You're Not Enough

Chapter 53

I don't know what I'm going to do. Ms.Rodriguez called the admissions counselor at NYU, and now the guy wants to meet with me Sunday at 1. I'm excited, but what am I going to tell my parents? Maybe if I tell them the day of, they'll feel obligated to let me go.

"You ready?" Liam asks me.

"Yeah." I grab my bags and close my locker.

"James and I will be at the diner," Violet says to him and then stands on her tiptoes and kisses him on the cheek.

"Alright," he says.

"You, too, have fun." She says before walking away. Liam looks at me.

"Let me text my parents real quick," I say.

*Can I stay a little later after school? I joined the stem team again.

*Sure!!! What time should I get you?- Mom

"What time do you think we'll be finished?" I ask Liam.

"5 maybe 6. It depends," he says.

*6:30

....

"So everyone, let's welcome our newest and oldest teammate Jayda!" The boy named Thomas says. Everyone turns to me and claps. "We are thrilled to have you back, you without a doubt are one of the best coders this school has," Thomas adds.

I smile at his comment. I look at everyone who is looking at me with bright smiles on their face. I'm not gonna lie. I thought maybe they would be a little hostile with me. I quit the team a week before the competition. Then, considering all the rumors going around about me, I thought maybe they wouldn't want to have anything to do with me.

"I'm happy to be back," I say. "So, what type of robot will we have to build?"

"Well, the goal is to build a robot that can get this ball into this net." He holds up a yellow ball and a small basketball net.

"That the 1st round of the competition?" I ask.

"Yes, they will time us. The goal is to get the ball through the net in under 30 seconds. We have 2 minutes, but we don't need that much time. In the 2nd round, they will be scoring us based on the robot's speed, how long it will take us from a distance to reach the net, and throw the ball in."

"And the 3rd round?" I raise my eyebrow

"After the 2nd round, our scores and time will be calculated up, whoever has the lowest time and highest score will move on into the 3rd round. During the 3rd round, we will be against the other final team; we will have to throw numerous balls into the net. Whomever robot has thrown the most before the timer is up will win." Thomas says.

"Sounds good," I say.

"Great, so right now, we are ordering the robot's parts so you can work with Olivia and Selena, help them pick out the wheels," Thomas points behind me. I turn my head and look at the familiar girls, they look exactly the same, and their faces haven't changed at all. Selena still has short dark hair, and she still has braces; she's had them ever since middle school. She still wears her glasses on her nose as she also did.

"Okay, everyone, let's get to work," Liam says. Everyone disperses into different parts of the room.

I walk to the back of the class where Olivia and Selena are. They both share giggles as I walk up. "Hey," I say when I get closer.

"Hey," they both say at the same time.

"So we were thinking about purchasing these," Selena says. I look at the computer screen. Omni wheels. They can't be serious. Omni Wheels are hard to control on a robot. They look cool, but you barely have control over them when driving the robot. You especially have no control over them when you code the directions into the robot. Anything is liable to happen when you aren't physically driving it. Omni Wheels have poor efficiency due to all the wheels rotating in the direction of the movement. They have to know that these aren't practical. Not if we want to win the competition.