I freeze and slowly turn to face the owner of the voice. I'm glad to find out that it's just Raven, Chris' friend. At least I can just come up with a lie to dismiss her. She has such a masculine voice, I almost thought it was Nathan."I was just looking for something in my locker," I say, turning back to the locker and hoping she would leave so I can continue my search."That's not your locker, your locker is close to the stairs," she points out, eyeing me suspiciously."You're right. A friend of mine asked me to help her get something from her locker," I continue to lie, feeling stupid already.Raven walks closer to me and I wonder what she wants now. "I haven't been seeing you around ever since Chris' party," she says.I can never forget the moment she asked Chris to make out with Wyndy all because of a stupid dare. Such a bully."Well, I haven't been seeing you around either, thought you transferred schools."She laughs and traces her fingers on my arm flirtatiously. "You're so fun

Things have been pretty quiet since the failed plan at Caleb's house and we have been going about our lives as usual. Austin has been invested in her preparations for her upcoming pagaent while Travis and I have taken the time to bond even more as I took him on mini tours round the city and tutored him on the subjects he wasn't familiar with.Austin and Travis had encouraged me to use any one of my other cool inventions to compete in the contest and Austin even suggested using the closet I built her as it would serve as a huge innovation for the fashion industry. I refused to take their advice because I'm not going to give up looking for my invention until the day of the contest, then maybe I can take their advice. But for now, I have to keep searching, and making my move on a certain ginger haired beauty whom I have in sight."Wyndy," I call gently, approaching her as she brushed her luscious hair while looking into the mirror she attached to her locker. She glances at me and offers

Wyndy and I arrive at the lab and find the others waiting for us."What are you guys waiting for?" I ask them."The lock has been changed so I can't even open it," Alasdair replies."Good thing Avan asked me to bring his laptop," Travis says as he gets my laptop from the backseat of Chris' car.I quickly hack into the security system and the light on the lock turns from red to green, allowing us access into the lab. We hurry inside and switch on the lights, and mine and Alasdair's inventions are just sitting there. Carly was really smart to bring these inventions here, we wouldn't have thought they were here.Travis and I carry my invention and put it in the trunk of dad's car, while Chris and Alasdair put his invention in the trunk of Chris' car. Austin joins us in dad's car as we lock up the lab and head home."So this is the end of our date," Wyndy says as I drop her off at home."I'm sorry it had to end this way," I say.She chuckles. "You don't have to be sorry, it was fun, and w

It is the day of the contest and we are on our way to the International Association of Inventors' headquarters while mom utters some words of encouragement to me– something she's been doing for the past fifteen minutes. It's quite a long drive, and I pray it comes to an end soon so I don't have to hear the same statements over and over."Avan, are you there?" Mom asks when she notices that I am aloof. I hum a response and she continues. I sigh. Austin and Travis snigger.We finally arrive at the headquarters and I heave a sigh of relief as I am the first to alight the car. The HQ is a large splendid building with intricate architecture and a large underground parking lot. It looks a lot like those spy agency buildings in movies– without the spies, of course.Two men and a woman dressed in black uniform approach us and after welcoming us, help me take my invention out of dad's car. They ask for my name and school and fix a tag on the invention then guide us to the elevator. I don't hav

Winning the Global Young Inventors Contest is a dream come true and I still can't believe it. I had been celebrated on the global stage and had several interviews. I had to even reschedule some of them cause it was getting dark and we had to go home.Over the past few days, my phone has been blowing up with calls, messages and emails from friends, schoolmates, teachers, extended family, and even from people I do not know. Several companies have reached out to me for work and projects and it was getting difficult to keep up, thanks to Travis who helped me keep tabs. Many of our neighbors even came to my house to congratulate me. It's been a busy week."Travis! What a pleasant surprise!" Ariel screams as she enters our house, holding a colorful card and a pizza box."What are you doing here, Ariel?" I ask her, then mouth a 'why did you let her in?' to Austin who mouths back a 'she just barged in after I opened the door'."I came here to congratulate you on winning that huge contest you'