Aditya felt a bit lost. He didn’t know how to react.
“I have a few questions, please clarify. I couldn’t wrap my head around this situation otherwise.” He said as he took a bite.
“Ask away.”
“First, why did you choose me?
I am sure, there are plenty of other first year students that would do this for you, after all the offer is too good to refuse. A direct participation in the main team in the first year, I am sure that is enticing.”
“Well, it is because, I like you better than other candidates…” Manasa said and her tone suggested that even she doesn’t believe what she is saying.
“You are new to lying, aren’t you?” Aditya asked with dumbfounded expression.
“Okay, it is not that.
The competition is a bit different, it takes up a lot of time and in first year, you would be swamped by a ton of work. You need to get used to the new college life, classes, the lab work, record work, assignments, it is hard, that is the reason the freshmen are not usually chosen to be direct members of the team.
Even if they are initially accepted, they would just quit by themselves by the time the competition applications were submitted most of the time.
They would only do menial work during prototype making so that they would learn some work now and they would have some ground work laid down for the second year.”
“And? That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Well, this competition takes up quite a bit of your time. There are six rounds spanning across six months. One round a month and it starts the next month.
Every round is in a different city and for every round, you would lose the classes for around four days to a week.
Any other first year student wouldn’t be able to catch up with their work.”
“What do you mean by any other first year student? I am also a freshman and I am also trying to adjust to the college.”
“Yeah, but you are smart enough.”
“My grades tend to disagree.”
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“Yeah, yeah, like those grades are real. I can swear that you never put much effort before, but I need you to do that.”
“But I am not artistic.”
“Your social media disagrees.”
She said as she waved her phone and Aditya didn’t even know what to say. There was his Instagram page showing on her screen and there are a bunch of sketches and some small sculptures made with matches, icecream sticks and such. This was his hobby before college and since he needs to get used to the college life, he wasn’t able to get back to them.
“How do you even know my account?”
“You gave out your full details in the application form for the club and I got your email id, from that your facebook and then Instagram.
It is impossible to hide yourself when you are on social media.”
“Manasa, I am sure that you need to win this, but do you really think I am the right person for this? Why don’t you ask your friends?”
“None of my friends are club members.”
“I am sure there are other freshmen, willing to do this.”
“Not when the seniors explain how tough this competition is.
They are going to use some lottery method to let freshmen pick the competitions they need to assist to.
But they will have a chance to reject them after the details of the competition are explained. On top of that, the remaining Junior year students in the club already targeted other juniors right after the interviews, you are the only one that was left.”
“So, I am not the first choice, rather the last option you were left with.”
“Of course, I don’t want to impose on you.
But that bastard of the co-captain, has a lot of advantage over me. He is more experienced with the design. I am still thinking that I might be able to match him, but the funding is a bit difficult. He got all kinds of drafting competitions; he is really good at it.
I am pretty sure, he has very little competition among the students of his own age in the whole state.”
“Really? He is that good?”
“Of course, he is. His father was an alumni in the same college and is working in a large automobile company. This fellow has been learning drafting and modelling since he was ten. He is on par with mediocre professionals.”
“Holy shit, you are going to get smoked at this rate.”
“I know. I managed to poach my only friend left in the club. He is good at welding and fabricating, I need someone with a bit of artistic touch and it is a three person competition.
On top of that, if we win, we only need to give half of the money for the club funding, we can keep the other half.”
Aditya who is rapidly thinking about reasons to quit suddenly stopped and focused on what Manasa is saying.
“What is the prize money?”
“It is big actually. Thirty thousand rupees for each round and one lakh for the final prize.”
“Holy shit, that is a big amount. What kind of competition is this?”
“It is created by a nut job. I will explain it to you later. Do you want to be in or not?”
“Before that, I want to ask you, how will the money be split amongst ourselves, if we are to win?”
“Half of all the winning amount will be gone to the club obviously, the rest of the amount will be split between the three of us equally.”
“I am in.”
Aditya immediately agreed.
Manasa who is ready to go on some more to convince him was dumbfounded.
“You are in?”
“Yes, you should better lead with something like this, if you ever want to poach someone to do something like this. The ‘I like you better than the rest’ gives you away way too easily and not all boys are looking for some girl’s liking. Not all of us weirdos.”