“Hah!” Harry cried in laughter, slapping his hands on his desk. “You really think you can beat me?” Harry tried to hold in his laughing but to no avail.
“Harry! Do you want to share anything with the class?!” the teacher snapped. Harry shook his head, frightened.
“It’s English class! No talking!” The teacher slammed a textbook onto her desk and started rambling about the origins of the English language. The class was silent—except for the teacher.
Gavin checked his watch. “Oh, I have to go, I’m going to miss my class.” he stood up. “Nice speaking to you, Harry.” Gavin walked away swiftly with a smug look on his face, keeping his chin up high.
They were both doing a school project to build and code a robot with integrated artificial intelligence. Of course, Harry thought he would win.
Gavin thought otherwise.
For the next few weeks, Gavin worked hard. He built and programmed things step by step, slow and steady. He barely took breaks.
Harry, however, shut off his computer after a few minutes of programming and called it a day. He thought that even if he didn’t work at the beginning, he could catch up to Gavin. Most of his time was spent boasting, instead of working.
A couple of weeks later, he was talking to Gavin.
“I’m so good at building robots! You will crush under my wrath!” Harry crumpled a piece of paper in his hand, Gavin holding his gaze.
“Is that so?” Gavin raised an eyebrow calmly. “I have the main base of the robot, and I have trained its personality already. It’s nearly done.”
Harry’s laughing abruptly halted. Gavin glimpsed something in Harry—fear.
Harry stormed out of the classroom, murmuring under his own breath.
“That fool. He thinks he can beat me…” His voice disappeared into the hallway.
That night, Harry lay down on his bed. He remembered his project. It has been a couple of weeks since he had started.
“Oh no…” Harry almost choked. The presentation for his robot had to be done by tomorrow! He quickly ran to his desk, slamming random components together, trying to make something that would look like a robot. He hadn’t even started!
A couple of hours later, he fell asleep on his desk. The clock read 1 AM, past midnight.
The day of the presentation, Harry showed his ‘robot’ to the whole school. He walked up to the stage nervously.
“Uh.” He touched the mic, the speakers sounding a high whine.
“Hi? I’m… Harry. Harry Anderson, and I—this my…this is my, um. My robot.” He showed his mess of a robot. The school was silent. “That’s… all I—I have…” he stuttered and left the stage. He took a seat.
After Harry took his seat, Gavin walked onto the stage. He explained his robot and its core components. He showed the personality of the robot, how it can respond to you, and how it can tell the time. It could even access the internet! The crowd clapped with excitement. The principal walked up to Gavin and pulled something out of his pocket. It gleamed in the light. Gavin gasped. It was an award! He held it up proudly and spoke in the mic.
“Thank you, everyone. Thank you!” the crowd cheered Gavin’s name.
“Gavin, Gavin!” Harry even joined the cheering before he knew what he was doing. Harry had lost. Gavin knew, that even if you were slow, you had to make sure to manage your time, to get things done in time. Harry had tried to catch up to Gavin, but in the end, Gavin won.
THE END