Science Competition Part 3! Ending
Helen jerked her head up when the sound of a whistle rang through the air, the pencil she held falling out of her hand once she noticed Mr. Stridel standing at the front of the auditorium. He clapped his hands together, only stopping when he had everyone's attention.
"Alright, students, The teacher at your table will collect your papers and look over them to see how many answers you got correct. Whichever school has the most correct and gives the best demonstration of their mechanical hand, wins." Helen blew out a sigh then passed her paper to the middle of the table, nerves rattled when Mr. Stridel brought up the mechanical hand demonstration, but she had to stay focused, especially with Timothy drumming his fingers on the table, distracting her. When Mr. Stridel called their team to go first, Helen wanted to slip through the floor and never return to the surface again.
...
If anything, Helen thought the presentation they gave to be decent, a bit rushed and Max always cutting someone off to get his point across, but fairly well done. Now all they had to do was wait for the last team to finish and for their papers to get graded before they were given the results. She rubbed her hand through her hair again as the last team finished up, another sigh coming out of her mouth.
"Now the pleasantries begin," said Timothy, resting the side of his head on his hand. "Locke does look forward to a nice, celebratory dinner." Helen couldn't help but roll her eyes at the boy's confidence that they would win the whole thing.
"I don't know about that," snapped Max, sitting straighter in his seat, arms cossed. "We knew everything about our project and gave one of the best presentations."
"If you say so," said Timothy, shrugging his shoulders.
"Okay, we have come to a desicion." Mr. Stridel stood at the front again, clutching a microphone. "And the students of...Warren's Refuge of Neglected Gifted are the winners!" Everybody began clapping, mostly because the teachers urged them to and they didn't want to face punishment.
"Well, look at that!" said Timothy, jumping up from his seat. "Who can comprehend this surprising moment? Who knew this day would come?"
Helen knew who he was really talking to even though he looked to the back of the room. He then gave a small, excited leap before heading to Mr. Stridel to claim their prize. Max grumbled angrily to himself, not looking anyone in the face as the team from Warren's school assembled at the front. They squeezed together with their instructor, whose hair was dyed a deep black, as several of the adults took pictures of them.
Mr. Stridel's last instruction was for all the students to vacate the auditorium and head to their buses. Helen joined her upset teammates as they exited the building, some pointing out how unfair the competition was and how they didn't have enough time to talk about their project.
The sight of their black bus pulling up couldn't have been more of a relief to Helen, who suddenly noticed the winners walking past them.
"There they go, probably to celebrate at their expensive private school." Helen shook her head.
"No, no." Sarah crossed her arms. "They go to that school on Buzzard Island for bad kids." Directly after she spoke, a white van with tinted windows pulled into a parking space, and the kids from Warren's school lined up to go inside...
