1:30 p.m.
Cheers fill the auditorium, and a chill of nervous excitement runs down my spine; Aidan and I take spots along with the other drivers and operators, standing around the perimeter of the field, waiting for the opening ceremony to start. I take note of the different teams near us.
Team Tidal in sapphire blue polos, The Strikers in indigo and grey, BetaShock in golden yellow and orange...
Aidan leans down to my ear. "Brings back memories, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but I've always been behind the scenes in the pit crew. Seeing the field in its entirety this close is completely different from watching a few feet away in the first row of the bleachers, always ready on standby after each match."
"You'll do just fine. I know it. All of us put in the long hours during drive practice, and I'm fairly certain our driver-operator dynamic is essentially telepathic at this point."
"Telepathic, huh? I suppose we won't need these then," I joke, tugging at our Bluetooth headsets. Decked out in our grey and black team windbreakers stitched with Atlas Runners on the sleeves, last names on the back, and paired with black jeans, our team is the most coordinated one, at least for the complete outfit.
"Hello, all my guys, ladies, and non-binary buddies! Welcome to the tenth annual Wayfinder Tech Competition! I'm Emilee, your city tour guide, aka your emcee. Y'all ready to see some robots in action?"
Collective and enthusiastic "Yeses" echoed throughout our school's gymnasium.
"That's what I like to hear this afternoon!" She hops over the guard rail and jogs over to the green alliance. "Let's meet the teams for the first qualification match of the day..."
3:47 p.m. The reaction from the boys on the orange alliance was priceless when I shook their hands before the start of my team's fifth match in the round-robin sequence.
"I know girls operating the robot in any way is rare, but you can take the shock factor down a bit. Save it for the end, yeah?"
A curly strand of my hair escapes from my ponytail, but I push it back with my safety glasses. Aidan nudged my shoulder as we walked back to our positions behind the polycarbonate walls. He mutters in a playful tone, "Someone's a bit confident, I see."
I have to be...in this world. I flash him a cute smile. "Of course, I am."
Emilee's voice booms through the microphone, jolting me back to the energetic, amped-up spectators in the gym seats, craning their necks to get glimpses of robots and screaming the names of their favorite teams.
"Drivers! Behind the line!"
We all turn on our soundproof Bluetooth headsets, and the crowd's cheers become mute. I glance at the clock for the countdown.
"3!" I massage my hands.
"2!" Aidan cracks his knuckles.
"1!"
All sixteen players simultaneously shift past the white tape at the driver's stations and along the guardrails.
"Go!"
Qualification match 37 begins.
YOU ARE READING
The Silicon Valley Connection
RomanceCollege junior Faith Sommers is all about processes--a series of steps followed (sometimes often repeated) in order to yield a certain result. As an aspiring astronaut, the founder of her own tech company, and a full-time engineering student, proced...
