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[color=slategray][sub][@melissahart] [@Silver Carrot] collab
Featuring: [color=3cb371][b]Topher Jones[/b][/color] and [color=9999ff][b]Gabby Garcia[/b][/color]
Location: Programming 2 Class. 
Time: 9:45 am[/sub][/color][/center][hr][hr]

Toph was frustrated.

[color=3cb371][b]“Why won’t this fucking code work?”[/b][/color] He mumbled to no one in particular, fiddling with the keys on his laptop. He had tried almost everything in order to get his program to run, but still, he was getting error messages galore. Programming was something he was good at, was [i]great[/i] at you could even say, but even the master of all sometimes messes up. Musicians made great programmers for many reasons, but for Toph, he liked the order and the structure, plus the creativity that came along with it. 

Currently, he was sitting in Programming 2 working on a project for the course. The teacher was pretty lax, so he just let everyone run wild, so long as they completed the coursework in a timely manner. The project entailed making a computer game through Python, something Toph thought would be easy peasy lemon squeezy, but it was proving to be difficult difficult lemon difficult. 

Gabriela, on the other hand, was trying to create an application in C#. She hadn’t even folly decided what the application would do. She was just wasting time making the interface and menus look pretty, and set up all the parse loop methods that she’d need to call upon later down the line. She was not the kind of programmer who meticulously planned and implemented a strategy. It was the same when she wrote stories and fanfictions. She didn’t plan the plot before hand. She just threw some characters in a setting and ran with it.

Fancying a break, she stood up, stretched, and decided to have a walk around the classroom. She noticed Topher struggling almost immediately. It struck her as strange because he was one of the best programmers in the class. She made her way over to him and looked at his screen from over his shoulder. While musicians [i]feel[/i] the music as much as read it, authors have a far greater attention to detail, needing a good eye for spelling and grammar errors if they wanted to avoid any mistakes. That’s why Gab spotted the problem very quickly, and it was so basic for such a good programmer, she stifled a chuckle.

“[color=9999ff][b]”Your second ‘for loop’ down isn’t closed,”[/b][/color] she remarked.

Topher looked over his shoulder to see where the voice was coming from. Did he ask for help? No. But would he take it? Maybe, depending on if she was even right or not. Who was [i]she[/i] anyway? Looking her over, he tried to remember her name, but the words weren’t coming to mind. Quickly darting his eyes back to his laptop, he doubted that he’d make a stupid mistake like forgetting to close a for loop. He was better than that- in fact, he never made dumb errors like that… but alas, after rechecking his work, her words were indeed valid and he rolled his eyes at his stupidity. 

[color=3cb371][b]“You’ve gotta be [i]kidding[/i] me.”[/b][/color] He spoke incredulously, quickly closing the loop and hitting the run button. And just like that, his game was up and running perfectly. Topher looked back over his shoulder at the girl, a neutral look on his face. [color=3cb371][b]“Thanks, Blondie.”[/b][/color] He replied, running a hand through his brown locks. [color=3cb371][b]“Don’t know how I didn’t notice that.”[/b][/color]

[color=9999ff][b]”Probably because you’re too good at programming. But those brackets, man. They’ll always get you when you least expect. And I’m Gabby, not Blondie.”[/b][/color] the short freshmen replied, smirking. [color=9999ff][b]”I’m a freshman, but I taught myself the basics before I came here, as a hobby. That’s why I’m in this class.”[/b][/color]

He could tell Gabby was a freshman just from looking at her. She had the first year vibe to her- bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready to take on anything with no fear of getting knocked on her ass. Topher liked Freshman, they made things easier for him, and not to mention the Freshman girls were rather easy, but that's besides the point. [i]Clearly[/i] this girl hadn’t read the room, since no one ever approached him, [i]ever[/i]. She was fearless for sure. [color=3cb371][b]“Well, Gabby, you’ve got a good eye.”[/b][/color] He stated, with a knowing nod. [color=3cb371][b]“What are you working on?”[/b][/color] Topher asked, surprised with himself that he was showing interest in someone else’s work. 

Gabby shrugged. [color=9999ff][b]”I’m not entirely sure yet. An application of some kind. I started with the graphics, interface, menus and methods because I felt like coding them today. I’ll figure out what the application actually does later. What about you? Making a game, it looks like. What kind of game?”[/b][/color]

[color=3cb371][b]“Yeah, it’s the extra credit project, but I’m just doing it cause I want to and I’m bored.”[/b][/color] Topher replied plainly, looking over at her. [color=3cb371][b]“Kind of like Galaga from the ‘80’s but a little more involved. Care to take it for a spin?”[/b][/color] He offered, holding out the computer to her as a peace offering.

Gabby brought a spare seat over, sat down, and took the laptop, grinning like a child who’d been given some candy. She executed the program and sat back. The game had deliberately pixelated graphics, which was an instant plus to Gabby. It was an isometric 2.5D version of Galaga, where instead of just being able to move left or right, you could also move up or down. The game was fully functional, and even had a shield powerup! Gabby was clearly impressed, as she handed the laptop back five minutes later with a giddy smile. [color=9999ff][b]”I’m not even kidding. I’d pay money for that as it is!”[/b][/color]

Toph smirked as she played with his latest creation, pretty pleased with himself. [color=3cb371][b]“Why thank you, I’m glad you like it.”[/b][/color] He took back his laptop, fiddling around with the code some more. [color=3cb371][b]“It kind of lags, so I need to clean things up a little bit, maybe a few less lines would make it run a bit smoother.”[/b][/color] He thought out loud, condensing things as he spoke. Typing in the program, he let it run, seeing it was a tad smoother than a few moments previous. [color=3cb371][b]“Needs a bit more polishing.”[/b][/color]

Shortly after he went back to his coding, the bell rang, and Gabby wheeled her chair over to her own desk to save and backup everything, before switching her laptop off and grabbing her bag. She gave a wave and a grin to Topher as she left the classroom.