her first attempt at finding a software engineering job. Well, mostly. Not every company had responded. But at this point, a lack of response meant that the place was out of the running anyway.

It's fine. Either I don't meet the requirements yet or they're just slow. The first I can fix with more experience. The second… well, if I wait much longer, I won't even be able to start before the end of the loop. I've only got so many weeks to work with, here. I'm not wasting any waiting on a company that can't be bothered to look at my application, even if they would pay well.

She opened up her spreadsheet on the different companies and began updating it with the results. They were… quite promising, actually. She'd made it to first round interviews for the majority of her list, then managed to move on and snag follow-ups with over half of those. Considering how incredibly unqualified she felt, that fact gave her a pretty big confidence boost.

However, things had taken a slight downturn when it came to actual offers. After everything, she'd ended up with two in total. One was from a company called Datara, while the other was called Fink. Two was nothing to sneeze at, to be sure, but it still fell a bit short of what she'd hoped for.

…Obviously some of these I bombed. The Nile one and some of the other high-end companies were way tougher than I expected. Some of these I really thought I did well on, though.

Of course, she had her suspicions about why things hadn't worked out better. A good amount of the interviewers were probably turned off by her situation and rather specific needs. For many, she suspected that hiring a full-time college student wasn't exactly an enticing prospect, much less one that wanted to work remotely.

At least, that's the impression I'm getting. Hmm… She tapped her fingers against her thigh. Would it be immoral to just not tell them I'm a student? I mean, it's not like I really have the same time commitments that you'd expect for one. I really can work a normal nine-to-five schedule no problem. I wouldn't even have to go to midterms…

It was something to consider. However, it wasn't a huge issue at the moment. Not when she did have options to choose from.

Kaitlyn leaned her head back against the wall and hummed thoughtfully. I can't be too picky. I mean, this is the first time I've ever done this. There was every chance that I got zero results and just had to keep at it, loop after loop. Getting anything first try is amazing.

The two companies were pretty similar. In her rankings of how selective each place might be, they'd both been near the bottom. Still, just because they were easier to get into didn't mean that they were bad options by any means.

These are on the low side, pay-wise. But either will pay a LOT more than I'm currently making, not to mention give some great experience. Between that and learning the interview questions, I really think I'll do even better next time.

A quick refresher on the two options helped her get a better idea of their differences. Based on the descriptions and her own questions during the interviews, Fink seemed like more of a startup environment while Datara was a more established company. While picking one over the other wasn't a huge deal—she could always pick the other path next time around—she did want to prioritize the one that had more long-term potential benefits for her.

…And I think that might be the startup.

Startups were pretty well known for being hard work, but also excellent for building a varied skillset. Since building up her skills was a must, that made it a good fit. Even better, she'd gotten the impression that Fink might give her a bit more freedom and flexibility than a more traditional workplace might. The interviewers had seemed laid-back enough, at least.

With the decision made, Kaitlyn drafted quick responses to both places. After sending them off, she closed her laptop and sighed contentedly. That's done. Assuming nothing crazy happens, I'll be starting in just a couple of weeks… right around when midterms happens.

It was pretty late in the loop to be starting a new job. Nine weeks of work didn't feel like enough time to accomplish much of anything. But still, hopefully it would give her enough experience to be more useful next time. Besides, she'd started her search pretty late. Now that the hard work was done, she would be able to expedite the application process next time.

Soon, I'll be officially working full time as a software engineer… Which means I've gotta put in my notice at Chella's.

A stab of guilt shot through her. That wasn't something she was looking forward to. From their perspective, she hadn't even been working at the restaurant for two months, and now she was leaving? Scarra would be pissed.

And Chella… Kaitlyn winced at the thought of the portly woman. She won't be angry. Just disappointed. That's gonna be even worse.

For once, she was grateful for the resets. It meant that they'd forget all about this once the next loop rolled around.

Oh, well. Not too much I can do about it. I'm definitely not holding both jobs at the same time. Even if I technically COULD pull that off, there's other things I want to do. Like my own cooking. Speaking of…

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

She dug around in her pocket for her phone. It was just about time to start preparing for Kate's Kitchen. Today had curry on the menu, an old standby that she could practically make in her sleep. She'd even finished most of the prep work earlier in the week. Still, there was no sense in delaying, not when there were ravenous college students to be fed.

Setting the laptop aside, Kaitlyn flung the covers off and swung her legs out of bed. With a brief stretch toward the ceiling, she began pulling together her supplies. Tupperwares full of pre-chopped veggies, cubed meats, and blended spices disappeared into the bags at her feet. Lifting the heavy sacks with a grunt of effort, she hobbled over toward the door. It was time to lose herself in the kitchen for a bit.

***

The plastic lid of the gel box snapped into place with a soft click. Inside, the thin rectangle of clear gel sat immobilized in a sea of buffer, bluish samples resting neatly within each well. It sloshed slightly with the motion, but not enough to upset the carefully arranged setup.

With one last check over her work, Kaitlyn reached for the pair of red and black wires that snaked out from the lid. A few quick motions had them plugged in and live, power coursing into her latest Western blot in progress. The effect wasn't immediately obvious, but soon collections of tiny bubbles began to form and stream upward.

She stood there for a moment, watching as the blue samples began crawling ever so slowly downward. Alright. That's all done. Now's a good time to break for lunch…

Turning away from the sight, Kaitlyn began tidying up and preparing for what would come next. There were other experiments she had planned for the day, ones that she could easily take care of in the downtime of her main project. Getting a few things set up ahead of time would really help to streamline that whole process.

Satisfied with her preparations, Kaitlyn finally shucked off her lab coat and headed to hang it up. Alright. When I get back, the gel should be done. I'll transfer it, start extractions while that's running, then start transplanting seedlings once I'm done… What's today? Wednesday? That means the salad bar should have roast beef…

"Heading out for lunch?"

A male voice interrupted her thoughts. Looking over, she belatedly noticed Elliot and Esme approaching, each clad in their own lab coats. Elliot's was open at the front, like usual, his hands in its pockets. Esme's, however, was neatly buttoned and pressed. Between that and her pinned-up hair, she practically looked fashionable in the thing.

Kaitlyn nodded. "Yeah. I've gotta wait for a gel to run, anyway."

"Same here!" Esme chimed in, her eyes bright. "Want to go together?"

Kaitlyn bit her cheek. She didn't have anything against the pair, of course. But this entire loop, she'd taken care not to place herself in Elliot's path any more than she had to. Aside from a few friendly conversations when their lab schedules did overlap, they'd mostly kept to their own devices.

…Then again, I don't really have a reason to say no, do I?

It wasn't like going would force her to start thinking about endings or future plans. It was just lunch. That was it. Besides, Esme would be there, so treating it as a friendly outing would be even easier.

"...Sure," she decided. "Are you guys going to Cappy's?"

Elliot nodded. "Yeah. Unless you had something different in mind?"

"Nope. That's fine with me."

The trio hung up their lab coats and headed out the door, Esme grabbing her bag on the way out. At Kaitlyn's curious glance, she smiled. "I have class afterwards. Virology."

That piqued her interest. "Virology? How is it?"

"It's awful," Esme sighed dramatically. "The subject itself is fascinating, really. But the professor? Well… suffice to say that he's doing his best to convince us otherwise."

Elliot's eyebrows lifted. "I'm shocked. Who could have imagined that Korb, of all people, would be boring?"

"I didn't know he had a reputation!" The pale-skinned beauty tossed a lock of long hair over her shoulder in exasperation. "You should have told me!"

"You're a third year. You haven't learned to look this stuff up?"

Esme deflected the question. "Well, it's not like I had many options. He's the only one who teaches it, anyway…"

Kaitlyn walked alongside the pair as they continued chatting, mostly content to listen to their banter. They made efforts to include her, of course—Esme in particular—but she mostly kept her responses polite and short. Not enough to come off as curt or awkward. It just let her fade into the background as more of an observer.

Eventually, they arrived at the dining hall. The familiar horseshoe of white plaster and glass shimmered in the sunlight, a veritable throng of students already swarming about it like angry ants. The trio waded into the thick of the lunch rush, splitting up to fill their trays before reconvening at one of the outside tables.

"Ahhh," Esme sighed, plopping her tray down on the table. "Finally. It was so loud in there!"

Elliot shrugged. "What do you expect? We came at pretty much the worst time you could."

"At least it means the food is fresh," Kaitlyn piped up after a few seconds. "They have to replace it every few minutes like this."

Esme hummed thoughtfully as she sat. "True. What did you get, by the way?"

"Just a salad and some pasta. Nothing special."

Indeed, the plates before her were pretty plain by her standards. Without her backpack full of spices, it didn't leave her that many options to make something really tasty.

That's fine though. I didn't really want to go full gourmet in front of them anyway. Not today.

Esme raised a penciled eyebrow in surprise. "That seems like a lot of food. Are you sure you can eat it all?"

Kaitlyn just grinned. "Positive. I do a lot of running, so I honestly need the calories."

The girl's mouth formed an "o" of surprise. "I see! That makes sense!"

"More sense than she does, at least." Elliot poked Esme in the ribs. "I don't know where she puts all that."

Kaitlyn glanced at their trays. As usual, Elliot had selected an incredibly plain bowl of buttered noodles, a choice which never ceased to shock her with its blandness. Meanwhile, Esme had settled on a plate full of various pizza slices.

Esme crossed her arms and pouted at the ginger. "Hey! I bike!"

"Uh-huh. Sometimes."

Kaitlyn couldn't help but chuckle as one of Esme's pale hands swatted at Elliot's shoulder. The fact that Elliot was willing to joke about something like that just further cemented the pair's closeness in her mind. What exactly their relationship was, she still had no idea. But they definitely had one.

Whatever it is, it's gotta be important. I'll really have to look into what's up with them when I try for Elliot's route…

Smiling, she watched as the ginger and the dark-haired beauty continued to rib each other playfully as they ate.