The High GPA students participate in an inter-school competition
Max always thought that she was good at supporting her friends and showing up when she needed to for things. She attended band practice, took tea time with Kate, came to dance performances for Dana, and ate up Chloe’s spare time when available. But that is precisely why today looked like it was going to be miserable.
This Thursday was dedicated as a totally-not-competitive gathering of schools in the Tillamook County area, most of which were substancially larger than Blackwell. It was an event open to both juniors and seniors, but seeing as Blackwell was a senior-only private school, its entire population tended to pale in comparison to even a single class of the other schools. As such, when competitions or performances were scheduled throughout the fair, it was often assumed that there was enough of the school to go around to do all of these things. As such, students had been asked not to sign up to participate in more than one item of the fair, to avoid last-minute scheduling issues.
Max was smart enough to not sign up for anything, sure that would allow her to attend important items of all of her friends. She was wrong. Somehow, the Robotic and Engineering Submarine project was scheduled at the same time that the Blackwell dancing presentation was going on, and both were dead-center of a two-hour hypnosis presentation that Max had resolved to go to as soon as she heard about it. Chloe and Rachel were on the Robotics competition, with their two teammates Warren and Brooke, who likely got more done than the two lovebirds, especially seeing as Rachel’s involvement was largely due to her desire to pad her transcript with all sorts of fancy extra-curricular events. Dana and Nathan were involved in the dance competition, though, splitting Max between her best friend and her girlfriend from the get-go. Then, to make matters worse, Max had promised to go to the hypnosis show with Taylor, and Victoria and Courtney had agreed to go along as well. While this might make it simple enough to ditch the hypnosis show and try and manage to the dance show and robotics competition, the trio had resolved to volunteer for the show and wanted Max to film the whole affair, which she had foolishly agreed to.
She was in the fair now, and the hypnosis show was about to begin. It was two hours long. In forty-five minutes, both the dance show and the robotics competition would begin. The dance performance would be no more than twenty minutes, and the robotics thing would take half an hour.
The trio was successful in volunteering after about fifteen minutes, but as the presenter got them ready, Max was gripped with nervousness as she struggled to put together a plan. It was tough to sit and giggle at Courtney literally collapsing to the ground to a ‘sleep way down’ command for the fourth time (although, it was pretty funny - if not as good as Victoria’s rather convincing Hillary Clinton impression) when you were split in so many directions.
So, about forty minutes into the presentation, while every person remaining on stage was being given a pop star to sing like for the Star Spangled Banner, Max just got up and left. She had to be there for her best friend and girlfriend, she knew that much. She just packed up the camera and scooted her way out of the crowd of people in those white-plasticy aluminum chairs that schools purchase in bulk.
So, now, go see the robotics thing or the dance competition?
Which did Max actually want to see?
“Hey, Max!” Kate had two cones of cotton candy, one pink and one blue (much like her hair), and was making a beeline through the crowd of unfamiliar students to Max. Max looked up from the fair schedule and grinned at her favorite pastel-kawaii violinist. “Where’re you heading now? I’m off to the submarine thingy: wanna’ make it a band thing?”
Now Max’s lips curled into an uncertain expression … but then, a plan occurred to her. She stepped towards Kate so that there was very little space between them, and pulled out her camera. “Hey, Kate? Before I answer that question, let’s take a selfie.”
Kate rolled her eyes; “You’re taking selfies constantly, yeesh. But you know I’m always ready to show off, c’mon,” she replied, wrapping an arm around Max’s waist while the brunette lifted up her polaroid.
Flash.
“Okay, good. But, I think I’m going to sit the competition out this time - I’ve got to go see Dana and Nathan dance. But I’ll meet up with you if I can! C’mere,” Max asserted once her photo and camera were stored away, and she pulled Kate into a hug. “I’ll be there super soon, I promise.”
“You better be!”
While Max walked to the competition, she checked her Facebook to see if the plan had succeeded, and she noticed it was a work in progress. She saw a status from herself on her personal-only wall that stated she had ‘successfully filmed the hypnotist’, but no information on the competitions. Two things to do, then.
The dance was pretty awesome, as expected, but Max had seen hours of the different pieces’ rehearsals, with a personal favorite being a four-dancer performance of a dubstep version of the Dexter theme song for the sole value of its source, but there were several faster, more hip-hop style pieces, which is where Dana really excelled. Max made sure to snap shots as she could, but it was honestly hard to get good shots, even with motion-capture on her phone, nevermind any attempts with her Polaroid.
The real awesomeness was always afterwards, though, when Dana came to meet up with Max to go anywhere else she wanted in the fair, and she gave Max that first sweaty hug. Pretty much any time Dana was not slathering herself in costume makeup for one event or another, she was sweating thanks to cheerleading, dancing, sex, volleyball, or whatever. She was opposite of Max’s relative sedentary approach to everything, but there was always something super nice about that horribly warm first hug, because Dana would squeeze Max so tight, as if she were just so happy to see her again.
“Hey you!” Dana said as she squeezed Max this time.
“Hey sweetie,” Max said when she was back on her own feet. To Dana’s surprise, Max quickly withdrew Victoria’s video camera a moment later.
“What’s this for?” Dana asked, gesturing at it.
Max opened it up and turned the screen portion around, so they could see themselves in it. “Okay, so, you and Chloe are scheduled for the same time, and I really want to attend both of your things. But if I attend Chloe’s, we won’t get this moment here, so I want you to know we had it - plus, this lets me not actually have to watch the gang fiddling with their submarine drone for half an hour. I took a selfie before I came here so …”
Dana looked pretty confused during this whole thing, not sure if she should look at the camera or at Max. But then she reognized what Max was trying to say, and nodded. “Oh! Okay. Well, I’m so happy you’re here, and that we kicked ass just a few minutes ago. I love you so much, Max,” she said, finally resolving to drop her eyes on her little dorky girlfriend, and wrapped her arms around her again.
Max wrapped her free arm around Dana, but kept an eye on the camera because she wanted to make sure they stayed in frame. She snuggled against her as well as she could. “I love you too, sweet heart. And you really did kick ass. Come here,” she said, leaning back in Dana’s arms a little and leaning up on her toes so she could feel Dana’s too-warm, too-sweaty face in reach, and kissed her sweetly.
When they broke apart, Dana spoke up more excitedly, “Now, come on, put that down - let’s take some pictures for Facebook.”
Max closed down the camera and pulled out her phone, and Dana as the one with longer limbs started to take snapshots of them with their arms around each other and kissing each other’s cheeks and lips, though that one got photobombed by Nathan.
After a minute or two of that, Dana tapped Max’s shoulder: “Come on, you should get to Chloe.”
Max nodded, but took a moment to steal another kiss from her little tol girlfriend.
“Go, you!” Dana commanded, though she giggled a little that Max kept delaying, but finally Max removed her polaroid of her and Kate.
“I’ll see you soon!” Max promised, and Dana nodded, folding her arms, a smile still on her face.
“Go,” Dana said one more time.
Made looked down at the photograph, and breathed, trying to remember Kate’s arm around her waist.
Flash.
“Okay, good,” Max said, and began to flap the photo around to get it to cool. “Yeah, totally Kate - let’s go support our bandmates: and make sure that Rachel hasn’t found a way to charm fish through her submarine or something. Or Chloe hasn’t harnessed underwater pyrotechnics.”
Kate giggled at the thought for a moment, and released her grasp on Max. “Come on, it’s right next to the lake - let’s go!” Kate now placed her palm against Max’s, and the tiny duo’s fingers laced together to keep them close amid the crowd, though it hardly looked like a crowd to Max, thanks to the whole border effect that the photo rewinds had.
“All right, lead the way my marshy guide.” Max honestly would be terrible at directions when she could only see a twenty-foot-radius zone, so this was sort of necessary.
Kate just kept up a grin. “Here we go!”
After a few seconds, time and sound closed in on Max, and time shot forward.
“OH MY GOODNESS YESSSS! WAY TO GO, BROOKE!” Kate was jumping up and down, which was entirely unnecessary. A small, waist-high fence kept Max and Kate and maybe ten others away from the Blackwell Robotics team, who were on various terminals set up in a small rectangle, with Brooke now holding her iPad victoriously overhead while Warren and Chloe were whooping wayyyy too excitedly.
Max noticed that her hands were paused mid-clap, so she took it up again quickly. “Way to go, Chloe!” Max could ascertain that 1) Blackwell had just won, but that, out of the audience, 2) only Kate and Ms. Grant were responding with more than lukewarm enthusiasm because, well, they’d just been sort of milling about watching clumps of teenagers manage underwater drones on various screens for the past half hour, and most people weren’t all that excited.
Discouraged groups of other students peered over at the Blackwell team, but they could not engage in good sportsmanship very much, because second place was still up for grabs, and even a $100 dollar scholarship was desirable for those runner-ups.
Rachel and Chloe took a moment to kiss in their excitement, but Brooke was quick to approach the fence with Warren, both leaning over to hug Kate and Max, respectively.
“You did awesomely!” Kate praised, well-aware that Brooke had been the one actually guiding the submarine through this event.
Brooke tried to roll her eyes good-naturedly, but Warren was never one to let people evade praise they deserved, “You totally did, B - don’t knock your drone experience.” He offered up a fist bump, and although she gave a grudging grunt, she returned it, then smiled.
“Yes, and there we have it - the thrilling conclusion to some thirty hours: 500 dollars towards a Cal Tech tuition, and the driest climax of the Tillamook County school competitions.” Brooke was always quick to point out negatives, but Kate was not one to let that slide, so she just leaned further to get her arms around Brooke’s shoulders.
“Shuddup,” Kate said, and turned her head a little so she could plant a kiss on her lips.
Finally, Rachel and Chloe met up with the rest. “Awww-huh, rolling in hella cash now,” Chloe gloated as she reached the fence, quick to capitalize on any time she could make the ‘make it rain’ motion with her hands.
Rachel raised her eyebrows over at Max. “I’d have expected you to be at Dana’s thing right now. If you’re here to take a picture, better get on it - I think I see Juliet approaching.”
Everyone located the journalist several paces away, and Max quickly drew out her camera. Everyone, well-trained to support Max’s selfie obsession, scrunched in together, placing their faces around her with various expressions - Chloe’s traditional grin while flipping the camera off; Rachel’s self-assured smirk that animated her face into perhaps its most beautiful (at least, most mysterious) state; Warren’s silly grin and thumbs-up; Brooke smize combined with the ‘I’m not so sure how I feel about being filmed right now’ look; and Kate’s look of sheer glee at being surrounded by friends. Max’s face was as it always was - calm, straight at the camera, and hard to read, but right now, she couldn’t suppress at least a little bit of a smile.
Flash.
“Hey, guys! Could you stay like that for a sec - for the school paper, you know.”
As if Juliet were a stomping toddler surrounded by clustered blackbirds, the gang scattered, moving to pick up their equipment, chat up Ms. Grant, or whatever else might occupy them.
“Hey!” Juliet whined loudly, prompting a good-natured chuckle from several members of the team.