Page 25 of It Started with a Sunset
Okay, maybe alot.
“If you’re from around here,” Brock called out, “you’ll know that we love our Aquamoose football. We get so much support from not only the residents of Lake Baldwin but also the two towns closest to us, Golden Springs and Sunrise. And many people further out than that.
“The population of Lake Baldwin City is about six thousand during the summers. About six thousand students go to Lake Baldwin State University, so the population of the city nearly doubles during the school year. But on game days, the populationof the football stadium aloneis fourteen thousand.”
Summer smiled right along with Everett and Elle as they listened to the crowd’s boisterous reactions. “Another thing we love here is our school’s signature Aquamoose Tracks ice cream with the sweet ribbons of teal and purple running through it. Make sure you grab one from those coolers on your way. Now, let’s go join them!”
As all the ambassadors headed across campus toward the stadium, and Brock headed toward Summer, Everett said, “Okay, and we’re out.”
“You’re not staying for the game?” Summer asked Everett and Elle.
“I’m not,” Elle said. “I’ve got a date.”
“Someone new?” Summer asked.
Elle just nodded and smiled and Summer could tell she was looking forward to this one.
“I’m meeting friends to watch,” Everett said. “Unless you need me to cover for you.”
Summer shook her head. “Nope. Brock and I have got it. You go have fun.”
The afternoon had been both exhausting and energizing—for different reasons and kind of for the same reasons—so she and Brock took the walk to the stadium slow and easy. As they walked, they talked about the event, their favorite parts about going to school at LBSU, and a little about work.
“What’s your biggest regret from when you were in college?” she asked.
“Thebiggest? I feel like coming up with that answer would involve a spreadsheet and a ranking system and a complete accounting of four years of my life.”
She laughed and shook her head. She should’ve known better than to ask him a question that had only one possible answer. “Okay, let me ask this instead: what is a regret from your college days that first comes to mind?”
“Ahh, that’s a lot easier. Let’s see…Okay, my junior year, first semester, I had Gallagher for Marketing Principles. I poured so much work into every assignment and did every extra credit assignment he offered, because I’d heard that his tests were so difficult, and I wanted to give myself a cushion so I could still get an A.
“Then, on the last day of instruction, he told us that it was his last semester teaching, so he decided to do something different for the final. We had two choices—we could either take the final test, and it would account for one hundred percent of our grade. So whatever we got on that test was our grade and none of the work we had done all semester would matter. Which was great if you were failing the class and completely maddening if you had worked your hardest.
“Or we could take option two—skip the final altogether and take a one-step drop in our grade. And no, going from a one hundred point three percent, which is essentially an A-plus, wouldnottake our grade down to an A. I asked. It was right before Christmas and that was the semester that I took Financial Institutions and Markets.”
“That class that you told the student on the tour had a homework load that could kill you?”
“That’s the one. I didn’t have enough time to study the amount it would take to ace the test, so I took the A-minus.”
Summer gasped the amount that seemed appropriate, knowing what she knew of Brock.
“That one class ruined my four-point-oh GPA. I’ve regretted making the choice to just not put in the effort to ace that test ever since.”
“Please tell me you rated him poorly for fairness onRate My Professor, even though it was his last semester.”
Brock chuckled. “I most definitely did. It helped. Okay, your turn. What’s the college regret that first comes to mind for you?”
She didn’t like thinking of regrets. Why did she ask him a question that she didn’t know the answer to when she knew he’d ask her the same question? “I don’t know. I guess just not sticking with a degree long enough to really master it. Although I’m not entirely sure I would be willing to give up any of the knowledge I gained from choosing a variety of majors.”
He nodded like he understood, and she thought that he maybe did kind of understand.
It felt so...normal and comfortable talking about anything and everything and walking next to him. Yet, at the same time, it felt new and exciting and full of adventure.
She had always thought that the Brock she’d known from work—the rule follower, the guy who could see exactly how things should be and exactly what was wrong, the guy who expected a little too much perfection out of everyone and himself, including a perfect 4.0 GPA—was the way he was all of his waking hours.
But she’d seen such a different side of him today—actually, not just today, but through a lot of their planning over the past three weeks—that made her realize that he wasn’t only about rules and perfection. He also knew how to have fun. To put perfection aside and connect with a crowd.
To connect with prospective students.
