A Solver

"So, that's all for today," Audriana said then began packing her books and laptop from the table.

"Okay Miss" the students got ready to leave the class too bus she stopped them.

"Your assignment is to create a portfolio website. Simple but elegant, if you know what I mean,” she further explained to them in detail what they could also add.

“When you are done with it, make sure to submit it to the school portal under the computer science department before Friday, no copying. You guys are very talented and I want each of you to express yourself in this project, okay?" she said.

"Yes, Miss Audri" the class chorused.

"See you in the next class," she said.

"And you too," they replied and she walked out of the class to her office.

Audriana is seated in her office as she goes over the code challenge her dad sends to her every week. She had done 30% of the work the previous night but she got stuck when she was going to move forward with it so, she stopped and promised to continue later.

The code seems complex to what she had handled over the years but she was determined to solve it and make her dad proud as he has always been of her.

"This should work" she muttered as she typed a few lines of code then ran it and waited for it to process. 

The code ran for a few seconds and no error was displayed on the screen. It brought a smile to her lips which later turned to s grin.

"It worked" she laughed then stood to do a happy dance before sitting down again to continue to the next stage of the code.

She wrote a few more codes and when she ran it, the result was both annoying and unexpected. The screen was filled with a lot of errors mainly saying that the code could not properly run because of a mistake in her previous code.

"How? What mistake in the previous code?" she reads the code error to see where the mistake was from but there was no place it pointed to. "Oh dang! Now I have to read the codes line by line from the beginning" she banged the table and buried her face in her palms.

A groan of annoyance left her lips, she felt like she would cry but it was pointless. She would still have to re-read the code and figure out where the issue was from.

'Except you re-write the code from scratch so you can compare and contrast' she could hear her dad's voice say in her ear and she considered doing that but then if she did, it would be a lot of work for her.

The school exams were approaching and she didn't want to bombard herself with so much to do.

"I'll read it again," she said to herself then closed her laptop "But not today" she shook her head, leaned back on her chair, and closed her eyes.

Memories of how she and her dad would do an overnight code sprint ran through her mind and it made her smile at the good memories they had.

Her dad Kingsley was have first-ever tech teacher, instructor, and mentor, and most of the things she learned about cofding and how the tech industry was, she learned from her dad.

He was her guide all through her journey from when she interned in their company till now when she works at the University of her choice.

Audriana feels grateful to have him as her mentor and biggest supporter along with her mum.

While she was getting lost in her thoughts, the beeping from her phone took her out of her thinking bubble, she sat up to see that it was a message notification from her best friend Sofia.

She opened the message and saw two pictures, one contained a large-sized pizza and a bottle of soda beside it and the second was of Sofia taking a large bite of a slice with her eyes closed as if she was enjoying the food.

Audriana laughed and then typed out her reply to her before setting her phone down on the table as she thought about what to do now that she was less busy.

In a moment, another beep came from her phone, so she opened Sofia's message chat to see that she sent rounds of laughing and silly face emoji.

"You're childish" she sent a voicemail then a video call came from Sofia which she accepted immediately. "You are pretty shameless" she comments when Sofia takes a large bite of the pizza.

"At least I'm pretty" she winked then showed her the almost finished pizza "I would have left you some but you aren't me"

"There's olive, I can spot it from here" Audriana mentioned.

"See that I love you that much" she blew her a kiss then took gentle bites from the slice she was holding. "Are you being useless or useful?"

"I'm not stuffing my face but I feel useless. I have nothing to do and I am bored" she sighed then relaxed back on the chair and rested her legs on the table.

A knock came on her door and she immediately took her legs off the table, adjusted her hair, and told her friend that she would call her later then she disconnected the call.

"Come in," she said while organizing her table. The door opened and when she looked at the person that came in, it was Philip, her colleague who had been trying to get her to go on a date with him since he joined.

A sigh escaped her lips and she shook her head then relaxed on her chair. "You need something?" she asked.

He nodded then walked in front of her and sat on the chair, leaned back, and smiled directly at her.

"I am... wait" he cuts himself off then leans forward with his hand resting on the table "How are you doing? It feels like I haven't seen you in a long time," he said and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Philip, we saw this morning when I arrived at the compound, remember?" she asked and he grinned at her then leaned back.

"I know but it just feels that way," he said then looked around her office. "You do not have any code challenge to attend to?" he asked and she shook her head 'no'. 

"I got stuck last night, decided to try again today and it seemed promising till I got loads or error" she sighed in annoyance.

"I don't write codes but I can't feel how frustrating that is," he said and she just shrugged. "I am not busy either" he mentioned and already she knew where this was going but before she could say anything, he beat her to it.

"Let's just eat out, as friends. It's obvious you don't want any romantic relationship with me, I get it clearly but a friendly outing will not hurt" he said, looking pained a bit when he said the part of her not wanting anything more with him.

Audriana feels bad for the man but she can't go out with him because she feels pity for him. It will not be fair to him, and hurting this nice man is something she avoids at all costs.

"Philip, I just don't want a relationship now"

"Oh no, I understand you" he chuckled "At least it's better than going out with me because you pity me, that will hurt badly" he blinked severally and let out a sigh as he looked at his hand on the table.

"Thank you for understanding" she smiled at him.

"No problem, so..." he trailed "Do you want to go out for a light lunch?" she hesitated "As friends, you can pick where you would like us to go to," he said.

Audriana thought for a while then closed her eyes as a sigh left her lips. "Well, okay" she smiled then checked the time "I need to be back here before the school closes, I'm heading home with Sofia," she said, already on her feet.

"Aye captain" he salutes then stands to his feet, he holds his hand out for her which she took as they started to head out of her office.

They went to a lounge area that Audriana frequently comes to for some alone time. She didn't let him know but she felt like coming here that's why she brought him here.

"This place is good and they have great food" he comments and she agrees with him with a nod.

"I like it here" she states then takes a sip from her coffee. "The coffee tastes weird though" she comments.

How weird?" he asked.

"Not bad that I can't take it" she shrugged.

Philip stopped eating to watch as Audriana enjoyed the food in front of her as she looked at her phone with a smile.

"A guy trying to swoon you?" he asked.

She looked up at him with her cheeks slightly red and her eyes widened a bit.

"Oh no, it... it's just Sofia trying to make my head burst with her goofiness" she replied.

Sofia was truly making her go red but because she told Sofia that she was having a friendly lunch with him and Sofia has since bombarded her with funny couple memes, some made her cheeks flush and made her laugh so hard, she thought her face would burst from so much laughter.

Philip looked at her for a while then he nodded. "Are you done eating?" he asked and cleaned his hand with the tissue paper.

Audriana looked at him, the smile vanished from her face "I didn't..."

"Oh no, I just..." he had no words to say then he looked at the time. "School closes in twenty minutes, let's go," he said to her and stood to his feet, he helped her up and dropped the bill on the table then led her out of the building.

They walked quietly to the school and when they reached, he smiled as he waved her goodbye before heading to his office floor. She felt bad for him as she watched him turn a corner then she stood in front of Sofia's office door.

She was going to knock on the door but another text came and it was from her dad.

A frown creased her forehead as she wondered what the issue might be. This would be the second time he sent her a message like this and the last time was when her mum had a health scare.

Dad... Mum, hope you're okay?" she muttered.