"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." Pushing past the doors, I let myself into the lab. "Practice ran a littl-."
"Akwasi look out!"
Cold metal suddenly knocked me hard to the side and I quickly grabbed a table to steady myself.
"Felix, are you crazy? Gimme that!" I heard Nadia yell. "You're going to ruin it before it's even done."
"Oh stop exaggerating, it was only a light push," Felix chortled. "But sorry Akwasi."
"Hey, you ok?" Shola appeared at my side.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Regaining my balance, I picked up my sports bag. "I see you guys have the robot running."
Nadia had opened up the wiring compartment below the neck of the robot, making some adjustments whilst Felix and the others fidgeted with the control board.
"Yeah, Deladem's team spent the last hour welding all the different parts," Shola said. "The outer covering still needs polishing, other than that, it's working really well. Felix and Chad threw in a last-minute suggestion to install motion sensors so that when the robot is in the automatic mode, it doesn't collide into people like what happened to you," she chuckled.
"Hey, that thing just took me by surprise ok. If I'd seen it coming, I would've punched a deep hole right into it."
"As if you can punch through metal," Shola smirked.
"Oh don't you know? You're looking at a descendant of Superman." I flexed my muscles and she burst into a fit of laughter.
"Ok, ok, stop. You're just embarrassing yourself," she giggled, adjusting her glasses.
Ever since the Twilight Valentine dance, our friendship had seen some growth, growth I hoped would lead to something else, something better than friendship. And speaking of that...
"Hey, I have something to show you." Setting my sports bag on the table, I zipped it open and pulled out the envelope. "Akunna brought me this during practice and I thought you should see it."
"Ok." Shola carefully flipped it open, pulling out the picture. "Oh my God." Her eyes lit up. "I didn't know they were taking pictures of us!"
"Yeah, me neither. Akunna paid the photographer to take a picture of us so we'd have something to remember the first day we danced together."
"Aww, that's so sweet of him," she said, still smiling at the picture.
"And before coming here, I made that copy for you to keep."
Shola's gaze drifted up. "Thanks Akwasi, that's really thoughtful of you."
"Nah, don't mention it." I shrugged. "I'm not the only in the picture so it makes sense that you should have a copy too."
Her eyes veered back to it. "We kind of look great together, don't you think?"
"Uh yeah." I felt my face heat up. "Yeah, we really do."
The smile Shola sent me set my heart ablaze with a thousand beats. She didn't know it, but that smile of hers had this angelic power to weaken any guy in the knees and sweep him off his feet. And that was exactly what was happening to me right now...until Mawuli barged in.
"Ah if it isn't the ever-persistent robotics-minded engineering club." The dark broad-shouldered guy wandered into the lab. "So how is it going? Has your project blown up yet?"
A disapproving glare soon replaced Shola's radiant smile. "What do you want here, Mawuli?"
"Wow coming from you, Shola, that's a very dumb question." Mawuli crossed his arms and leaned against a lab table. "Did you forget that I'm the V.P of this club?"
"Yeah, the V.P who is never around," I remarked which only pulled a deep frown onto Mawuli's forehead.
"Shut up, asswipe!"
"Really, Mawuli?" Nadia stood up. "You call him an asswipe but he's a hundred times more mature and responsible than you, the so-called "vice-president" of this club."
"Yeah, we should even have you demoted," Deladem added. "Ever since we started working on this project, you've never showed up for meetings."
"Hm tell me." Mawuli feigned a thoughtful expression. "How can I contribute to a project that I was never in favour of? Huh, tell me dickhead!"
I pushed myself up. "Look Mawuli, if you just came here to diss people then you might as well leave cuz no one wants you here. Your negative energy is putting us all in a bad mood."
"Oh believe me, I never would have set foot in here if Dr. Kankam hadn't asked me to come check up on the project, and as I can see..." he gestured to the robot currently sitting in front of Nadia. "You guys are already set for failure."
"That's what you think." Shola stepped closer, a threatening ball fire burning in her eyes. "But come Saturday, we're going to have your mind blown to bits."
Mawuli chuckled, sounding very much like an evil villain. "Oh we shall see about that, Shola Obi-Uchendu. We shall see about that." Turning on his heel, he walked out of the lab, leaving a pissed off atmosphere in his wake.
"Idiot," Deladem grumbled.
"Ok guys!" Shola clasped her hands. "You all saw what just happened. Mawuli wants us to fail and we cannot let that happen, not when we've spent weeks working on this project. We have to do whatever it takes to win and to prove that sly bastard wrong! So are we ready?"
"Hell yeah!" The response was loud and confident enough.
"Great!" Shola exclaimed. "Felix, kindly get those motion sensors you talked about so we can test them before fixing them in the robot. Deladem, do you think it's possible for a final polish today?"
"It's possible." He stood akimbo. "But then we'll have to forget about our usual closing time."
"Doesn't matter. We'll have more sleep after our victory on Saturday. Right now, we're going to burn the midnight oil." She clapped her hands. "Let's get to work, people."
And just like that, we were all on our feet, working diligently to finish off the country's first ever industrial recycling robot. Mawuli's spontaneous visit had fired us up, encouraging us to give this project everything we've got.
After a while, my stomach rumbled and I pulled out my phone to order some take out for later, when I returned to the hall. But instead, I met a 5% battery warning. Crap. I dug a hand into my bag and pulled out my charger. Locating a free socket underneath a window, I plugged in the adapter, connected my phone and placed it on the nearest table.
"Yo, Akwasi can you help me out here?" Felix called out.
"Yeah sure." I darted over.
"Hold this part of the arm up. The right pincher here is a bit loose and I want to tighten the screws."
"Check the Mica sensors first," Shola instructed. "If the pincher is loose, there's a possibility the sensors won't work properly even if you fasten it in place."
"What does the Mica do anyway?" I asked.
"Moderates the temperature of the robot so it doesn't overheat," our president responded. "When my team was working on the internal wiring, we realised that the frequent movement of the various parts generated heat to about 1000°Celsius."
"What!" Both Felix and I exclaimed.
"That's enough to start a fire," I stated
"I know and that's why we had the Mica sensors installed in every movable part of the robot. It moderates temperature within 300 to 800°Celsius so as long as the sensors are in there, we don't have anything to worry about."
"Ok. The mica sensor in the right arm is in perfect condition," Felix said. "I'm attaching the pincher. Akwasi, hold it firmly."
I tried my best to stay still so Felix wouldn't have a problem screwing the pincher in place. Shola stood beside him, supervising his work in case he missed any screws.
"There." He gave the robotic arm a pat. "I think it's ready for another test."
"Ok, then let's test the automatic mode again," our president instructed. "Chad, can you please get that bin we filled earlier? Nadia, Akwasi, kindly pick up the plastic containers we labelled the other day."
Doing as she ordered, Chad wheeled in the bin, leaving it a few feet away from the machine whilst Nadia and I put four rectangular containers behind the bin; one for plastic, the other for paper, the third one for metal and the last one for electronics.
Shola flicked a switch and the robot hummed to life. "Day 30, test number 56. Setting to automatic mode." Her hands flitted over the control board.
The robot's head straightened up, then moved forward on its wheels. Chad deliberately walked towards it and the machine paused, then went around him, continuing its trek towards the rubbish.
"Motion sensors are good." Chad gave us a thumbs up and Deladem noted it down.
After a brief lazer scan of the items in front of it, the robotic arms whirred up.
Shola backed away from the board. "Felix, got the timer ready?"
"Yep." He waved the watch in his hands. "Let's do this."
As if the robot heard the command, its pinchers began to pick the garbage, sorting them out at a faster pace than in our previous tests. We watched as it tossed paper cups, plastic bottles, empty cans and broken electrical gadgets into their respective containers. Movements were quick and fluid, with no mistakes. Plastic went into plastic and paper went into paper.
Stealing one tiny glance at Shola had my lips stretching into a soft smile. She looked like she'd won a million pounds from watching our project come to life. The smile on her face was beyond gorgeous. I could stare at it all day. But that moment was short-lived. Her eyes flickered over to me and a wave of embarrassment set my cheeks on fire.
"Aand done!" Felix declared. "Three minutes, fifty-eight seconds to clear out a regular-sized bin. I think it's safe to say that this is the world's fastest recycling robot."
"Hold your horses, Einstein." Shola rolled her eyes, a smile still playing at her lips. "We can't actually say that without having any scientific proof to back it up. I'm just happy to see it work so well that I can't wait for Saturday."
"I know right," Nadia chimed in. "I can't wait to see the expression on Mawuli's face when we win!"
A babble of agreements followed and our club president clapped her hands for silence. "Ok guys, I understand that we're all excited, but we're also exhausted and need to call it a day. We still have somethings to take care of tomorrow before Saturday, so let's go get our beauty sleep."
After packing up our tools and clearing up the recycled materials, the robot was the last thing left. The machine was obviously too big to keep in the lab cabinet so all we did was to wheel it to a corner of the room and covered it up with an old blanket. Deladem helped Shola put the control board in the cabinet and she locked it up.
Turning off the light switch, I stepped out, allowing Shola to lock the white doors and to pull the metallic grids together, bounding them with the padlock. Then we all exited the building.
"See you lovebirds tomorrow." Felix waved, as he took off with the rest of our club members in the opposite direction, leaving me alone with Shola. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was intentional. The look on Felix and Deladem's faces confirmed it.
Shaking my head, I followed Shola down the stairs, walking the familiar route to her hall.
"So," I began. "You're excited for the fair?"
"Super excited." Shola beamed. "It's not the first time I'm attending, but it's the first time I'm in charge of the project. The first two science fairs I attended; members of the engineering club weren't as devoted to their project like we are. The whole thing was done anyway and anyhow. It's part of the reasons why the engineering club hasn't won anything for the past five years." She paused. "When I became president, I made a promise to myself that my tenure would be different. This club will win something, by hook or by crook. I know Mawuli has other plans." A grim expression touched her features. "But I'm not gonna let him stop me."
My eyes locked on her face, admiring her determination until I tripped and almost kissed the hard pavement if Shola hadn't caught me by the collar of my shirt.
"Whoa are you ok?" She helped me steady myself.
"Ye-yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I said, adjusting my collar and trying to quench out that fire of uneasiness welling up inside me. "I just got...wrapped up in what you were saying that I forgot I was walking."
Shola let out a soft giggle.
"You...probably think I'm weird, huh?" I nervously scratched the back of my head.
"Yeah, but it's a funny kind of weird," she admitted. "And I like it. I like it a lot."
That statement set a swarm of butterflies free in my stomach.
"So I heard the regional swim meet starts this Friday?"
"Uh yeah, yeah," I cleared my throat. "Coach Sarah has us on a tight training schedule. She really really wants us to make it to Nationals. So much so that she's willing to push us beyond any limits that we have."
"Isn't that stressful?"
"It is, but it's also for a good cause. I'm just doing what I can to support the team."
"Well, if it gets too overwhelming..."
"It won't and don't worry," I assured her. "I'm not missing the science fair for anything in the world, Shola. It's your moment to shine and I want nothing else but to be there. Plus, I also want to see the look on Mawuli's face when he sees our project come to life."
"Yeah, it's going to be priceless," she chuckled. "But thank you so much for your endless support, Akwasi. This entire project wouldn't have been possible if you hadn't joined the club."
"I think you should thank Akunna for that. He's the entire reason we met in the first place, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember. I remember that day really well," she laughed even harder and I had to join in because the memory of me trying to get her number with such a cringe-worthy pick up line was just...so stupid. What the heck was I thinking!
We finally came to a stop at the pathway leading to her hall.
"Well, I guess...I guess this is goodnight then," I mumbled, sliding my hands into my jean pockets.
Shola stayed quiet, then she moved towards me to lay a soft kiss on my cheek. "Goodnight, Akwasi."
My face felt like it was minutes away from exploding as Shola pulled away with a smile and walked away.
I stood rooted in my spot.
Holy shit!