Challenge Words: mind + output + cuddly + machine + giants bawdy + mislead + worthless + bite-sized + boys
The Brekentale High School Hackathon practices were something Don Givens helped out with on and off since he sold his own software company. It was a good way to give back, influence the younger generation, and to keep an eye out on which young minds could be great assets to the tech community of Brekentale. This particular practice was a back to school Computer Club meeting, that Milla Elster invited him to in order to help evaluate clean code for the young folk. There were about 7 boys and 4 girls in the club that attended the after school activity and for the most part they were the nerdiest bunch of teenagers - but they were smart. Really smart.
“I don’t think I’d have been friends with any of those kids when I went here,” Don chuckled as he lit up a cigarette and Milla joined him outside of the school. He’d volunteered to stay behind to help lock up after the last of the kids jumped into their parent’s cars and emptied the parking lot.
Shaking her head, Milla rolled her eyes at Don a she crossed her arms. “Sure; the cool nerd, the hip nerd, brilliant mind in a brilliant body - Dooooon Giveeeens!”
“The crowd goes wild,” Don offered in a theatrical sort of monotone and mocked a gallant bow to an invisible crowd, the smoke from his cigarette swirling around his hand as he waved it about. “Thank you, thank you,” he grinned before tucking his lighter in his pocket.
She turned to look at him, tilting her head. She was a good few years younger than Don, and there was every chance that she’d been mislead into thinking he had been nerdy in High School, when that could have come later. “Unless you made the jump from cool kid to nerd after?”
“Oh man,” he smiled. “I was the dumb smart kid. The kind that pretended I was too cool to learn. Hung out with the worthless fuck ups to blend in. When really I just read the text books over the summer... for fun. Didn’t have to pay attention in class when you read ahead.”
At the revelation, Milla raised both eyebrows, amused. “I think that’s smart. Thinking ahead, planning ahead… I bet they thought you were a genius though since ostensibly you didn’t study. Studying is so uncool. Didn’t they test you? Call up a shrink, hook you up to an EEG machine?”
He laughed, “Nah, it was early 2000’s, they didn’t care about shit like that as long as your output on the tests were high enough,” Bemused at the memory he raised his brows at her with a grin and took a drag from his cigarette. “I take it you were the hot, smart, valedictorian, class president type, right?”
Don’s assumptions about her high school self made her laugh and shake her head. Before responding, Milla took a small box of bite-sized belgian waffles from her bag and ate one, offering Don the box. Even though he was smoking, he happily took one for himself.
“Not in the least. I was pathologically quiet, spent every free second at the computer lab or taking walks in the woods and read programming language books for fun. Also, not hot.”
“Eeehh….” Don offered an over exaggerated noise of disagreement, “Girls reading programming books is kinda hot, though.”
Milla shook her head again. “To you, maybe. To most kids it was abhorrent. Being Asian and stupidly skinny didn’t help. I was less the hot type, more the cute type at best. Still am. Nice and cuddly and… a geek I guess.”
Don snorted a laugh, “Those are the best kind anyway. Nice, cuddly, geeks. And as cliche as it is - asian cuddly geeks are a popular section of porn soooo…Good news! You’ll always have a job.” Don was obviously teasing as he reached in for another waffle treat.
Narrowing her eyes, Milla stared at Don for a moment without speaking, digesting his bawdy suggestion as a joke she had heard many times before but which still didn’t make her feel any less grossed out.
“This is why you’re single. Suggesting porn left and right…” She shook her head, not smiling though her expression relaxed. “That’s always been my second career choice if this computer thing didn’t work, though: become one of the giants of the porn industry.”
Don snorted in amusement, Milla shoved a handful of waffles in her mouth. “You wanna blow this popsicle stand?”
“Onward!” Don pointed forward and took a step toward the parking lot. “My uber is near!”