Wintercrest Academy

We win!

“Electron,” the girl from Kennedy High says and the green light blinks. Correct. The results for those who scaled the examinations were announced early that morning. 10 schools didn’t make it, leaving just 10 to proceed to the final stage. Right now, 5 schools have been eliminated. Kennedy High, Rosewater, Science and Tech High, Trinity and Wintercrest are the schools battling for first place.

           “Wintercrest Academy,” the examiner calls in her robotic voice and Kaia braces herself. It’s her turn to answer. All the students have been taking turns, so if student A answers a question now, Student B would answer the next one.

           “What volume of 0.5M NaOH is necessary to neutralize 15mL of 1.0 nitrous acid?” she hits the 10 seconds buzzer and the timer on the projector starts counting backwards.

           Kaia’s hands move with speed as she scribbles and then hits her own buzzer. “30mL.” The woman taps a button and the green light blinks. She’s correct. She tilts her head upward to towards Bren and he gives her a crooked smile that disappears instantly. ‘Well done,’ the smile says. The five schools keep battling until slowly, Kennedy High, Rosewater and Trinity are eliminated.

           “You’re doing great! I’m so impressed. We have to take Science and Tech out. Their teacher thinks we got lucky and are not a worthy opponent for them.” Mr Ariel scrunches his face in annoyance and Bren would have laughed if he wasn’t choked on the neck with pressure.

           “Don’t listen to her. We’d see who the worthy opponent really is,” Kaia says with a laugh and then turns to Bren. “Great work.” She holds out her fist and after Bren considers it for a little too long, he bumps it.

           “Thanks,” he mumbles and looks away. He has no idea what’s happening. This girl, who came into school and messed things up for him, is running laps in his head. He’s thinking about her, not in ways that makes him want to kill her, but in ways that makes him want to pay attention to her and all of her sweetness. Early this morning, he had almost—opened up to her. About everything. He should not be doing that!

           “It’s time.” One of the planners of the competition comes to tell them.

           “Okay,” Mr Ariel says as they get up. “I believe in you two. Whatever happens, just know that you have made us all proud.”

           “Okay!” Kaia says with too much enthusiasm. “We can do this,” she eyeballs Bren. “I know we can.” They go in with squared shoulders and take their places in the booth that reads ‘Wintercrest Academy’ in cute atomic patterns.

           “Alright. The final round of The Metleys Junior Science Competition commences now.” The robot woman announces and everything becomes a blur to Bren. His heart is palpitating too quickly. He feels his knees get wobbly and his palms clammy. His breathing is deep and difficult. Panic attack. Excessive caffeine. s**t!

           “Hey,” Kaia whispers so only him can hear. “Are you okay?” her voice echoes in his ears.

           “Wintercrest Academy,” robot woman says, it’s their turn to answer.

           “Hold on,” Kaia replies. “My friend’s not feeling too good. Can we get a minute?” what the heck is she doing? They must have given them a minute because he feels another hand grab his arm and the cool air from outside brushes his skin.

           “Hey,” he hears Kaia’s voice and feels her small, soft palms cup his face. “Breathe, Bren. Just breathe. We’re going to do this, and we hope to win. If we don’t win, we’d know that we tried. We got to the finals. It’s a huge deal. No pressure, Bren. We’re good. We’re so good. Let’s breathe.” She starts doing the deep breathing technique and like an obedient, helpless baby, he follows after her. Minutes later, he feels better.

           “Are you good now?” Mr Ariel asks after handing Bren water. When Bren nods, he adds, “they’re waiting for us. if you’re ready, we can go.”

           “I’m ready.” Bren breathes. “Thanks.” He tells Kaia.

           “Dynamic duo.” She grins and he loses his freaking mind. Those dimples are going to ruin him completely. They go back into the hall and the examiner throws their question at them. Kaia goes first and she answers correctly.  The questions are thrown back and firth between the two schools like that, and frankly, the students form Science and Tech are really smart.

           So far, both schools have missed three questions each and now have one question left to redeem themselves.

           “Do you want to take it?” Kaia asks when the coordinator announces that the students decide amongst themselves who would answer the final question.

           Bren is taken aback. She wants him to take it even when she sees how much of a mess he currently is? “I’d mess everything up.”

           “You won’t,” she says with conviction. “If you want to do it, sure. I believe you’d get it right. You’re better at AP Calc than I am.”

           Okay, that is not true. Bren doesn’t think he’s better than her at anything. He nods anyway, nervously accepting the task. When the students have been decided, Science and Tech get asked first.

           “55,000.” The boy answers and in a heart shattering second, the light turns red. He lost. He lost! This is it. their chance. Bren cannot afford to mess this up. He looks back at Kaia and as expected, her smile ever so wonderfully calms his racing heart.

           “Wintercrest,” the woman calls and the question she asks throws Bren away. That question, the exact one he asked Kaia to solve on the first day of their studying.

           “v(t) = -36r2 + 12r – 12 + cos(t)” he answers without having to solve a thing. And when the lights turn green, his heart starts beating normally again. He sinks to the floor. They won. They freaking won!