A guy on the other end of the table brings up intramural sports. “Indoor soccer is going to be killer,” he says. “Who’s signing up if they’re accepted? Grace? Jane?” Grace shakes her head. I expect for him to pass me by, but he focuses in. “What about you, Jane?”

“Oh, I’m not a… sports person. I wouldn’t be any good.” I wouldn’t be here to play soccer, even if I had played in school.

“Doesn’t matter.” The guy whose name I can’t remember grins. “They have team practices. Not everybody went to soccer camp, and you’re only as strong as your weakest player.”

“That would probably be me,” I say.

“No way,” he protests. “You could get better with a little practice.”

Grace pats my arm. “You do not have to play soccer. Social work, huh?”

“It’s been a goal of mine for a long time,” I tell her. Is it cool to admit this? I have no idea. “I want to help kids in the foster system. I’m not sure exactly what that’ll look like, though. Working for the state or another agency.”

“That’s amazing,” says Grace. “You and Kevin both want to change the world.”

“What about you? Do you have any world-changing plans?”

“I’m going to be in Fine Arts,” she says. “Theater, with a minor in film. I like weird, experimental stuff that’s never going to make me any money. Honestly, I should get a job at this café so I can save my extra cash.” Grace is jovial about this. It’s a shift. Growing up, I wanted to go to college because I thought it would make my life better. I can’t imagine signing up for a four-year degree thinking that I’d just work at a café forever, but then… that happens, doesn’t it?

Or maybe this is a different situation entirely for Grace. Her parents might be paying for college, so the fact that her art isn’t commercial isn’t a big deal.

Beau’s paying for your college, that small voice whispers.

“What made you want to go into experimental theater?” I ask, because I’m definitely not going to ask her if she has student loans.

“Love,” she says simply. “I just love crazy shit like that. My parents made me promise to get a minor in something I could use to have a career, so I’m going to do film. I might just switch my focus. You know? Apply for jobs in the film industry and do theater work on the side. The café can be my fallback plan.”

So many plans.

“You make me feel like such a simple, boring person,” Kevin says. “All I have is one goal.”

“Oh, come on. You have all those interlocking goals,” Grace teases. “Jane, Kevin already told me about his three-tiered goal system.”