“Have a good day!” mom chirps as we slide into the parking lot.

     “I will,” I grumble and snatch my lunchbox, kiss her goodbye , and bolt inside. Mrs. Drallmeier greets me with a chipper smile and hands me a paper, my missing research. I flop down in line. I reach into my bag, and wait--where are my scissors? I need my scissors. What am I going to do?
      “Does anybody have a pair of scissors?” I ask. Ben's mom reaches into her purse and whips  out a pair of scissors. “Oh, thank you so much,” I gush. I snip out the last piece of my research, then I glue it in the empty space.

When I finish,relief floods through me. I step back and look at it, blue, with two  cows on either side of the title. As I close my board, I see Nicole walk in out of the corner of my eye.

     “Hi,” she chirps.
     “Hey,” I say as I jump up and grab my bag, excited to leave.
Mr. Woelk claps his hands. “Time to  go!” he says.  Johannes,  Olivia, Nicole, and I grab our stuff and follow Mr. Woelk to his green minivan across the parking lot. “ Where are we sitting?” I ask. 
      At the same time, Johannes and Olivia shout “ I call the back!” leaving Nicole and I to the bucket seats. The van shifts and we are on our way to Lincoln University.
      One hour later we zip into the black parking lot next to the red and white gymnasium. I scurry inside with the others, my board clasped in my  hands. We split up in search of where we are supposed to place our boards . I find my name in the last row. I see Emma Hobbs standing next to her board, which is right next to mine.
     “Hi,” she says as I walk up with my stuff.
     “ Hey,” relieved,   say, “ I'm glad I'm next to someone I know.”
     “Same,” she says. A scratchy voice comes on over the speaker, and  a hush settles over everyone.
      “Will everyone please exit the gymnasium, so we can talk to the judges.  Then, the science  fair will begin.” Everyone floods out the doors, eager to get started. All of the kids from my school group together and wait .

After standing around talking for ten minutes,  the same voice comes on, telling us to come back in . Everybody squeezes into the gym and whirls to their boards.Oh, only two judges that come at the same time, I got this.
“ I’m so nervous,” Emma's says, curling and uncurling the edge of her papers.

“Dont worry ,” I say, “ You’ll do great. Just try to focus.”
“Okay,” she says. Ughh… only three more people before me. I go through the list of questions I rehearsed. What is your experiment?My experiment is research about whether young adults will drink the same type of milk that they did as a child.What were your findings? I found that more people did drink the same type of milk as they did when they were younger. Only two more people. I look my board over, double checking that everything is nice and neat. One more person. I am just going to go through the list one more time.  I've got to get this right. I turn to see the judges sauntering towards me, clipboards in hand.Oh my goodness, it’s my turn. Ok, just focus. I take a deep breath.

“Good luck,” Emma whispers.
I flash her a quick smile, “Thanks.”
“Hello,what's your name?” the female judge asks.
“Oh, hi , my name is Kim. It's nice to meet you,” I say, my cheeks burning. We zip through the questions with ease, then we hit research. Oh shoot, I don't know how to answer this question. Why don't I know the answer to this question? I didn't even know how to research this project. Heck,I didn't even want to do it in the first place.
Oh no, I'm gonna fail. I stutter an answer. Yep, I failed. The rest of the questions go by in a breeze. I don't realize my stomach was in knots until it unties itself. I thank the judges then I leave, mouthing a “Good luck,” to Emma Hobbs as I pass her. Whew, I’m glad that is over with.

I join Emma, who is waiting by the water fountain. “Wow, I failed that big time,” I say.
“Ha, no you didn't , I did,” she says.
“ Oh, I doubt it ,” I say” you are great at talking to people and you had a great experiment.”
“Thanks, I’m sure you did great, too,” she says.
“Hmm, maybe,” I laugh. Ten minutes later, Colin, Abby, Emma, and Andrew have joined us. We step outside, and there is a big grassy hill, perfect for rolling down.
“We should go roll down that hill,” Emma T.  squeals, echoing my thoughts.

“Yes! Let's go!” I say. We scramble up the hill, take off our shoes, roll up our pants legs, then roll down the hill over and over again, laughing the whole time.  Later Mrs. Drallmeier comes and starts rounding us up, then we head for the cafeteria. We walk in and find a seat, then we scuttle over to the food together. When we finish eating, we walk across the campus. Statues of historical figures surrounded by shrubs and flowers dot the grounds. When we reach the grey concrete steps leading down to the gym,we hop on the rails and slide down.  Back in the gymnasium,we walk toward our boards,not  knowing that if we won, a ribbon will be waiting by our board. When we reach our boards, Emma has a blue ribbon, first place, along with Colin. I have a red ribbon, same as Emma T., and Abby and Andrew both got a white ribbon. Oh, I’m only a runner up.Oh, well, there's always next year.

After we all pack up, we file into the van again. We have one last pit stop left, Central Dairy.  I hop out of the van and see the little red and white ice cream shop.When the door opens, a bell rings, and cold A.C. bursts against my face. Everybody stands in line and we walk through,  picking our  flavor of ice cream. I already know mine, Birthday Cake. Mr. Woelk pays the cashier and we trudge back to the van.

Once we are on the road again, having already finished our ice cream, we are quiet , Johannes is asleep in the back , Olivia  is listening to music, Nicole is playing games on my phone, and I am left alone to my thoughts.
Even though I did not win the science fair, I still had an awesome day. I ran around with my friends, laughing, talking , rolling down hills. My friends and I, we are all winners. We didn't give up, we didn't become sore losers, and most of all we have fun. Together.

Now, as I start to work on my next science fair project, I hope I do good enough to go to Lincoln again.  Not just for the science fair, but to have another awesome day with my friends.