"Five minutes to go. Chop Chop. You chuckleheads don't want to stay back just because you failed an easy test, do you?" Said the teacher as he walked up and down the aisles to check for cheaters.
Lincoln was trying to concentrate on the test, which was on the topic 'The Louisiana Purchase'. However, it was far from 'easy' as the teacher proclaimed.
"'You call this 'easy'? Tell that to the Marines!" He thought.
"But wait, wasn't he part of the Marines? Or was it the Army...?" His inner voice questioned.
Shaking the distractions out of his head, he tried his best to answer what he could. When he was finished, he gave the paper to Mr. Bolhofner, and sat back down on his seat. He didn't know what to expect on the quiz, but he didn't care at the moment. He just wanted some sleep. He folded his arms and rested his head, but just as his eyes began to close, the deep gruff voice spoke once again, making him jerk his head upwards.
"Alright class. I'll grade the papers during lunch, and before the day is over I'll hold the students who failed back for a two hour extra class. We will go over the lesson again and maybe something will get through their boneheads."
Lincoln mentally groaned.
"I hope that I don't get held back. I'm enough tired as it is since I only got six hours of sleep."
The next class was of Science. They finished the chapter and started another one based on weather phenomena. Apart from the metric ton of homework given, Lincoln actually liked this period. He read this chapter before, and knew what was going on, so he sat back and relaxed. The next one, Math, wasn't so bad either. It was actually fun solving problems and finding the solution. English went by like a breeze with just some reading. After that, the lunch bell rang and everyone moved out of the class with their lunch bags. Lincoln also got up and after putting some stuff in his locker, he walked to the cafeteria. He greeted his friends as he sat down to eat. He told them about the surprise test from earlier, and the consequences of failing it, to which they winced slightly.
"Dang Linc, I'm glad I'm not in your class." Liam said.
"Looks like the Hoff is off today huh?" One said.
"Isn't he always?"
"Rusty, even you know that Mr. B can be pretty cool sometimes." Lincoln tried to reassure.
"Lets see you say that after your two hour extra class..."
They group of sixth graders chatted through lunch about school life until Stella asked Lincoln and Clyde about their project.
"So Lincoln, how's your project coming along?"
"Oh its going good so far. Clyde and I have decided on solar power efficiency for the topic. We were thinking of ways to increase the efficiency of the cells, and found out that if the panels track the sun as it moves, more energy can be produced."
"That's pretty cool Linc." Liam said, amazed. "If you manage to do something like that, I'd buy them from ya."
"But isn't that a thing already? I'm pretty sure I saw it in an advertisement a few days back."
"You're not wrong Zach. It does exist, but it is really expensive. So expensive that a normal guy can't buy them if he wanted to. But that's what me and Clyde are looking to change. We are going to find a way to bring the price down, and with that, the average person can be able to afford them!"
"Pretty neat. That's next gen tech, pretty sure the aliens won't have this on their ship when they attack our town soon." He mused.
Everyone laughed at the statement, with Zach trying to assure he was serious.
"After school, we will be in the library to check some books out that are more related to the topic, and do some further research. You brought the ones that aren't as relevant to our project back, right Linc?" The boy with the glasses asked.
"Yup. I brought back 'The Types of Renewable Energy', 'Energy of the Future' and a couple more." The snow haired boy confirmed. "Don't really need them with the topic we chose."
"Okay I brought 'Wind vs Solar: Who is better?' and 'Nations Leading in the Race for Solar'. We'll return them and check out others that are more specific. Plus the library has computers, so we can research there too."
"Alright cool. I'll see you after school then Clyde."
At that time, the bell for the next class rang.
"Well... looks like lunchtime is up. Mr. Bolhofner's class is pretty far away, so I better get going. See you all later!"
Waving to his friends, he set off in his class's direction.
After Lunch, The next period was Physical Education. Lincoln's class walked to the gym to find a difficult obstacle course they needed to do for a grade in endurance.
"Who the heck puts Physical Education after Lunch?" The boy grumbled mentally while attempting to climb a giant wall made of mats. "If I knew any better, I'm sure they did that on purpose to see who doesn't hurl while doing it." Suddenly, he fell over the wall and landed on one of his classmates with a THUD, with the boy accidentally punching Lincoln in the stomach.
When he felt the punch, Lincoln knew what was going to happen. He felt the food that he had eaten earlier rise up his esophagus. He couldn't control himself, and he vomited his food right on the boy's face. The boy was shocked. After recovering from the nausea, Lincoln looked at the boy, and his eyes went wide at what he saw. He got off the boy and smiled sheepishly.
"Dude..."
"I-I'm Sorry..."
"WHAT THE ACTUAL-"
Lincoln sighed as he walked down the hall from the nurse's office to his class.
"Hey, at least you got an A in endurance..." His inner voice said.
"Yeah, If you were being chased by a guy covered in puke, I bet you would too..."
"Could this day get any worse?"
"Hey Larry! I didn't know your middle name was 'Ralph'!" A familiar voice said, with snickering and chuckling following his statement.
"You just HAD to say it, didn't you..."
"Does anyone know what his hobby is? Making pavement pizzas!
Laughter erupted from his lackeys along with a few snickers from other students.
"Alright, that's enough joking, we shouldn't go too far with our pal here." He said with absolute sincerity, shocking his gang and the students around him. Even Lincoln was taken aback at his words.
"There's a limit of teasing that we shouldn't cross. You never know what the person you mock is capable of... No hard feelings, right Lincoln?" He continued as he placed his arm around Lincoln, who got more and more confused.
"Just the other day, I learned something about Lincoln that shows he is not to be underestimated."
"What did you learn about him?" One girl asked.
"I saw him... praying..."
"Praying?"
"Yes, praying... to the PORCELAIN GOD!"
He lost his sincere tone on saying the last words, and started to laugh. Lincoln's expression turned into a scowl. He pushed Chandler's arm away, and brushed past his minions to his class, ignoring the howls of laughter coming from behind.
The day went on, with the scribbling of pencils and pens, sound of chalk on the chalkboard, and the bored groans of the class. The class was Geography, which he sucked at. There is way too much to remember in it. What feature is where and which town produces the most cotton, it's all mind boggling. The snarky comments and paper balls thrown on him weren't helping either. But soon enough, the end of the school day had come, and with it the hopes of a fun summer afternoon for the students of the class. As soon as the bell rang, and everyone quickly packed their bags and tried to dash out of the classroom. But before they could, Mr. Bolhofner blocked the doorway.
"Now before any of you try to escape, I graded the tests that you took this morning...and to say the performance was average would be an understatement..."
An uncomfortable silence overtook the class. They had forgotten all about the surprise history test and the consequences of failing it. Each of the students hoped that they didn't flunk the test. Nobody would like to stay in a boring class for two whole hours. But the next sentence said by the man shattered any hope they had mustered.
"It's horrible! All of you, back to your seats. Looks like we need to revisit the subject of the test."
Everyone shuffled back to their seats. They took out their history books while the teacher wrote 'Louisiana Purchase' on the blackboard. Lincoln rested his head on the top of his desk, the tiredness from the morning coming back to gnaw at him.
"Oh boy. Better gear up for two hours of history..."
Before he could take out his textbook, the teacher announced,
"Now even though most of you failed the test, there's no reason for me to hold back students who passed. Let's see here, Emma, James, Jordan, Lincoln, Luke, and Rachel. You can leave."
Before he knew it, Lincoln walked out of the classroom with his backpack while breathing a sigh of relief. On reaching the steps outside of school, he saw Clyde, who was waiting for him.
"Hey Lincoln, what took you so long?"
"Mr. B held back the students who failed the test this morning for a two hour class about the Louisiana Purchase. Majority of the class is held back, but me and a few others managed to pass, and get out of there." Lincoln explained.
"Oh right, you told us at Lunch. Nearly the whole class? Must've been a hard test then." He wondered.
"Not as easy as one would expect, even if Mr. B said it was. I'm lucky I got out of that ramshackle shed. I don't even now how I would survive an hour in that so called 'classroom'." He exaggerated.
At that moment, his phone rang. When he picked it up, he heard a voice asking something in another language.
"I'm sorry miss, I think you have the wrong number." He said as he ended the call.
"Who was that?"
"Dunno. She must have dialed the wrong number by mistake."
A few seconds later, his phone rang again. This time when he picked up, the voice yelled into the receiver, and Lincoln pulled the phone away from his ear.
"Excuse me, you have the-" He tried to say, but the call abruptly ended.
"She cut the call!" Lincoln said, exasperated.
The phone rang for a third time. He answered, and promptly said, "I told you, you have the wrong number!" Having enough, he hung up, and switched his phone to silent.
"I told her that she got the wrong number, what part of that does she not understand?"
"Dude. She didn't even know English. Of course she wouldn't understand."
"..."
"Bravo Lincoln. Yelling at a random stranger in English when they don't know the language." The voice rebuked.
"What was I supposed to do, speak to her in Afrikaans? I didn't even know what language she was speaking!" He argued back.
"Well, she should've double checked the number she was calling...C'mon Clyde, let's get going."
"Right behind ya." He replied.
The duo started their walk to the library, chatting about the latest editions of comics and video games.
"So did you hear about the new DLC for Muscle Fish? You know, the one with the Mermaid Scientist trying to turn the ocean into fish stew?"
"Yeah I heard about it. Can't wait to try it out, but to be honest if she turned the whole ocean into a stew, wouldn't she be included in it too? How would she even escape?"
"Probably on a rocket to Europa or whatever to live in so called 'peace'. Seriously they need to get more logical with these games..." He thought.
"Well it is a kids game, so I guess they didn't really put logic into it...anyway did you read the latest Ace Savvy comic?"
They continued to talk about the latest issue until they reached the building. On entering, they rummaged their bags for the borrowed books, and greeted the librarian, who was happy to see them.
"Good afternoon, Librarian Wetta!" They both said in unison.
"Good afternoon boys, how are you doing?"
We read some of these books, and would like to return them. We narrowed down the topic from renewable energy to solar efficiency." Lincoln said
"I see, so do you two want to check other books out?"
"Yup. And do some further research on it. The peace and quiet really makes a good work environment."
"Indeed it does. I'll be here if you need me." She said with a smile.
They returned the books, and then moved to the science section. The two boys looked on the shelves for books that gave better and more specific details about the working of solar panels. After finding a few, they placed them next to two computers, and began to research independently on the working of solar panels. They scrolled through various websites, each giving the details of how the cell worked. Although the research part was interesting, the equations and concepts were too complex for their young brains, and they weren't really understanding what was written.
"Man... Clyde, anything you see here make sense?"
Clyde tilted to look at his friend's computer, on which was displayed the equation to calculate solar cell efficiency.
"Hmm...let's see here..." He contemplated. He thought deeply about what was written, trying to link it with his knowledge.
"Yeah I got nothing. I haven't seen that equation, or those letters anywhere."
Lincoln sighed, and slumped in his seat.
"Well we got to understand what it means. I know some of the basic principles and how efficiency works, but I don't quite get the calculation shown here. If we can't get what they're trying to say, we can't do the project."
"We could read the prerequisites of... whatever this is, to comprehend the subject more easily." Clyde suggested.
"Yeah, but the science involved in that is probably like 5 years above our grade." The Loud pondered. "So for this project, we would have to read 5 textbooks of science just to understand it."
"Don't forget about math. You need to learn algebra, some differential and integral calculus... and perhaps some trigonometry as well to really understand the topics." A familiar voice stated.
The two boys turned around to find the teen that Lincoln had met in the park standing before them. Lincoln said hello, and introduced Clyde to him. The two boys then explained the project and what they were researching about, and the current dilemma they were facing. Thinking for a bit, the teen responded with his opinion.
"I see... So you two wish to make a solar panel that follows the sun's path across the sky, which already exists, cheaper?"
"In short, yeah."
"Well it's not a bad idea, I mean it can be a plus point against rival solar companies if it's not too expensive...but it's not really a 'breakthrough' in the solar industry to be honest. The solar panels on the roof provide ample energy for household use. Sure, the tracking thing makes the panel more efficient, but households really don't need that much extra energy. It's better for a power company who owns solar parks, and is a supplier of power."
Even though Jack didn't even know all the details of the project, he carried a solid argument.
"And assuming you are going blindfolded, in the sense you do not know much about the fundamentals... you would need to read research papers, figure out why tracking panels are expensive, find the solution, try experiments which would probably involve programming and other knowledge you would need to learn, make a prototype, and finish all the writing and theory part. You would also need to check if you are violating any patents. That is, you have to make sure your idea isn't already implemented and in use. Apart from all that you would need a lot of capital and time, and given that the fair is in 24 days... Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?"
With every word they heard, the boys started to feel that they didn't really think the whole idea through.
"You're right, this idea is way too ambitious. There's too much to do in such less time. Looks like it's back to the drawing board for us." Lincoln sighed.
"Look, nothing is 'too ambitious'. Like I said before, it's not a bad idea, but since you have a deadline for your project, it's not going to be that easy. It would be better for both of you to do an easier project. When you'll see what the other participants are doing, and what the winners of the fair did, you'll have a better idea what to do next year. For now, just stick to simple."
"I guess that makes sense... The project that me and Clyde are trying to do is too complex."
"Don't fret that your project is complicated. It's complexity what makes the world around us interesting. But at your level, it would be better if you would just do something that wouldn't have so many factors to take in, and work to be done." The older boy looked at his watch. "I'm going to check some books out for my project. See you both around." With that, he walked to another section in the Library, leaving the two friends alone.
"So what now Linc?"
"I dunno Clyde...Maybe this isn't the type of thing for Clincoln McLoud. The guys at the fair would probably asemble cool displays and experiments, while we would make a half-baked info board with a lame prototype on display. There is no way we could research, make a prototype, and make a breakthrough in three weeks. There's not a lot of time. Besides, we are only twelve years old, and in sixth grade. We can't do high level projects.
" Well, Lisa's fi-"
"You and me both know why you can't use that example. I'm not smart, I'm just average."
"Don't try and lie to me Linc. I know that you are smarter than you let on."
"Since when? I'm no Lisa, I can't make robots and gadgets. I can barely even understand what she says."
Clyde sighs. "You can't keep things from me Lincoln. I know you read books on engineering and science. I bet you could even understand what they teach in eighth grade. Heck, you could get into high school if you wanted."
"Clyde..."
"Apart from that, the notes that you made the other day have convinced me fully about your knowledge.
"You read them?!" Lincoln was baffled.
"Sorry. When you forgot it at the lunch table that day, I snuck a quick peek at it before giving it back to you."
"So much for privacy." "Still...what do some notes have to do with anything?"
"With that level of understanding of chemistry and physics, you could do a project on how ion thrusters work!"
"There's is a difference between knowing about charged atoms and electromagnetism and doing a full blown college level project on plasma physics Clyde. Just because I jotted some jargon in a spare notebook doesn't mean I'm a genius. I wouldn't even know what they really mean anyway."
"The fact that you used those terms correctly proves otherwise." The teen from earlier was leaning on a nearby bookcase, with a smug smile on his face.
"Weren't you going to check out some books?" Said Lincoln, now a bit agitated.
"I got them right here..." He showed them a couple of books, and stood up straight. "I was just about to show myself out, but now it seems a revelation has come to light. Looks like I underestimated your intelligence Lincoln."
He sat down on a nearby chair, and crossed his legs.
"You see, I was under the impression you two are going into science blindfolded. Like a person who has recently taking a liking to science and so want to participate in the science fair. But, it appears that you have been into science for a while now. Making notes on atoms and electromagnetism? Reading books on advanced engineering? Those type of things are not easily understood. In that case, you can understand what the equations are trying to say. The symbols in those equations are either constants, quantities whose value is given or can be calculated, or quantities derived from quantities whose value is given or can be calculated. Get it?"
He squinted at him, trying to understand what he was trying to say.
"Of course he doesn't get it, even this half of your brain is trying to comprehend what you just said."
"What I mean to say is the letters are either fixed numbers, numbers that you know about, and numbers that you can calculate from the given numbers..."
"I kinda get it...but not quite..." Clyde remarked.
"OK OK. So Let's take this equation. It stands for an ideal or perfect gas."
"So by gas, you mean like gasoline or-"
"Ok now you're just being ignorant."
Lincoln stifled a laugh. "Sorry sorry."
"So as I was saying..."
Jack briefly explained how the ideal gas equation would be used, and how some of the variables in the equation were just values. The duo had a good idea on how variables worked, and with some clarifications, they were able to understand the usefulness of the equation, and how it wasn't as complex as it looked.
"So you see? It's not all that difficult to understand."
"Wow. I never knew that equations were that easy, and how useful it can be." said the McBride.
"Yeah. Looking at them now, all the equations we've come across aren't that hard. They're just relations between quantities and some math in between."
"Correct. So I feel like you two know about your topic better than newcomers?
"I mean, We've got some of the main fundamentals down, but some equations and advanced concepts are a bit out of our league."
"If you got the main fundamentals down, that's great! Sure, you would need to get a grasp of the math involved, but there's nothing that you can't learn online. As for the huge amount of stuff to be done, one way you can get around the vast hours of work is getting more people involved. That way work can be assigned to different people, with each person specializing in different things. It makes things way easier, since one person doesn't have to do all the work. Another thing you can do is try and discover something unknown in the field, like discovery of another factor that affects efficiency. "
"So it looks like we can accomplish this project after all Lincoln!"
"We may, but I'm not as interested in it as before..." The boy responded.
"What? Why?" Clyde asked, flummoxed.
"It's just not as interesting as I thought it would be. The technology already exists. That's not really a good project if you think about it. I want to create something new and interesting, not just learn about some already existing technology and try and make it cheaper."
"I see what you mean. You want to be a discoverer or inventor, not a improver. Right?"
"Yeah."
While they were having their conversation, Jack was in deep thought, thinking about the two boys.
"Should I ask them? I don't think I can do it alone, spreading the film would make it much easier. They are smart enough to understand fundamental concepts, and if one of them knows about atoms and electromagnetism in sixth grade, it means that they would be able to understand what is going on. They could also offer opinions on it, and might be able to spot and correct errors that have been overlooked by me. But then again, this is their first project for a fair, they probably don't have too much knowledge on how to do projects and experiments like these..."
"Is it worth the risk? Should I?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"OK, I have made up my mind."
He stood up from the chair, and faced the juveniles.
"Alright, I got a question for you two..."
"..."
"Well, it's more of an offer."
Hey everyone, Yanwiz here. First off, I'm sorry I didn't update this story sooner. I was busy making the cover (Yes, It's made by me.) for this story. That and I'm not good with finding synonymous words for redundant ones.
So, Lincoln managed to survive a surprise test, do an obstacle course on a full stomach, escape from a boy covered in barf, and endure mockery. So a pretty normal day for him. He also realized that projects aren't a cakewalk, and should take the deadline in consideration before embarking on an ambitious one. But it looks like his new friend Jack has an offer for him and Clyde. Wonder what it could be...
However, our white-haired protagonist has forgotten to tell his sisters that he would be at the Library after school, and has unknowingly kept his phone on silent. Looks like something interesting is going to happen soon, and let me give you a hint, it'll NOT be pretty.
Responding to Reviews:
Ink-Dub - Yeah, I see what you mean. The original backstory was actually supposed to be just a paragraph , but it turned out to be nearly 1k words long. But it's not really affecting anything, so it's kinda irrelevant. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll keep that in mind for future writing. For now, I'll try and see if I can use it in future chapters as an influential event or something.
Thanks for reading, and tune in to another chapter soon!