When the applause for the project before hers died down, she took the stage. Her project was already on a table, tilted slightly so the audience could see, ready to go. In her hand, she held the phone with the app that controlled it.
My chest tightened. This was it. From the seat next to me, Izzy squeezed my arm hard enough to leave a mark.
Before Malina spoke, she made eye contact with me, smiled, and took a deep breath. “My name is Malina Hall. My main interests include space and coding, so I combined the two for my project.”
She walked over to the table. She was wearing a dress and her hair was pulled back with a Hawaiian flower tucked behind her ear—probably something that Tutu had given her for luck. She looked amazing. Not only beautiful, but smart and confident and happy, too. Apparently Izzy and I were much more nervous than she was.
“This is a scale model of our solar system, made of glass. Within each piece of glass is an adjustable bulb. My project was to not only accurately rotate the planets around their axes and around the sun, but also to accurately scale and project the amount of light reflected by each planet, and to show how that light changes throughout each day and throughout the year.”
There were a few murmurs in the crowd. This was the most complex project that had been presented so far. Now all she needed was for it to work. Please let it work.
She tapped her screen a few times. “When I turn on the app, time will start at the beginning of the day at the beginning of the year and move forward from there.” When she tapped the phone again, the project lit up brilliantly with the sun at the center, and the planets began rotating in small circles around their axes and in larger arcs around the sun. Izzy and I both let out sighs of relief at the same time. Her grip on my arm loosened. The project was as beautiful as it was impressive, and the crowd chattered again.
“With the click of a button, I can fast forward to March, and you can see how the rotation and light change.” She did, and the crowd clapped. She flushed adorably, but stayed focused on her project. “I can continue progressing through the year, until I end up right back in January.”
She sped the project through the seasons, until Earth, which was easy to pick out with all its blue and green, made its way back to its original location in reference to the sun. Then she looked out at the audience. “My calculations were based on each planet’s albedo value. The rotation was scheduled based on standard orbital and rotation periods. I chose to work on this project because, like our own solar system, it’s as much art as it is science. The beauty behind what we study sometimes gets left out of STEM, but I wanted to put it front and center. This project not only taught me about space and coding, but also about what it means to never stop learning and to never give up.”
The crowed clapped again, and Malina took a little bow before returning backstage. My heart rate returned to normal. The project had worked. She’d made a great presentation. If she didn’t leave with the scholarship money, she’d at least leave knowing that.
There were two more presentations after hers. “Neither of those were as good as hers,” I whispered, leaning over to Izzy, who was sitting between me, Malina’s parents, and Tutu.
“Absolutely not,” Izzy whispered back. “Not that we’re biased at all.”
“Not at all,” I agreed.
“Thank you, finalists,” the MC said. He was wearing a tux, which seemed like overkill for a regional STEM competition, but whatever. “We’ll let the judges deliberate for a few minutes. While we wait, please watch these messages from our sponsors and scholarship donors.”
The lights dimmed and a screen came down. The crowd got restless, clearly more interested in the results than commercials, but thankfully it wasn’t long before the lights came back on and the MC returned to the stage along with the finalists, carrying several envelopes.
“A big thank you to all of our sponsors. And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Let’s start with our honorable mention, earning a $500 scholarship. The honorable mention goes to…”
He dramatically opened the envelope. I held my breath. And released it when he read the name. Not Malina.
The process repeated when he got to third place. Not Malina.
Second place. Not Malina.
This was it. Either she won, or she got nothing. I didn’t realize my knee was bouncing up and down again until Izzy reached over and pushed it down for me. It must have been driving her crazy.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“It’s okay,” she whispered back. “I’m nervous, too.”
“And in first place, winning the grand prize, a four-year, $10,000 scholarship, is…”
The crowd was silent. Malina looked calm and collected even though I knew she couldn’t possibly feel that way.
“Malina Hall!” the MC said.
My heart burst with excitement. Izzy and I jumped to our feet, whooping and hollering and making general fools of ourselves. I glanced toward Tutu, who was beaming with pride from her wheelchair, clapping and crying. Malina thanked the MC, accepted the giant cardboard check from one of the sponsors, and smiled for a few pictures. After one last thank you to all of the attendees and finalists, the room started to clear.
Malina was the last finalist off the stage. She walked toward our row, but she was walking to the opposite end where her parents were instead of to my end. I couldn’t possibly wait another second to see her, so I jumped over the chair to the row in front of us, bypassed the Hall family, and jumped back into the right row in time to scoop her up in my arms and spin her around, causing her to drop the check.
“Jackson!” she said with a laugh.
I kissed her before putting her down. “I’m so proud of you. I knew you could do it.”
“I couldn’t have done it without your help.”
“We make a good team,” I said, kissing her again.
“We do. Good thing we’ll practically be neighbors in California.”
Malina had been accepted to Caltech, and, with the help of the hockey coach, I’d been accepted at and committed to the University of Southern California.
“Good thing,” I echoed.
“All right, all right, you’ve hogged her enough,” Izzy said from behind me. “Give us a chance to congratulate her.”
Reluctantly, I let Malina go and picked up the big check, with her name written in the “To” field. “I’ve never known anyone who got one of these in real life,” I said.
“That’s badass,” Izzy said, squeezing by me to wrap Malina in a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you, you big nerd.”
Malina laughed. “Thanks. I’m so happy. And so relieved it’s over.”
While Malina got hugs from Tutu and her mom, I examined the check with Mr. Hall. “So, does she just take this to the bank and cash it?” I asked.
Mr. Hall laughed. “I’ll let you suggest that. And I’d like to be at the bank when you try.” As soon as Malina was free, Mr. Hall was the last to wrap her in a hug. “You’re amazing, Malina. You’re going to make all of your dreams come true.”
“That means a lot coming from you,” she said. When her dad let her go, she had to wipe a few tears away. She cleared her throat. “So, what are we doing to celebrate?”
“I vote that the celebration includes food,” I said right away.
She rolled her eyes at me, but she was smiling. “Of course you do.”
I pulled her to my side and snuck in another quick kiss. “You love me.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I do.”
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Acknowledgments
It takes a village to make a book happen, and this one is no exception! First, a million thanks to Heather Howland. Four books later and I am still incredibly grateful that I get to work with you! Thank you for your expertise, time, and patience.
Many thanks to the entire Enta
ngled team for your hard work on and support of my books. I couldn’t ask for a better team!
Thank you to my family for providing endless encouragement. I love and appreciate all of you! Special thanks to Aunt Pat for always being the very first person to ask when my next book is coming out!
This book would not have been written without the #5amwritersclub. Thank you for the early morning friendship, virtual coffee and donuts, and making sure I don’t turn off my alarm at 4:37 each morning!
To the Sweethearts of YA, thank you for all you do! I’m honored and thrilled to be part of such an amazing group.
To the writer friends who support me near and far, especially Kristi Kay, Julie C. Dao, Emmy Curtis, Kat Ellis, Ralph Walker, Tif Marcelo, and Jess Skoog, thank you for the emails, tweets, texts, and words of encouragement that seem to come right when I need them most!
Last but certainly not least, thank you to readers for your support and for spending time in Jackson and Malina’s world!
About the Author
Erin is a young adult author from North Carolina. She is a morning person who does most of her writing before sunrise, while drinking excessive quantities of coffee. She believes flip-flops qualify as year-round footwear, and would spend every day at the beach if she could. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, which is almost never useful when writing books.
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