The next day is Quad Day! Almost every inch of the grass and paths along the Main Quad are covered in stalls supporting various clubs and organizations. Anime club, gave dev club, yoga club, Engineers Without Borders, book clubs, various advocacy groups, a couple dozen ethnic-focused clubs, a bunch of people sparring with foam weapons over there, improv theater club...

Okay so a club that she bothers with should be one of

1. useful to her education (having something to do with information technology),
2. useful to her mission (having something to do with networking in the non-computer sense, or monsters),
3. useful to her health (a minimally annoying form of exercise), or
4. just plain fun.

She meanders towards the game dev club's table. Games may not be her thing in very particular but it could be a bit of № 1 and a bit of № 4.

The game dev club is a popular club. They have a small swarm of people around them and two laptops with a sign-up web form open on them.

"-No, I don't think you'd be able to find someone who will just make your game idea. We all have our own ideas already! But you're welcome to come to our meetings and watch people, maybe learn how to do it yourself, maybe join a team and suggest some of your ideas..."

"-Actually programming a game is tricky yeah, but if it's not a good game design it won't be fun no matter how much great art and music and programming goes into it."

"Hi!" Someone greets her. "Are you interested in making video games?"

“I wouldn't say it's my life's ambition, but I know a thing or two about network programming and it might be interesting and educational!”

"Ooh, an actual programmer! Well, if you don't like it you probably shouldn't do it, but making games is a, ahem, satisfying creative enterprise..." He talks about what the club actually does - mostly a newsletter and securing lab time for its members, and arranging for people to give advice to each other. "You would not believe how much easier programming is if you have someone else who's competent in the room with you."

“I can imagine! Well, you're on my list, but I gotta see what else there is I might want to do.”

Onward. Who else is doing programming-type stuff?

There aren't too many.

A group called the Simulation Club appears to be catering more toward hard engineering majors than computer science ones.

The local chapter of the ACM is recruiting, with a cleanly made poster espousing help with CS classes and the beauty of optimization.

Okay the parent organization has a cool name but what do university chapters of the ACM actually do?

They have meetings to talk about programming news and programming career advice and have subscriptions to scientific journals about computer science and get lots of lab time on the good computers and organize programming contests!

...And Teddy's signing up. "Oh, hi! I definitely forgot your name, but not the backup system idea."

—yeah this is more her speed, she'll sign up too, and randomly making friends and sticking with them is part of the college experience, yeah?

“Kaitlyn! And you're” — exaggerated thoughtful look — “Freddy, right?”

"Teddy. Seen any other good clubs so far? I might join one of these athletic ones. Just so I don't turn into sticks and bones."

“I'm talking to the computery ones first and then I'll see about what else I noticed on the way. Game dev seemed like sensible folks but it's not quite the thing for me. And something for exercise is definitely on the checklist but I have no idea what I would actually stick with.”

"Yeah, that's the trick. Sticking with it. You don't have to join a club, strictly speaking, though. There are athletic centers you can get into by showing your ID."

“Sure, but that's boring — I strongly expect, at least — which is not how one sticks with a thing. What athletic clubs do you know there are anyway? I saw the yoga and the I-dunno-whether-it-is-martial-arts-or-LARP.”

"The foam weapons? They call it Numenor and it's more martial art than LARP. Though not much like either. I saw cycling, soccer, basketball, swimming, and tennis clubs earlier. They're mostly huddled up between the art building and the big theater."

She does not look excited by any of those additional options. “Well, I'll have a look. Thanks.”

"I guess I'll see you in the ACM meetings and maybe class. Bye."

“See you!”

She continues her initial tour looking for more CS-related things first, but nothing else is a good fit for what she wants to be doing in her spare time. Time to work on a different checklist item.

What are the foam-swords people doing in more detail, and is this a hobby for Upper-Body Strength People only?

Being slightly fit will probably help, but the foam weapons are actually really light! She gets a foam shield too if she'd like to try it.

The rules boil down to- only hit in such and such ways (no stabbing, no headshots, etc.), and if you feel a hit act as if that limb is disabled. A second limb hit, or one to the main body, makes you out.

—you know what sure let's give it a try.

She steps into the ring with her best I Have No Idea What I'm Doing But That Won't Stop Me face on. Speaking of knowing what she's doing, any pointers?

"Put one foot forward of the other. But not too far forward! And don't swing your shield out too far when you block!"

They match her with someone else who's new. He looks just as nervous. "Should be fun no matter who wins, right?"

And then they fight with foam swords.

Does “mostly hide behind your shield and try to reach around it” work?

The other guy dodges back rather than try to use his shield to block everything. She leaves her legs too exposed! The other guy hits one, and the organizer tells her to kneel on one knee. "You still have a shot though. He has to get you again to win. Keep your shield lower."

She attempts this.

Shortly afterward, her attempt at defense with this constraint results in falling over sideways.

When that happens, it's easy for the guy to finish her off with a whack to her back. She does manage to hit one of his arms, forcing him to drop the shield, first though.