Ficlets

The Programmer

Henry and Aaron agreed that along with a mathematician and an engineer, they would need a computer programmer and a physicist to make the project work. Henry suggested Mandy Garcia to be the programmer. She was brilliant and could code an array of file servers to do back flips if she wanted. She was also the girl that Henry had a crush on since freshman orientation, but could never approach.

Which was why Aaron had to be the one to invite her to the team.

“Are we talking about a hack?” Mandy asked. A “hack” was the MIT term for a prank, something for which the student body was notorious. They were remarkably elaborate, but also mostly harmless. And successfully pulling off a hack made you an eternal part of MIT folklore.

“Sort of, yeah,” Aaron said, and he showed her Henry’s plans. Mandy tapped her teeth carelessly with a thumbnail as she looked over the diagrams. Aaron found it endearing and could see why Henry was so into her.

Finally Mandy looked up.

“All right,” she said. “Count me in.”

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