Juliana

4. Whipped cream and a cherry on top

*One and a Half Months Later*

"Look what I saw on the bulletin board today." Juliana sat a white piece of paper with black ink on it down on the lab table. "The folder said to take one, so I did."

"...A flyer for something?" My eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, but read it." She grinned, pointing to the text.

Calling all advanced science students! There is a worldwide science competition for you that starts in your classroom! Your science teacher will provide you with more details.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I still don't see what your point is. All the flyer says is that there's a science competition."

Her eyes lit up, and she pointed at that paper. "That's my point exactly! Do you know what this means?"

"Hmmm." I pretended to think for a minute. I already knew what I wanted to say; it was just pretending to think added to the effect. "More boredom?"

"No." She narrowed her eyes. "It means fun, Robbie. Science is exhilarating."

I just shook my head, "You can hold your opinion, Juliana, and I'll hold mine. Just know mine is right. I guarantee that you'll be the only kid to enter. Ninety nine point nine percent of people find science stupid. That competition has gotta be for nerds."

"You say that now, but you'll just see for yourself soon. Science is fun. It's always changing. Don't you wonder the slightest bit at what all this competition involves? What if it's some type of research that we conduct with graduate students and other brilliant minds?! And if it is research... what if you discover something that could save someone's life? How amazing would that be?"

Yup, Robbie. You definitely found Juliana's passion: science. Get her talking about that, and she'll never shut it. I confirmed my thoughts in my head.

"I do agree with you on the fact of discovering something to help save lives would be cool. There's just something about having my name be in a science textbook that is appealing to me; I want some kid in the future to fail his science test because he didn't know my name."

She giggled. "That's horrible, Robbie."

I just winked at her and was about to say something else when the teacher walked in.

Mr. Saltzstein took his seat at the desk in the front of the room. He pulled down the projector screen and then turned the projector on. "Okay. Before we get started on today's lesson, I just wanted to go over what exactly this science competition is that many of you have been asking me about." He paused for a second. "Basically, this is a world-wide competition to find the cream of the crop when it comes to advanced science students. It starts at the classroom level and then gradually progresses throughout the competition. You have three options that you can choose from: you can work alone, with a partner, or in a group of three. Three is the maximum amount of people allowed to work together. Each round will only have one project move on. For example, let's say that Kinsley and Hannah decided to work together. If they win the competition of the classroom, they move onto the grade level. Does that make sense?"

"Yes, Mr. Saltzstein." The whole body of students echoed back.

"Good. Now if you are interested in taking part you'll need to have a partner and idea by Friday."

Juliana looked like she was about to jump out of her seat.

"I'll give everyone some time to talk and/or find their partners while I grade these tests." He sat down at his desk that had stacks of paper on it and picked up his red ink pen. "Also," He looked up and slid his reading glasses down on his nose, "one last tid bit of information for those of you who are on the fence about this project." Mr. Saltzstein's eyes honed in on me. "I'll be offering extra credit for everyone in the class that participates."

My eyes widened. Extra credit was a good thing... a real good thing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Juliana scoot her chair closer to the table.

"So are you more interested in the project now, Robbie?"

Still trying to be cool and impress her I leaned back in my chair. "Not sure. I'm really busy this year with football and everything else going on. Ya know?"

She just shook her head. "You're lying; there's no way you play football."

"But I do... I'm the main wide receiver."

"What?" She looked confused—like I was speaking a different language or something.

"Please tell me that you know who the quarterback is at least." I scooted closer to the table and rested my elbows on the desk.

"Yeah. Of course..." I could hear the lie in her voice.

I chuckled a little. "You don't know who the quarterback is, do you?"

She shook her head. "No. I don't..."

"Okay, well, consider this a teaching moment." I winked at her. "Basically the quarterback is who you think of when you think of football. He's the guy that throws the ball and receives the snap from the center."

"Oh yeah yeah!" Her eyes lit up. "I know what you're talking about now. My brother is that I think."

"That's cool."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah. I guess..." Her voice sank a little, but then picked back up again. "Anyways, where do you come into play with everything?"

"I'm the wide receiver meaning I'm the guy that catches the ball the quarterback throws."

"I see now. So do you like playing or watching better?"

"Probably playing. There's just something about the feeling you get after running across the goal line that I like a lot. Although, last year I really got into watching it because I couldn't play for about five games because of a concussion..."

There was a lull in the conversation. Juliana was just thinking I guess, and well, I was just sitting there, staring at the wall like the cool kid I was.

"Robbie!" Juliana grinned.

"Juliana." I pointed at her. "I thought we already had each other's names down."

"No, no, no silly." She stuck her tongue out at me. "It just that you're brilliant."

"I am?" I raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"You just gave me an idea for our first project."

"I did?"

"Yes, yes you did. What if we did something that could test how much impact is needed for a concussion and what all exactly the helmets do."

"Whoa, Blondie. Hault." I held out a hand. "I never said I was going to do this stupid competition or work with you."

"Please?"

I didn't say anything.

"Pretty pretty pretty please with a cherry and whipped cream on top?"

"Hold the whipped cream, and I'll do it." I winked at her.

"Yay!" She smiled. "So, what do you think about doing that as our first project?"

"I'm cool with it." I moved my chair side to side.

"Go sign us up then while I work on developing a procedure and all that?"

"Sure." I grabbed a pen and walked up to the front of the room.

I found the sign-up sheet and filled it out real quick.

Name(s): Robbie Patterson and Juliana Keating

Project 1: Concussions/effectiveness of helmets.

Strangely enough, I was actually looking forward to this project. Maybe it was because football was involved combined with the fact that I got to work with Blondie.