The answer from Pablo’s friends is quick: most of them can’t bring food. However, Ethan might be able to.

“There’s one person who can bring food to this party. Ethan. You know him as the strong safety, and he’s dating one of my quiz bowl teammates!” Pablo answers his mother’s question about food.

“Just make sure the person bringing in food doesn’t bring in drugs as well…” Pablo’s father warns his son.

“And then… Venomous! Agendas! May my girlfriend go all the way!”

Pablo then texts the guests about not bringing in alcohol or drugs to his home tomorrow. He then goes back to studying, but at the same time, the prospect of VA taking out one of the post-pandemic powerhouses of Louisiana girls’ basketball on the road keeps him excited for tomorrow night. Especially since Audrey starts the game.

Which is what virtually everyone in town talks about tonight. Especially with a story in the parish newspaper as well as on parish radio talking about that game as if it was the quarterfinals of the March Madness. When Pablo comes up to Audrey at school…

“One more thing, Pablo. It will probably be the last time we’ll see each other before the big game” Audrey tells him, in position to kiss him.

“Speaking of the game, I want you to know that, no matter the outcome, no matter how well you played in that game, I still love you” Pablo then proceeds to kiss her.

“We’ll leave immediately after school, since Monroe is a three-hour drive from here” Audrey tells him after the kiss ends.

“Good luck then!”

But then, around dinner time, the guests start arriving. First, Ethan and Nadine arrive with a large pot containing a dish. Then come Finn, Valter, Virginie, Tyler, Dayton, Natalie and finally, George and Lilina, in that order.

Once all the guests have arrived, Pablo starts serving a warning about the latest tests.

“I’m happy I got an A on a math test for once…” Finn tells the other guests.

“Huh?” Lilina asks him, shaking her head in disbelief. “Did you get an A because the teacher saw you as being at risk of not being able to play next season?”

“While I did get help before the test, and I asked questions to the teacher by email last weekend, it’s not what you think!” Finn retorts to a Lilina who seemed to believe that the teacher gave him unfair academic advantages in the off-season.

“We can’t rely on the same tricks to keep our grades up forever. Now, if you could please excuse me, I need to talk with Ethan, Finn and Valter” Pablo addresses the football players.

Pablo then takes his football teammates who are in Algebra II to his bedroom, feeling like what Lilina told Finn might have made him uncomfortable. He closes the room’s door after all four are in the bedroom.

“I was feeling targeted! While I knew some of our football opponents did lavish academic favors of the kind Lilina was implying I got, they usually lavish such favors during the football season, and not in the off-season!” Finn voices his displeasure at Lilina’s words.

“What I’m saying is that cheating the way we did in Algebra II has its limitations. We can only help so many people during a test because only one hall pass can be issued at a time. Also, mass cheating like this should only be done as a last resort!” Pablo warns his teammates. “And we can’t keep cheating like this forever!”

“When should mass cheating be used then?” Valter asks his teammate.

“Ideally never, but it’s about how much people struggle in a subject and whether the issues would prevent someone from playing next season. Remember about no-pass, no-play!” Pablo answers Valter, with the words no-pass, no-play stinging him. And, with it, the need to maintain at least 2.0.

“But what if only one person struggles in a specific subject?” Ethan asks.

“That’s more complicated, but they should ask for help sooner than later, like Bart, whom I helped in World History with Lilina’s assistance!” Pablo answers him.

How did I become the go-to person on the football team to get help with study skills? Pablo wonders how he could tell his teammates about how to approach a test.

When they return to the living room, Ethan opens the pot full of the dish he prepared for the occasion, while Pablo tunes in on the parish’s radio station for the pre-game show. About the post-pandemic dominance of Wossman over 4A girls’ basketball, and the challenges that await the Venomous Agendas tonight in Monroe.

“Last time the Venomous Agendas got to the quarterfinals of the girls’ basketball state tournament, in 2021 during the pandemic, the modern incarnation of the VAs didn’t even exist, and the VAs were known as the Jennings Bulldogs at the time. Venomous! Agendas!” the radio commentator talks about the VAs’ basketball history. “The VAs must not rely exclusively, or even primarily, on one type of play to win tonight. However, speed will be of the essence, especially when on the defensive!”

The pot reveals an awful lot of beef udon noodles with soy sauce. He even shows the group, on his phone, the recipe as well as the soy sauce he used.

“Now you’ll know the real reason why Huiling was even nicknamed the Chinese Bridge in Pearl River!” Ethan then shows the bottle of Pearl River Bridge dark soy sauce he used to cook the noodles they eat tonight.

“First, who the hell Huiling even is?” Natalie asks him, furrowing a brow.

“She’s a Chinese foreign exchange student at Pearl River who caused us to lose a game with a buzzer-beating three-pointer! Audrey et al practiced their three-pointers in the past two days” Pablo explains to the group. “Bon appétit”

Meanwhile, in Wossman’s visitors’ locker room, several VA players shake as they know they don’t expect much out of the game.

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“Just forget about the outcome, focus only on the present moment. No matter what happens, this was fun while it lasted. By even getting here, with the anemic VA post-pandemic sports budgets, we finally gave the sports lovers in town a reason to hope!” Kent harangues the team.

“We shall show Wossman that we can win, even when we don’t have their sports budget!” Audrey shouts enthusiastically.

And, like their previous opponents, they also go by the name Wildcats. When the VA players step out of the locker room, they are treated to the pre-game announcement by Wossman’s principal.

“Welcome to the 2030 Division II Non-Select girls’ basketball state tournament quarterfinals! From Jefferson Davis Parish, the eleven seed, the Venomous Agendas, from Ouachita Parish, the one seed, the Wossman Wildcats!” Wossman’s principal announces at center court.

The local crowd goes crazy when they hear their own team name. However, unlike VA home games, where the principal only introduces the teams, along with the parish they come from, Wossman’s principal also introduces the visitors’ players in alphabetical order of their last name, along with their grade and jersey number, after introducing the team. And the players parade at center court as their names and jersey numbers are called.

Also, unlike the VAs, who don’t have a cheer squad, nor band in there, Wossman does. As the game begins… the VAs start capitalizing on the Wildcats’ overconfidence.

Back in Jennings, Pablo and his friends start eating Ethan’s stir-fried noodles, while listening to the parish radio’s broadcast of the game.

“The Venomous Agendas have the ball, Halista attempts a three-pointer… yes! The VAs are in the lead, five to two!” the parish radio commenter described Audrey’s three-pointer.

“Now that’s my Ballista!” Pablo shouts after finishing his bite of stir-fried noodles.

But then Natalie starts feeling like something’s off with Ethan’s stir-fried noodles. She doesn’t hesitate to tell him about what she really thinks of his cooking.

“It’s obvious to me that you aren’t cooking authentic Chinese cuisine!” Natalie voices her complaint.

“I didn’t expect anyone to realize that!” Ethan’s face becomes red, caught off-guard by Natalie’s comment. “How so?”

“I don’t feel like going into the details right now, beyond your choice of noodles: you obviously used udon noodles!”

“It’s still tasty food nonetheless” Pablo comments, not being as picky in his food tastes compared to Natalie.

When they finish eating the stir-fried udon noodles, the first quarter is almost over. The VAs are now trailing by three points, with less than ten seconds left to the quarter.

“Mailman steals the ball, dribbles down the court, passes to Campbell, shoots…” the radio commenter refers to Carrie and Heather by last name, in that order.

Heather jumps and shoots from behind the three-pointer line, as the buzzer rings to signal the end of the first quarter while the ball is in mid-air. As the ball is in a downward trajectory towards the basket. The ball bounces off the backboard once before entering the hoop.

“What a buzzer beater from Venomous Agendas’ Heather Campbell! Her first three-pointer of the game, tying the game!” the radio commenter continues. “Unbelievable! The VAs are tied against one of the top teams of the state, with a three-pointer like Huiling Zhang’s for Pearl River earlier this season against VA!”

“Venomous! Agendas!” Tyler keeps shouting after the radio commenter has done.

“Way to go, Carrier! You made Heather score that three-pointer!” Pablo adds.

“That’s a far tighter game than I expected from the VAs going up against Wossman!” Ethan exclaims. “I expected the VAs to be blown out like crazy!”

Wossman’s last game was played against an opponent VA won against earlier this season: Eunice, the 16 seed. Although the Eunice game was close, VA had two issues as a team in the regular season: its lack of effort consistency, and its overreliance on getting close to the hoop on the offense, Pablo reflects on what has changed for them in the regular season vs the playoffs. And starts praying for Audrey to keep playing her best during the game. Or perhaps it’s because, in the playoffs, less playing time is given to second-string players.

Meanwhile, Tyler and Virginie perform their tunes for the Spring concert, and everyone listens to them while the VAs keep playing their game against Wossman on the road. As background music, really, as they use the game to relax. To the extent that’s feasible when the VAs are fighting tooth-and-nail in the second quarter and both teams make substitutions. Knowing that both teams need rested players to finish the game strong.

By half-time, however, Wossman is in the lead, 29-28. It’s not over, however, this reminds Pablo of his own English exam earlier this week.

“George, Nadine, I wonder how you answered the essay question in English about overemphasis of sports in high school…” Pablo asks the guests he knows are in tenth grade English.

“Personally, I’d say that VA is much more balanced than what I’ve seen in our opponents, and even our opponents’ athletic expenses don’t even come close to the Texan excesses” George answers him. “Athletic mediocrity might be an acceptable price to pay since school personnel tends to put more effort into quiz bowl and mathletics”

“There are people who might have dropped out if not for sports. Yes, VA is perhaps the most competitive academic environment out of almost every non-magnet school in the state, and certainly the most competitive in southwest Louisiana. However, I left that out because I didn’t feel like the teacher wanted us to lean on our personal experiences that much, and that was a topic that was personal to us” Nadine follows that up.

“Make no mistake, while, in a place like this, the school is the focal point of the community’s cultural life, this place doesn’t seem to care about the arts much, except maybe to the extent that arts could help non-athletes get into college, and even then…” Virginie explains herself. “That said, cutting arts are a no-go since arts can still fulfill an important role”

The third quarter begins, and both teams are out in force. The quiz bowlers start studying from additional quiz bowl sets, such as collegiate sets, with Nadine branching into history and science, and Lilina doing the same, but with literature and the arts, believing that, at their level, it’s best to have at least some knowledge in other areas outside of what were hitherto their quiz bowl specialties. And George is also part of this study session; however, he never laid his eyes on a quiz bowl packet before.

“Why is it that some parts of the questions are bolded, and others aren’t?” George asks Lilina about the structure of tossups.

Lilina then goes on to explain to him about tossups and bonuses, while Pablo’s ears perk up upon hearing Halista again, as the whistle is blown.

“Halista pushed the Wildcats’ ball carrier to her fall…” the radio commenter tells the audience, while the Wildcat is getting back up, a little in pain.

Ouch… even if Audrey successfully prevented the opponent from shooting, the opponent must inbound the ball, Pablo muses as he then resumes his studying of past quiz bowl packets alongside Lilina and Nadine.

Fast-forward to the last few seconds of the game, where everyone stops what they’re doing up to this point. And, somehow, the VAs lead by a measly two points. With Charlotte dribbling her way to where she feels comfortable shooting, she gets the ball stolen by the Wildcats.

“Drat! They stole the ball!” Kent tells his players on the bench.

Carrie and Heather both chase Wossman’s ball carrier, hoping to steal the ball from her, or to block the ball after she throws it, respectively. However, with the VAs’ pressure mounting on the Wildcats’ ball carrier, she feels compelled to go for the three-pointer. From the center court line, no less. As she takes the shot, the ball is in the upward flight and the buzzer rings as the ball hits the hoop.

The Wildcats’ crowd goes crazy as the ball’s downward spiral makes it through the net. However, the VAs realize, judging by their heads being down, that they lost, once again, to a three-pointer not unlike Huiling’s earlier this season.

“And… it’s over. All because of a buzzer-beater in the last quarter, and it could have been us playing in the semis!” Kent harangues his players, whose heads are hunched.

“We came within a three-pointer of upsetting Wossman! No use playing the blame game, we all played our best tonight!” Taylor tries to console some devastated VA players.