Chapter Fourteen: Robot? More like Ro-Not

Jasper looked like a mess.

His hair was disheveled, his eyes had dark circles under them, and not even coffee seemed to keep him conscious for more than ten minutes at a time.

But Clarke thought he deserved it.

They had two and a half weeks to design and create a robot for the Regionals competition and Jasper had blown off Monty every time he tried to approach Jasper with an idea. Now after four days of constant designing, test runs, and tweaking, the two boys were able to develop a robot that at least qualified for the competition.

Clarke was more concerned about Monty who was trying hard not to doze off in her back seat. His head would bob every few seconds and then spring back up in a jolt, his eyes becoming panicked. At one point he put his head on the window and didn't move again, not even when the road got bad and the car shuddered uncomfortably.

Monty had been the one who had really committed from the beginning and had poured almost every waking thought into how he was going to pull off creating a Regionals qualifying robot while the person who got them into the mess was out prancing around with his girlfriend. Clarke must have made at least eight Starbucks runs and a few to Tim Horton's just to help keep his morale up while he and Jasper busted their butts in the basement over the last few days to finish their entry.

Clarke glanced in her rearview mirror to peak on Monty—he still hadn't moved since she looked his way a few minutes earlier—and then looked over at Jasper riding shotgun. His mouth hung open and he clutched a paper cup in one hand. It had held coffee in it less than twenty minutes earlier, but something told Clarke that it had run empty a while ago.

"Are you nervous?" she asked.

Jasper cackled, his features becoming dark. "I'm too tired to be nervous."

Clarke shot him a warning look. "Don't get all snappy with me," her voice was hard, "it's your own fault that you didn't take it seriously from the beginning. Monty tried getting you to help him on more than one occasion and—"

"Yeah, I know," Jasper interrupted. They rode in silence for a minute. Clarke checked on Monty through the mirror again. Jasper discreetly looked over at Clarke and she pretended not to notice. "So, how was school?" he tried.

She blew out a large breath. A strand of blonde flapped in front of her face."Well, we have another project in European History and Finn tried being partners with me so that was awkward."

Jasper made a face. "You're not right?"

"Just because I'm disappointed in what he did doesn't mean that I'm not friends with him anymore."

"That's stupid, Clarke. Don't tell me that you still have feelings for that guy."

"I don't," she hissed defensively. The truth was, she wasn't sure how she felt towards Finn anymore. At first it was complete bliss and adoration and then it was pure hatred, both of which were strong enough feelings to keep her somewhat occupied. But now that the initial shock of the betrayal was gone, she couldn't bring herself to hating him. Deep down, she worried that she did still have feelings for him and that was something she didn't want to be discussing with Jasper right now.

"I don't," she repeated, this time more calmly, and then switched the radio on to drown out her thoughts as well as Jasper's words.

The ride wasn't much longer, but she was relieved that she didn't have to listen to her brother's criticism regarding her love life. The nagging annoyance did return, however, the moment she pulled into the parking lot of Mount Weather High.

If West Arke students and Trikru students were rivals, then West Arke and Trikru were sworn enemies with Mount Weather students. They were from the wealthier side of the district, so naturally they were snobby rich kids with big attitudes. Even the teachers carried themselves as superiors to those who taught at the other high schools. Just because Mount Weather was an award winning school didn't mean that they had the right to treat everyone else in the district poorly.

Clarke turned the radio down as she put the vehicle in park. "Monty?" she said in a soft tone. Jasper was already stretching and preparing to open the door. Monty started stirring in the back. "Monty? We're here," she coaxed again, this time fully turned around in the driver's seat.

Monty jerked awake, the panic returning to his eyes. "Did we miss it? I slept through it didn't I?"

"No, dude," Jasper replied. "We just got here. Competition hasn't even started yet." Monty rubbed his eye with the heel of his hand and groaned as he stretched. Jasper furrowed his eyebrows. "Do you want to get some more coffee?"

Monty chuckled hollowly. "No way. I've had quite enough over the last few days. If I have anymore, my bladder's gonna hate me and I'll probably just pee myself."

Clarke attempted a smile, though she wasn't sure how encouraging it looked. "Alright, guys. Let's go do this so we can get home and you two can sleep."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Monty yawned. Jasper nodded his affirmative.

…

The gym where the competition was being held was really impressive—at least twice the size as the gym at West Arke—and Clarke couldn't help but get the same bitter taste in her mouth as she did when pulling into the parking lot. It was like the entire premises was toxic.

Upon entering, they were ushered to a blue table where two girls were passing out name tags to people who were participating in the event. Jasper and Monty found theirs, quickly being shepherded out of sight afterwards. As a spectator, Clarke wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to do or where she was supposed to go.

She turned back to the girls at the table. One had a lean frame, short dark hair, and freckles. The other had a light skin tone, light hair, and a cheerful smile. "Excuse me?"

The light haired girl turned her radiant grin to Clarke. "Hello! My name's Keenan Mykulak. How can I assist you?"

Clarke figured that her brooding expression made her look unapproachable, especially in comparison to Keenan's excited smile. "Yeah, my brother is doing the competition—Jasper Jordan, dunno if you know him—and I don't know where I'm supposed to go?"

Keenan placed a palm on the table, leaning forward so that she could be heard easier over the noise. "They have it set up like a science fair, so you can feel free to walk around and explore the other entries. And if not, there's bleachers up top that you can rest on until you're ready to leave. This particular event isn't the most exciting one in the competition since the judges are just going to qualify the ones they deem the most promising."

Clarke nodded. "How do you tell if an entry is advancing to the next round?"

"There will be a silver sticker in the bottom left hand corner of their name page which will be at their booth."

"Cool. Thanks." Clarke grabbed a pamphlet advertising the competition and then proceeded to find the bleachers.

She did pass a couple of cool designs on her walk, one of which that was powered completely on the separation of hydrogen and oxygen atoms from their bonds as water. It wasn't that it wasn't interesting, but Clarke had never been overly big on the super technical, engineering side of science. She prefered her art and medical classes.

Clarke took the bleachers two at a time until she was seated at the very top where she could get a clear view of everything going on in the gym below her. She spotted Monty and Jasper, both looking more like zombies than people, in a middle row in the back right corner where they were demonstrating their design to a bald man with a powder-white mustache.

She watched them nervously for a few minutes as the older man scribbled a couple of notes on a clipboard and then walked off. Both Monty and Jasper had nervous frowns on their faces as they watched the man scurry off. Something told her that that wasn't a good sign.

The next time Clarke looked up from the pamphlet to check the time, she saw a face wandering the crowd that she hadn't expected to be there. Clarke wasn't sure what came over her, but suddenly she was stumbling down the bleachers and pushing herself through the crowd. She found Raven admiring a solar-powered windmill that can flip pancakes.

Clarke contemplated shouting the other girl's name to get her attention. Instead she alighted beside her casually. "I didn't know you were interested in this stuff," she said.

Raven jumped, mildly startled. When she noticed it was Clarke, Raven rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the windmill. "I could say the same about you."

"I'm not. I'm here for my brother and his friend."

"Is that so?" Raven didn't look up.

Clarke crossed her arms, debating if she should just walk away; it was clear that Raven didn't want anything to do with her, but Clarke felt it was necessary that they just cleared the air right now. "You know that I didn't know, right?"

Raven stiffened so that she was as immobile as brick. "What?"

"It's the reason you're so mad at me," she replied vaguely.

Raven whirled around, eyebrows furrowed and jaw clenched. Her hands were balled into fists. "I know you guys have a 'friendship,'" she spat, "but tell me that you weren't screwing my boyfriend while I drove forty-eight hours to be here. If you can tell me that, I'll apologize for being a bitch to you and I'll treat you like the princess everyone else in this fucking town seems too."

Clarke's face softened for a moment, and then her lips tightened into a thin line. "I'm not in charge of the school like you seem to think I—"

"Damn it, Clarke!" Raven exclaimed hoarsely. Tears burned in the corner of her eyes. Clarke felt her heart clench and in an instant she wished she hadn't seen Raven in the crowd. "Just tell me the truth, damn it! Did you screw around with Finn while I was gone?"

Clarke refused to break eye-contact. "I wish I could tell you that it wasn't true," she answered, her voice cracking, "but I didn't even know you existed!"

Raven inhaled sharply. Her hands shot to her head and began rubbing her temples as a few angry tears rolled down her cheek. "That doesn't make it okay," she snarled suddenly, directing her eyes up at Clarke.

In that instant, Clarke could feel the hate and anger being directed at her from Raven. She almost felt like she could explode, but she reminded herself that she had been played right alongside Raven. "No," Clarke said, her voice stronger than it had been, "it doesn't."

Raven uttered a growl of malice, and then turned on her heel. Her dark ponytail disappeared in the crowd before Clarke could blink.

Time had seemed to stop while she was confronting Raven, and now Clarke found herself standing near the windmill with no recollection of how much time had passed. She supposed she should make an attempt to find Jasper and Monty since she hadn't seen them in a little over an hour.

However, as soon as she stepped up toward the bleachers, she felt herself being slammed into from the side by two large forces that could only have been her brother and Monty. Secretly, Clarke was relieved she didn't have to risk running into Raven in an attempt to find them.

"Hey, guys," Clarke righted herself on her feet. She combed her fingers through her hair, hoping to appear less rattled than she felt. "How'd it go?"

Jasper broke out into a huge smile. "We advanced!"

"Really!?" Clarke felt her nerves rush away and replaced with genuine pride.

Monty showed her the silver sticker on the bottom corner of their applicant form. "Isn't it great! This old guy—"

"Let me guess," she interrupted, "with a white mustache?"

"Yeah." Jasper raised an eyebrow. "How'd you know?"

"I saw him evaluating you guys from the bleachers. Anyway, continue."

Monty related how the old judge thought that the design was impressive, though in need of some tweaking to make it more power efficient. Jasper jumped in with the details, clarifying how the judge had left in a hurry at first because he was out of stickers and wanted to get one before they were all gone, automatically eliminating them.

"We were so nervous at first," Jasper admitted. "He seemed so interested and then he just took off."

Monty smiled, cutting off a yawn. "Imagine our surprise when he came back telling us we qualified for Semi-Finals!"

Clarke smiled, slinging an arm around each of their shoulders. "Well, I'm proud of you two. How about we head home and I'll make popcorn? We have another busy day tomorrow with Homecoming."

She led them out of the gym and past the girls working the sign-in table, but Clarke couldn't help but notice that Jasper took an odd interest in the short haired girl from earlier.

...

i know i said Homecoming was next, but like an idiot i totally forgot I wrote the robotics competition as being the night before. but next one in homecoming. I promise.

4/28/16