After the presentation, Jeffrey, Dresden and Preston started to pack up.
Samantha was talking to some of her friends and talked with some other science projects. All in all an eventful day at school.
a bunch of excited kids completing their rehearsal's, they all started walking to the pick up area.
"Nice job Samantha", Dresden praised her skills with talking to people.
"You did an amazing job as well Dresden", Preston talked about his sense of professionalism and use of a laser pointer.
"What about me?", Jeffrey asked his friends. He then became really embarrassed about it in his own head.
He was really self conscious and shy and his initial confidence left him.
Dresden smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Samantha laughed at their interaction. They all were waiting for their pick up in a good mood.
Off in the distance, cars started pulling up one after another. Hyundai's SUVs, Ford trucks, Saturn sedans. Projects were stuffed into the truck and kids got into their car.
"Over there", Preston said spotting the car.
A silver Honda Odyssey van pulled up.
"That's out ride boys", Samantha said taking the middle window seat. The boys piled in with Dresden being the brave one to sit in the front. (He called shotgun by the way)
Dresden started talking to Jeffrey's Dad, the driver.
"How are you doing Mr. Zhang", he asked.
"I'll doing fine how are you kids...", Mr. Zhang asked.
Meanwhile Jeffrey, Preston and Samantha were busy with their own devices. Preston and Samantha were busy preparing for another second round of the AMC math competition.
Jeffrey took the time to stare out the window. Passing by a water fountain a sudden thought came to mind.
"a small fish, huh? crouching tigers, hidden dragons. In this giant ocean, in a small pool I wonder. Am I a tiny fish swimming up stream? Or have I hopped into a larger pond"
Jeffrey stared absentmindedly as his friends rode in the car with him.
Soon they arrived at his house. A smaller two story building, it was homely with a few white posts on the front porch.
The project group all got out of the car and started moving the poster board and their samples into the house.
Raine and Saoirse were doing their after school activities, swimming and soccer club. Out on the front porch was a slip and slide.
His dad went to clean up some of the house. Nearby a cutting board with pineapple, milk, and fruit were prepared. Next to the blender were two mugs of pina colada with a sprig of mint on top.
"So guys video games?", Jeffrey asked.
"Sure", Preston responded.
Dresden and Samantha followed along. Unfortunately Jeffrey's family only had two controllers for the Wi, so they took turns swapping who played and watching on the side. Although later when Jeffrey's family did get four controllers, the screen would often be too small.
It was fun playing Koopa Racers with friends.
"I'm in first", Samantha declared.
three seconds later, Dresden launched an attack.
"Not anymore", he said with a cheeky smile.
"Keep going", Jeffrey and Preston encouraged watching as the tense race finished.
Samantha in 6th, Dresden in 5th.
Samantha was busy attacking Dresden IRL. Although they did hand over the controllers back to Preston and Jeffrey.
In front of them on the large ottoman was a tray with four pouches of capri-suns with yellow straws. A plate of fruit and snacks prepared.
While they played, the front door opened and Raine and Saoirse came back from practice. Jeffrey's mom picked them up and said hi to the group.
"So what's for dinner", Preston asked. While he said that he used his elbow to nudge Jeffrey.
Jeffrey tilted the controller to the right to compensate. When his character was in the air, he gave Preston a light shove.
"I dunno, what do you guys want? Takeout? It's probably Chinese or spaghetti or something", Jeffrey threw out.
Dresden and Samantha watched on the couch. They were playing with a puzzle ball that Raine had gotten last Christmas.
After playing around for a time, they started to talk about their project.
"Time to wrap things up, huh? The end is almost in sight", Dresden brought up the topic.
Preston and Samantha smiled at Dresden's rhetoric and fatalism. He was probably the more pessimistic / realist of the group.
"Maybe a new beginning, come on. Don't you guys want to give the internet thing a shot?", Jeffrey asked.
Preston and Dresden shared a look, and shook their heads.
"Maybe next time?", Samantha asked.
They were busy as well. Preston still had violin lessons to work on, Samantha had homework she was falling behind on (in quality), and Dresden.... Well let's just say Dresden found other business opportunities and side hustles. His candy sales that he started on the side were taking off.
Seeing that the room atmosphere would cool if he kept pushing it, Jeffrey sighed. This was his first group of friends he worked together with.
Back in primary school, he had his mates and acquaintances. Aleena and Priyesh being among them, but they weren't as close as they used to be. They still saw each other and met up, but slowly everyone started drifting away taking different paths.
In the past they had the same class, so they couldn't avoid each other if they wanted to. Now, it was just passing glances or an occasional wave when they crossed paths walking to class.
Maybe it was time for Jeffrey to go at it alone, but he felt a twinge of sadness being alone again. It was easy to go from being lonely to having friends, but having to pursue his own path meant that he'd have to find new project members, instead of the ones he was familiar with.
"I see I can't convince you guys. However, at the very least let's aim for the podium for our science project", Jeffrey accepted their withdrawal from what he imagined as phase 4.
They all had their own ambitions, their own paths in life, and his dreams and aspirations were different from his friends.
Preston patted him on the back, "Hey man, it's not over yet."
Samantha added, "Yeah we still have class together idiot. We'll still see each other every day"
So began the final twilight moments of the Science group Jeffrey had started.