Chapter 7 Not a Progress Report

Cole's POV

I saw Riley before I reached the lunch line.

She was standing near the doors with her folder open, trying to put a loose page away while people passed on both sides. She moved out of somebody's way, lost her place, and started again.

"I need to get the map," I told Theo.

"Okay. You coming over after?"

"Probably."

He joined the line. I went toward Riley.

She looked up before I reached her.

"Please tell me we haven't moved the entrance again."

"No."

"Good. I've developed an attachment."

She pulled out the map and handed it over. All the changes were marked, including the waiting area she'd moved yesterday. I opened it far enough to check that the notes hadn't ended up inside a fold.

"That's everything," she said. "The station list's in my folder."

"Thanks."

I'd needed the map. I could also have gotten it after school.

Yesterday, I'd left her beside the lane and gone back to practice. By the time I was done, she was gone. I didn't know whether she'd used the hurdle or picked up her things and left a minute after I did.

I'd been wondering since.

Riley shut her folder and stepped around a student carrying a tray.

"How'd it go yesterday?" I asked.

"The route?"

She waited.

"At the hurdles."

"Oh."

For a moment, she held the folder against her side. Then somebody behind me said excuse me, and I moved.

"Priya's over there," Riley said.

She headed toward a table near the far wall. I followed, carrying the map open in one hand until I realized I was still doing it.

Priya moved her water bottle to make room for Riley's things.

"You get everything?"

"Yes." Riley set her folder beside her lunch. "And an inspection."

"I asked a question."

"You were warming up."

Priya unscrewed her water bottle. I stood at the end of the table while Riley sat down.

"I didn't run," she said.

I hadn't known what answer I'd expected. Not that one.

"Okay."

"It was one of the low ones. I stepped over it."

"Once?"

"Once."

"Did you try again?"

She put down the sandwich she'd just picked up.

"Do you need a training report?"

"No."

"Because I didn't record my splits between standing there and standing somewhere else."

"I was just asking."

The words came out too quickly. Her expression didn't change.

I'd asked how it went, then whether she'd done more. Like she'd given me the first part of an answer and I was waiting for the rest.

I folded the map, badly. One edge stuck out.

"No report," I said. "I didn't mean to turn it into that."

"Could've fooled me."

"Yeah."

She watched me for another second, then picked up her sandwich.

Priya pulled a napkin from under her lunch and caught a drop of water before it reached Riley's folder. Neither of them said anything. I could hear Theo laughing somewhere behind me, too far away to make out why.

I should have let Riley eat.

"I stopped first," she said.

I looked back at her.

"Before the hurdle. I took a few steps and stopped. Then I went closer and stepped over."

She straightened the edge of the wrapper with one finger.

"So that's the full report."

"Got it."

Her eyes came up.

I stayed where I was. I wasn't waiting for a better ending, but I didn't know how to say that without making this a bigger conversation than she'd agreed to have.

"Did you see?" she asked.

"No."

"Any of it?"

"I was at practice."

"I know where you were."

"I didn't see."

She nodded once and looked down.

On Tuesday, I'd noticed every time she followed an instruction without arguing. I'd wanted it to cost her something. After the way she'd brushed off camp in the hallway, I wanted her to find out what it was like to have somebody else decide how her morning went.

That was part of why I'd put her name forward. And mine.

It hadn't stopped being true because we'd sorted a few bins together.

But this wasn't something I wanted to win.

Riley turned her sandwich over, checking the underside. She'd told me she stopped. She could have left that part out, and I wouldn't have known.

I looked at the map in my hand. The new check-in spot was visible along the crooked fold. The route was finished. Riley had answered me about the track.

There wasn't anything else I needed.

"Can I sit here?"

Riley glanced at the empty place across from her.

"You can ask that without supporting documents."

I lowered the map.

"Yes," she said.

"Thanks. I'll get lunch."

---

Theo was leaving the line when I got to it.

"There's room over there," he said, nodding toward our usual table.

"I'm sitting with Riley and Priya."

"Okay." He shifted his tray to reach for a napkin. "Watch the milk. Mine leaked."

I got my food and checked the bottom of my carton.

When I came back, Riley's folder was on the seat she'd offered me.

She moved it before I said anything.

"Temporary storage."

I set down my tray and sat. Priya was looking at the cookie beside Riley's sandwich.

"You said half."

"I said you could have some."

"That's what half is."

"Half is a very specific amount of some."

Riley broke the cookie, compared the pieces, and handed Priya the larger one. Priya accepted it without pointing that out.

"The middle's better," Riley said.

"You gave me the middle."

"I gave you part of the middle."

I looked at what was left in her hand. Mostly edge.

"Do you want it back?" Priya asked.

"No. Eat it before I develop a position."

Priya did. Riley gathered the crumbs on her wrapper into a small pile and ate those, too.

I put the map beside my tray.

Riley noticed. "You can put it away. The entrance will survive lunch."

"I know."

I slid it into my backpack and set the bag under the table.

For a few minutes we ate without discussing anything that needed solving. Riley took a fry, considered it, and put it back.

"Cold?" Priya asked.

"Structurally disappointing."

I tried one of mine. "They're fine."

"Useful to know your standards."

I laughed. She picked up another fry and ate it.

At the next table, somebody dragged a chair backward to let a friend through. I moved my backpack out of the aisle and went back to my sandwich.

Riley reached for her drink and caught the edge of the wrapper under it. I shifted my tray while she pulled the paper free.

"Thanks."

"Yeah."

She brushed the last cookie crumbs off her fingers, then looked across at me.

"What?"

I hadn't realized I'd stopped eating.

"Nothing."

She tipped her head, plainly unconvinced, but let me take another bite.

Priya passed me the napkins. Riley started explaining why the smaller piece of cookie had actually been the better one, and I stayed to hear her try.