Some of the things that Zack keeps hearing over and over again from his loved ones are:
"Hey look at the bright side. The relationship ended quite quick, it should hurt less right? Rather than it dragging on for longer."
Or stuff like:
"You deserve so much better."
This one is something that everyone in church and his mom says to him:
"Trust in God."
While they're all true and laced with good intentions, none of them really helped Zack in any way. So he just takes it all in as at least he knows there are loads of people who care, so in their own way, they all helped. What really helped though was this weekend.
After the karting trip with those rich guys, they treated him to some expensive arse food. "Don't be shy." Roland says, handing him the menu. "Order whatever you want, take it as motivation to work hard so you can treat someone like this too." Zack nodded, and ordered softshell crab seafood pasta in salted egg sauce served with a side of grilled vegetables.
They sat at a table for 8, Fizz right next to him, Roland and his daughter opposite him. "So, works been busy? Haven't seen you at Not Coffee in ages!" Fizz asks.
"You could say, things got hectic at work." He answers. Elise of course was the only one there who understood.
"I see, learning a lot? How's working full time so far for you?"
"Yeah, learning loads." Zack nods. "Mostly to do with how to communicate with people from different departments, and how to design to please clients rather than myself." He knew that Roland, his potential future employer, probably engineered these questions for Fizz and is noting down his answers, but at the same time, he doesn't want to be hired for being someone else, so his answers were curated, but truthful.
"Good good, I heard you're my daughter's senior." Roland chimes in. "She looks up to you, even brought you up the other day." The statement catching both Zack and Elise by surprise. Elise nudges her dad under the table while looking down to hide her face. The table lightheartedly chuckled at them.
Zack doesn't know what to say. So he improvises something to alleviate the awkwardness. "I uhhh, I see. I guess the lecturers have been saying good things about me. I still keep in touch with some of them!"
"Really? Which ones? Maybe Elise would recognize some of them!"
"Sir Scott, brilliant lecturer in engineering subjects, and Ms Tuty who teaches most of the basics of design to me."
"Do you recognize either of them?" Roland asks, turning to his daughter. She raised her head a little bit to nod at him. "They're both teaching me this semester, I actually just got an assignment from Sir Scott."
"I'm sure if you're having trouble with anything, Zack can come over and tutor you after work." Zack almost jumped in his seat upon hearing Roland say that.
"Huh!!?? No! I mean! I don't need it!" She says, flustered.
"Come on! Don't be like that! You know what Scott always says... The greatest enemy of a designer is..."
"...designers ego." Zack finishes Roland's sentence. "How did you know that?"
"I see you pay attention in class. Scott is my mate. And so is Mr. Helmut, your art director."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Helmut was my batch mate, while Scott was my senior. Networking in important, that's why I want my daughter to network with her seniors also." He says, looking to her.
"Also, Roland will pay you for tutoring, no worries no worries. Isn't that right Roland?" Fizz jokes. And he goes along with it. "Of course! See looks like I hired you after all." The table chuckles as their food came. Though Elise wasn't laughing.
...
"Take this blender for example. The design choice to have it predominantly white and grey but with a bright orange button is an aesthetic one, because the orange accents complement the elegant shape, and bright colours for the entire blender would have been overstimulating.
But what it also does is draw your attention to the button, a crucial functional component of the blender. Even without an instruction manual, the blender itself teaches you how to use it through it's design.
Hence, function isn't prioritized over form, neither is it vice versa. Rather, its function and its form is a result of one another, presented as equals to the user. Thank you."
The class gave Elise a round of applause, and to their surprise, the hard to impress Sir Scott clapped as well. "In my many years of teaching, this assignment 'Present which is more important to you, form or function?' Had mainly resulted in 2 answers. Form, because users create emotional bonds with good designs. Or function, because good design is functional."
"Neither are wrong, and arguments from both sides are compelling, but you're only the second student that have gone against my title to present a counter argument, that the best approach is not to choose either or, but for form and function to go hand in hand."
Elise smiles, not only because of the compliment, but also because she knows who the first student was.
"Don't worry, you all did well, you all passed. But I want everyone in class to learn what she just presented, because it's the only presentation I'm giving full marks to."
...
"So how did it go?" Roland asks as she walked through the workshop entrance.
"Full marks." She beams, throwing herself onto a sofa. Their Siamese cat hopped onto the sofa with her. "Miata!" She exclaims, before hugging her. Bullet then jumps onto the sofa as well. "What, are you jealous?" She jokes. But Bullet starts to lick Miata. "Awww, good boi!" She says, petting him too.
"Wow, you're in a good mood!" Roland says while adjusting some damper valves. "But you deserve to be in one, full marks after all!"
"Yeah! Zack is a freaking good teacher! I'm killing every assignment while studying half as much so I can chill more."
"And you said you didn't need a tutor."
"I still don't need one! I'm perfectly capable of acing my subjects!" She says adamantly. "He's just making it easier."
Roland smiles.
Meanwhile, a few miles away, Zack was wrapping up his day at work. Seeing Ashley arriving with Khai, spending all day with him, and leaving with him everyday made it harder for him to get over their relationship. Mentally, he knows she's no good, but pulling your heart out of a relationship you invested deeply in isn't as easy or quick. But with a great support system from Jian, Dymo, and Yusa, compassionate leaders from church, and the recent karting experience that allowed him to forget about life for awhile, he was able to heal way quicker than if he was alone. He also learns that, as much as talking about it helps, there comes a point that you need to stop talking about it as it'll keep you in the past and do more harm than good.
He stops by the cafe to buy some dinner. Petting Michael while he was there. Before making his way back to his car. Yes, he used to take the bus and train home, but since Roland is paying him to tutor his daughter, it more than makes up for the extra fuel costs needed for him to drive directly to his workshop after work. "Hmmm, I should buy some snacks for them." He thinks to himself. "Uhhh, Miss, add 10 spring rolls please, thank you!"
Elise.
He doesn't know if he genuinely developed a crush on her, or it's his urge for a post breakup rebound talking. To be fair, Elise is a very attractive girl. If there was someone he'd describe as a 10/10, it'd be her. But no, it's too soon, it's just been a month. He's in no state of mind to enter another one, besides, not like a girl like her would want to do anything with a guy like him anyways, she probably already has a boyfriend.
Finally, he arrived at Foo Fighters workshop. The Lotus specialist, with Evoras, Elises , Exiges, and Emiras parked around it, although they fix other cars too, like the Jaguar XK-R that Mr. Roland is currently working on. "Good evening sir!"
"Evening Zack!"
"Hi!" Elise enthusiastically waves from the sofa, trapped by the 2 cats on her lap. "Sorry, I can't leave until they do, it's the law."
Zack chuckles. "I'm very aware of that law." He kneels onto the ground and "pspspsps" at Miata and Bullet, who both hopped off the sofa to greet him. Bullet shoots a glance at Elise who pretends not to notice it, but fails to as she rolled her eyes. "Hi Miata, she recognizes me now!" He beams. "That or she's just a very friendly cat."
"No, no she's not, she's usually very skittish, and hangs out upstairs during busy hours. She happens to like you though."
"I'm very honoured Miata." He pets her a little longer before getting up to wash his hands. "Shall we? By the way I bought spring rolls."
"Yay! Thanks!" Elise says, taking her notes out.
"Stop buying her snacks! She's ruining her dinners!" Roland remarks.
"No! I'm hungry now! And dinner isn't for another hour!"
"I brought some for you too sir."
"Thanks! But don't tell my wife!" He jokes.
Zack takes a seat next to Elise as she flips open her exercise notes. "Okay, what do we have today?"
Elise: "Static Forces. I kind of get the gist of it."
Zack: "Oh these are easy, you just need to do loads of exercises. Okay so treat them like logic puzzle games. Oh before we start, how's your trigonometry?"
Elise: "Pretty good, SOH CAH TOA!!!"
Zack: "What's, SOH CAH TOA!!??"
Elise: "Sine, opposite over hypoten-"
Zack: "Alright you get-"
Elise: "SOH CAH TOA!!!"
"Hey Elise!" Roland reprimands from across the garage. "He's probably tired from work, respect him a little."
"No I'm good!" Zack smiles. "It makes my life easier that she's having fun studying."
"If you say so."
"Okay, remember SOH CAH TOA because we'll revisit them when we get angled forces. For now keep in mind that every other point here, relative to point x, contributes to up, down, left, and right forces, as well as, clockwise or anti clockwise moments. Got that?"
Elise nods. "Mmhhmm!"
"And they all gotta add up to?"
"Zero?"
"Yes, correct, what happens if it doesn't add up to zero?"
"Means I'm wrong?"
Zack chuckles. "For this subject, yes, because it's static. But next semester you'll be learning dynamic forces, when everything starts moving, and you have friction! Fun stuff!"
Elise: "O no."
Zack: "Okay so repeat back up to me what are the 2 types of forces we get from every diagram?"
Elise: "Uhhh... Directional, like up down left right, and rotational moments."
Zack: "Nice, we got the basics down. Okay let's start with this one... This crane is carrying a 27000 newton load at the end of its hook, an anchor is needed to ensure the crane doesn't tip forward, the crane body weighs 1050kg, what is the minimum mass of this anchor needed? Okay what's the first thing we do?"
Elise: "Multiply the load with the distance of the-"
Zack: "No not yet."
Elise: "Huh?"
Zack: "You forgot one more thing."
Elise: "Uhhh."
Zack: "Units."
Elise: "Oh yeah, multiply 1050kg with 9.8 to get the cranes mass in newtons."
Zack: "Good job!"
...