Page 50 of Love in Development

Stephanie huffed.“You are out of your mind.”

“Yep,” Lin replied.

I didn’t dare say anything.Stephanie would either blow it off or blow it out of proportion anyway, so there was no point.Charisse, uncharacteristically, kept silent too.I wondered if she had ever had to deal with Stephanie’s wrath without the buffer of Lin.

Once RogueStriker left, things settled down some.But without my own furniture in the room, only Charisse’s, I felt a bit displaced.Charisse offered to let me use her desk for the time being, but she had music blasting and was singing along, beautifully but loudly, as she unpacked.I just took my laptop out to the living room.It was quiet, as everyone else was busy settling into their new rooms.I wanted to log into COTSA, but the recent reminder of RogueStriker and the ring looming over me had me avoiding the icon.

I double-checked that my books were ready for pickup and that everything was correct in my schedule.I also needed to pick up my meal card.That would be super useful when I was on campus.Technically, the house was just off campus, but it was less than a half mile from the computer science building where several of my classes were.

Thanks to my dual-enrollment AP classes, most of my general education credits were already out of the way, leaving me free to dive straight into my major.Before I knew it, I’d be coding and testing games full-time.I was well past the basics, what with a first place under my belt.It was common for gamers to use an already-built engine and pre-made assets to practice creating their own maps and skins, making it look like a completely new game.I wasn’t any different.

Stephanie sat across from me with a cup of water and a magazine.Why did she have to sit right there?Wasn’t her own room—my room—comfortable enough?Watching her drink made my throat suddenly feel dry.I jumped up and crossed to the kitchen, rummaging through my box of food and drinks, which had to tide me over until Lin could drive us to the grocery store.I grabbed a can of grape soda and popped the top.The hiss was accompanied by a thoroughly unconvincingoops.

I turned, and Stephanie was looking at me.“Could you get a towel?”

I raised an eyebrow.Like I was going to do anything for her.

“I spilled my water, and I think some got on your laptop.”Her eyes glinted.

Slamming my can down on the counter, I rushed over to check.The entire contents of the cup had soaked every inch of my computer.I saw red.

My screams brought Lin and Charisse running.My friends restrained me by the arms, to keep me from physically attacking Stephanie.I would no longer sit around and be bullied by her.To be fair, I was the idiot who had left her alone with something I cared about.Once Lin found a towel in one of the boxes, I dried the computer as best as I could, and I left it off in my room for the next two days.Lin donated a bag of rice for me to store it in while I prayed for a miracle.I’d been debating on when to give IK the ring, and now I’d gone AFK.

I worried it was a goner.It had never been the same after the lightning strike.While the donated power supply, thanks to Ni, had made it serviceable, it hadn’t run as smoothly as it could have.Besides, it was five years old already, which was ancient in the tech world.

Lin suggested I buy a new one—well, actually, she had threatened Stephanie into buying me a new one.But despite my parsimonious tendencies, I wanted nothing that Stephanie had touched.I’d rather spend the money and buy something according to my specs.After all, I had the money now through my scholarship and a job at the school bookstore.We only had a few days left until classes officially began, and Lin was determined that we go shopping.I think I would rather have my fingernails removed than go shopping, but I’d promised them a shopping trip at the awards ceremony that I’d never gone through with.

Charisse and I had gotten into the habit of locking our door whether or not we were there, and I think Lin was doing the same.The house wasn’t safe with Stephanie in it, but we didn’t have a choice.For now.Their parents’ business dealings seemed thoroughly entwined like vines in a bush.They’d already proven that work came before Lin, no matter how much they bought her.The dorms were already full for the semester; I’d checked after the laptop incident.

ON THE FIRST DAY OFclasses, Lin had cajoled me into wearing some of the new clothes Charisse had picked out for me and leaving behind my jacket—so progress.I’d tried on several more girly shirts.The ones I liked all had a few things in common.They were a solid color, on the looser side, comfortable to wear, and the embellishments were all at the waist, neckline, or sleeves—away from the front.Not that I was trying to look my best.It wasn’t like IK could be one of the guys I was passing in the hallway.Hopefully he wasn’t one of those distasteful boys walking the other way who were checking me out.Not that he knew what I looked like.Yet.

I checked my watch; it didn’t really fit with the new look.But I was loyal.There was time.Not much, but I wasn’t going to be late yet.I walked up a set of stairs and glanced down at the map.No, it had to be on the bottom floor.I went back down.

I was lost.I swore the room numbers were going up, then suddenly they just stopped.Where on earth was this class?I hated to be late on my first day of college.Butterflies flitted in my stomach with excitement.I was a real college girl.I scanned the interior of the computer science building.There were so many bright colors on the inside, with multiple levels like an Escher painting.

“Do you need help?”

The confused look combined with the map in my hand must’ve given me away as a lost freshman.

The smiling girl with glasses and braids looked like my kind of person, so I accepted her help.She pointed me to the outside, where the building’s cement and glass exterior seemed better suited to the art department.Apparently, the larger lecture rooms had only exterior doors.I found the closest exit and circled around the building.On the side opposite the man-made lake and on the inside of our stadium-shaped campus, I finally found the correct door.It led into a room where curved tables stepped like a ziggurat downward to the sunken platform where the teacher’s podium stood.

I found a spot close to the stairs, toward the middle of the room.I hated the distractions of those who sat in the back, but I didn’t want to be noticeable in the front.The room was filling with students trickling in and sitting scattered about.You could tell who already knew others by how they sat in clusters.

The teacher arrived, apparently a TA—a teacher’s assistant—who would begin most of our lectures.Our professor arrived after the regular business was taken care of.He made me smile, reminding me of Lin’s dad, but with more gray in his hair.Also, he wore glasses and talked more like Charisse.Luckily, the syllabus, homework, and other important information would all be posted on the class page.I couldn’t imagine anyone in the world who could keep up with writing notes, even though my own typing speed was more than decent.

I hoped he would stop at one point so we could ask questions—not that I needed to.Everything we were covering was pretty basic stuff.I understood that the school needed to make sure we had strong fundamentals before moving on, but if you were a computer major and didn’t know what binary code was, then you should pick another major.

Most of the students had out their laptops, and the soft click-clack of almost constant typing combined with the hum of whirring batteries and zipping fluorescent lights.College was so different from high school.No chatting in the back, sleeping heads on desks, or paper balls being tossed across the room.

Of course, it was day one in a computer class, so all my classes might not be like this.

The door shut, and I turned my head.As I looked back at the teacher, I caught sight of a familiar profile, two empty seats to my right and one row ahead.No—it couldn’t be.

It was hard to tell from the angle I was at.I turned back to the teacher, but my attention kept drifting to the brown-haired guy.

Nope.Those brown waves were too long.I continued writing as best I could, longhand.My laptop hadn’t made it through the dragon’s sabotage.I still wanted to kill her.No one could blame me for sliding an imaginary sword through her middle and slaying the dragon, right?So while I waited for a new laptop, I had to write everything out by hand.It took me back to high school and when I was mad at IK.Though he hadn’t really been to blame, whereas Stephanie was.

I tried to focus.My grades were even more important now, to meet scholarship requirements.Yet my gaze landed on that guy again...there was something.He turned his head and reached for his backpack, and my heart pounded.What was Ni doing at my school?In my department?In my class?It had to be just a trick of the eye.