(Ash)

We began working straight away. I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and we brainstormed all lesson.

"We should build a car and a racetrack" Cilan thought after a long thirty minutes of terrible ideas. Volcanoes or robots wasn't going to cut it.

"How could we do that?" Drew had his head on the table, half asleep. His brain was dead.

"Well, we could make the car battery powered and use friction from the track to get it to move around" Cilan put his hand to his chin and then snapped his fingers as if a light bulb had popped up above his head "Or, we could use a magnet in the track to keep the car on the track. Obviously it wouldn't matter if it went on or off after the fair because we won't exactly use it"

"When will we find the time to build it?" I asked, just as brain dead as Drew. I lifted my head up and stretched.

"Well, the science fair isn't until after spring break so we have around a month and a half before it needs to be ready. We can do it by then" Cilan spoke with profound confidence.

"Ok, lets do it. I am just glad we agreed on something" Drew rubbed his hands together excitedly "So what shall we do first?"

"Just because everything is available around us doesn't mean we rush in. We will need some serious tools and electricals to make this. The only thing we need from school is infact the electricals. We will buy the rest online. Yes... for now we need to make a plan and a schedule. If we don't know what to do and when it will go wrong. I'll do some research and plan everything, you guys get the electrical equipment and don't lose it"

"Cilan?" I asked while he took a breather.

"Ash?"

"I'm glad you're on our team right now" I replied with a smile. Drew nodded.

"Well there is no I in team and I am glad we can do this together"

We decided to do nothing for this last five minutes. The bell rang shortly after and many groups left with bags full of materials. We walked out with a few bits and a piece of paper.

"How come you guys didn't get anything?" Serena asked as she caught up and grabbed my hand.

"We don't need any junk" I replied as casually as possible.

"Why does it sound like you're hiding something?" Dawn said from behind us.

I didn't turn around but I shrugged "I don't hear anything. Maybe it's just you"

"Lets not get too competitive now" May said to us all to calm down.

"We need some revenge from the workshop" Drew almost snapped back. I could feel the heat already.

"What? Because you know we will win again and get a better grade?" Iris stood next to Dawn, who agreed with her words.

Drew's face was scrunched up with anger "You wish you could. Just wait until the day! Come on guys" Drew turned and stomped off. Cilan hesitated and then followed.

"Yeah, come on girls!" Dawn done the same but headed in the opposite direction, May and Iris following.

Serena and I stood in silence for a moment. I slipped my hand out of her grip.

"Guess I'll see you later. Bunch of kids, huh?" I smiled and Serena giggled.

"They sure are. Make sure to look after your lot" Serena leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.

We hugged for a moment and I put my head on her shoulder "The same to you. Love you"

"I love you too, Ash" Serena waved and headed off. I decided to do the same and turned around, rushing off after Drew and Cilan.

----

"There's no need to be so competitive" Cilan was speaking to Drew as I came round the corner. Drew was impatiently pacing back and forth.

"She started it!" He moaned in reply.

"You sound like a little kid. Grow up, Drew. We have a project to complete that could potentially mess up our grades. It's not about beating the girls we need to do the best we can to not fail" I stared seriously at Drew, who frowned a little.

"Hmph... I know" He finally said "I just hate when Dawn gets so boastful and stuff. I don't know how Kenny handles it"

"Why don't you ask him?" Cilan nodded over Drew's shoulder. Drew and I turned to see Kenny, Gary and Calem.

"Ask him what?" Kenny took a seat and looked over to Drew.

"Nothing really. Just wondering how you handle Dawn's attitude" Drew shrugged, suddenly acting as casual as possible.

"What attitude? As far as I know she doesn't have any attitude. Maybe it's you" Kenny replied defensively.

"She is very competitive, that's for sure" Cilan added.

"That I can agree with" Kenny nodded, scratching his hairy chin. Someone needed a shave.

"Well don't count us out. We will be the ones getting A*'s" Gary began. Sometimes I never understood how big his ego was.

"Lets not start being all competitive Mr. Ego. We had enough of that for five minutes" Drew sounded annoyed and impatient.

"Right, sorry" Gary smirked. I could tell he was thinking how much better his group was then ours.

"We better get going, the project won't finish itself!" Calem spoke up for the first time today. He began walking past us.

Gary looked at Kenny, who in turn looked at Gary. They nodded confidently to eachother and headed off.

"We better head to our study lesson before the teacher scolds us" Cilan sounded worried so we headed off right away.

-----

Upon entering the room, I could see clearly that everyone was working hard on their science projects. It was a study lesson, meaning we was free to do any homework or exam preparation.

Drew, Calem and I took a table in the corner and relaxed in our chairs. Our plan was to do no work on the project until saturday. We had everything but the equipment so we couldn't exactly work anyway. Cilan surely was the brains of our group. Without him we couldn't pull off anything in the science fair and we would fail miserably.

Serena came over and took a seat beside me. I instinctively held her hand and she smiled. Ioved the warm feeling her hand gave me.

"Seriously, why aren't you guys working?" She seemed concerned about our current performanced.

"It's nice that you're worried, but we have everything sorted out" Drew folded his arms. He had a new look of confidence now, a change from the angry face he had around ten minutes ago.

"Right. But you got no equipment and haven't done anything" Serena wasn't convinced and I could see she thought we wasn't taking things seriously.

"We are doing everything outside of school" Cilan replied. I let him carry on "We don't want others knowing of our project nor do we need school equipment"

"Fair enough. What are you making?" She seemed intrigued about our secretive work.

"Erm" I scratched the back of my head "He kinda just said it's secret"

"Oh, silly me" Serena sounded like she was trying to put on some sort of act. She gave me a wink and smiled "I am sure you'll tell me, right Ash?"

I became a little nervous and let out a weak laugh "I can't Serena"

"Oh. That's a shame" She stood up and turned "See you guys later"

"She came over for a nice conversation and it suddenly turned into some sort of act" Cilan noticed it too. I nodded.

"Well, it was probably Dawn running out of idea's and being all competitive again" Drew gave a look at Dawn, who stuck her tongue out.

Iaughing, I put my arm on Drew's shoulder "You guys are such kids. Guess it's babysitting for me this weekend"

Drew said nothing, but he punched my arm and looked away. I just laughed in reply, he was definitely acting his shoe size. I turned to Cilan who was shaking his head.

"I think we know who will need to do the babysitting" He folded his arms as if to say 'me' I looked at Drew, who looked ready to dig Cilan in the arm as well. He was saved by the sound of high heels clattering along the floor.

"Excuse me boys" Our teacher said behind us "Everyone is working hard and you boys are distracting everyone. If I hear one more word you will spend lunch with me and do some real work" She turned away and walked off.

"I wonder what real work is" Drew said in annoyance under his breath. Our teacher turned for a moment.

"Did someone want to say something?" She asked. My eyes darted to Drew and they narrowed.

"No, Miss" I replied as calmly as possible. I wasn't giving up my lunch to one of the worst teachers in this school.

"Good" She replied, walking to her seat. I swear she was just looking to get the last word in.

We spent the rest of study in absolute silence, flicking through pages of random textbooks that had been scattered throughout the room. Every few minutes I looked up to the clock, feeling as if time was going in slow motion. I was ready for a little break but lunch wasn't for another two hours. I had to survive math first.

We really had our work cut out for us this semester and next. It was only the beginning.