The day before the VAs’ football season opener, played at home against Church Point, Pablo meets up with Audrey at lunchtime.

“Because the season opener means a lot to me, Audrey, I bought you a student section ticket for tomorrow night’s football game”

“How sweet of you!” Audrey tells him.

“One more thing: how far along the AP US Government project is your team in?”

“One of my teammates is dragging his feet. And you?”

“Cora is the one dragging her feet. Granted, the project isn’t due until two months, but I guess, the whole debt ceiling dispute cut into her morale…”

I guess, I’m lucky that no single item on our project resulted in disputes with my team, Audrey keeps the electronic ticket active on her cell phone.

“About the game, how do you feel about it?” Audrey asks him.

“A little nervous, especially with the new running backs and wide receivers. Then again, people are often nervous in their debuts at a new level of play, so if anyone else is more nervous than I, it would be them”

“I won’t pretend to know how good is Church Point in football…”

However, the most fanatic of VA sports fans would have known a while ago that biennial redistricting affects the sports schedules. Like Kinder, who is often teetering on the edge between 2A and 3A, is played next week. On the other hand, Washington-Marion isn’t going to be played this year since it moved up to 4A.

Since the football season opener begins before the math season, the townsfolk seems to focus on football until the math season opener, later this month, too. So while a lot of people at school seem to be talking about the game, Pablo confronts Cora while she’s with Malcolm, right before the bell rings:

“Hey Cora, have a minute?” Pablo asks her.

“What is it now, Pablo? We didn’t talk much lately...” Cora feels a little annoyed.

“It seems like you have been dragging your feet, and we promised each other that we’ll finish the AP US Government project by the football season opener. Yet tonight, we are playing Church Point! Everyone else has finished their parts!” Pablo scolds the small forward.

“What happened?” Malcolm asks her, not knowing about the project in that course, which makes Cora turn to him.

“Pablo kept arguing about the abolition of the debt ceiling. It’s not that he hasn’t done anything though, since wetlands protection, energy and agriculture were his part of the deal. Mine was about stuff such as the preservation of the Calcasieu River Bridge as well as the cleanup of the Calcasieu River...” Cora then turns to Pablo. “Fine... I’ll complete that after school, but don’t help me with that please!”

On Friday night, just before the pre-game, Pablo reviews what Cora did the night before. She cited just how important the Lake Charles port is for the state, as well as the economic impact of Interstate 10 on the region, but also the impact of cleaning up the Calcasieu River for the parish residents’ water quality.

And it seems like a lot of players brought their girlfriends to the game. Of course, the trio of Audrey, Lilina and Nadine winds up going, and Cora, too, but Cora stays away from Pablo.

“Good luck tonight!” Audrey comes to him before Pablo goes to the VAs’ locker room of the Simmons stadium.

“Venomous! Agendas!” Pablo shouts in front of his girlfriend before kissing her.

When the pre-game starts, all players are positioned in front of a board filled with Xs and Os. The head coach harangues the players:

“It has been years since VA last played Church Point. But so much has changed since then. They must be thinking that our offense is weak and they might give more play time to their second-string defense players! Make no mistake: we can’t repeatedly do one kind of play tonight! Our only hope of winning lies in making ourselves as unpredictable as possible!”

“And it’s not because we operate in the most competitive academic environment in south-west Louisiana that we can’t play football!” Ethan points out.

“Go forth, and fear no tackle! Venomous! Agendas! Venomous! Agendas!” the defensive coordinator yells at the team before Tyler, Hugh and the others take up positions near the VAs’ entrance to the field.

Speaking of the field, even though the majority of the people in the stands are VA fans, it seems like the families and love interests of the Church Point players are attending, too. Notwithstanding that some of the players’ family and love interests are either in band or cheerleading.

The principal then announces the visitors as they’re about to enter the field of the stadium, lining up in uniform.

“Welcome to the opening game of this football season at the Jerry Simmons stadium in Jennings! Tonight’s visitors, the Church Point Bears!”

The visitors have enough band members and cheerleaders to make this game feel less of a home game than would otherwise be the case. Especially since VA cut cheerleading during the pandemic and hence only have a band on hand.

“Please welcome your Venomous Agendas!” The principal announces again, with the band members in position.

When the VA players take to the field, also wearing the purple and green, they make an orderly entrance with music.

Since the football team’s previous national anthem singer graduated last season, this season, they designate another player to do so.

“Fine, since no one else will sing the national anthem, I will!” Orson sighs.

The head coach then fetches a mic from the press box. After being handed the mic from the coach, Orson reluctantly signs the national anthem in front of thousands of spectators, delivering an unremarkable performance.

Once the mic is back in the press box, the coin toss takes place and the VAs start the game on the offense. Orson takes up position behind the running back, while Pablo, on the other hand, is on George’s right, standing ready to step in and either run like the wind or tackle either a cornerback or the strong safety. The quarterback calls the play…

Oh boy… rather than to be the one catching the ball, I must protect the wide receiver on my right, Pablo muses while the game starts and much of the offensive line is simply looking to smash the opposing defense.

The quarterback’s time is short since the opposing defense is looking to sack him and, in a desperate attempt to avoid being sacked, passes the ball to his right. Which leads both Pablo and the right WR to try getting to the ball as it flies in the air.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

In so doing, the opposing strong safety tackles not Pablo, whom he narrowly misses, but the wide receiver on his right. Which forces Pablo to dash towards the ball and away from the strong safety and the cornerback.

With the ball on a downward descent, both Pablo and the left cornerback are drawn to the ball like moths to a flame. However, in a split second, Pablo closes in on the ball, the opposing cornerback closing in on him.

And… Pablo stretches his arms, hoping to get to the ball before the opposing cornerback does. At the speed the two have been dashing towards the ball, and closing towards the field’s edge, any impact is going to be painful.

“Venomous! Agendas!” the crowd hollers as the spectators attempt to encourage him.

The ball almost slips out of Pablo’s hands, but once he catches the ball, he firmly grips it as he makes a side leap. And yet, somehow, the side leap he takes to get to the pigskin forces him to crouch on it.

And crashes on the opposing cornerback, causing both players to collide with such force that Pablo feels the need to clutch the ball to avoid fumbling it.

Now that’s a gain in yards that will make me need some painkillers soon enough… Pablo reels in from the pain incurred by this play, which feels like being hit.

“Now that’s what I call a painful play!” Audrey comments on the play, which made the VAs gain enough yards to get to a first down.

“This cornerback is so toast!” Carrie adds as the Bears switch cornerbacks for this play.

But the subsequent plays don’t meet with the same gains in yardage compared to this one. The VAs suspect the opponent will be much warier in defending against the pass, and pull the strong safety further back. Which makes the VAs try rushing this time around, now that the Bears are splitting the backfield into four coverage zones, as opposed to three on the previous play.

Three downs in, the VAs appear to still have some way to go to get another first down and, hopefully, score the first touchdown of the game. Damn it, we are fourth and 3. We must fight tooth and nail to gain these 3 yards, George muses while the offensive coordinator would rather try for a field goal from 20-odd yards than to attempt a much riskier TD.

Huh? A surprised Valter tries to contain his surprise at the team attempting a field goal, while the opposing team deploys its returner by the goal line.

For this play, both Orson and the running back are replaced by the kicker and the long snapper, so the kick can be made.

The audience watches in apprehension the field goal being attempted for three points, and the ball narrowly clears the goalposts.

“The Venomous Agendas scored the first field goal of the night! They are now up three-nothing!” the principal yells into the PA system.

“Venomous! Agendas!” the crowd keeps hollering. “Venomous! Agendas!”

But with VA now on the defense, Finn et al are now led to believe that the opposition will go for the touchdown at any cost, since a field goal would only tie the game.

“Here’s our chance to make the Bears commit mistakes on the offense! Even though it’s early in the game, they will be tempted to produce a touchdown by any means necessary!” Finn tells his teammates.

VA attempts to go for the sack, which makes Finn go down the center, rather than being at one end of the defensive line. Especially since the defensive coordinator feels like Finn offers the VAs the best chance to plow through the Bears’ offensive line right where they need to.

“Sack that quarterback!” Carrie yells in Finn’s direction.

The play begins and the Bears’ offensive line is split in two by the sheer force of Dayton and Finn crashing into it. Ethan attempts to sneak past the fractured offensive line to get behind the opposing quarterback. However, all this has accomplished is to get the opposing QB to panic and throw the ball erratically.

Richard then rushes towards the ball, but in the end, the Bears’ left wide receiver narrowly catches it, only to be tackled by Malcolm about two seconds later down the opponent’s route.

Ouch. This attempt to sack the quarterback cost us a couple of yards… not to mention a first down, Bart feels like the defensive play was too risky for what it brought them.

“What a fizzle! Dayton and Finn gave us the opportunity to sack the quarterback, but the linebackers were unable to capitalize on that opening in their O-line!” Audrey is made to feel like the VAs’ defense has no more depth than its offense does.

Fixated on this idea of having to score a touchdown at any cost, the opponent not only makes mistakes, but also forces the VAs’ to commit some of their own.

Yet, this football game remains tight. And people are kept on the edge of their seats when they keep seeing attempt at rushing that are cut short by a tackle on either side’s running backs, or even near-misses on passing plays.

By half-time, the team returns to the locker room, while the band performs the fight song. The Church Point fans in the crowd noticed that VA is a little underwhelming when it comes to the “side shows” that so many have come to expect from football games. Under the form of cheerleading, band and other forms of entertainment.

“That was a tight game, keep it up! We might still be able to win. To do so, however, we need to keep our tendency to go for the flashiest plays under control!” the head coach warns the players.

“Sure, a play can’t always succeed, and each play failing, individually, is usually not a big deal, but not all plays are made equal. Plowing through a defensive, or offensive, line is one thing, but even with a running back by committee approach, there’s only so much risk we can take with rushing plays!” the offensive coordinator complains.

“And same goes of passing plays, too!” Valter comments, realizing there’s an intrinsic risk associated with passing plays, or even the choice of a rushing vs passing play.

“With that said… Venomous! Agendas! Venomous! Agendas!” Pablo shouts before drinking from the water fountain.

By the end of the fourth quarter, once again, the VAs find themselves in a position where they can force the Bears to commit to a touchdown. Speaking of the Bears, their head coach called for a timeout with less than a minute left to the game.

“The Venomous Agendas are in the lead, seventeen to fourteen. We are on fourth and five, we need to go all-in and try for the Hail Mary to win!” the Bears’ head coach then formulate a plan to beat the VAs at their game, while they are still 36 yards out.

Meanwhile, the VAs feel like the opponent will try to take as much risk as they can to get that one touchdown they so desperately need.

“Ethan, I have the feeling the opponent has no choice but to go for the pass; they know it’s much more difficult to gain thirty-six yards with a rushing play than with a passing play. So for this one play, I want you to get as close as you can to the goal line, and same goes of Malcolm, but I want you two on each side of the goal post!” the defensive coordinator instructs the two safeties.

And, as the timeout ends, play resumes and the opposing quarterback throws the ball well past the line of scrimmage. This causes the Bears’ wide receivers to dash to try to receive it.

By then, however, the VAs’ safeties move into action, but Richard underestimated the distance the ball would travel and doesn’t quite get the intercept course right. However, he readjusts his trajectory to try to throw his assigned wide receiver off his game.

Come on, Malcolm, intercept the pass! Pablo prays for his teammate’s success as the ball flies inexorably closer to the goal line.

Speaking of the ball, it forces the opposing wide receivers to change their routes and not just because of the pressure the cornerbacks have been exerting on them. And yet, somehow, the opposing WR closest to it still closes in on the ball.

Malcolm dashes towards where he feel the ball is most likely to fall, and the clock is ticking in on everyone on the field. Come on… he starts ruminating as he leaps to catch the ball. With two seconds left on the clock.

The free safety, however, must contend with the opposing wide receiver as he makes the leap towards the ball. With one second left to the clock, he barely manages to catch the ball on its downward trajectory. However, he manages to do it one… one yard away from the goal line.

With less than a second left to the game, he runs away from the goal line, avoiding opposing players, until the whistle blows to signal the end of the game.

“With a spectacular last-second, last-yard interception from Malcolm Robertson, the Venomous Agendas win tonight’s game against the Church Point Bears, seventeen to fourteen!” the principal announces to the crowd.

Speaking of the crowd, the VA fans get on the field, while the Church Point ones make their exit, their heads down and feeling that Malcolm stole the game from them.

The team has a debriefing in the locker room a few moments later, especially with the rookie wide receiver and running backs:

“You now have a better idea of what it takes to play at the varsity level. It’s going to be rough, make no mistake! And it’s more than just being able to anticipate what changes to a route are needed based on the ball or the opposing players either!” the offensive coordinator tells the rookies.

“Yeah, don’t go around thinking that every game will play out like this!” Pablo warns them, as he does Malcolm.

A few minutes later, after the players shower and put their equipment away in their bags, the players meet with their love interests, at least those who actually attended the game. Including but not limited to Audrey and Cora.

“Bravo Malcolm, that was an interception for the ages!” Cora congratulates him. At the exit of the locker room.

“You played well, too!” Audrey hugs Pablo.