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Fluorescent lights bounced off of the whitewashed cinder block walls in the hallway of the Bryan Building.
That paint, those lights, and college classes makes me feel like a migraine is forthcoming just THINKING about the combination.
She ran a hand through her blonde hair, nearly shaved on the sides, but with a small pompadour of tight curls on the top, pink tingeing her freckled cheeks.
I am in love with Cora's aesthetic. The flannel shirt dress, the hair style, *mwah*!
“I’m ADHD and even with meds, stuff like that can really screw me on a bad day,” Cora continued.
I know they keep you law kids on a really tight schedule.
What major is Cora in that she'd be taking Business Law but not be a Law Student? Maybe it's an elective for her?
Elena found herself wondering why she hadn’t ever talked to the girl before. She was the kind of girl whose aesthetic Elena loved, and she seemed really nice. Then she remembered — she didn’t really talk to anybody in the class, except when required.
I'm with you there. College is hard enough w/o throwing other people into the mix.
Business law was one of the hardest classes to get into at the university they attended. It was a required class for both business and law graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Ah, there it is. Elena, Law Student. Cora, Business Student.
It's probably in the synopsis, but I forgot to read it again before starting this book.
However, it was also one of the only classes that didn’t have group projects, which was a relief. Group projects were only helpful if you were a slacker because you could figure out who usually did the work. Elena was usually that person and thus hated group work.
Group projects SUCK!!!
Elena smoothed down the Puerto Rican flag sticker that covered the area next to her laptop’s trackpad.
I’m in the MBA program, so the law aspect is less critical for me to know offhand, but it’s really interesting, as weird as that sounds.”
Cora
She could hear Maria settling into her favorite armchair, and could picture her resting her chin in one hand, her elbow on the arm of the chair, and the phone in her other hand. She was in full on gossip mode, and Elena couldn’t help but laugh.
Elena's mama is adorable.
“Elena Maria! Where are you that you are stripping? Do you need more money? It is too cold for that!”
Oh, Mama! 😂
Maria could apparently sense the eye roll that was impending. “Do not roll your eyes at me, young lady! I may not be present but I am still your mother!”
Elena and Maria are SO cute. Funny as hell, too.
“I see,” Elena said, pulling her sweater over her head. The collar caught on her helix piercing and she winced.
The amount of detail in this book is wonderful. Haircuts, country stickers, piercings...
“And of course I had to buy them! I cannot cook without eggs, now can I?
A woman after my own heart.
If she sent her father to the store for one very specific item, he would come back with two or three “for later” or the organic version, if it existed.
Better safe than sorry. *lol*
“I see! What kind of pretty is she? I assume since her name is Cora she’s white?” “Yeah, she’s kind of a stereotypical white queer girl - she’s slim and blue-eyed with curly hair. She keeps it pretty close shaved on the sides, so she doesn’t fidget with it.”
“The library doesn’t have the right books,” she said with a pout. “This library only has academic stuff. I want fun - magic, dragons, queer people. The works!”
Cora gets it!
“They’re books, you heathen!” Cora gave an exaggeratedly pretentious sniff while simultaneously shooting Elena a teasing glare. “They belong everywhere, much like myself!”
*snort*
“No offense, Cora, but I’m tired of eating boring white people food. I want proper food. I want sancocho and water bread!”
*drool* Yum.
“I’m guessing since you haven’t cooked in a while, you’ll need to go grocery shopping. Want to go now?” Elena’s eyes lit up with excitement.
Grocery shopping dates are SO. MUCH. FUN.
“That’s one of the most important ingredients, girl! Corn on the cob is what makes it Puerto Rican! The corn soaks up all of the flavors from the beef and the sazón. Mm!”
Oh god, that does sound good. Now *I'm* hungry.
“Okay, first of all, you can’t say you don’t cry. You just cried yesterday in the library because a character in your book died.”
Elena had expected a different question,
What question?
We’d have the social workers telling us that they couldn’t get emancipated from their parents, so they were stuck in foster care. Nobody wanted to adopt them because new parents want to adopt cute kids, not teenagers.”
People gotta remember that these kids needs family too.
“I’m the youngest of four siblings. Mamá is one of seven, and Papi is one of four. Papi’s brothers still live in Puerto Rico, and three of Mamá’s siblings do. The rest live here in the Triad.”
Whoa.
“Do you have a bookshelf?” “Yeah, it’s right next to the bedroom. Why?” Elena asked, a little puzzled. “There isn’t much on it.” “You learn a lot about a person from their bookshelf - no matter how small. Mind if I snoop?”
This is so true. Cora gets it. I'm bewildered if I go to someone's place and don't see at LEAST one bookshelf.
Cora always gravitated towards books like a moth to a flame, only slightly less self-destructive.
It held a few poetry books from authors like Sarah Kay and Gretchen Gomez,
GRETCHEN!!!
“God, I love food so much. People can call me fat all they want, but damn I love delicious food.”
“Better than sex, huh?” Elena asked, glancing at her companion mischievously. “Ha!” Cora barked a laugh. “Definitely better than sex for me. I’m asexual, and that’s not really my thing.”
“More sex-meh, if that makes sense?” Cora replied hesitantly. “It’s okay, but I probably won’t ever seek it out.”
“Are you aromantic, too?” “Nope.” Cora smiled. “I’m panromantic. I love to date and romance everybody, I just don’t have any interest in making love to anybody, ya know?
“That’s cool. You know I’m a lesbian, right?”
Rep: Elena (lesbian); Cora (asexual panromantic).
“I remember now! You mentioned that a priest found out and was horrified, and your mom tore him a new one.” “Yep. It’s unusual since I’m so blatantly queer, but Mamá is a badass,” Elena grinned.
Elena's got a good Mama.
Church people and queer people don’t usually mix.
😞
“I don’t usually tell people I’m ace unless it’s necessary. I’ve had people drop me for it in the past,” Cora admitted,
“It’s not an issue whatsoever.” She smiled. “It shouldn’t be for anyone who isn’t an ass.”
“Yeah, it’s unfortunately common for ace, aro, bi and trans folks to be shut out of their own communities because we weren’t the “right” kind of queer,” Cora said sadly.
I’m used to my tiny Methodist family. How different can your big old Catholic family be?” Elena laughed until tears leaked down her chubby cheeks “Oh, sweetie. You have no idea.”
So far, Cora was pretty convinced she’d picked the more interesting topic. There was a very recent case that summed up a lot of issues with trademarking specific words - in this case, the word cocky.
“It’s basically coconut eggnog - which is much more delicious than regular eggnog. We call it coquito,
That sounds much more delicous than the usual recipe.
Cora froze. A moment later, she asked in a soft voice “Did you tell them I was ADHD?” Her voice may have been soft, but her eyes were hard, and somehow pleading. “I mean, it’s not a bad thing, but I don’t usually tell people that until they’ve known me a while?”
“You told me the first day we studied in the library that you were ADHD, Cora. I didn’t think it would be a problem since I told them a lot of other things about you.”
That's still not your call, Elena.
Elena rolled her glass of coquito, nearly empty now, between her hands, not looking at Cora. She hated that she’d made her upset, and was mad at herself for it.
The fat, elegant woman was wearing a “What’s Cooking, Good Looking?” apron over a sapphire blue gown. The entire room revolved around her.
Such simple imagery and yet Learning Curves is filled with passages, with lines, that evoke comfort and emotion. It's a book that makes it easy for the reader to feel like part of the family of characters rather than just an observer. That kind of warm intimacy is rare for me to have found so far and I found it to be so special in this instance.
“Sex is just sex. Time spent with you is a gift.”
the first person I have to thank is the girl who yelled, “Asexuality isn’t a disorder, you asshat” at our professor during a discussion of queer identities and the DSM-V.
