"As you can see from this graph, combustion temperatures peak at stochiometric ratio, resulting in the spike in NOx emissions, as we go leaner, the engine still produces NOx, but less due to the lower combustion temperatures at the cost of performance. If we go rich, we also lower temperatures without performance penalties, but produce a lot more carbon emissions..."
The assignment that Mr. Kirby gave to his class was to research and present engine technologies, and Zack's presentation was about cooled exhaust gas recirculation.
"In addition to reducing NOx, it also effectively reduces knock in turbocharged engines without injecting additional fuel to lower combustion temperatures, further increasing efficiency."
Mr. Kirby nods. He's not an easy person to impress, but if he's not impressed now, Zack is certainly close to doing so. He rarely gets a student as passionate as this, especially from the industrial design course, design students usually skim through automotive technology and focus on artsier subjects. His classmates watch in awe, not because they were impressed with his presentation, but they were impressed with him, why did he go so hard on this presentation? Most of them picked simpler topics, such as bore and stroke of a piston engine, how rotary engines work, comparisons between different types of forced induction, etc. Zack here went hard with a technology that isn't even widely implemented.
The ones who aren't impressed though, were just bored. Not paying attention to the presentations until it was their turn. Their boredom was interrupted though when they heard noises from the entrance of the classroom. Zack paused his presentation as the class diverted their attention to the cat at the door. It was an orange boi, and he was scratching against the clear glass. "Let him in." Mr. Kirby amusingly says, and Zack nods. He let the orange boi in and the class giggled and chuckled, making "pspsps" noises and calling "Oyen!" to get the cat's attention. But the cat merely walked through the door and sat near it as Zack continued his presentation, he was almost done with it anyway.
Oyen was the name of the cat that the class had gave it, it wasn't the first time that he had interrupted a class, he might have even attended more lectures this semester than some of the students! Zack doesn't call him Oyen though, there was a scar near his right eye that made Zack give him the name "Nick Furry". His eye is fine though. After he was done with the presentation, Kirby asked him a few more questions before dismissing him back to his seat. "Come Nick, wanna sit with me?" He calls for the cat, and he responds to that given name.
"Awww!" The girls in the class gush as Nick jumped onto Zack's lap. He nervously smiles, as he now has the class's attention again, but not because a presentation or that he deserves this attention, it's because of Nick.
"Thanks Nick." He silently says as he pets the orange boi, who started to purr. He only gets positive attention like this under 2 conditions, one is this, and the other is-...
"Alright class, I want you all to get in groups of 3 and construct a digital mind map on tires, brakes, suspension, steering and chassis types. I'm not giving you a guideline, you judge what relevant information should be presented." Mr. Kirby hands an assignment brief to Haro Yusarin who was sitting right at the front next to Zack. The two of them exchanged looks and smiled to each other. The duo was an unstoppable force in many group assignments, but especially in subjects to do with cars, both being car guys. "The mind map should be high resolution, as when we go through them, I want to be able to zoom in and out and pan freely."
As soon as the class ended, everyone, approached Zack and Yusa. Ah yes, this is the other condition, group assignments or projects. In a way, he is popular after all, popular for being the nerd, his groups have a notorious history of getting loads of marks and praises from the professors. The swarming of people spooked Nick off his lap and he follows Mr. Kirby out the classroom. Yusa looks at Zack, they've worked with each other so much that he didn't have to say nor signal anything, he knew what's next, Zack is always the one to pick the rest of the teammates.
It's not that Yusa is lazy, he just doesn't have confidence in his judgement in people. Zack was always flattered by this. "And what makes you think I can judge people well?" He thought, against his will, the painful night from last week reared its head. "I couldn't even judge if a girl is genuinely interested in me or not..."
Eventually, he chose a girl named Ari. Ari wasn't even one of the girls that asked to be part of his group, she was confident enough in her own abilities so that she doesn't need to be carried. Which was also one of the reasons that Zack picked her, he believes in a team that each member can carry their own weight while complimenting each other well. On top of that, Ari had approached him on the first day of class when she saw him lost in the hallway, he'll always be thankful for that.
When he asked her, she readily accepted. A look of relief washed over her face as well as Zack's. This project wasn't only going to be a breeze, but fun as well.
...
"I'm listening to your entire story, and dreading the part when it goes wrong." Yusa said. As Zack's best friend and roommate in university, he, alongside Jian and Dymo, were people that he felt he could share anything with.
He hadn't told Yusa about the date that went terribly wrong before this because it only happened recently, and after ranting to Jian and Dymo, he got distracted by assignments and forgot about it. Which was exactly what he wished for, but was grimly reminded of it today, not because anything bad happened, but because he was hurting himself again.
"...yeah, and that's what happened. I know I dodged a bullet, I'm just sad that no one could ever take me seriously."
"What about Ari? She seems to take you seriously enough."
"Yeah, but that's in assignments, not me as a person."
"You never know!"
Zack wants to explain why it wouldn't work, why it'll only result in another rejection, he doesn't even know her that well, they only met in the hallway and a month ago and exchanged a few hi and byes. Also, it's not like Ari is unattractive or anything, she is rather attractive, but he's not the type to just fall in love with anyone as long as she's attractive. Besides, he's starting to feel bad again, his rantings always ruin the mood, and he doesn't want to bring other people down so much. If he must go down, better not to drag people down with him.
"Hey Yusa, up for badminton this weekend?" He asks, changing his tone and the subject to a more upbeat one. Only after he asked that he realized the error in his question. Jian and Dymo had declined badminton, so he doesn't have anyone else for this session.
It didn't matter though, and Yusa also declined. "Sorry, bringing my girlfriend to karting this weekend."
"Ah dam, have fun!" He sighs with relief, but the relief was quickly replaced with a familiar feeling. Oh no, is it envy again? No, this is another familiar feeling, it's a sinking feeling of boredom. The realization that he has nothing to do with anyone, his friends all have their own lives now, and outside of doing his assignments, his hobby remains that of his friends before they found their complimentary half. Drawing, gaming, Formula 1, cars, and occasionally being able to string a badminton party together for a session, is he cursed to always only look forward to these for the rest of his life? Well, at least for now, he had one more thing to go home to.
...
Zack turns the keys into their dorm room and Yusa makes his way to his cubicle. The rooms are segmented by dry wall, and although they're not closed off, the walls do provide some sort of privacy. In his cubicle, a cat popped up from under the bed to greet him. "Hello! How are you feeling today?" He asks the cat, and the cat slowly blinks his eyes back at him.
He had found this cat drowning in the rushing waters of a drain a few days ago as he was running in the rain. With some hesitation, he tossed his bag and jacket under a nearby bench before rushing into the drain. It was turbulent and wide, but not very deep, and Zack managed to scoop the cat as it was tumbling towards him.
He was worried if the cat would make it because who knows how long it had he been struggling, or how much water had it inhaled. Zack couldn't bring him to the vet either because vets are expensive. But thank God, he looks okay now.
"Thank you God for healing this cat and protecting me." He prayed. Students aren't allowed to keep pets in the dorms, and if anyone found out, he would have been in trouble. Well, Yusa knows of course.
"Hey dude, cover me, I'm gonna release the cat."
"Aight!"
The duo do a little recon to make sure the coast was clear, and Zack released the cat outside of campus. He couldn't just release it downstairs because this is Mail's territory. As they waved goodbye to the cat, it looked back at the boys and proceeded to slow blink one more time before going on its way.