cristinas_scenario

**Kate's (Almost) Marvelous Interaction on the Springboard(C) Subway System**
Today was quite an exciting day, despite its disappointments. In the monring, Kate was on her way to meet with a friend downtown and decided to use this new system called Springboard on her cell-phone. She had installed it the previous night after coming across it in a newspaper article... its point was to facilitate networking and socializing between passengers aboard long subway commutes. Well, the commute from Kennedy station westbound to St. George would take at least half an hour, so she turned on Springboard on her cell phone as soon as she got to the westbound platform. //Maybe I'll meet someone interesting on the ride,// Kate thought, //maybe even someone cute!//

She entered the subway cart and flopped down on the seat under a badly-kerned hand-cream advertisement. Being an anal graphic designer, Kate usually only sits under good advertisements, in a metaphysical hope to align herself with the aura of good design. But the cart was pretty full today and unfortunately that was the only seat available.

The chirpy melody of the 'door closing' alerts filled her ear, followed by the snap of the closing doors. The train came to life and began its descent out of Scarborough. She unbuttoned her thick fall coat and tried to get comfortable. She then took out her cellphone and checked out the main screen of the Springboard application. So far the list of online users included only myself "Kate44", and beside it was listed that I was in cart number 5, but there was a question mark under the area that displayed which station she was supposed to get off at. //Oh yeah//, Kate thought. //I have to punch in my exit station//.

So Kate clicked on the question mark, and a virtual rendition of the Toronto subway map came on, with little boxes lined up along the routes, boxes that lit up in a cheery yellow at her selection. She chose St.George as her exit station and went back to the main page. //I'm still the only one online//, Kate moped. //But I'll try to be optimistic-- who knows what will happen in the next half an hour?//

As if the Gods heard her prayers, at Woodbine station **the** cutest guy walked onto the train and scanned the room for a place to sit. He was tall, dark, handsome, well-put together and dressed in black, geek-chique attire. There was an empty seat across from Kate, and the stud took a couple of steps towards it but then came to a sudden stop as he glared at the same badly-kerned hand-cream-ad as the one that Kate was sitting under. He frowned, walked a bit further down the isle and decided to stand. //Could it be that this cutie is an anal graphic designer like me?!// Kate's heart began to beat faster.

For the next couple of stations Kate kept stealing glances of him, but he didn't look her way. After a while he took out his cell-phone and started playing around with it. Then the idea struck her...//What if he has Springboard too?!// Butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She whipped out her cellphone and accessed Springboard. Just as she did so, it alerted her that Mark77 had logged onto the system. This user was in cart five as well, and he was getting off at Yonge St., two stations her. //Calm down Kate, maybe it's not him.// She decided to click his username to access this Mark77's profile, and it filled the screen with a gorgeous picture of--you wouldn't believe it--- the tall dark and handsome dude that she had her eyes on all along! His information thrilled her even more-- he was a graphic designer too, at OCAD!

In her excitement, Kate selected his name on the main page and chose to contact him, skipping the option of personal message. [She could deliver that herself! ;) ]Almost right away she heard a ding further down the cart, probably from cutie's cell-phone. He fumbled with his mobile device a bit more and then looked up from it, and around the subway cart. He spotted her and finally makes eye contact---his gorgeous green eyes made Kate melt faster than vanilla ice cream on a summer day! She smiled sheepishly and he made his way towards her and stuck out his hand.

"Mark. Good to meet a fellow graphic designer." "Good to meet you too!" she gurgled. "So how are you liking York-Sheridan?" he asked, and the conversation blossomed from there. (She switched off Springboard, so that they wouldn't be disturbed!) During the chat, Kate and Mark chatted about their student design experiences, and she liked him the more she talked to him. Suddenly they arrived at Sherbourne and he realized he had to get off at the next stop. "Well it was nice chatting with you," he said as he got up. "Say, do you wanna get together for coffee sometime?" she asked excitedly. Perhaps too excitedly. "Uhh... you mean... like a date?" he asked. "Well, yes!" Kate chirped. He frowned at Kate, as if she was now the badly-kerned hand-cream advertisement. "Didn't you check out my profile?" he asked. "Uh, well, yeah. Maybe not the whole thing, but why?" she asked, puzzled. "Sorry sweetie, but I'm gay."

The train pulled into Yonge station and he waved to Kate sympathetically as he joined the masses of people that exited the cart. Concurrently, that spark of romance joined the flutter of excitement that exited her heart.

//I can't believe I didn't scroll down the whole profile!// she thumped. She told the friend she met downtown afterwards about her subway experience, and her friend found it hillarious. Kate cheered up, and realized it wasn't such a bad experience. After all, at least she had met someone and had a conversation during the subway ride. Otherwise she would have been all alone for half an hour, oogling at advertisments and obsessively critiquing their atrocious kerning.