Page 30 of Most Valuable Players
I take the book back and shove it into my backpack. “Most businesses run on computer science.”
I think I heard David say that once, so there’s a slight chance it’s true.
“So, I worked through the practice questions in chapter six. I think I showed my work right, but can you take a look?”
He nods as he rummages through his bag, unzipping every pocket and dumping the contents onto the table—two mechanical pencils, a notebook, a folder, and a bottle of Icy Hot. The bag is clearly empty, but he keeps riffling through the pockets.
“You forget something?”
“I, uh, was hoping I had a granola bar or a forgotten pack of trail mix. I didn’t have time to eat.”
Extra points for skipping food to hurry to meet me. The tally is somewhere in the millions at this point.
I check the time and close my laptop. “University Hall is open for another thirty minutes.”
His eyes light up at the prospect of food. “You don’t mind?”
“Nah, I need to stock up on Chewy Sprees anyway.Someoneate all mine.”
He sweeps everything back into his backpack as I do the same, albeit much more carefully.
The sun is setting as we walk, disappearing behind the mountains and taking the daylight with it. The colors that paint the sky with its descent take my breath away. I used to hate sunsets. Hate the signal of another day ending without accomplishing everything I wanted. I preferred the sunrise and the prospect of a new day filled with possibilities.
It was David who made me fall in love with them. He’d told me that sunsets were meant to be shared. That, unlike sunrise, which was about individual reflection, they were a gathering and celebration of a day spent with people you cared about. I’m sure it was a line he heard somewhere, or worse, made up on the spot to win me over, but even if everything else about my time with him had been a lie, the idea of sharing sunsets stuck.
“You lost?” Wes interrupts my thoughts and motions toward the University Hall, which I nearly passed.
I point toward the horizon. “I was just admiring the sunset. Arizona has the best sunsets.”
“Better than wherever you’re from?”
“Well, no. I’m from here.”
He laughs. “So, your data point is one?”
“I don’t need to go anywhere else to knowthatis the best sunset.”
He looks up as if he’s really seeing it for the first time. “It’s pretty good. I’ll give you that. Better than any I saw in Kansas.”
“Kansas, huh?”
He nods. “Yep.”
“Ruby slippers, Dorothy, tornados, the Wicked Witch, and Toto . . . that is literally everything I know about Kansas.”
He chuckles. “Not a lot else we’re known for, I guess.The Wizard of Ozand the Jayhawks.”
“The what hawks?”
“University of Kansas Jayhawks. One of the best college basketball teams in the nation.” He looks at me like his explanation should jog my memory. I’m not about to tell him I know next to nothing about college basketball, let alone which teams are the best.
“Why’d you decide to come to Valley instead of being a Jayhawk?”
“According to my father, I did it purely to piss him off.”
“Did you?”
He smiles sheepishly. “No, not entirely, but it was an added bonus.”
