Chapter 1: Acquaintance

One day early in December, I went to the cafeteria to join Pete for lunch. There were two girls with him. I knew one of them. Her name was Macy, a tall redhead majoring in business. I wasn't sure if she was Pete's girlfriend, as she wasn't the only one I had talked to on phone or had seen together with Pete. All phone calls from girls were for Pete. I rarely got phone calls for myself. The other girl was shorter and had long light brown hair. When I went over to the table, we were introduced. Her name was Stephanie and she was a computer science major living on the same floor as Macy on campus. She seemed a bit surprised when she knew I was in her department.

"How come I never see you in class?" Stephanie asked when I got my food to the table.

"I guess it's because they have so many first year classes," I said.

"Oh, okay. Hey, are you going to do the extra credit part of the 'array' programming assignment?" Stephanie asked.

"What 'array' programming assignment?" I said. I didn't remember I had this assignment.

"The assignment that we have to program for the one-dimensional array," Stephanie explained, a little impatiently.

"One-dimensional array?"

"Aren't you taking CS121?" Stephanie said, widening her eyes. She had big shiny green eyes and thick eyelashes.

"Oh, I'm not taking CS121."

"You're a computer science major freshman?" Stephanie asked, raising her eyebrows. She had brown eyebrows. I didn't think she plucked her eyebrows.

"Yeah, but I had that course waived."

I heard Pete laughed, and then he explained, "Juan doesn't take CS121. He tutors it."

"A freshman tutors CS121?" Stephanie asked, widening her eyes even more. The more she widened her eyes the greener her pupils became.

"Yeah," I said.

"In fact he tutors some CS267 students. He swaps them with another tutor," Pete added, smiling.

"You took these courses before?" Stephanie said.

"Nope," I managed to answer while chewing my sandwich.

"Why would they allow you to tutor then?" Stephanie said, with an eager expression.

"I'm certified," I said after a gulp of juice.

"Certified tutor?" Stephanie asked.

"No, certified JAVA programmer," I said.

"What is JAVA?" Stephanie asked.

"It's a cross-platform programming language," I explained.

"Okay. Enough, enough. I guess I know what you're talking about. Then what are you doing here?" Stephanie asked. She was apparently very surprised.

"For my Bachelor degree. Maybe Master, too."

"Gosh! It's people like you who makes my college life so tough!" Stephanie sighed.

"Why? You're having problems?" I asked.

Stephanie sighed. "Big time!"

"Why don't you go to the tutoring center?" I asked.

"I did. The first guy who tutored me made me more confused. The second guy said I had no logical sense. By the time I tried the others they were all unavailable for my schedule," Stephanie grumbled.

I almost laughed. Pete was already laughing so hard he almost fell over. Stephanie glared at him.

"Maybe you can ask Juan," Macy said. She was apparently also holding her laughter.

Stephanie turned to me and gave me a smile. "Would you mind helping me?"

"Depends on what the rewards are," Pete cut in with a sly smile.

Stephanie glared at Pete again. Macy poked Pete in his waist while giggling.

"Sure. When?" I said and glanced at my watch. It was less than ten minutes from my next tutoring appointment. "I have to go to the tutoring center now."

"When is your tutoring session over?"

"Four."

"Can you make it four-thirty or five? I don't have my notes with me now," Stephanie asked. Her expression was a mix of a little excitement and a little nervousness.

"Okay. I will be in the library; towards the photocopying center," I said. That part of the library was the only place where you could talk without getting in trouble.

"Thanks a lot," Stephanie said, giving me a much bigger and friendlier smile this time. She looked very pretty to me when she smiled.

I finished my lunch and went for my appointment. When my sessions were over, I went to the library and pulled a book out from the shelves to review while trying to figure out what kind of problem Stephanie might be having. I had no clue. I closed the book and worked on my homework.

"Hi!" A greeting beside my ear startled me.

I turned my face and almost hit Stephanie's nose. "Hi, Stephanie. Sorry," I said.

Stephanie smiled. "Can I sit here?" she said, pointing at the chair next to me.

"Sure."

Stephanie took off her coat and sat in the chair next to me. She showed me her notes and the assignments. I went over them.

"So what's your problem?" I asked.

"My problem is I don't know how to do it. I don't understand this damn 'array' thing," Stephanie said, pouting.

"Okay. An array is basically a contiguous block of addresses in the computer's memory..." I explained.

"I know that. I have that memorized," Stephanie sighed. "And I know I have to use a stupid 'do loop' to initialize them. But the stupid computer hung every time it ran my program."

I started going through her notes with Stephanie. I found out 'array' processing wasn't her problem, at least, not her main problem. Stephanie didn't understand many fundamental concepts. She simply had all the definitions memorized. She did well with all the fill-in-the-blanks or true-false questions in her tests but she flunked most coding parts.

"Do you think I am stupid or have no logical sense?" Stephanie cut in after a while.

"Well, Phil told me many beginners have problems with the basic concepts," I said.

"Who is Phil?"

"He's another tutor in the tutoring center," I said. Phil was the guy who swapped clients with me.

"Oh, okay."

"Who is your professor?" I asked.

"John McPherson," Stephanie said.

"Professor John McPherson?" I asked. I didn't recognize the name.

Stephanie sighed again. "No. He's a graduate student. He's a TA. I enrolled in this course too late, as I had to rearrange my schedule. His was the last day class I could get into."

I tried to hold my laugh. Stephanie saw my face.

"Go ahead and laugh!" Stephanie said and grabbed an eraser in her hand pretending she was going to toss it at me.

I took a deep breath to ease off myself and continued on with my explanations. My mouth was dry and my stomach was empty by the time I finished about half of Stephanie's notes. I looked at my watch. It was a bit after eight o'clock. I had to go for my dinner or nothing would be left in the dinning hall.

"I have to go," I said. "I'm starving."

"Me too," Stephanie said, as she looked at her watch.

"Do you go to the dinning hall for dinner?" I asked.

"Where else can I go?" Stephanie said. "Are you asking me to go with you?"

"No, no, no, no. I was just asking," I stuttered. "I mean, I was just asking."

Stephanie giggled. "Okay. Let's go," she said, and started to pack her stuff.

While we were heading towards the dinning hall, I noticed that Stephanie was about three inches shorter than me. It was the first time we were both on our feet together.

"Who do you usually have dinner with?" Stephanie asked me.

"Sometimes with Pete, sometimes myself," I said. I didn't have many friends and I was accustomed to it.

"Yea, me too. I usually go with my roommate or other girls on the same floor," Stephanie said.

There weren't many people in the dining hall when we got there. Stephanie looked around and couldn't find anyone she knew. We ate together.

"How long have you been in America?" Stephanie asked, when we were eating.

"This is my forth year," I replied. "Is my English hard to follow?"

"No. You speak very good English. You have an accent, but I have no problem understanding you," Stephanie said.

"Oh, okay. But I still have to take a remedial English course," I said. "You're in English Composition I, right?"

"No. I skipped that. I took the pre-college English Composition class at high school and I won the county interschool essay competition."

"Do you like English literature?"

"Yes, that's my favorite," Stephanie said with a smile.

"Why didn't you pick English literature as major?" I said.

"Dad sort of pushed me into this," Stephanie sighed. "It's a hot area. He said I wouldn't have to worry about getting a good job in this area. He pays for my college."

"You have your own mind," I said.

"Are you suggesting I'm incompetent for computer science?" Stephanie said, raising an eyebrow.

"No, no, no, no," I said, shaking my head. "Do you like it?"

"I don't know. I have to try," Stephanie said, and dropped her head.

I was wondering if I had touched a sensitive area. I stuck the meatball into my mouth and choked. Stephanie giggled at me.

"Oops, sorry, Juan. I didn't mean to laugh at you," Stephanie said.

"It's okay," I said after I pulled the meat out.

Stephanie smiled at me. "Thanks for the tutoring. You made it easier to understand that the TA," she said.

"You're welcome."

"Would you mind helping me with the rest?" Stephanie said. "And my program too. I'm not asking you to write it for me. I want to try it myself and you can show me what's wrong."

"No problem," I said. "When? I have tutoring appointments every day from one to four."

Stephanie thought for a moment. "What about Thursday? I can make it about four-twenty."

"Fine. I'll be in the library," I said.

"They don't have the software installed in computers in the library. Can you go to the computer room?" Stephanie asked.

"Which one?" I asked.

"I usually go to S112," Stephanie said. "What about you?"

"I have my own computer in my room," I said. I was using a used notebook computer my dad bid on from his company's disposal auction.

"My roommate has one too, but she uses it to chat," Stephanie said, and giggled. "Do you know where S112 is?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Is that okay with you?"

"Sure."

We finished our dinner left the dinning hall. It was cold outside in the open.

"Where do you live?" I asked.

"Here, on campus," Stephanie said, smiling mischievously at me.

"I mean... I mean where?" I asked. I knew she lived on campus. I knew I used the wrong words.

Stephanie giggled. "Three minutes from you," she said. "You're cute."

I felt my ears heating up in the chilled air. I knew that she knew what I was asking and was giving me a hard time.

Stephanie chuckled. "You're appear to be allergic to raillery," she said.

"What is raillery?" I asked.

"It's light teasing repartee," Stephanie said. "You were blushing."

Stephanie didn't have to tell me. I knew I was blushing.

"And what is repartee?" I said.

Stephanie giggled. "Repartee is, um, it's a swift and witty reply," she said. "Or... Or quick and usually amusing remarks in conversation."

"Okay, thanks."

"Well, I need to get back to my residence now. Would you mind walking me back?" Stephanie asked.

"Sure. I am going that way," I said.

Stephanie giggled again. "How do you know, I haven't told you where I live yet?" she said. "Would you still walk me back if you aren't going that way?"

"Yeah, I think so. It's late," I said.

Stephanie smiled at me. "You're a nice guy, Juan."

I was wondering if I should compliment her being a nice girl as well. I decided silence was gold.

"Don't blush so loud," Stephanie giggled again when she saw my face.

Pete just finished talking on the phone when I got back to our room.

"How's the tutoring?" Pete asked with a smile.

"I guess it's good," I said. "She needs another session."

"Sounds like you guys are hitting off pretty well," Pete said.

"Huh?"

"Don't tell me you didn't get her phone number," Pete said, smiling slyly at me.

"No I didn't. I was just tutoring her," I said.

"Tutoring till nine?"

"Well, we went to the dinning hall. I was starving."

"Okay," Pete said. He had the sly smile again. "Want me to get her phone number for you?"

"Uh... hmm... Is Macy your girlfriend?"

"Kind of. So yes or no?"

"I don't think it's appropriate," I said.

Pete laughed. "Okay, let me know if you need me. I'm going to hit the shower now," He said.

When I went to bed that night I thought about it. I had never asked for a girl's phone number before. When I was in high school, some girls in my class gave me their phone numbers, without me asking for them. I didn't know whether asking for the phone number meant asking for a date. I didn't know if I wanted to date Stephanie. I enjoyed talking with her during our dinner and on our way back to the residence. She seemed to enjoy it too, but I didn't know whether she had a boyfriend or was interested in a date. I had never dated before. I had heard a lot from my peers in the high school but I was also told that they exaggerated everything about their dates. I didn't know if I should seek advice from Pete.

I went to the computer room after I finished my job on Thursday. Stephanie wasn't there yet. Some other students who had that same assignment and knew me from other classes grabbed me for some assistance. When I was done with them, I found Stephanie sitting in front of a computer watching me. I went over to her.