Chapter Eleven

Kelsey's POVThe engineering department's mid-semester showcase was every student's collective nightmare fuel.You presented your design project — live, in front of the faculty panel, your entire cohort, and a rotating audience of external industry reviewers — and they asked questions that were specifically engineered to make you question every decision you'd ever made, including being born.Marcus and I had two weeks.We had a design. A solid one, actually — a modular pedestrian bridge concept with adaptive load distribution that I was quietly, privately proud of. It was good work. The kind my dad would have appreciated.The problem was the presentation itself. I was fine — I'd been doing public speaking since I joined the debate club at fourteen. Marcus was... not fine.I discovered this on a Tuesday evening when we ran through the first practice presentation in the study. He stood up, picked up his clicker, looked at the screen, and went completely silent for four seconds."Marcus.

Chapter Twelve

Marcus's POVThe showcase was on a Wednesday.We arrived together — which was either completely neutral or absolutely not neutral, depending on whose perception you were working from. Kelsey wore this deep burgundy top with high-waisted trousers and her hair down for once, which she never did in academic settings. She had her notes on index cards she never looked at.I wore my best blazer and tried not to think about the fact that I'd spent twenty minutes deciding what to wear, which was more time than I'd spent on any outfit since formal night at junior prom.We were the sixth group to present.I stood next to her at the front of the room and looked out at the faculty panel, the cohort, the three external reviewers in the back row with their notepads. A week ago, this scenario would have induced the freeze.Instead, I thought about the lacrosse analogy. I thought about load distribution. I thought about Kelsey in the study saying *you know this material, own it* — and the way she'd s

Chapter Thirteen

Kelsey's POVThe grade came back on a Monday: 94%.The professor's comment was brief and direct: *Outstanding structural reasoning. The adaptive load concept is the most original design this cohort has produced. Well done.*I was sitting in the campus café when I got the email. I read it twice. Then I called my mom, who cried a little, which made me cry a little, which I then blamed on caffeine and moved on from.Then I texted Marcus. No greeting, no preamble: *94.*His reply came in four seconds: *CALLED IT. Pay up, Kelsey.*Me: *We didn't have a bet.*Marcus: *We should have. I told you we'd do well.*Me: *You said "great."*Marcus: *94% IS great. Borderline phenomenal.*I was smiling at my phone like an idiot in a public café. I turned it face-down on the table.This was the problem. This was the specific, precise problem I had been managing with varying success for three weeks. Marcus Halverin, in his natural performing habitat, was manageable. Marcus Halverin being genuine, being

All Chapters of Offside Hearts: Chapter 11 - Chapter 13

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen