The Silicon Valley Connection

16 | faith - game reveal

Aidan's group of kids start the presentations. A boy who couldn't be more than fourteen years old walks up confidently to the center table and describes his traffic light simulation as the girl next to him runs the code. With a near-perfect demo, both the girl and boy walk back to their seats, grinning as wide as the Pacific Ocean. After ten minutes, all the CS demos are done, and the principal returns to the podium.

"Now, can I have one representative from each pair that was in the MechE group please bring your towers and buildings to the Quake table?" the principal declares into the microphone.

Amelia, the eighth grader that I have been helping for the past hour, looks up at me nervously. I gently nudge her toward the front, encouraging her to go first.

"You looked like you were having fun over here; I was getting a bit jealous," a voice behind me whispers.

"You really have to stop doing that, dude," I say, my teeth clenched tight.

Aidan snickers."Not my fault you jumped," he argues.

"It is. And you did that on purpose." He gives me a corner smile. Yeah, the one that's not necessarily a smirk, but still has the power to catch me off guard.

Slightly.

"Why you--" I stop myself, remembering the audience near us, "jerk," I mutter.

"But a hot one," he quips back.

"Mmm, debatable."

He scoffs, and I let out a little hmph of triumph, but I knew damn well it wasn't arguable that he was unmistakably good-looking.

Aidan and his brother may be a year apart, but if I had no idea who they were and you told me that they were twins, I would've believed you. Dark green eyes are a given for both, but while Hunter has short, cropped, black hair, Aidan's flows more freely and basically floats above his glasses. His voice is a soothing mixture between a tenor and baritone, and it's very fitting since he's the host of the tech podcast, "CyberLegacy," racking in brand deals and massive sponsorships from the surrounding companies that ask him to do reviews on their latest products.

He could honestly be an audiobook narrator too. His voice is just that calming.

Cheers signal the final round of earthquake simulations ends, and I spot Amelia smiling brightly, with a blue "1st place" ribbon pinned to her lavender sweater. I give her two thumbs up and mouth a great job to her from across the auditorium.

"That concludes today's events for STEM week." The principal turns in our direction with a grateful smile. "Everyone say thank you to the college students who came here today to assist us in today's engineering challenges!"

"Thank you!" the students all say at once. We smile and wave, acknowledging their appreciation. Aidan and I clean up as the kids gather their things and wait for their parents to pick them up. Someone tugs at my sweater, and I turn around to see Amelia, hands in her pockets and shuffling her feet back and forth.

"Hey! Great job back there!"

"Thanks. That information was very beneficial," she says.

I stop cleaning and look at her more intently. "Was there something else you wanted to talk about?"

"I just wanted to personally thank you for this. I knew I wanted to pursue engineering, but actually seeing girls that looked like me already doing it and being successful makes me feel a bit more reassured."

I give her a warm smile. "I'm glad that I was able to help boost your confidence!"

Her expression then turns solemn. "But it's still kind of disheartening at times when boys hear that I want to go into the field as well," she mentions quietly.