Mia wiped her sweaty palms on her skirt for the third time. The waiting room chair seemed designed to be uncomfortable, and the ticking clock was impossibly loud. They've probably already decided against me, she thought. Why would they hire a seventeen-year-old with no experience?
Across the room, a boy about her age was filling out paperwork with annoying confidence. He probably had a resume full of internships and awards. Mia's resume had "excellent at organizing my locker" which her mom had made her remove.
When they finally called her name, Mia's legs felt like jelly. The interviewer, a woman with kind eyes but an unreadable expression, gestured to a chair.
"Your essay was remarkable," the woman said.
Wait, what?
"We rarely see such honest writing about overcoming challenges. Tell me more about that experience."
Mia felt something shift inside her. Maybe she did have something to offer after all.
Jason stared at his phone, hurt churning in his stomach. Three days. It had been three days since Emma had replied to any of his texts. She must be mad at me, he thought. But I don't even know what I did wrong. He replayed their last conversation in his head, searching for something he might have said.
Meanwhile, Emma sat in the hospital waiting room, her phone dead and forgotten in her backpack. Her grandmother's surgery had gone well, but the past three days had been a blur of worry and sleeping on uncomfortable chairs. I should text Jason when I get home, she thought absently, then immediately returned to watching the door for the nurse's update.
That evening, Jason saw Emma's social media post: a photo of flowers with the caption "So grateful today." His heart sank. She's out having a great time and can't even answer me?
He started typing an angry message, then deleted it. Maybe it was time to accept that their friendship meant more to him than it did to her.
In her grandmother's hospital room, Emma arranged the same flowers in a vase, finally feeling like she could breathe. "Grandma, I can't wait for you to meet my friend Jason," she said. "He's the best."
I'm telling you, I should have won that science fair. Everyone knows my volcano was way more impressive than Kenji's little plant experiment. What's so special about growing beans, anyway? I spent weeks perfecting my eruption technique.
The judges clearly didn't understand my vision. My volcano erupted with real smoke effects - okay, so maybe the vinegar smell was a bit strong and one judge looked kind of sick, but that just proves how realistic it was.
Kenji's project was so boring. All he did was grow plants with different colored lights and measure them every day for two months. Where's the drama? Where's the excitement? Sure, his data was "scientifically significant" according to the judges, but science should be FUN.
My mom says I should be happy with second place, but she doesn't get it either. Nobody does. Next year I'm going to do something even bigger - maybe a real explosion. That'll show them what real science looks like.