The eve of the contest

“You won’t believe who’s on TeenGrid with us tonight!” said the presenter.

“No!” The spectators claimed. “Who?!”

“Just say it already,” a bored spectator said.

“I don’t care, I just care about you, Tina!” Other spectators shouted.

“Me too!” Someone else exclaimed.

“Oh! You’re so cute!” Tina said, limping her wrist. “I know you love me but you need to behave! Now, give a warm welcome to Emil Bushida!”

The girls in the audience started screaming as Emil entered the stage.

He wore a bomber jacket, a stamped t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers with three lines on them. The type of clothing only people who appear on the screen could wear.

“Welcome to the show, Emil!” Tina said.

“Thank you so much for having me, Tina,” Bushida replied.

“And how are you doing?” Tina continued. “I heard your second single topped the charts!”

The crowd cheered in approval.

“Thank you so much,” Emi said. “It means a lot.”

“That’s why I just couldn’t believe any of the rumors! Right!” Tina claimed. “A promising idol star like you. That’s nonsense!”

“Yes!!!” The public cheered. “Tell them, Emil.”

Emil shifted in his seat, ran his hand through his silky hair, and sighed.

“Well, Tina. They’re actually true,” Emil said. “I’m stepping down from my idol star career.”

The public ohed, some started mumbling in disbelief and others shouted, “No! No way”

Emil shrugged, clearly uncomfortable. Tina approached him with a comforting glance.

“May I ask why are you deciding to do this?” Tina questioned.

“Well. I’ve always dreamed of becoming a handler, and, since I’m already fifteen, this is my one and only chance.”

The crowd awed, some were in tears. A group of teary girls said, “He wants to protect us!”

“So…” Tina mumbled making a dramatic thoughtful gesture. “You’re changing a life of perfect leisure for a life of service. Wow!”

“That’s my intention. Yes,” Emil responded.

The transmission cut to a gossip table where a bunch of girls talked about how nobody deserved Emil Bushida and how admirable was his decision.

“I wish all boys were like him,” said longingly one of the girls.

The girls kept discussing on the Trinitron TV as Mike, Nina, and Oliver passed by the luxury electronics showcase.

"I can't believe they threw us out!" Oliver exclaimed. “That was our table!”

"Was your table, lad," Mike angrily mocked. “I can’t believe he actually dared to say that!”

The two friends accusingly looked at Nina.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” She nervously said.

“Where do you know him from?” Oliver asked.

Nina panicked.

“Oh! Come on Nina!” Mike accused. “ He invited you to stay!”

“We…might…know each other. Yes,” Nina admitted to her unsurprised friends. “Our mothers are childhood friends, you know the drill. That doesn’t take away that he behaved like a scumbag back there.”

“If only Quenzie had been with us!” Mike complained. “We would be dining already!”

“No, we wouldn’t,” said Nina and Quenzie in unison.

“They would have kicked us out anyway,” Quenzie continued. “It’s Emil Bushida in the end. He still tops the popularity rankings after six months of retiring. Such a waste! Now tell me the whole story! I can’t believe I missed it! I’m a huge fan!”

The friends turned to see the approaching rectangular robot.

“Quenzie! Where have you been!?” Mike asked.

“Behind you. Listening. Silently…” Quenzie replied.

“And before that?” Oliver questioned.

“Trying to get a picture from Emil Bushida,” Quenzie said ashamed while rolling back and forth.

“And before that?!” Nina impatiently inquired.

“Oh! No! What’s the use of it if I already ruined it!” Quenzie claimed, spinning desperately. “If I hadn’t been so inefficient!”

Quenzie started to repeatedly hit a nearby wall. Oliver had to stop it before it damaged itself.

“Quenzie! Calm down!” Oliver said grabbing the robot. “What happened?”

“I wanted…it to be a surprise…” Quenzie sobbed as tears rolled down his monitor. “I was going to take them out once we finished dinner, now, I guess they’re my way of saying sorry.”

Nina, Mike, and Oliver were bewildered when Quenzie opened its top lid to show three little chocolate cupcakes.

The feeling of negativity after losing the table was quickly replaced by a feeling of warmth and tenderness for Quenzie’s gesture.

“Quenzie you didn’t have to,” Nina awed.

“These must have been so hard to find!” Mike said while taking one of the cupcakes and smelling it.

They were young the last time they ate one, but they remember pretty well what a chocolate cupcake was.

“I just wanted to cheer you up before the contest,” Quenzie embarrassedly said. “Hope you like them!”

They stood there, watching and smelling the cupcakes as if they were a piece of entertainment. Mike gobbled up his, Nina nibbled hers little by little, and Oliver gave his a bite. The delicious flavor of chocolate invaded his mouth, making it water to the point that a drizzle of drool soaked the rest of the cake.

Oliver looked back at Quenzie, it was admiring the scene, probably even recording what it had never witnessed nor experienced.

“Do you want a bite mate?” Oliver offered, extending his bitten and drooled cupcake.

“I would love to!” Quenzie cutely said as a holographic mouth gave a bite to the cupcake but left it unchanged. “Delicious!”

Oliver remembered his mother softly singing Happy Birthday as he gave his cupcake another bite.

As they headed back to the workshop, Oliver wrapped the last piece of his cupcake with a napkin inside his pocket.

…

Oliver looked at the mirror, thinking it was such a shame to wear such a shame to wear his formal uniform just for the thirty minutes or so of the opening ceremony.

“Oliver. We need to go,” Nina demanded outside the bathroom.

Oliver fixed his hair one last time and accompanied his teammates in the corridor. They walked to the front of a line.

“Amelia?” Asked the monitor on the wall to the group.

“Affirmative,” the team confirmed.

“It’s your turn, go ahead” The wall indicated.

As they marched up the ramp, the blinding sunshine revealed a packed-up stadium. The public was limited to clapping since it was a formal event.

“In representation of the Amelia,” the announcer said through the speaker that surrounded the stadium. “Gonzalez Michael, Greenwood Oliver, and Hsu Nina will be participating with the robot named Athena.”

Athena started marching along them when they reached the track and started setting the pace and indicating their direction. Someone on the opening ceremony inauguration committee should have preprogrammed Athena to do so. They stood on the east far end of the field as the other teams joined.

Oliver contained his expression of displeasure when the announcer called Emil Bushida as a member of Kazuhara’s team.

When Oliver got used to the sunlight, he took a glimpse of the different transmission cameras located all around the stadium. He contained the urge to say hi to the camera, he knew that Alin must be watching the ceremony in her classroom.

When all the teams stood on the field, the announcer commanded silence. A man maybe in his sixties, average height and athletic build, took his place at the lectern.

“Good morning citizens of the Grid,” He said from a platform in the south of the station.

“Good morning Commodore Elcano!” Every single attendee or watcher responded.

The Commodore smiled satisfied.

“It’s a big pleasure to be able to represent our honorable CEO Dionysus Norrington today,” Elcano continued. “And declare the Ninth Anual Robo-contest of the Grid officially inaugurated!”

The crowd applauded as the Commodore went back to his seat in the main gallery.

The teams marched back down the workshops to get ready for the first event.

Before Athena’s team could enter the workshop, a voice stopped them in the corridor.

“It’s nice to see you again Nina Hsu,” a man called.

“Captain Bushida!?” Nina exclaimed.

Oliver couldn’t believe it when Nina’s words and his conversation with Mel finally clicked. Oliver contained his expression of displeasure when he turned to meet a man wearing a captain uniform and Emil Bushida next to him. The same Emil Bushida from last night!

“You were just a peanut the last time I saw you!” Captain Bushida said warmly while hugging Nina. "Is this your team?”

“Yes,” Nina said.

The captain’s affable demeanor soon turned haughty as Oliver and Mike introduced themselves.

“And who of you is participating in the combat round?” The captain inquired, raising an eyebrow. “If you make it that far of course!”

“That would be me, Sir,” Oliver responded.

“Well, Mr Greenwood. Then you better watch out for my son. Whom I bet you already know, everybody does!” He said proudly grabbing Emil by the shoulder. “He’s also the designated handler for combat and I made myself sure he was trained by the cream of the crop.”

Between Captain Bushida’s pretentious attitude and Emil’s arrogant gaze, Oliver and Mike were so fed up.

“The first event is about to begin,” The speakers announced.

“Well, we’re looking forward to competing against the Kazuhara,” Nina politically said. “Now we better go to get ready.”

All exchanged protocolary greetings and the Bushidas disappeared down the corridor.

“Let’s show them!” Nina decidedly said to her lit-up friends.