Penfield's Greatest Swimmer

🌊~17

Slipping past the lab doors, I came face to face with complete disorder.

Aside from the scores of boxed up scrap metal, electrical wires and gadgets littering the lab tables, the engineering club members kept darting around, chittering as if some huge misfortune had befallen them.

I walked up to Nadia, who was by far the calmest person in the room, slurping on a greenish yellow smoothie. "Hey, what happened?"

"Your VP happened," she replied, pulling the straw out of her mouth. "Mawuli is standing against the robotics project."

I frowned. "What? Why? We all agreed to it the other day."

"But he didn't, remember? He stormed out like some immature man baby," Nadia snorted in disgust, bringing her smoothie back to her lips.

Cursing under my breath, I dumped my sports bag on a stool next to her, and made my way towards the glass doors on the other side. I could see Shola lecturing an older man and Mawuli standing on her right, shaking his head to whatever she was saying. I pushed the door open.

"No, no, listen!" Shola barked, gripping a long roll of paper in her hand. "We all took a vote on that day. The entire club agreed that we were going to work on a robot for the science fair. We cannot just get up and change it because Mawuli wants us to!"

"And I understand that, Shola," the older man, I was guessing was the club's patron, interjected, "Believe me I do, but my boy's worry here is that robotics is a brand-new field to us. We don't know much about it, even I myself don't know much about it, so we can't risk taking on a project like that when our goal is to win. We have to stick to what we know best."

"But submitting a project that has already been entered three times in a row isn't going to help us win," I voiced out, and suddenly all three pairs of eyes were on me.

The patron's brows furrowed, deepening the wrinkle lines in his face. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"He's the idiot who brought up the robotics idea," Mawuli replied with a scowl.

"The only idiot in here is you!" Shola hissed, swatting Mawuli with the roll of paper in her hand.

"That's enough, you two!" The reprimand silenced them both then the patron's eyes shifted over to me. "Look young man, this meeting is between me and the presidents of the club so I'd appreciate it if you leave."

"Right sir. But all I wanted to say is that as much as it's good to stick to what you know best; it doesn't mean you shouldn't try something new. Yeah, robotics is unexplored territory, but not for all of us." My eyes briefly darted towards Shola. "One reason why I joined this club was because I saw one of Shola's personal robot projects during the activities fair. It wasn't finished yet, but the idea behind it was all it took for me to sign up. So if you're worried about the project being a bust, you shouldn't. Shola's got you covered. She's got everything covered."

The smile and gleam in her eyes were enough to turn my heart into mush, but not before Mawuli's words ruined the moment.

"Ugh, you might as well kiss her ass," he remarked, earning him a menacing glare from the older man.

"Sorry, sir. Pardon my language," he reluctantly apologised.

"Well..." The patron pulled in a deep breath and exhaled. "After hearing what this gentleman has to say, and the fact that the club voted for the project, I'm convinced. Shola," he turned to her with a smile, "I guess you can carry on with the robotics project. I look forward to seeing the final work."

Delighted, our club president chimed, "Thank you so much for this, Dr. Kankam. I promise, we're going to make you proud."

"Ah but sir," Mawuli spoke up, trying his best to conceal the disappointment leaking out of his face. "Are you sure about this? This is something we've never done before. We'll-"