Seed of a Pine

Chapter 10

"That was great Astrid," I said as for the second time that night, Astrid finished her presentation. She was giving her talk tomorrow during seminar.

Takan and I clapped while Astrid gave us a mock bow and checked her stopwatch. "Damn, I'm still five minutes long."

"That won't matter, you'll be going a bit faster when you're actually presenting," I reminded her. "You just need to remember to mention the labels on the graphs in the tenth slide. Other than that, I think you nailed it."

"Agreed," Takan said. "And it wouldn't hurt to remind people about your color scheme for the data a couple more times throughout, just so you know they've got it."

I nodded. We had been at this for a couple of hours now. Takan and I had agreed to help Astrid practice after the last class of the day. We had been sitting in one of the library study rooms, going over everything.

"When are you going?" I asked Takan. It seemed this guy had finally warmed up to me a bit. He no longer ignored me and had even been quite polite recently.

"Week after our next break. I've still got some time to prepare." He grinned sheepishly. "Actually I haven't even started my presentation."

"What seriously?" Astrid cried. "You told me you were already half way!"

"Half way through conceptualizing it," Takan responded quickly.

I laughed as I watched them argue. It was true, what Voldov had said. I did feel like I had friends here. For some reason the atmosphere had become more relaxed over the last week. I figured a lot of it had to do with Dean Ansrov no longer treating me like a hostile force, and even taking time to converse normally with me. A good few people in the lab seem to have taken their lead from him. Of course there were a couple like Sascov who were still uptight, but I could handle them.

I checked the time. "Hey guys, sorry I have to go, I've got to work tonight."

"You've got a part time job on top of all this classwork? You're amazing Remy!"

I waved the comment away. Although this week did feel a bit amazing. I was booked for nearly every evening shift at Krimpov so that I could be done working there by Sunday. It was close, but I figured I had enough money for my trip now. I was stoked. Now all I need to do was decide which break week I would go to the beach. The tickets in the summer were more expensive, so I had decided on a spring trip. But I was still trying to figure out where to go.

It was pretty dead at the restaurant that night. This was all to the good. I had strapped both the switchblade and the burner Voldov had given me to the side of my thigh under my skirt for safe keeping, but I hadn't felt any occasion to use either so far. Still, I had to admit, both made me feel a bit more secure.

We closed early that night and I headed home gratefully. The only issue with having a slow night was that I hadn't made very much in tips. Oh well, it was worth it to be let out early.

The next day Astrid presented in Seminar. I thought she did great, though she started out pretty nervous. But by the end she was speaking smoothly and confidently. When she retook her seat, Takan gave her a huge hug and myself, Voldov and Lizal gave her high fives.

"That was awesome, good job!" I congratulated her.

"Let's go for drinks to celebrate," Takan said excitedly. "Lechon's at 6?"

It was the only night I had off this week so I agreed enthusiastically. I met them all there, plus a couple of the other masters students who had presented earlier that week. Lechon's made a nice contrast to Krimpov, it was clean, orderly and the waiter and waitresses had nice, smart conventional uniforms and looked genuinely happy to be working there. We all ordered drinks and everyone got to talking about their plans for the next week, which was a free week. It was some sort of Dulcovi holiday called Tursk so nearly everyone was going home for the break to spend time with their families.