Chapter 104: Chapter 104: Decathlon (2)

    [General POV]

    "In the topic of optics, What is the shortest light pulse ever produced?"

    "130 attoseconds." Edward pressed the buzzer and answered in a split second after the answer was thrown out, making the Dryden team groan in frustration.

    "That is correct!" The old moderator announced with a happy face, but with no emotional changes in his voice.

    "What is the lightest element on earth, with no stable isotopes?" The moderator asked the next question.

    "Technetium." Edward answered again with incredible speed.

    "And that is correct!" The moderator announced again.

    The score was now 130 to 30, with the Franklin Middle School team holding a tight leash on the lead, putting the Dryden Academy team into despair.

    "Formal protest, only one person is answering the question!" The Dryden Academy team leader stood up and accused Edward after he failed to answer 9 straight questions, courtesy of Edward''s incredible question solving speed.

    "Motion Denied." The moderator said before any of the panel could discuss the request.

    "He must be cheating! He''s a game developer. He must''ve hacked the question maker''s laptop and read all of the answers beforehand!" Dryden panel members accused Edward without evidence.

    "Umm...That''s impossible." Dr Leonard Hosfstader spoke on the microphone to defend Edward. The accused boy just looked coldly at the panel member with a smug undertone in his expression.

    "What do you know?" Dryden Academy panel members tried to dismiss Leonard''s defense.

    "I know because Dr Jacob Turnstein, the moderator, and also the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1992, is standing on stage. He''s also the one who made the questions, and he had never once used a laptop in his life." Leonard explained much to the panel member''s embarrassment.

    After some laughter, Dryden''s team leader shouted at the Asian kid who was working on the snitch, "WE NEED THAT TO WIN! THAT IS WORTH 300 points! How much longer are you going to work on it!"

    The leader kept nagging and shouting at the asian kid in urgency, causing him to snap.

    "aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" The asian kik exploded in anger, threw off his entire body over the table and ran to the whiteboard containing the question before he tried to destroy it.

    "YOU RUINED MY LIFE!!!" He shouted to the innocent whiteboard as he hit his head on the board, destroying parts of it.

    "Uhh. We''re going to take a break. Everyone else, please stay calm..." Leonard said quickly to the microphone before he went to help the kid who lost his sanity from the question.

    "I told you. That question is too much for a middle school student." Howard muttered to Rajesh who nodded in agreement with him.

    "Please. I solved that equation when I was 9 years old." Sheldon added in a condescending manner. However, instead of his friends being impressed with him, they let out a groan in disgust.

    On top of the stage, Haruna whispered to Edward. "That is normal."

    "Mental breakdown is normal during a middle schooler''s competition?" Edward widened his eyes in disbelief as he saw Leonard hugging the Asian boy from behind to try and subdue him, but failing.

    "You''d be surprised." Alex muttered, adding to Edward''s shock.

    "SHELDON. HOWARD. RAJ. HELP ME!" Leonard shouted to his friend with a flushed red face as he couldn''t stop the boy alone.

    "Ohh How I wish I had popcorn to enjoy this right now." Howard muttered from his seat with no intention of going up the stage to help.

    It took 5 minutes for the Asian boy to be exchanged with another Asian boy, and those who couldn''t discern between Asian people were now wondering how the staff member managed to calm the boy down in just a short period of time.

    During the chaos, Sanjay sighed in frustration as he couldn''t find the answer for the Golden Snitch question.

    "I guess we have to give up on the snitch." Sanjay muttered. Edward clicked his tongue, and before he could say he had already solved the question, he saw Mrs Henderson signaling him.

    "Hmm?" Edward was confused, but then understood what was going on as he read the teacher''s lip. ''Don''t solve it on your own. Teach Sanjay to do it. Otherwise, the team will stop functioning.''

    Edward paused for a while as he thought about the matter. ''True. I can solve it, but it''ll break the dynamic of the team. I should do it, when Sanjay truly cannot do it.''

    "Hey Hufflepuff." Edward called the Indian boy.

    "Shut up Slytherin!" Sanjay retorted.

    "On second thought.'' Edward grimaced, but he saw Mrs Henderson egging on him with her facial expression, causing him to sigh and followed the order. "Let me take a look at your calculation."

    "Here."

    Unexpectedly for Edward, Sanjay gave him the paper without any hassle, making him a bit perplexed. Alex snorted and said, "He knows how to behave when necessary. Unlike someone else."

    "Who? Haruna?" Edward thwarted the accusation, making Haruna confused.

    Edward grabbed a pencil and showed Sanjay where he did wrong. He guided him slowly, and even told him what method he should use. He then asked, "Can you do it now?"

    "I need some time. But I think I can." Sanjay replied with his eyes lit up.

    "I''ll try to stall for it, but if you cannot do it before the last question, then I cannot do anything about it."

    "I know." Sanjay replied before putting all of his focus on solving the equation once more. But this time, Alex and Haruna joined their effort with Sanjay.

    "If we can solve it, we will be the first team in the entire Decathlon competition to actually solve a Golden Snitch question." Alex muttered to herself with excitement in her tone.

    The chaos finally subsides, and the competition resumes.

    "List out the Earth''s important Eons." The moderator asked.

    Edward pressed the buzzer first as usual, and then he replied, "Well after the big bang, the first eon Earth faced is Hadean where the land is filled with lava."

    "Erkk– WRONG!" The Dryden teacher in the panel made a wrong buzzer sound with his mouth and tried to stop Edward, but all of the Phd members there looked at him in confusion.

    "Mr Hiles. You know the rules. You shouldn''t interrupt a student when he''s answering. You''re now removed from being one of the panels." The moderator said sternly.

    Then, she faced only me before saying, "And Ed. That was...LEGENDARY! You really humiliated those guys. I got turned on-"

    Alex cupped Enid''s mouth before I could hear the rest of what she was saying and said, "Lets go. We need to vacate the stage for the next game."

    "Okay. Also Sanjay." I turned to the Indian kid who had tears in his eyes. "What?" He asked gruffly while trying to wipe his eyes.

    "Nice. Fucking. Works." I complimented in a calm tone, which made Sanjay beamed up in a smile. He then muttered, "Thanks. I also want to say something."

    "What?" I asked.

    Suddenly, he bowed to me and said, "I''m sorry I''ve been a jerk."

    I chuckled a bit and just waved it off. "Just forget about it. I never did take it to heart."

    "Liar. You hold the longest grudge among all people I know." Alex retorted.

    "Then you know I will hold your words against you for a while right?" I replied to Alex with a cheeky smile as I patted Sanjay on the shoulder. "Let''s go eat. I''m starving."

    "Me too." Haruna said.

    "Yeah. I''m famished too." Sanjay said with a smile. We shook hands with the judges and the other player who couldn''t even meet our eyes before we walked to Mrs Henderson.

    I froze as the teacher suddenly hugged me the moment we arrived at her spot. "Congratulations Edward." She said as she brushed my back 3 times.

    ''What the hell? Why does this feel so familiar?'' I thought with my hands shaking. She didn''t stay there for long and released me, only to find me frozen from her touch.

    However, she didn''t say anything and went to hug Alex, Haruna, Enid, and a short hug for Sanjay. By the time she returned, I had already recovered back to normal.

    "We won''t have any matches until after lunchtime, so for now, you guys are free to do whatever you want." Mrs Henderson said.

    I nodded and turned to Alex before asking, "Are you staying here?"

    "Yeah. I want to study the competition. Atlas is the team predicted to win the competition, so I want to see how good they are."

    The rest nodded at Alex''s word except for Enid. "Well. I''m going to explore."

    "Good. Let''s go together."

    Enid smiled and interlinked her arms with me before we went to the football field together to watch them practice. However, their practice was already over when we got there.

    "Damn." I cursed.

    "Hey Edward. Are you interested in football?" Suddenly, I heard someone speaking with a Nigerian accent coming from behind me.

    "Sam!" Enid exclaimed in excitement.

    "So. Did you fail to make the team?" I asked.

    Sam was downcast and said, "Yes. I guess I should just stick to the original football."

    In ''soccer'', he was part of the under 15 Nigerian National team before he received a scholarship to come to Dryden– a scholarship which he only accepted because he thought football carried the same meaning here in America. It was a funny situation, even for him.

    "I will return to Nigeria this weekend." He shared to me about his short experience in America, and the fact that he had no friends here. He couldn''t wait to go back home, and back to his usual practice with his team there.

    "Don''t worry. I''m sure that you''ll get another scholarship. Or maybe a contract with a football club."

    "I wish." He said self-deprecatingly.

    We talked for a while, and I even threw a ball with Sam Obisanya a few times after taking off my blazer. We played American Football, for I wanted him to at least have one good memory with this sport before he returned to his country.

    But, as I started sweating, I didn''t want to ruin my shirt, therefore I took it off.

    "Hmmm~" Enid watched the show with a slight hum, crouching at the side of the field with a smitten look on her face, as I threw the ball towards Sam, which he in turn failed to receive it.

    "You suck Sam." I shouted at him teasingly.

    "Go easy on me. This is the first time someone has actually taught me something.." Sam shouted back helplessly.

    I laughed and encouraged him before we played for another 15 minutes. I even exchanged numbers with him given that he was generally well mannered and a friendly guy.

    Enid''s face was flushed red when I got back to her, and so I asked, "You forgot to put on sunscreen?"

    "No. I''m fine." Enid said before she ran back to the venue, with heart full of excitement, and cameras full of pictures that she was going to share with Alex and Haruna.

    Then, we went to the cafeteria to get some lunch– in the VIP section. I called all members of the team together, and also Mrs Henderson instead of just having lunch with Enid much to the young girl''s dissatisfaction.

    We returned to the venue after lunch, just in time to watch the start for the match for third position, Dryden versus Gamma.

    "So. They''re going to lose again." I muttered with a smirk as I saw the points, 50 to 10, with Gamma Conventional School taking the lead.

    "They completely lost all motivation after you destroyed them, so what else can they do?" Enid muttered. I had to say, I loved keeping her around. She truly knows how to appease my ego by flattering me.

    "Huh." I exclaimed as I saw the leader of Atlas Middle school who was walking towards me.

    "Hello Edward. I''m Tara Delavinge. I love your songs." The blonde girl with a catholic schoolgirl uniform and a voluptuous body that couldn''t be hidden with her modest clothes offered her hand as she stood in front of me.

    I shook her hand while secretly comparing her with the same actress that had the same last name as her. But, the one in front of me had a nicer body than the flat chested one in my memory. "Thank you Tara."

    Then, she suddenly changed her tone, and pulled me closer before whispering to my ears, "But, I''m still going to destroy you."

    I smirked and replied, "I look forward to it."

    The result of Atlas''s win versus Gamma: 350 to 50.