The Day That Started It All 3

When the presentation ended, the screen lifted and the two Aperture employees resumed

their positions in the front of the room.  "Now wasn't that interesting?" , The female

worker asked.

"Chell…Chell…Chell wake up!"  Anne nudged Chell (who was currently sleeping) in the arm.

"Wha-oh, sorry.  I never was good during speeches," Chell replied as she rubbed her eyes.

"S'okay, you didn't really miss anything interesting."

"Okay girls, now I hope you all brought your projects, because now we are going to show

them to everyone in the group, and at the end we'll give a special prize to the best

one!"  The staff then pushed two long tables to the front, and asked everyone to set up

their projects in a line.

"Oh my! Look at these wonder experiments!  Now I want each of you girls to say your name

and what your experiment is."  As she talked, Chell looked around the room and saw that

she had counted correctly, there were 42 potato batteries (counting hers).  She gave

another big sigh and put her project next to Anne's at the far end of the table.  As she

did, she noticed that the worker became increasingly bored, though she tried not to show

it.  At last it came time for Chell to present.

"Good luck!"  Anne whispered to Chell.

"Thanks, yours was really good!"  She moved to the front and set up her board.  "My name

is Chell, and for my project I did a potato battery."  As she talked she could have sworn

she saw the woman's eye twitch.  "My question was 'Can potato's make good batteries'.  My

answered was 'Yes'."  She pointed to the different headings on her board as she

spoke.  "The way I did it was that I got a potato, and basically attached it to two wires

that my Daddy helped my get which were connected to light bulb, and the light bulb lit

up."

"Could you demonstrate it for us?"  The woman asked.  At first, when Chell put the wires

in the potato, nothing happened.  Soon however, the light bulb grew brighter and brighter

until it exploded, and every ducked their heads.

"Oh my, well that's a pretty-um-strong potato you have there sweetie.  I think it's

pretty obvious who the winner is."  The woman looked to her co-workers and they nodded.  

They then walked over to Chell, gave her a ribbon and a big cookie with the Aperture logo

in blue frosting.  All the children then went back to their seats, and Chell broke the

cookie in half and gave it to Anne.

"I think you deserve this as much as I do!  You were the only one who didn't do anything

with a potato."

"Oh thanks!"  They both bit into the cookie, and a big smile spread on Chell's face.  

This was going to be a great day.




"And then I set it up and at first the light bulb didn't light but then it did and it

grew brighter and brighter until it EXPLODED!"  Chell waved her hands wildly in the air

as she explained what happened to her father and Mr. Rattman.  "And then the lady was

impressed and she gave me a cookie, but I shared half of it with Anne cause hers was good

to!"  It was lunchtime in the Aperture Laboratories, and all of the dads were in the

cafeteria having lunch with their daughters.  Chell took a big bite of her sandwich as

her father ruffled her hair.

"I knew you would win sweetie, it's in family."

"Hey I told you that.  Anyway I'm happy for you Chelly, though I'm curious as to how that

potato was able to produce so much energy.  Almost sounds like the effects of the

Aperture Energy Enhancer formula that your father was working on a few weeks back."

"You know what Doug, I did notice that that container felt lighter when I was bringing it

back to work."  Both Rattman and her father eyed Chell suspiciously.

"I have no idea..." She looked around and was about to come up with a clever lie when the

speaker announced that it was time for the daughters to return to the room they were

previously in.  "Oh look time to go back, well I'll see you at the ceremony later

Daddy."  She quickly kissed her Dad and hugged Mr. Rattman and ran off.

"I swear she's a chip off the old block."  Chell's father and Rattman cleared their trays

and made their way back to the office.  One hour from now, project GLaDOS was going to

make or break Aperture Science.