Despite the slow beginning of the week, Emi's and I's pace gradually increased as the days passed in every aspect. Using our own stuff at school definitely helped and the news spreading around the school prevented any misunderstandings from happening.
Emi and I asked for help from each other with the homework or even did it together in the dining room or the kitchen. Mom also sat with us occasionally, while Emi's parents were usually busy.
Although not necessary, I spent most of my free time refreshing my knowledge about electronics and robotics in case I needed it. Sadly, there were no robots I could test the programs on, which was the same situation I was years before. I could've asked Mom and Mamma to buy one for me, but I didn't want them to waste money on something I wasn't that interested in.
Friday arrived and school was over in the blink of an eye. Although it wasn't required, most students stayed in the afternoon to sign up for the club they wanted since they could fill up in an instant.
Only one club required prior knowledge and experience—the marching band—since they had many national competitions and couldn't afford to train the new members from zero.
On the other hand, the Robotics Club didn't require any prior knowledge, which I had, but they had limited space and equipment. I didn't account for that, so it was shocking to see the thirty-person queue outside the club room.
I had no other choice but to line up and wait for fifteen minutes, which I couldn't even spend distracting myself by watching what was going on through the translucent windows. To make it worse, people wouldn't stop glancing at me as they joined the queue.
Finally, it was time for me and another nine people to step into the room.
Opposite of what I expected when I was told they had limited space, the room was the size of three classrooms put together. At least thirty laptops sat on top of a dozen desks and huge cabinets filled every corner of the room.
It seemed wasteful to have that much free space at the back of the room, but it quickly became obvious why that was the case. Regardless, we were about to have a quick tour.
"Welcome to the Robotics Club," smiled the girl in front of us. "We'd love to show you everything we have, but the line outside is much longer than we anticipated, so we'll have to summarize most of the tour and show you the things people are interested in the most. Still, I'll assume you're here because you somewhat know what to expect. Let's begin."
We followed her a few steps toward the desks, where she began her explanation.
"This is where we spend most of our time during club sessions. Even though the laptops are a couple of generations old, we don't really need cutting-edge systems for what we do here, which is making programs. We do run some game tournaments from time to time for fun."
It was quite strange that she said that so carelessly, especially when a teacher—the club advisor—was standing nearby.
"Any questions?" the girl wondered.
The guy next to me raised his hand.
"Yes?" replied the girl.
"What IDEs can we use?"
"We recommend a few IDEs since they are the ones most of us use, meaning they are the most tested, but at the end of the day, you can use any software you want as long as it can compile the code for the robot you're programming for."
"Awesome. Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'd love to answer more of your questions, but as I said, we don't want to make the rest of the people wait for too long. Let's continue."
The ten of us followed her across the room until reaching the huge free space. Now that I was near, I could see the black tape on the floor and several miniature barriers, confirming my thought of it being the place where they used the robots. The girl then confirmed its purpose.
"This is what we call the Race Track. It's where we test the robots and sometimes race with them to compete against each other. It used to be filled with tables and desks with more equipment but, because we had to move everything every time we wanted to use the track, we decided to get rid of many things. It was painful, but it had to be done."
This time, she didn't let us ask any questions, although it didn't seem like anyone had one.
We reached the end of the room, which had so many cabinets, ranging from tiny to huge. There also were some tools and things like glue sticks and tape hanging from shelves.
"Here's where we store most of the tools and equipment," the girl said.
She approached the biggest cabinet in the corner and opened it, revealing robot parts like wheels, pistons, gears, and more.
"These are the parts you can use to build your robots. Most of them are made of plastic, while a few others can be made of various metals. Whatever the material, they are locked in the cabinet. Luckily, we have never had stolen equipment, but we have had many cases where people have taken parts without permission and didn't write them down on the list of taken parts."
Another girl raised her hand and asked, "Isn't that stealing?"
"We later find the parts lying somewhere around the club or the person that took them eventually returns them with the excuse that they forgot they had taken them. Whatever the case, no equipment has gone missing and we hope it stays like that."
She turned around to close the cabinet, then approached the one next to it and opened it.
"These are all of the tools we have: blowtorches, screwdrivers, wrenches, nuts and bolts, soldering tools, saws, face shields, overalls, and several other things. As you can see, most of them are dangerous or expensive, so they are also locked in the cabinet and need permission to be used."
No one had anything to say and there wasn't more to be added since they were merely tools, so she closed the cabinet and approached the next one.
"And these are all the electronics: cables, wires, cameras, microphones, speakers, sensors, screens, adapters, accessories, and boards of all kinds."
This was what I was waiting for. Hardly anything I saw before was familiar, but seeing stuff I recognized was a huge relief, despite me not having used them before and only reading about them.
However, I wanted to know if they had the breadboards I had used before, and before I realized it, my hand was up in the air.
"Yes, what is it?" the girl asked me.
To my surprise, the words I wanted to say didn't vanish from my head as they usually did when put on the spot.
"What kind of boards can we use, specifically?"
"Well, to be honest, I'm not that into the electronics side and I really don't want to lie to you," she laughed nervously. "It'd be better if you ask another member or the teacher after the tour is over."
"Sure, don't worry."
As the girl was about to talk again, a guy behind me interrupted her.
"Why do you want to know that, anyway?"
It only took one sentence for me to realize he didn't mean anything good. Nonetheless, I somehow gathered the courage to turn around and ask, "What do you mean?"
"It's not like you would know about boards or electronics, let alone robotics."
The more he talked, the more confused I was about his goal. Then another guy made it clear for me as he whispered in the bully's ear, "She's not Araki, he's another dude. They swapped bodies and got stuck."
"Right, I had forgotten about that stupid excuse. Why are you here, then? Is Araki that scared of joining a club she knows nothing about that she asked you to do it for her? Are you really that in love with her that you'd do anything for her?"
"Are you really that jealous?" I asked back.
His annoying smirk disappeared instantly. "I don't care about what you say, Araki should follow her family's path and join the Cooking Club since she only cares about money."
My blood boiled hot. For the first time in years, I had to hold myself back from punching someone. Other than not knowing her at all and jealousy, I couldn't understand the logic behind thinking she only cared about money, let alone attacking her for it.
I merely took a deep breath before continuing, "Look, your barks are loud, but I know you don't bite."
The frown on his face became more prominent. "You want to compete or what?"
"I didn't say that, but sure."
"Nah, it wouldn't be fair. She probably sent you because you know more than her."
I sighed. "I'll just say that I haven't done anything with electronics in four years. If I manage to put up even the slightest fight, then Emi will demolish you."
Although I hadn't seen her skills, her passion for it gave me enough confidence to say what I said.
His annoying smirk returned. "Alright. You, let us compete," he said to the girl guide.
"Huh? You've already made us lose a lot of time and you—"
"Let them do it," interrupted the teacher behind us. Everyone looked at him in shock.