In a classroom at Central High School in Queens, New York, a rehearsal for the Academic Decathlon quiz competition is underway.
"Peter, this is a national event. Can't you just take two days off over the weekend?" Mr. Harrington, who is responsible for guiding students to participate in this competition, is communicating with Peter Parker, a top student who wants to quit the team.
"I can't go to Washington because Mr. Stark needs me and I have to make sure he can find me here." Peter explained very seriously.
In order to have more time to do something to prove himself, he even quit the marching band and the robotics team... and spent all his time after school fighting crime and doing what is right.
"Oh, come on, you haven't even met Tony Stark in person, you're just an intern at Stark Industries," Peter's classmate Eugene "Flash" Thompson laughed heartily, leaning back in his chair.
Peter had no way to defend himself. He couldn't say that the internship at Stark Industries was just a cover. The real situation was that he was invited by Tony to go to Berlin, Germany, where he had a fight with the Avengers and even tied up Captain America...
God, they would think he was crazy!
The team leader, Liz Allen, looked at Peter helplessly, then turned around and said, "Lightning, you take Peter's place."
"Oh, I'm not sure, I have to check my schedule first because I have a date with Black Widow."
Such blatant ridicule and bragging made many people roll their eyes. Peter was even more upset. He wanted to say that he had fought side by side with the Black Widow, and that the Black Widow had praised his agility...
A boy of 14 or 15 years old is at his most immature stage, and it is very difficult for him to endure it.
At this moment, Principal Morita walked in with a stranger.
After greeting each other, Principal Morita introduced: "Teacher Harrington, this is Mr. Ethan who is in charge of academic exchanges in Wakanda."
"Hello, Mr. Ethan." Harrington took the initiative to extend his hand. As a frequent guest in the news in recent times, he was no stranger to the name Wakanda. He also knew that it was a powerful and wealthy country. So he did not neglect the other party and behaved very politely. He just didn't understand why the other party came to a high school
"Hello, Mr. Harrington." The visitor shook hands politely and then stated his purpose: "After Wakanda chose to conduct real academic exchanges with the outside world, it has attracted the most well-known and authoritative scholars in various fields around the world, including..."
Harrington and others who were listening on the side became more and more frightened. That string of names were all big names in various fields. Their Central High School was a famous high school with a very strong faculty, but even most of the teachers in their school were not qualified to talk to these authoritative bigwigs, let alone communicate and learn on an equal footing.
So it can be seen how high-end the academic exchange organized by Wakanda is, and it actually attracts so many great people!
Then Mr. Ethan told Harrington the main purpose of the trip, which made Harrington overjoyed!
"After the first phase of academic exchanges, we discovered a problem: the general public outside the community still did not understand the significance of this academic exchange, which means it was too limited to a certain circle..."
After talking about a lot of random things until everyone was confused, he finally got to the point, "So this time we plan to select some elite students from major universities to attend the lecture. It's not necessary for them to understand everything, but to know what the general trend of the future is and what fields they can develop their talents in. By the way, it can also broaden their horizons and inject vitality into this circle."
"Good! Well said!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Principal Morita excitedly led the applause, and Harrington and other students followed suit.
Regardless of whether this statement is a bit empty or pretentious, at least going to an academic exchange conference of this level and making yourself familiar with the audience is a rare opportunity!
Most of the talented people who can be labeled as elite will not allow themselves to fall, but want to stand out as much as possible.
Moreover, any field needs the injection of fresh blood to maintain its vitality. If they know in advance which fields will be popular in the future, then these people will undoubtedly be one step ahead of others or even more on the road of life.
Just like during those years when computers were the hottest, many people enrolled in professional courses in this field, and then became IT elites, earning money that others could never earn in their entire lives.
And now this opportunity to gain an advantage has fallen from the sky and hit them on the head.
"Please rest assured, Mr. Ethan. Our school will fully cooperate with your work. I wonder how many places each school can get this time?"
"At present, the quota is tentatively set at 3 to 5 per university. If we encounter some students with special potential in certain areas, we can relax it appropriately."
In order to complete the task assigned by King T'Challa, Ethan tried his best and did not dare to say a word that would threaten his life.
Upon hearing this, Mr. Harrington was both disappointed and surprised. He thought he could get all the students in the academic decathlon group over. There were only five places at most, which was not enough. It would be even more troublesome if the principal had other ideas and wanted to squeeze in two people with connections.
Just as Teacher Harrington was racking his brains over which students to choose, Liz and the others started discussing with excited laughter.
In their opinion, since people have already come here, these places must be given to them. The only difference is who is selected and who is eliminated.
Anyone who can participate in the National Academic Decathlon Knowledge Quiz Competition is naturally quite capable. It is definitely not just talk that they know everything about astronomy and geography. It can be said that everyone is proud of being a top student. Even Lightning, a rich second-year substitute contestant, is a top student among ordinary students.
So no one would give up such a good opportunity, except Peter.
"Who do you think will be selected?"
"It's hard to say, but I'm optimistic about Liz. She's good at studying, has strong leadership skills, and most importantly, she's beautiful. It would be unfair if she wasn't selected."
"Don't talk nonsense. I think Peter has a better chance."
Peter glanced at Liz subconsciously, then quickly looked away. His heart was still pounding, but he blurted out, "I won't go. If I'm selected, I'll give up my spot."
In fact, he wanted to give it to Liz, but firstly, it seemed that she didn't need him to give it, and secondly, saying so seemed like almsgiving.
Thank God, his emotional intelligence has not yet dropped to negative levels.