Page 21 of Spoonful

Stomach twisting, Jaylin opened his mouth again. He needed to pass this class. “Oh. So… what do I do for you?”

Diego blinked at him. “Uh. I mean… I need your email? To send you the notes.”

Jaylin crossed his arms, uncomfortable and trying not to glare. He just wanted to know what was expected of him. “But what do you want in exchange for the notes?”

“Nothing,” Diego said slowly. “I volunteer to do this.Volunteer.I do it for free. It, like, you know, it doesn't cost me anything to send you this stuff. I’m writing it all down anyway.”

“Oh,” Jaylin said faintly. He’d never had someone do something for him justbecause.Well, except Aditi, but even she had been strong-armed into volunteer tutoring by her dad.

Then again, Jaylin supposed Hiro was also a prime example of someone who seemed to want to help just for the sake ofhelping.At least so far. “Well. Um. Thank you.”

There was silence from Diego, who probably thought Jaylin was just as dumb as Jaylin felt.

Then Diego said, “Hey, you want a cookie?”

“Excuse me?” Jaylin asked, taken aback.

Diego pulled a tupperware container out of his bag. “Peanut butter oatmeal,” he said, opening the tupperware to reveal half a dozen cookie balls. “Made ‘em myself. Oh, do you have any allergies?” He ticked off his fingers. “They’ve got peanut butter, oats, flour, butter, light and brown sugar, and egg.”

“No, no allergies,” Jaylin said, blindsided.

“Great! Cool.” Diego offered the tupperware. “You want one?” Then he hesitated, smile slipping for a second before it came back full force. “Uh, free of charge. I’m a stress baker and I’m in college. My freezer is very full right now. You’d be doing me a favor.”

Jaylin tentatively took a cookie ball, relief going through him when Diego plucked one out too. “Um, thanks.”

“No sweat,” Diego said cheerfully.

The cookie ball was really good.

Chapter 5

Jaylin spent most of his Friday morning doing an incredulous round-up of all the new resources he had at his disposal. Audiobooks of all his textbooks. A text-to-speech reader apparently patented by the Sharmas, Deepak’s parents. Recordings for his astronomy and business law classes, Diego’s notes from statistics. It was amazing and overwhelming and Jaylin spent hours organizing everything just so and then listening to all his lessons multiple times just because hecould.

He had been blitzing through his homework all week too. It was the normal amount of work, but between being able to just go back andlistento the questions instead of having to struggle to read through them halved the time it took to do it all. Even though he still had to be careful writing out his answers, for the first time in his whole life, learning wasn't painful.

It was even kind of fun.

Jaylin had alwayslikedto learn. His mom… his mom used to say he was a sponge with how he soaked up information, back before the heart attack that took her. Before Jaylin entered the foster system. Before adults gave up on him because he was too dumb to amount to anything.

Jaylin had forgotten what it was like to want to ask questions, instead of wanting to disappear into the ground.

Maybe that was why he felt so giddy when Hiro texted him next, dying to talk to Jaylin in person to ask for more details on how the week had gone, and would Jaylin be interested in a late lunch? Jaylin didn't even think twice about saying yes. He was jittery with possibility for the first time in his whole life, that things might actually turn outokayfor him. He wanted to seeHiro again and tell him so. Thank him in person for the miracle he’d brought to Jaylin’s life.

Hiro’s office turned out to be only fifteen minutes from Jaylin’s apartment. Hiro asked if Jaylin wanted to be picked up, and this time Jaylin didn’t hesitate to say yes.

“Hey!” Hiro greeted him with a smile from the driver’s seat when Jaylin opened the car door. “Come on, get in, get in, it’s freezing!”

Jaylin grinned at him and slid inside, the wind blowing the door shut for him. It was snowing lightly again, but with the wind, nothing had settled on his shoulders. He was happy that it was a warm-coat day though. The weather would’ve been a nightmare in Brent’s stupid too-thin present. “Hi. Thanks for picking me up.”

“No problem,” Hiro said easily. “You’re on the way.”

“On the way?”

“I mean,” Hiro said. “If you’re cool with me picking the restaurant? My treat, of course.”

“Oh.” Jaylin had honestly not even thought that far. He’d just been looking forward to seeing Hiro, to tell him in person what had been going on. “Yeah, sure. Wherever you want to go.”

“Great,” Hiro said, pulling away from the curb. “I promise to take you somewhere good.” Then he glanced over at Jaylin, expression excited and hopeful. “So? How have things been?”

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