Aunt Zoe was in the kitchen cutting a buttercream cake into equal pieces. Moira was curious because Aunt Zoe did not usually bake desserts and whenever the family had desserts it was always store-bought. “Hi, Moira. How was the meeting? Good? I’m glad. By the way, Kenta dropped by when you were upstairs. He said something about headphones and rock music and forgetting to plug the headphone to music player. This buttercream cake was from him.”

“It tastes heavenly and I’m in love! Oh man, I wish I were his boyfriend so that I could get spoiled like this more often!” Neesa declared from the living room and Aunt Zoe rolled her eyes at Neesa’s puppy love. Moira chuckled and teased her. “Or you could just become his trainee, like I am!” but Neesa scrunched up her nose at the idea of being a nerd over plants. Now, if it was an internship about food science, she wouldn’t mind being nerdy!

The next day after school, instead of going to the library to help James and Debbie, Moira hosted Vannie in her art studio and the two exchanged ideas about painting survivors of sterilization efforts. Vannie said she would buy Moira a new set of brushes as an added incentive. The two got half of a painting done and agreed to finish the entire project at least five days before the deadline to give ample time for revisions. Moira was not the type to procrastinate as having a lot of items in her to-do-list made her feel stressed and stress could manifest physically as headaches and stomachaches, sometimes even non-epileptic seizure as Moira knew only too well.

After a session of painting, Moira was ready to visit Kenta in his apartment, but this evening Kenta came to her house instead because he didn’t get to see Moira last time. Neesa asked if he could teach her how to bake a buttercream cake, to which Kenta said that he wouldn’t mind divulging the recipe. Neesa squealed and hugged Kenta, almost knocking him off balance. Then she ran off to her room, still squealing. Kenta shook his head and laughed heartily.

“Okay, Moira, remember your assignment with the chemistry equation? Cracked it yet?”

“You bet, Kenta. I have been busy as a bumble bee but I had a free period at school and worked with Ms. Roberts and reached some conclusions. The formula is mainly the ratio for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium at an unbelievably high dosage. NPK. Nutrients?”

“You’re right, those are the nutrients ordinarily found in fertile soil. I guess the Crimson Yeasts have evolved to the point that the roots can either store those nutrients indefinitely once they got transplanted from regular soil to ice or they have evolved to turn the minerals in ice into the three essential nutrients. My other hypothesis is that the seeds themselves contained the nutrients and somehow once the seedlings sprouted they no longer need that much nutrients.”

“I’m leaning more toward the second possibility, the one about the flowers converting minerals into different chemical compounds altogether,” Moira said, flipping the pages of Kenta’s dissertation.

“I’m going to defend my dissertation next month, Moira. Wish me luck in getting a PhD!”

The next four weeks passed by like a turtle running a marathon, but finally the anticipated day arrived. Kenta was declared a doctorate degree recipient, diploma pending, and Moira was named as honorable assistant so she won free tickets to go to the arboretum for the whole family. On the same day, Vannie presented her history project and Moira was praised by many of Vannie’s teachers and fellow students. A TV producer even interviewed her!

The day after Vannie’s school exhibition, Moira received a video call from Dr. Lee Kinoya and the entire admission committee. Moira was frightened but accepted the call nonetheless.

“Moira, allows me to extend my sincerest congratulations! I was going to wait until the letters of recommendations arrive, but the team and I caught news about your stellar paintings and we know art critics praised you to high heavens. The news elaborated on how you worked under a tight deadline and how one of the painting was difficult to paint because of a personal reason and yet you soldiered on. If that was not true grit, I do not know what is. So, congratulation once again. You are a determined young adult and I’m honored to award you the coveted scholarship and a position as my research assistants for your perseverance! By the way, I decided to hire four research assistants for the upcoming academic year, so you will be working with three other freshman. I have a feeling that you know all of them,” Lee gave the happy announcement.

“I—I am humbled, Lee. So, what is the next step? May I apply for a room in the dormitory yet?” Moira stuttered. In the background, Neesa grabbed her parents for a group dance.

“Yes, you may request to be roommates with whoever you prefer. I will also email you the student guidebook and lists of things to pack up before you leave home this fall. I think, however, the first thing would be to get in touch with both Student Health Center and the Office of Disability Studies to work with them in ensuring your matriculation will be handled properly.”

“Yes, I will. Thank you very much for the opportunity, Lee. Thank you for giving me a fair fighting chance. The last few weeks of having multiple internships have been really fun and I made new friendships all because you did not go easy on me.”

“The pleasure is mine and I am excited for you too! Keep in mind, though, that university life will be even harder than internships. You will, however, have me as a mentor and advisor so you can always come to me whenever you are confused, feeling lost, or just homesick.”

When Moira finally closed her laptop, she leapt from her chair and hugged Neesa. The cousins screamed together, watched by amused Aunt Zoe and Uncle Martin. Once the girls return to their usual behaviors, the whole family went for a celebratory dinner at an upscale seafood restaurant, with Kenta and Vannie also in attendance. Kenta brightened the room with his silly jokes and Vannie contributed to the cheerful atmosphere by telling stories from her collection of fairy tales. Moira felt that her heart could burst from so much gratefulness. That night, she slept well.