Family Togetherness

Chapter 11- Teenage Talents

Abby and Layla were pinpricks in the gaggle of parents. They kept their eyes fixed on Luke's table. Katie Evans still hadn't unpacked her competition entry, choosing instead to discuss something with their brother. It looked important.

Abby twisted around to whisper this to Nathan, but he wasn't there. Instead, he was edging out of the crowd surrounding the judges and making a break for the doors.

"Is Nathan alright?" Layla shouted over the scraping of chairs. The man hastily swung her to the ground, stumbling a few paces backwards.

"Is Victoria alright, more like," Abby muttered by way of response. She glanced at her watch. If they wanted to get to her audition on time, they would have to start driving in the next fifteen minutes.

Abby really wanted to go. She'd never been to any performing events before; and she had nearly three hundred people visiting her blog, who she knew would love the information. Having not updated once throughout the whole week, she felt as though she owed them an apologetic paragraph or two.

She looked at Luke, who was switching off the noisy mechanics of his model. He would want to go as well, for different reasons.

Luke looked back at her, but he didn't see her. He hadn't seen Nathan leave either; and he hadn't noticed that the minute hand on the wall-mounted clock was a hair's breadth from declaring them late.

"I did something a bit different this year," Katie had told him. He had seen from the slump of her blazer-clad shoulders that whatever it was, she was unhappy about it.

"You mean," he'd asked shyly, "about your entry?" He had fixed his eyes on his paper-mâché Jupiter for most of their conversation; feeling overwhelmed that the brainiest girl in the year had come over to talk to him.

"I built a machine. Nothing flash. My Dad has lots of parts in the shed."

Luke deflated visibly. "People said you were going to do that." He gazed at the blue ribbon, beside the prize table. The school Science Shield would boast her name for all future students to gape at. She would be the talk of Physics Club for months- and the rest of the school.

"But," Katie had continued, "I didn't bring it today."

Then it had been Luke's turn to gape. He tried to keep his hopes down. She must have brought something better; something incredible and impossible; that would make her computer look like a pocket calculator. He willed her to speak.

"I thought I might save my entry for another time," she sighed. "Maybe a different competition. I scribbled up another thing instead; only because it was too late to back out."

Then she had smiled dully and edged back into the crowd, with Luke staring after her and wondering how he could translate the questions on his tongue into something distinguishable.

Why?

"So, no," she had called over the buzz of a loudspeaker. "I'm not in to win it this year."

*                                                                            *

As he jolted up and down in the back seat of the car, Luke gazed in disbelief at the  shield and ribbon lying askew across the floor. He'd won.