"You got this Jeffrey", he thought to himself.
As he got ready to prepare, he let the nervous energy of presenting enter his body as he prepared to project his voice.
Ever since he was praised for presenting, Jeffrey learned that public speaking was difficult. People got nervous, stage fright, butterflies in their stomach. So whenever Jeffrey was prepared to present he psyched himself out to make his body nervous and secrete a small amount of adrenaline and nervous energy.
From his pant pocket, Jeffrey shuffled through the flash cards before pushing them back into his pocket.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be. It's showtime!", Jeffrey said in his mind.
As they all stood in front of their project stand. Jeffrey could see the teachers listening to the presentations.
Some kids were nervous, they stuttered, they made mistakes and quite frankly some of them just sucked. However this was rehearsal, they practiced failing here so that it'd be better when they actually had to compete.
"You guys ready", Dresden asked the group. Preston and Samantha nodded their heads.
Jeffrey was a little stressed trying to remember his lines.
"You'll be fine", Samantha told Jeffrey.
"Just calm down Jeffrey", Preston placed his arms on Jeffrey's shoulders.
Seeing that his nervous / excited state was impacting his friends Jeffrey faked a smile. Then let out a deep breath to reassure them.
"I'm ok, we've practiced all week for this", Jeffrey said out loud.
Samantha and Dresden rolled their eyes. It took some time, but near 10:00PM Preston had declared an emergency meeting for them to practice together.
Last night at Preston's house, it was a disaster trying to present to the parents. Samantha's Dad, Dresden's grandmother, Preston's entire family and Jeffrey's two sisters were judging them.
"Speak up louder Jeffrey", Dresden grandmother was quite blunt.
"What are you two doing back there?", Samantha's Dad asked Dresden and Samantha.
Preston was probably the most prepared, because he actually somehow found the time to practice in between his violin practice and math competition preparation. Sometimes Jeffrey thought Preston was from another planet, like an alien or a robot or something.
No kid could ever sleep as early as him and get nearly as much work done as he does in a day. Jeffrey looked at Preston's schedule, 5:00AM wake up, 10:00PM bed time and a full school day in-between. Insane!
In the background one of the kid's boombox turned on for some sort of vibration and paint experiment.
♪♫♪♪♫♪
So sorry Jack, but better luck next time
She's stupid pretty
He's pretty stupid
Lonely loser
Chewing a toothpick
Lost in the dark...
By this time, the judging panel / committee had arrived. Made up of Mr. Devich the Vice Principle, Mrs. Devira the Orchestra teacher, Mr. Musali a bus driver, Mrs. Peabody the P.E teacher, and Mr. John the Janitor.
"Alright, The Slime Factory project project #14. Are you guys ready?", Mr. Devich asked.
Mr. John gave their group a wink. Mr. John took good care of them during lunch and Dresden and Jeffrey made sure that kids kept the lunch are clean for Mr. John.
The rest of the teachers smiled and prepared to listen to what they had to say.
Jeffrey began, "Hello everyone and welcome to our science project involving non-Newtonian fluid and it's interesting property of neither being a solid nor a liquid"
Preston shining a light at some gold fleck art slime started to stretch and squeeze their presentation.
Samantha then spoke up, "We've been working on not only creating a project to collect data"
Dresden used a laser pointer and showed them some of the graph, preparing the presentation.
continuing Samantha said, "Our group has developed our own system to promote our results in an engaging way."
Samantha showed them the array of slime jars all gathered together.
Dresden spoke up, "So far we've talked with kids from elementary to high school getting them interested in Oobleck and slime"
The judges started to take notes and discuss some of their thoughts.
*whisper* *hmm* *yeah*
Preston coughed loudly to get their attention
"Ahem, We've taught kids from all ages on how to make their own. So that instead of our project just being based on our results we actually made a difference in our community", Preston brought up.
Their group discussed a few of the finer details, but it was a short presentation and showing their interest the judges started to ask questions.
"Nice job you guys!", Mrs. Peabody began, "So whose idea was it to decide to do a project on slime?"
The whole group stared at Jeffrey. Jeffrey seeing as his group members were all staring at him, shrugs in arms and said, "I did."
The teachers and staff all laughed at their group. "Well you've guys have done an amazing job", Mr. Devich praised.
"What's something important that all of you have learned"
Jeffrey gave a scientific answer, "There are a lot of factors that can impact materials such as temperature and pressure so if you aren't careful things explode!"
Samantha also spoke up saying, "Doing science and then telling others about what you've done are two very different things"
Mrs. Devira smiled, "It certainly is she agreed. Being able to play the violin and actually having to teach is are two seperate things entirely." The russian orchestra teacher stared at Preston as she said that.
For reasons unknown to the group besides her and Preston. Preston squirmed a little at her comment.
Mr. John closed up saying, "We've got more projects to visit. But you guys did an amazing job!"
"Thanks Mr. John and Thanks Judges for listening to us speak", the science project group said.
At the end, they handed over a few jars of slime with a green ribbon on top.
The slime factory group members collectively relaxed. It was another milestone accomplished. They all smiled at one another thinking very different things.
At this moment Dresden was thinking, "I wonder how well our advertisement will reach now that some of the faculty are interested in our slime project"
Samantha thought, "I hope our actual project presentation goes as smoothly as this one did"
Jeffrey and Preston were both thinking the same thing, "What are we going to be eating at Jeffrey's house tonight."
Meanwhile, the next group were making a video. With an agrippa head, a fake golden chestplate, and some leather straps, they were making a science history rap about magnetism.
With a tinfoil sword a crowd of kids had gathered to watch. Their group was no exception.
"Oh it's all too easy. Magnetism is all around us", the Presenter said.
Looking at the teachers clipboard, he could see the teachers checking boxes and writing down comments for areas to improve on. For their group, their afternoon was pretty much over and next was a celebration at Jeffrey's house!