Page 46 of All Our Almosts

Me: Tell Anhond I’m excited to meet them and tell Rayna she has to do my eyeliner <3

Nolan: I’m bringing Jaiden

The White Horse bar bathroom is a 5 out of 10 on the dinginess scale. Two small stalls, two small sinks, and a moderate amount of graffiti, plus a vaguely bathroom smell about it, like it’s perpetually a little wet. Lia leads the way in, staking out one of the sinks for our makeover station. Rayna spreads a paper towel on the counter and starts unpacking her lavender makeup bag while Lia drags me under the overhead light.

“You’re in grad school right?” Rayna asks, sifting through her products.

“Not yet,” I reply. “I’m hoping to start my PhD next year though.”

“What’s your field?” She pulls out a black eyeliner from the bunch.

“Science education.”

“Use the brown on her,” Lia interjects. “She’s such a soft autumn.”

“Can I ask,” Rayna continues, shuffling through her bag once more, “I hope this doesn’t sound bad, but do you need a PhD for that?”

“No,” I laugh. “You don’t need one to teach, but I actually want to do research.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I’m really interested in experiential learning. I grew up on a farm and that’s what really got me interested in science in the first place. The plant cycles and the ecosystems, you know. And now I work at a museum that’s all about hands-on—ooh, is that liquid?”

“Yeah, it goes on so smooth.” She pulls off the lid. “Just stay still for a moment.”

“Sorry.” I tilt my chin up toward the light and close my eyes.

“But you were saying?”

“Yeah, so my research will focus on kids who don’t thrive in traditional classroom experiences, and seeing what kinds of experiential or project-based learning models help grow their interest in science.”

“Sophie, Rayna’s too nice to tell you to stop moving so much, but I’m not.”

“Sorry!”

“You should’ve brought a stamp for her. She’s a fidgeter.”

“You’re good,” Rayna assures me. “But okay, how do you even research that? Like how do you get kids to test on?”

I let out another laugh, then realize I’m not supposed to be moving and snap my posture back to attention. “Well, we don’t really get kids to test on. And it depends on the project. Sometimes you can partner with schools or other educational institutions like museums or park districts to evaluate programs they’re running. Other times it’s more like conducting surveys, like some researchers at Ashmore partner with College Board to survey kids right after the SAT. There’s lots of options. And then once we have the data we can do whatever analysis we want.”

“Turn to the right a little,” Rayna says as two more women enter the bathroom.

“I’ve only had two drinks but they’re hitting me so hard,” said the first new girl, her voice low and smooth as she closes a stall door behind her.

“I love a heavy pour,” says the other girl, voice high and bright. “Save me money and fuck me up.”

“Do you do content creation full time?” I ask Rayna, eyes closed again.

“I’m also an entrepreneur, actually. I have my own makeup line.”

“No way!”

“Yeah. Mostly foundation but I’ve started branching into some other products too.”

“Can I get at the sink for a second?” Lia scoots behind me and turns on the faucet, then starts wetting the ends of her hair to coax the curls into shape.

“Is that a hard market to break into?” I ask.