The Sun, The Moon, and Their Stars

15 : Cute

Benjamin

For someone who doesn't wear a watch, Kimberly is always punctual.

I rush to the gate as soon as I hear the doorbell. She's wearing a plain navy-blue t-shirt, jeans, black flip-flops, and a cross-body bag. She quietly follows me inside, and I let her into our living room. She sits on the edge of the couch, while Althea patiently waits for The Little Mermaid to start.

I call Kim over to the dining table instead. I figure we can work on this thing away from the TV, so we don't disrupt my sister's Disney moment. Once Kim's settled, I sit down two chairs to her left. Then she hands me this paper, where she wrote a carefully drafted outline for our supposed business plan.

She's highly organized, and she's thought of the process thoroughly. I don't even think I can add some more to her ideas. Now, I just feel a bit useless. Then I notice the middle part of her outline.

"Have you thought of a specific line of business?" I ask.

"I was kind of hoping...that...you...have some ideas," she says. And I just realize that that's the first thing she said out loud since she entered the house. "I don't really go around town that much, so I...I wouldn't know the situation around here," she adds.

"Oh, okay. Hmm..." I go back to reading. So, maybe not that useless. "We can always go for a food business," I say after a few seconds.

She nods. But then her face quickly changes, and now she's confused. "Don't we have enough of them here?"

She's not wrong there. But that's the first thing I could think of 'cause that's the easiest thing to do. And she doesn't seem like the kind of student who settles. She must be up for a challenge.

I sigh. "Then let's make it something else," I suggest. "With something special that sets it apart from the rest." I absolutely have no idea what I'm talking about.

She reaches for the glass of drink. "That's not a bad idea," she says after taking a sip of the iced tea. Her face lights up. "Let's make that the agenda of our interviews," she excitedly says. And for a second, I thought she's going to compliment the iced tea that I made.

"Interviews?"

She inclines forward and reaches for the paper in my hands. "Here," she points her pen to the part in the outline, where of course, she added that we interview local business owners to use the data as supplementary information.

"Oh. Right. Sure."

She takes out a stack of unused papers and starts writing what I think are sample interview questions. I read the outline again and think of which part I can make myself one-half of this team.

"I can ask my mom for help with whom we can ask for the interview," I say. "She knows people around here."

Kim looks up and tells me that will be very helpful. Then she resumes writing.

I drop the paper on the table and rest my back on the chair. "So, I notice that you have a more elaborate outline and what to include for the body and conclusion of this paper, but the intro just says 'introduction.'"

"I've always had a hard time writing the introduction," she says, still writing down on her paper.

"How so?"

"Well, the way I see it is it's the most important part of a paper." She stops writing and shrugs. "It's where you introduce what's it about and have your reader engaged in it in a way that they want to read further into what you've written. It has to be at least close to perfect, or you'll lose the reader before you even make a point. And I've always struggled with perfection."