Page 93 of The Sebastian Guarantee
“Wait, wait!” he cried, raising his hands defensively. “Before you fire more cookies and cookie-bomb me into oblivion, I’d like to apologize.” He surveyed the blond girl with the tablet. A dark-haired girl in pigtails and a redhead stood beside her. “You’re the girls I cut in front of at the airport, aren’t you?”
The scowls etched onto their faces told him he was right.
“I took your cab. I left you in the rain, and you missed an important activity.”
“And our robot got ruined. We had to build another,” the dark-haired girl hissed.
He took a cautious step toward them. “I’m so sorry, truly, I am.” He gazed at the innovative robotic creation. “Can I ask you a question?”
The girls exchanged glances, then nodded.
“Did you also see me a few nights ago in Denver and throw cookies at me on the street?”
The redhead nodded. “Yeah, it was us. We had a couple of other Tech Tweens with us, too.”
“You didn’t have a robot that night, did you?”
Blond braids lifted her chin. “We decided to build a cookie spatula catapult after that.”
“We used spare parts from other Tech Tweens,” the pigtailed girl clarified.
“You built that robot in a matter of days?” Sebastian asked, thoroughly impressed.
“They did. They were quite motivated,” a woman answered, weaving through the mass of girls.
He took a step back as the woman in white, Angelique, the associate from the Marieuse Group, now clad in a red Tech Tweens T-shirt, ascended the steps.
“Do you know her, Sebby?” Tula asked.
“Kind of, yeah.” He turned to the woman. “What are you doing here?”
“Along with STEM Development, the Marieuse Group sponsors the Tech Tweens. I’m their volunteer director.”
“This is the guy, Miss Angelique. He’s the one who jumped the taxi line and left us in the rain,” blond braids explained.
“That’s true, but isn’t he also the person who sparked your idea for Mr. Cookie Combat?”
That was quite a name.
“Yeah, I guess,” the girl replied.
“You had a problem and worked together to create a solution. Isn’t that what Tech Tweens is all about?” Angelique pressed.
Tula touched the edge of the spatula. “And you’d have to be super smart to build that robot. How did you do it?”
“We used what we know about robotics and coding,” the redhead replied.
“Don’t forget about force and motion. We had to figure out how to set the catapult to get the cookies into the air,” the girl with the dark pigtails added.
“These girls are amazing and so smart,” Tula exclaimed. “What are you guys going to build after Tech Tweens?”
The girl with blond braids shrugged. “I don’t know. Our school doesn’t have a robotics program.”
“I think there’s a club where they send you stuff in the mail and you put it together,” the dark-haired girl mused.
The redhead’s shoulders slumped. “I heard that it’s a rip-off.”
“There’s got to be something you can do,” Tula lamented. “You can’t stop.”
