We're not judging their project. No. But this tells me what Easton was worried about. If our cheap sensors held steady where his expensive ones drifted, someone might have asked an awkward question. It was a possible motive, not a fact.
Maya made a note without turning it into an accusation. In another part of the lab, the replacement controller sat under a little desk fan, waiting for Camille's newly crimped harness. One problem demanded patience with people. The other demanded patience with copper. Lucas came by during lunch.
He held a folded sheet of lined paper in his hand. I wrote down what I remember, he said. I showed it to my AV teacher first. Maya took the sheet only when he offered it. He had numbered the things he saw in order.
He saw Easton standing near Beacon while Maya and Camille were facing the other side of the table. He heard plastic hit concrete. He saw Easton reach near the front's clamp shortly afterward. From inside the booth, he could not see the exact grip or the phone being removed. He wrote that last part in a sentence as careful as a circuit diagram.
Thank you, Maya said. I still don't want my name in a rumor thread. Neither do I, Camille said. We've had enough of those for a lifetime. Lucas hesitated.
He asked somebody in the volunteer office whether I was working Saturday. I'm not sure why. Who told you that? Maya asked. I heard him ask.
I was picking up my lanyard. She felt a new anger rise. It was one thing to break a robot. It was another to make a younger student think doing his job honestly would cost him something. You should tell your AV teacher that, too, she said.
You don't need to manage this alone. Lucas folded his arms. You're 17. You don't look much older than me. I don't want to manage it alone either.
He gave a small uncertain smile and left the statement with Dr. King for the formal file. By two, the girls had their first test assembly. The new controller fit under Beacon's rear guard. After Camille moved two standoffs, but when Maya sent the slow wheel command, the wrong motor turned. They shut down, checked the wiring, and found a pinout mismatch.
No expensive equipment could make a board understand a wire connected to the wrong place. Camille traced the diagram, rearranged the connector, and verified each contact with a meter. Maya ran the command again. This time, the correct wheel turned slowly and without jerking. That's one, Camille said.
One wheel, Maya agreed. She knew how badly her friend wanted to call it a breakthrough. They let themselves smile. Anyway, their meeting with Easton was scheduled for 3:15 at the Civic Center office with Director Park's assistant and Dr. King present. Maya had asked for it in writing.
She brought a statement of what Southside wanted, not a list of insults. The director had made clear that no student was required to confess to anything and that the official inquiry would continue whether or not Easton agreed. Easton arrived 4 minutes late, his orange wristband tucked partly beneath his maroon sleeve. He sat across from Maya, feet angled toward the door. There was no crowd and no video audience.
Without those things, his confidence looked sharper and more brittle. I didn't ask for this meeting, he said. I did, Maya replied. Because you think you you can scare me with a broken toy. Because our equipment was damaged and the statement you gave send this says you were stopping it from moving.
I was It had been switched off before you picked it up. We have our command log. You can tell Director Park what actually happened. Easton looked at the assistant. Are you hearing this?
She's accusing me without proof. The assistant did not respond to the challenge. She wrote a short note. Dr. King kept his hands on the table. Maya continued, "If you took our front camera after the accident, bring it back. If you damaged Beacon because you were angry, say that we'll ask for fair repair costs and a safe way to compete. I am not asking to embarrass you.
I'm asking you to stop making it worse. His mouth tightened. "And what happens if I don't?"The director reviews the evidence. That's her job.
I don't decide the outcome. Sounds like a threat. It's an opportunity to correct the report before the end of day filing. The deadline is for Easton laughed once. "You really think a little video and some thrift store parts make you better than us? That's not what this is about. Everyone knows your machine was junk.
You're just trying to blame a better team for your mistake. Camille's chair made a small scraping sound. Maya met her eyes and saw the effort it took to stay quiet. If Beacon failed on its own, our logs will show it. Maya said, "If somebody damaged it, that should count, too."For the first time, Easton looked directly at her instead of the adults. "You need a villain, Maya. otherwise everybody will remember that you didn't belong in the final six. She thought of her mother's hands in the transit garage. She thought of the hours Camille had spent retesting every sensor because the numbers wouldn't behave. She thought of Lucas trying to find honest words for the parts he couldn't see. I don't need you to be a villain, she said.
I need you to be responsible for your own choices. The room went still. He pressed his lips together, then rose. I told the truth the first time. Parks assistant explained that the meeting had ended and that any new or corrected statement had to be submitted before 4.
Easton walked out without looking back. He had been given the off-ramp Maya wanted him to have, and he'd rejected it. Back at school, Camille laid the borrowed controller beside Beacon's frame. Did you mean what you said about not embarrassing him? Yes.
Even after all that, especially after that, if I want a fair hearing, I can't turn it into revenge. Camille tightened a connector until its little retaining tab clicked. Well, a fair hearing had better come with a replacement motor. Their first continuous wheel test lasted 4 seconds. Then a small board indicator flashed red and the controller stopped responding.
They powered down and inspected the connections again. The replacement board used a different communication timeout than their old one. Maya had adjusted the command format, but not the interval at which Beacon sent its heartbeat signal. The controller believed the signal had been lost and had disabled its outputs. That's a safety feature, Camille said, surprised.
And right now, it's doing its job, Maya said. They rewrote the time section, made another test plan, and waited for Dr. King to review it. The delay meant they wouldn't run a full mock drain course that afternoon. They had learned something valuable, but the calendar remained unforgiving. At 4:12, Park's office forwarded the incident statement.
Easton had submitted at 3:58. It was longer than his first one. He claimed Beacon's front wheel had accelerated unexpectedly. He claimed a nearby visitor had cried out. Gayen.
He claimed that Maya refused his offer to disconnect the machine and that he had dropped it while trying to lift it away from the public. There was no mention of the overhead slam. A second document from the same office confirmed that Southside safety eligibility would be reconsidered if the account remained disputed. Maya read it twice. She felt no triumph at having predicted his decision.