As per usual, the quiz bowl team does not hold practices during the end-of-semester exam season, so all remaining players' lives are dominated by studying and tutoring others. Like Pablo with the younger siblings of football players, or Audrey with the younger siblings of basketball players (irrespective of the gender of the basketball player; she tutored younger siblings of both boys' and girls' basketball players this year).

At the end of the AP Bio final, which is their last final exam of the season, Audrey and Pablo meet each other under a tree. Audrey can hardly contain her nervousness:

"I think these past two months have been hard on you. You have grown much closer to me during this time, and I remember clearly your early days on the quiz bowl team, you have grown as a quiz bowler as well" Audrey harangues him.

"While I study more than I used to, I'm knee-deep in a world I still don't know very well. As a quiz bowler, I feel like I am pressured to fit a certain image and to provide academic aid if needed" Pablo starts crying. "And I'm lucky that the pressure I have to perform in quiz bowl isn't that intense, unlike yours!"

"It's part of the stuff you don't understand yet about quiz bowl seasons: while, obviously, the higher we place at any given tournament, the better to the eyes of the public, what really matters to the public is twofold. You seem to think the competitive pressure is on the A-team because it's the squad competing at quiz bowl-State and the HSNCT, and the onus is on us to get those berths. However, it's only true early in a season, because we tend to clinch these berths at our season opener, and then there's only the social pressure until a week or two before State" Audrey explains to him.

"I guess the town does not expect us to earn a second HSNCT berth" Pablo adds to it, but feels like she spoke for too long. "But stop beating around the bush please!"

"Pablo, do you want to go see me play on Monday night? I'll even give you the ticket as with the game against Lacassine!"

"Of course, I would!"

Kinder, Eunice, Hanson Memorial are all teams the B-team defeated, and they all qualified for quiz bowl-State, Audrey then feels like a weight is taken off her shoulders, while Pablo looks up the VAs' girls basketball schedule. And VA is playing Eunice at home on Monday night.

After a harrowing exam season, where Pablo managed to earn over $200 tutoring middle schooler siblings of football players, it's finally time for him to buy what he deems appropriate for Audrey as a Christmas gift.

"Please, let me go shopping! I promise it will be quick and we will be back home soon!" Pablo pleads with his parents on Wednesday night.

"You will have to tell me where beforehand" Pablo's dad warns him. "Look for what you need and nothing else!"

After cross-checking what he deems to be appropriate for him to give her, that is, a whole set of brakes (pads, rotors and fluid) for her family's car, he tells him which shop has the best prices for each item. Even when he restricts himself to the car parts dealers in town, he finds out that no single shop is cheapest for all 3, and he plans to save on costs. And yet, he has better prices by buying pads and rotors as one set.

"Let me get this straight: you plan on gifting us new car parts?" Pablo's dad gasps upon hearing about where his son plans on shopping.

"No, it's not for me, it's for my girlfriend. She might be new to you as a girlfriend, but you know her for years"

Audrey... she seems like a good girl, she has her priorities straight, unlike some of her hoops teammates, Pablo's dad seems to have an idea of who Pablo could consider his girlfriend.

"When in doubt, give practical gifts to your loved ones" Pablo continues.

"So, to you, it seems like the more the other side needs what you want to give them, the better, especially if that something is essential to the recipient, assuming you know what makes that gift essential to the recipient" his dad answers him. "But I guess, some girls prefer jewelry, chocolates, clothing or cosmetics"

Luckily for them, there just aren't that many people visiting the car part shops in town, so the gift proper is already taken care of as fast as they could.

Upon returning home, he wraps the two components of the gifts: the pads and rotors first, and then the bottle of brake fluid. Which he keeps into his closet once he's finished wrapping these.

And, once he has wrapped up the gifts, he can then catch up with the girls' basketball team after this traveling tournament the VAs lost in semifinals. So while the VAs faced a variety of opponents outside of this tournament, the VAs end up not having the best record in the district. Nevertheless, with their 8-6 record as of today, VA still appears to be on track to make it to the girls' basketball state tournament in February. Shoot! Their next game is Friday and is played on the road at LaGrange.

By Monday afternoon, however, he checks on his grades for the second quarter, and... wow. Straight As for the quarter. Even in AP Bio. To his eyes, he feels like he's edging closer to being fully accepted into this rarefied world of high achievers that's quiz bowl, but some work remains to be done.

"Woohoo! We got an A in the AP Bio group project!" Pablo texts Audrey about the group project grade, even though they submitted it several weeks before the deadline.

"Good. I'm happy for the team" Audrey answers back, before going to VA for tonight's game against Eunice.

Upon arriving at the game that night, with his gifts for Audrey taking up almost the entirety of his backpack, Pablo can't help but notice several things: first, Natalie seems to be dating the star defensive tackle, and waiting in line for the concession.

"Sorry to disturb, but for how long have you been dating Natalie?" Pablo asks Dayton.

"Maybe just a few weeks, give or take" Dayton answers him, while he buys her a little snack from the concession, as well as one for himself.

"Please forgive me for this question, I was very busy with quiz bowl on my side after the season ended" Pablo then moves on to find his seat as allotted for the game.

And then comes his quiz bowl teammates on the B-team, who are all seated on the first row, and some band musicians are on the sidelines in front of them.

"Let me guess, you're here because of Ballista?" Nadine asks him while she's seated.

"Ballista? Who do you refer to as Ballista?" Pablo asks her, a little confused as to why some basketball or quiz bowl player would even be nicknamed Ballista.

"Audrey. She's the one who got you to even play quiz bowl in the first place!"

This season, Audrey seems to be good for about 8-10 PPG on average on the court. So I expect her to start the game tonight, and I hope it won't be a foul-fest like the Lacassine game, Pablo looks at the teams taking up positions on the court, with Heather holding the mic to sing the national anthem at center court, as per usual during home games. And the drummer she calls a boyfriend on the sidelines.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Welcome to this Christmas' Eve girls' basketball game, pitting, from Jennings, the Venomous Agendas, and, from St. Landry Parish, our long-standing basketball rivals, the Eunice High Bobcats!" the principal announces the game's participants after the national anthem ends.

And, interestingly, Eunice is one of the few pre-pandemic VA sports rivalries to have survived the pandemic, along with Iowa and Kinder, one of Dayton's parents starts thinking about the history of VA rivalries upon announcing the game.

The game begins with a faceoff at center court, and the Bobcats gain first possession. As the visitors, wearing the green jerseys, advance towards the hoop, they feel pressure to shoot prematurely and their 3-point throw attempt fails, by the ball going above the backboard. This results in the ball going out of bounds because the ball ends up behind the backboard.

Which means the VAs, wearing white (even though most VA fans in the assistance wearing VA clothing wear the purple-and-green) have possession of the ball, and have eight seconds to cross the half-court line. Taylor inbounds the ball, passes it to Carrie, who dribbles the ball across the half-court line, and then passes it to Heather. Heather lays up and throws the ball, scoring two points.

However, even though the game is relatively close, with both teams having "fouls to give" in the first quarter, Audrey inexplicably provokes the opponent into hooking her by the end of the first quarter while throwing the ball.

"Ballista! Ballista!" Nadine chants.

And Pablo, along with the rest of the quiz bowlers, follows suit while Audrey goes through the motions of the free throw. The crowd goes wild once the ball goes into the hoop, thus scoring her first point of the game.

In the dying seconds of the first quarter, the Bobcats fail to score any additional point. It seems like the Bobcats have my number tonight, I don't know why... Is there any Bobcat playing tonight that has a relative playing quiz bowl? They didn't play at Tal Atkins, and I wasn't playing at Fall South, nor did I play them at Winter South... It doesn't make any sense! Audrey ruminates while she sits on the bench between quarters.

"It seems like the opponent has been focusing a little too much on me; they put their fastest players to cover me" Audrey laments to Kent.

"Obviously you feel like you're dead weight, but you're not: if their fastest player is used mostly defensively, this means we have the advantage of speed on the offense" Heather explains to her about how, despite Audrey scoring only a single point, the VAs are in the lead by one measly point after the first quarter.

"Ballista? What's a ballista anyway? I kept hearing that word on the last free throw!" Charlotte asks her teammates.

"My quiz bowl teammates call me like this whenever I do free throws! But, for real, a ballista is a giant crossbow"

"Stop the chatter! The second quarter is about to begin!" Kent shouts over the talk about the ballista.

Agility is the order of the day for me if I want to be more than a magnet for opposing players! Audrey struggles to think of how she can clear some space for her to maneuver to either get or throw the ball.

Back in the stands, Pablo and his quiz bowl teammates watch the game with Dayton and Natalie behind them.

"Ballista definitely feels more agile now than in the first quarter" Pablo comments on changes in Audrey's game as Audrey, still feeling somewhat threatened, dribbles to a position she deems more favorable, and the VAs are trailing by one point early in the second quarter.

"Yet ballistae weren't exactly agile weapons" Natalie retorts from behind them.

"You probably think of those ballistae in video games, the big ones shooting spears" Nadine adds a comment on what she feels is a misconception about ballistae.

Natalie must be thinking of a ballista's traverse and elevation, Nadine keeps quiet about these aspects of artillery, not wanting to appear to know too much.

And yet, Audrey manages to regain the lead for the Venomous Agendas by shooting a three-pointer. That's more like it... she starts thinking while Carrie is on an intercept course for the Bobcats' ball carrier.

Despite all the best efforts of the VA squad, by half-time, their lead is still relatively small, as both teams played with the intensity of the Division II Non-Select state championship (in which both schools' postseasons would be should either make the playoffs).

"This is half-time, and the Venomous Agendas are in the lead, thirty to twenty-six" the principal announces before a 15-minute break begins.

As the VAs retreat into their locker room, Audrey smiles in the direction of the quiz bowlers in the stands. And Pablo is clearly visible to her right.

"You played well in the second quarter" Pablo tells her as she passes by him.

"Thank you"

By the end of the fourth quarter, however, because Audrey is too tired to keep playing, the substitute power forward is put in to play. She receives the ball from Cora, and, feeling threatened by the Bobcats, who attempt to hold on a two-point lead, attempts a three-pointer. She didn't score a three-pointer all season, fingers crossed, Audrey struggles to cross her fingers upon seeing her teammate shooting the ball during the dying seconds of the game. And the ball is about to hit the rim when the buzzer sounds, only entering the net afterward.

"And the Venomous Agendas win, fifty-six to fifty-five!" the principal announces, with every VA player bursting onto the court.

"Way to go! Your first three-pointer of the season!" Heather, facing the second-string power forward, bumps her fist.

And some people in the stands, too, such as Heather's boyfriend. And Pablo as well, his backpack on his back. Once Pablo gets to Audrey at center court, with many fans still leaving the gym:

"It might be a little premature for me to tell you this, but... I love you" Pablo confesses his love to her.

"Me... too" Audrey tells him in a tired voice.

The pair proceeds to kiss each other, but the resulting kiss is a little awkward, and not the least because she kisses him in front of some of her basketball teammates, or VA fans.

However, once the kiss ends, Audrey gets some water, while Pablo waits for her at the exit of the locker room. I wonder who my football teammates are dating, or the other quiz bowlers; if Dayton can date Natalie, then surely Nadine can date, like, Ethan, the starting strong safety, maybe even Finn; some of my teammates tended to break up often. Which is why I don't worry about my teammates' dating status until I see it. However, I know not everyone on the football team hits on girls as if they were in a football game!

And yet, Pablo is blushing once she finally emerges from the locker room. He gets both packages out of his backpack.

"The time has come for me to give you my Christmas gift to you. It comes in two parts, however" Pablo then hands over both packages to Audrey.

"How cute..." Audrey then unwraps the smaller package, revealing a quart of DOT4 brake fluid.

And then comes the turn of the larger package, containing brake pads and rotors for the car they went to LQBA Winter Invitational South in. I guess better this than jewelry, flowers or chocolate; I might have understood gifting flowers if you were a gardening kind of person.

"I know enough about cars to know that you should replace the fluid at the same time as the pads and rotors, so I am sure the whole family will appreciate it, and not just you" Pablo explains to her.

"Our family didn't drive much after the tournament. Speaking of brakes, nothing will brake our love..." Audrey responds.

"And then your heart is your engine" Pablo does his best to remain in the theme of cars.

As Audrey hugs him, she feels more attuned to her own body. Her heartbeat seems to be going up for a few seconds until the hug ends. Physically speaking, he's right. My heart is my engine. And then my blood flow is my drivetrain, so I feel like my heart is doing my body's heavy lifting sometimes.

"It feels good to hug you, but we shouldn't do it for too long" Pablo whispers her.

"I understand that, sometimes, be it for quiz bowl, schoolwork, and in other areas of your life, you need to deal with other girls. However, now that we're dating, I expect you to make sure that you don't interact with other girls more than you absolutely need to"

"At least you understand it's inevitable, and not just because of quiz bowl and group projects. And the same in reverse for you. If you're worried about me cheating on you for either Lilina or Nadine, it's complicated. I feel like you might not have the same worries depending on whether you fear that I will cheat on you academically or romantically"

"You're right in that the romantic aspect must be considered separately from academic cheating. Both are damaging, and I don't need to remind you of how"

"Some of them took to romantic cheating because they feel it's their only way out of an abusive relationship, while others might feel like cheating academically because they feel their backs are against the wall" Pablo talks about what can push someone to cheat.

"The difference between you and other boys that were interested in me in the past is that you accept me for what I am, and not for what I can do for you"

Don't worry about romantic cheating, Audrey: Lilina and Nadine, while they're both smart enough for me, and likewise for a lot of the underclassmen playing football, for some reason, they feel off to me, Pablo runs down the reasons why he doesn't feel drawn to the other underclasswomen on the quiz bowl team, without going into much detail. Nadine feels... fake somehow.