ZYAM Competition

School was boring today.

I mean, I enjoyed the day, but without Lynn, nothing seemed exciting. We watched several holograms about the Battle of The Asteroids, I did well in moon toss today in PE, but overall, it was terribly boring.

And then I had the math & science competition: ZYAM (Zirconian Youth in Astropyhsics and Mathematics). Everything would have gone well, I was quite prepared, if it weren’t for one slight problem: the space station where we went to participate in the competition went under attack.

We were preparing to start the astrophysics exam when the alarms sounded. Everyone rushed to the bunker, except for silly old me. I figured that they could use my help defending against the invasion; these were scientists and mathematicians, not an army.

Then again, I’m not an army either.

I quickly found my way to the control center. Using my excellent charm and poise (yeah, right) I convinced everyone there that I was an adult and I knew what I was doing. I learned that we were under attack from Space Pirates, a particularly dangerous brand of Space Pirates known as the Cycloclippers; very fast and very dangerous. Being a peaceful space station, there was no fleet of fighting craft, and the defenses were minimal. I knew Zirconia’s fleet was quick to deploy, but not that quick. I had to take them out before any of the students were hurt.

Obviously, I routed all power to the defenses and made sure that they fired with maximum power at the pirates’ flagship. I also activated the station’s thrusters to buy us what time we could. Finally, I launched all escape pods, hoping to distract the pirates with all of the extra targets. Finally, I jumped into one of the pods myself and fired it toward the pirates, hoping that their scanners would sense a live organism and attempt in vain to capture me, sending in a flurry of defensive fire.

However, the pirates did not try to capture me; rather, they fired at me. The pod was destroyed, and my arm took a heavy hit. I quickly grabbed on to another pod until the firing supsided; my strategy had managed to scare the pirates away before Zircon’s aid was able to arrive. I quickly got myself back into the station so that I could get back to my room before Zircon’s actual military found me. If I got caught, I’d be in huge trouble.

So, I then had to take astrophysics and anticalculus tests. With my damaged arm (heavily bandaged) and the excitement of a real military victory, I had a very difficult time focussing.

Needless to say, I failed both of the exams, and won’t be able to move to planet-level competition. I let myself down, I let Mr. Corone down, and I let Lynn down. It certainly doesn’t lift my spirits, but there is something that does. I had fun today. Lynn still loves me, Mr. Corone still loves me, and I’ll still keep living life. No, I’m not the smartest, or the wisest, or the nicest person around. But that doesn’t matter. I’m still me, and my life is still great. Besides, I still have next year!