Hackathon begins

With the presentation done, everyone proceeded to the auditorium. When everything calmed down, a middle aged man made an announcement, "Students are informed, the Hackathon shall commence at 4. Everyone is quite aware of the project; you have to develop solutions to climate change. Your projects shall be judged on five parameters, namely, the creativity, usability, technicality, scalability and business value. The Hackathon will last for 48 hours. Sunday at 4 it shall come to an end, students are advised to submit their projects, along with their personal information at least one hour before the deadline. The lounge, and the cafeteria are open throughout the competition. You will hear a long bell when the Hackathon begins. You have all of our best wishes." It went silent.

Suddenly the auditorium became chaotic, with students discussing their plans.

"Everyone, here." Luke called out, he took out a notebook from his bag and put it on the table. "We've already gone through the basics, focus on the must haves. Beautify the project later, it has to work no matter what. Rachel, the interface, keep it simple for the start, upgrade it if you have time. Joseph, Nora and me, we are taking the programming part. Nora deal with the databases carefully and Joseph, don't beautify your code, it won't help. Our first motive is to present a finished product which is user friendly. We have already discussed the work, make sure to achieve your targets quick, given they are free of every kind of bug. Once done, start to add the features we talked about. We must have the solution on the table at least an hour before the deadline. Help each other, communicate, stay hydrated, eat and get some sleep when needed. Do not work like a workhorse. Any questions?" All of them shook their heads, "That's great, so let's win this thing." He said excitedly.

They bell rang, and the timer started to count down with 48 hours remaining. Everyone got down to their work. And that's when time started to fly, the first two hours went by at lightning speed.

"Luke, when does she plan to start?" Rachel asked, looking at Nora who was sitting peacefully on a bean bag whilst the chaos around her, with a water bottle in her hand. "Mr. James did say the way she works is different, but this is freaking me out. Does she even know how programming work? Is she taking us for fools?"

"If we lose it will be because of her." Joseph added looking up from the screen. "We have a lot to do and she hasn't moved from that spot for the last two hours. I don't think she'll even reach her target, we'll have to complete hers too."

"Easy Joseph, I'll go talk to her." Luke said getting up from his seat.

"Hey Nora." Luke approached her.

"Hi." She said coming back to reality. "You need anything?"

"Yes. Look at the clock, it's been two hours and you have done nothing. When will you start?" He asked trying to remain calm.

"Momentarily." She said.

"Nora, that's not the answer I was looking for. Get to work now." He said, his voice stern.

"I will start, give me some time." She nagged.

"Stop dragging the team along with you." He lost his patience, she lifted her head to look at him, "I am not doing that."

"Yes you are." He declared.

"Fine." She got up, grabbed her bag and the bean bag and left.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked.

"Anywhere, but away from here." She replied agitated. Luke sighed.

"Let's focus on our work then." Joseph said, after watching the whole scene.

The competition only got intense, with the first timers running around, listening to everyone on their team, trying to fulfill their duties, while the experienced ones kept their calm. With loads of work to complete almost nobody bothered to check the time. It was almost night when Edward approached their table.

"Hey guys. How's it going." Edward said.

"According to the plan." Luke said, shutting down his laptop. "You guys?"

"Way ahead of the plan. We'll win." He smirked.

"Well, we'll see that." Luke got up and stretched himself.

"Anyway, that girl, Nora, you got yourself a pretty hardcore coder I tell ya, we've been looking for a bug for hours, she found it in a few minutes." Edward said. "Here you go." He passed Luke a card.

"What's that?" Luke raised an eyebrow.

"The previous winners get the sleeping dorms right, she found our bug in exchange for this, can't break a promise to a kid." He smirked. "Don't worry, it is not against the rules." He added.

"Really, thank you." Joseph snatched the card from Edward's hand.

"You going for dinner, it's almost 9." Edward asked.

"Yes, we are." Rachel said.

"Let's go together then." He said.

"Sure, but where is Nora?" Luke asked.

"Last time I saw her down the hall." Edward said.

"You guys carry on, I'll go get her." Luke said.

It wasn't easy finding her, Luke first went down the hall, she wasn't there. He nearly looked for her everywhere but no success, when something caught his sight, her bag. Nora was slumped into the bean bag. She had technically chosen a blind spot, it hid her well, away from the chaos. He moved up to her. She was busy with her laptop, with her headphones on, her fingers flying smoothly and swiftly over the keys, she was completely unaffected by her surroundings.

"Nora." Luke called out, no response, "Hey Nora." He called out again, this time bending beside her.

"What do you need?" She asked without looking up from the screen.

"It's dinner time, eat something and get back to work." He said.

"No." She answered.

"Why?" He asked.

"I'll eat later. Don't disturb me. Next time you ask me something I won't reply." She said.

"What do you mean?" Luke questioned. She didn't answer. "Seriously Nora!" No reply. "Do whatever you want." He left her alone.

The dinner was good and Edward's team had also joined them, it was fun. They talked about everything, the competition, movies, games, everything. "You really are something Luke, last year a programmer, this year the project manager." Edward laughed.

"Any doubt." Luke said with a smirk.

"And how I wish I had your programmers on my team, mine lack a lot of things." He mocked.

"Really Edward, enough already, we can miss out some bugs too." One of his team mates spoke.

"I didn't say anything." Edward said putting a finger on his lips.

"We should get going, it's already 11:30." Edward's team mate said.

"What?! 11:30? Already? We wasted quite a lot of time" Edward shouted. The person nodded.

"Gotta go, need to catch up with the lost time and get some sleep. You guys enjoy the room." He said, picking up his tray. "Good night everyone." He shouted.

"Let's go too, I want to have a look at the room." Joseph said.

"Yeah, you guys carry on, I'll go look for Nora." Rachel said.

"You sure?" Luke asked.

"Yes I am." Rachel pointed. "You both can carry on." She left.