Ice Code Error

— I’m already cold, let’s go home. — You don’t have a house, you live in a dorm. — This does not negate the fact that it is cold. — So move on, it will be easier. — Dani, I’ll take your skates away next time. The girl rolled her eyes, but promised to finish in two laps. The euphoria of every second spent on the ice gave energy for another three. It was difficult to stop. Today she had to do regular ice skating — a lot of people, especially children, a friend’s laziness, a broken stick. It was the second skating this winter. Spencer deliberately delayed, did not buy a new one, so that he himself would not be at the gate again and would not get the puck in his legs. Danielle considered this rink to be the best one open in Madison, although for most of her life she went to a completely different place because it was closer to home. And now that she had rented an apartment twenty minutes away, she could go there at one in the morning. Well, officially she couldn’t, besides, she often wanted to sleep, including in the morning immediately after waking up. After all, time was spent on studies, projects and job search. So, once again, Dani tried not to leave the room after midnight, if only so that there would simply be no temptation not to sleep once again. Of course, the night student life was quite colorful and attractive, but the consequences were quite understandable and not beautiful. And it’s not about a hangover, but about banal fatigue and the need to drink a big cup of coffee, spending the last dollars on it. It was about eight o’clock in the evening, the sky had long ago said goodbye to the sun, but did not seek to show the stars, only occasionally teased with moonlight making its way through the thick clouds. But the darkness gave no reason to leave the street, because there were still Christmas lights, old but quite bright lanterns, and even one small Christmas tree three hundred feet from the skating rink, which was decorated by children this year. It was even a pity that this beauty would be removed next week, since the holidays were long gone. Spence, sitting on a bench, was almost glued to the phone, frowning slightly, nervously flipping through the statistics. Every time he had nothing to do, he climbed in there, even if he had read it an hour ago. Not to say that the guy was very good at it, yes, it was easy to disassemble the numbers and symbols, compare them, but it was not entirely in his competence to conduct a normal analysis. It was easier for Spencer to design a robot to perform these tasks than to think for himself. — What are you flipping through again? — Dani asked, braking sharply, crashing into the side. — I said that we would discuss it with the professor on Wednesday, he would give advice. — I’m looking at something else. An email came that we had some kind of glitch. It’s hard to understand without a laptop. — And what do you want to know then? — I look at how the code works, there are no failures anywhere. No broken links, no jammed buttons, no server overload. — And what did they write to you? — There is a problem with loading the image when you click. — Of course, we haven’t added that yet. — Added. — In the app, not on the site. You definitely need to rest. — I’ll rest as soon as we finish with the university. I’m not going into this anymore. A child, a small one, about five years old, fell in the center of the rink. He began to sob, increasing the volume with each breath. Dani took this as a hint that it was time to leave, but still, while Spencer was on the phone, she allowed herself to drive an extra lap. After about two minutes, it began to snow, but the ice remained relatively clear. For a moment, the girl heard only the sliding of skates, the occasional rustle from someone’s sudden stop and bumps against the side. No voices, no whistling, no crying distracted from the harmony that had finally been achieved. And Danielle didn’t even have to strain too much to imagine herself in a sharp turn behind the goal, knocking down opponents, going through a thorny path, but launching the puck behind the goalkeeper. Walking along the cleared paths, Spencer did not stop talking for a second. It seemed like he had been putting up with his girlfriend skating all the time and wasn’t going to do it anymore. Dani patted the pockets of her jacket from time to time, hoping that the phone and keys had not fallen out, and the bag with skates sometimes fell off her shoulder, which Spence once again drew attention to, saying, they say, you just need a good backpack. —Alright, so you want to head to the club, huh? — Yeah, and if I do fall asleep, I’m staying with you, OK? You wouldn’t turn down a friend who didn’t make curfew, would you? — Spencer grinned, keeping his eyes as innocent as possible. — First of all, not “if”. You pass out after two. Secondly, this is the third time. Don’t you want to stay with your neighbor? — Yes, he got me. That Mr. “Calm down, please” guy complained the day before yesterday about me buckling my belt loud. — Well, you did say yourself that the kid is new, so there’s that. — He’s a sophomore. It’s like he was put with me because of some kind of punishment or something. — That’s it, — Dani pulled on her friend’s hat so that he couldn’t see anything else. — Again? — Again. The girl always did this when he started blowing his cheeks like a little child. And, after a few attempts, it began to work. Yes, before such an action caused only misunderstanding, but Spencer quickly got used to it and began only to smile, adjusting his hat and looking at his friend as if she were an idiot. At such moments, he hugged Dani and, if possible, tried to throw her into the snow. It didn’t always work out, because both were in good athletic shape. This time, for the first time, the attempt not only failed, but also went sideways to the bully. Perhaps Danielle just learned all the tricks of a friend, and therefore deftly managed to throw him into a snowdrift. Two feet from the guy’s head was a bench covered with a white carpet of snow, on which it was easy to crack the skull. — Get up, just don’t bang your head. Dani held out her hand. — I need to come up with something new, — Spence spat out along with the snow. — And look around. If I wanted to lead the project alone, I would have said so. — I can’t do without you, don’t hope. — And I’m without you… Instead of a helping hand, a warning fist appeared near the guy’s face, which made him immediately finish the sentence seriously, not jokingly. — How am I doing without you? I still think I can handle things on my own, though. — You made seven different fonts on the first layout. And in blue. — The light one looked good on the dark one. — But not light blue on dark blue. — You’re just picking on me. — Ask the neighbor then. — I’d rather agree with you. And he wasn’t going to get up. The snow had already clogged into the girl’s shoes, causing her to climb back out onto the path, while Spencer finally at least sat down. He raised his head, trying to make out at least a hint of stars in the sky, but there was nothing but a gray-blue gradient. — The cloud. D. — Disappear. R. — Rainbow, huh. W. — Wealth. Huh? — Hic-cup. P. — Power. R. — Robo-c… — Cold. It’s what you’ll have if you don’t get up. Found time to play. — But you got distrac-cted. — Do you really have hiccups? — Yes. Let’s go get some water. Passersby looked strangely at these friends, who remained in the same position. It looked like Spencer couldn’t walk home after a good party, so his girlfriend had to deal with it. The hitch added to the awkwardness of the fake painting. And then there were the red cheeks that Dani didn’t have. Once a year, the guy could afford the behavior of a child. He remembered his real self, went crazy, just to get rid of the image of an obedient student and a hard worker. It was like this in winter. In the summer, the picture changed, as the heat was already driving Danielle crazy. However, lying in the snow is a little softer and more pleasant than lying in grass or sand. Although all the strange thoughts came to the girl when she was not lying anywhere, even on the contrary. During, for example, shortness of breath after running, which friends promised to make a habit of from year to year, or while swimming, even once after Dani poisoned herself in a gas station snack bar. However, in the latter case, it was absolutely impossible to play with words. Already walking along the sidewalk next to a busy road, Spencer still couldn’t shake himself off completely. Snow remained on his jacket, jeans, got into his shoes and sleeves, and also began to move due to the guy’s attempts to shake it off. The thought had already flashed through his mind that it was worth a ride with a friend, then his body would have warmed up, and everything would have melted long ago. This is the only reasonable thing that was found in Spence’s brain at that moment, because the following sounded: “Wouldn’t snow be a cure for hiccups?” The most mundane route that friends could take without even looking at the road, where they knew every traffic light, every broken part of the curb, dangerous turns and quiet areas — where the path ran through courtyards or narrow streets — and today was just as predictable. The complete calmness gave the last threads of hope that, despite the cold and snow, no one would get sick. However, to all the oddities, in a day Dani will go to bed with a severe runny nose and will not let Spence near him with strange herbs with which he treated himself and tried to treat others. — I just can’t get it out of my head, — the guy started, grabbing the bag of skates. — Is it really worth it?” — Again? — Again. Really, Dani, what’s the point of us starting a new one if we did a mediocre job with the first two? It’s not right there, it’s not right here, and then it’s full of shit and we have to clean it up. — You were whining, and I wanted wine. — I’m serious. — Me too. But, Spence, you’ve been wanting to give up everything since freshman year. The first time the app crashed, the first time there was an attack on the servers. You didn’t wanna quit then, you just wanted the app to keep going, you didn’t care about being cool, you just wanted our uni to be better. — Did you believe any of the crazy stuff I was talking on the defense? — Everything will work out for us. I’m messing up too, but you and I already two glitches in this code that got along great. And no one has found us yet. — I’m going to use you like a therapist for at least the next five projects. — Five? Spencer did not lose his head and quickly pointed with his fingers “ten”. That wasn’t exactly what Danielle meant, but it was nice to know that faith in friendship was so strong. — Designer and programmer — the union is way stronger than husband and wife. You know, betrayal in this case is way scarier and life is way more fun. Not in the church — in the lab, where we make those vows. So, you and me are in that strong and unbeatable scientific mar-riage thing. — Alright, guys, drink the snow. I’ve run out of options.