Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(70)

Sean was now devouring the information in front of him. He glanced at everything in his book and then looked at Ray. Ray passed him the first book in the set, which was opened to the table of contents. Sean scanned it immediately.

“Geek Girl, you are making Judy and I look bad,” Marcus said disapprovingly, leaning back with a smile.

Sean glanced at Marcus, then shaking his head, looked at Krista with drunken, overwhelmed eyes.

Fear stabbed her again. It was a lot of information. Maybe she spent too much time on it? Maybe she spent too much time organizing it? Maybe she should’ve been watching Sean’s back with the art stuff?

She was on the edge, wondering which way the wind blew when Sean said, “Good work, Krista. This will be invaluable. It will also help us make contact with light comments.”

It sounded good, but his face was still blank as he looked through the information. Ray had the third book and was looking through it, slightly shaking his head. It sounded good, but the actions didn’t match.

Krista hated this. She hated having no idea where she stood. Her first real assignment with her first real job for a boss she really wanted to impress, and it was heads or tails if she totally messed up and wasted everyone’s time.

And that was just step one. She still had to show step two, which was an even bigger gamble.

Sean interrupted her self-loathing, still looking through the material, with, “Okay, everyone, let’s convene for now and we’ll meet back after I can process all this information.”

“Wait…” Krista grabbed the remaining stack.

Sean looked up with a light scowl. Everyone paused in their various stances, except for Marcus who was always lounging. He had a hopeful look, though. He wanted to know what the rest of the information was. Namely, he wanted to see what she did with his ideas.

“Um, that was just the first part of the list that Sean gave?” Sean’s scowl got slightly more pronounced. Krista hurried on. “I got a good way through the second one with Marcus’s help?”

Stop rounding off sentences with a question! You sound dumb and green!

“Yes,” Marcus settled back with his hands behind his head, his arms out to the side like wings. He was like a little boy about ready to see if his new model airplane would fly.

Krista passed out the remaining books. “Okay, well first, you should all know that Marcus and I speak a different language. He speaks in high-art, and I speak in normal person…”

“There was nothing normal in those books you passed around.” Marcus cut her off.

“Okay, well, affluent math, then. So when I went to get Marcus’s ideas, which I think was Sean’s big practical joke to torture me…” Marcus and Judy both laughed. Sean was looking at her blank-faced. She hurried on, “I wrote down a bunch of genius crap that I then stared at for a couple hours before realizing there was no way in hell—excuse my language—that I could turn it into logical, statistical research. It was all gibberish as far as I could tell.”

Marcus and Judy both laughed again, but Sean and Ray wore very similar masks of confusion.

“So I took his notes to someone who could speak both our languages, and asked for help. What I got was something I could work with. Now, before you look at these, please know that this is my interpretation of Marcus’s ideas turned into research. I made no decisions beyond that. If the ideas are stupid and not worth pursuing based on numbers, blame Marcus.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time!” Judy laughed.

“Why four smaller books rather than three?” Ray asked. “Did you do these before you figured out the machine?”

Krista smiled. Ray had a sense of humor it seemed.

“There are four ideas turned into research. I figured I would just break them down that way. The other collection, we’ll call number one, was a solid mass of information.”

Ray nodded as each person delved into their book. Each book was a little different, and each covered a different amount of terrain. They had graphs and, what Marcus and Judy latched on to, art. There were even photographs from when she people-watched. If the team missed her over-achiever status thus far, they were currently getting a rude awakening.

Plus, working on the whole idea was kind of fun. She got to do more than just work with statistical stuff—taking pictures and working with graphics was a great way to exercise the other half of the brain.

Krista was watching Judy and Marcus laugh about the perfection of one of the photos when she felt eyes boring into her. They were Sean’s. Their look was unreadable, as was his face, but his focus was acute.

Krista flushed and fidgeted, not sure what to make of the stare; not sure if it was good or bad or lust based.

“Too much? Did I waste too much time on this stuff?” Krista asked with a grimace.

Sean remained mute for a moment, his stare acute. When he was done trying to shoplift her grocery list, his eyes pivoted to Ray. Before either said anything, Marcus said, “Hey Krista, what is this one?”

It was a picture of a little girl at the beach with her mother’s bracelet. The bracelet was ugly and cheap, which was probably why the mother allowed the child to have it in the first place, but Krista thought the idea of it worked.

“Oh, well, you know that idea where you wanted to create some sort of collectable jewelry for kids? Kind of like those charm bracelets, but more for special occasions? You know, so that they could hold onto it through the years?”