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“Got it in one.” Kayla paused to sip her water. “I tried to talk to him. Mentioned some great math careers that out-pay software engineering. We’ll see how it goes, I guess. But for now, she has a makeup assignment that she has to complete in the lab when I’m present.”
“Poor kid.”
“What do you mean? She chose to cheat.”
I flicked at the hem of the napkin in the middle of my plate, then picked it up and put it in my lap. “I get that. I know a little about family pressure. It’s not fun.”
“True. And yet.”
I held up my hands. “You’re right. There’s no excuse for cheating. I hope her dad can come around. She’s brilliant at math. And she loves it. She gets it—sees the beauty, you know?”
“I do know.”
“I forget you love math, too.” I shook my head. How did I let that slip my mind? I associated Kayla with the computer lab, I guess, but her passion had always been math.
“Well, you can just stop that, mister.”
I chuckled. “Won’t let it happen again. Mr. Hu seemed receptive?”
“I think the best I can say is that he didn’t seemunreceptive.”
“Well, maybe that’s a start. What’s the new project for Lucy?”
Kayla sighed. “I don’t know yet. I need to get it to her on Monday but I’m not sure what to have her code.”
“What if you gave her some freedom? Give her the skills you want to see and let her choose how to demonstrate them.” My students always enjoyed when they had more freedom in their projects. That was sometimes harder to figure out how to do with a math project, but I did my best.
“That’s a good idea. You’re pretty smart sometimes, you know?”
“Only sometimes?”
“Don’t push, buster. I said what I said.” Kayla smirked at me across the table.
Was it the opening I was looking for? I cleared my throat, but I couldn’t get the words out. I wanted to mention that the guys had shown me the error of my ways. Or ask if there was any chance that she felt more than friendship. Instead, I went with, “Have you thought about what you’re going to do for your senior capstone projects?”
Her eyebrows lifted like maybe she’d expected me to say something else, but she went with it. “Not completely. I’ve got ideas.”
“I have a couple as well. I know that two of the seniors—Aidan and Sascha—are going to ask about combining yours and mine. You up for that?”
“Case by case basis.” Kayla tapped the stem of her water glass. “For those two? Sure.”
“Enough about work. Sorry. Did you do anything fun this morning?”
She gave me an incredulous look. “What do I do every Saturday morning?”
“Grade programs?” Was I supposed to know the answer to that? I didn’t have a super predictable Saturday morning routine.
“Bzzt. I was at the bookstore with your sister until around two.”
“Oh. Nice.” It was. I shouldn’t mind that Kayla and Megan were friends, but there was a part of me that wanted to shake my sister and scream that I was friends with Kayla first. She wasmyfriend and I didn’t want to share. Irrational? Absolutely. Still true.
She cocked her head to the side. “That was unconvincing.”
“No. It is. It’s good. I’m sure my sister appreciated it. She tell you she’s really going to put in her notice this time and give her complete attention to the bookstore?”
“She did. I’m glad. Except then we ate lunch by the cash register, and I started to wonder if she was going to be able to do it all on her own. Sure, we ran the numbers—and I’m pretty sure you ran them too—and they’ll work fine. But is she going to be just as stretched and stressed? Or more?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. But she’ll be happier. And knowing Megan? She’ll make it work. She always does when it matters to her.”
