At the end of regular school time, Audrey texts Pablo about the busing situation. “There are only two band members confirmed to go on the road; come here at 6 PM”

It sucks: Finn must stay home because his broken leg still hasn’t fully recovered, Malcolm is playing tonight at home, so I guess, everything will depend on who else the other six guests players can bring, Audrey starts to ruminate on who will be in the bus.

But then Heather starts writing her four essays for the UC system, until it’s time to board the bus to Lacassine, at which point everyone will do their homework.

There’s Pablo, next to whom Audrey is seated. And there are also a few of the second-string players’ love interests, or non-basketball-playing siblings. And, finally, Lilina, who attends the game out of student newspaper obligations.

“Good luck tonight!”

“Thank you, Pablo...”

About half an hour later, they arrive in Lacassine, at the other end of the parish. The VAs are in the visitors’ locker room:

“For this season, Carrie, because you mostly pass and dribble, and contribute somewhat from three, you will be playing point guard. Cora is more willing to drive to the paint to shoot, and to protect the rim, and so will play small forward in your stead!” Kent explains to the team. “Also, I know it might sound a little trite, but last season, no one could have seen VA coming, especially not since our sports budget is closer to tonight’s opponents than to Wossman’s! Finally, captaincy of the team is going to Heather!”

“Yeah, tonight’s opponents might be a class B school, but Lacassine is one of the favorites to win it all in Division V this season! Don’t underestimate them just because they play in a different division!” Audrey harangues the players before handing off to Heather.

“I made a fool of myself in AP Chemistry today because I focused too much on this game! I really hope that you will all give your all tonight, and not just because college scouts are there!” Heather shouts at her teammates.

“I hope you realize, Heather, that Audrey, you and I are all outliers in the world of high school basketball! How many college basketball players finished their high school careers with As in six APs or more?” Cora asks Heather.

“It depends on the division. It would have expected that percentage to be higher in the Ivy League and in Divisions two and three than in the rest of Division I. However, I believe it would have been higher at Power-Six schools than in mid-majors, sans Ivy League” Heather answers rather vaguely.

“Not now, Cora!” Carrie yells at Heather and Cora. “Soon it’s our turn to do our warm-ups in the court!”

“The most dangerous Cardinal is going to be Susan. Keep her off the ball as much as possible!” Kent reminds them of the basics, before they get on the court to warm up.

Meanwhile, in the Cardinals’ locker room, they sing a very different tune:

“Our priority, on defense, is to guard Heather at all times! Double-team her, especially if she’s close to the paint!” the Cardinals’ coach tells them.

“Coach, if we double-team Heather too much, we’ll be trading away one big problem for an even bigger problem! Audrey, Cora will then be able to make a run for the rim!” Susan complains.

“Then guard Heather!”

Lacassine’s principal gets into position as the VAs are in the tunnel, ready to make their entrance on the court in purple and green. With Tyler and Hugh getting in position on one side of the court.

“Tonight’s visitors, from Jefferson Davis Parish, the Venomous Agendas!” the principal announces as the VA players parade around in alphabetical order of last names.

With Lilina on Pablo’s right, and an older brother of a second-string player on Pablo’s left, he is watching the VAs’ starting five take up positions when the Cardinals get ready for the tip-off. And the scouts get seated in a separate section of the barn, out of reach of players’ parents or other players themselves.

The tip-off begins with Heather facing the opposing center, which she wins handily. Heather dribbles down the court, screened by Lacassine’s power forward. In so doing, she feels forced to pass to Audrey, who dashes towards the paint, with the Cardinals’ big attempting to block her line of shooting.

However, Audrey evades the Cardinals’ big and lays up from the other side of the rim, leaping to shoot the ball. Which narrowly misses, but Heather is already in position to catch the rebound. And yet Susan is dashing towards her, in hopes of catching the rebound.

A split-second later, the ball lands in Heather’s hands, but she is double-teamed by Susan and the Cardinals’ small forward. After stepping out of their way, sideways, she shoots a three-pointer. The ball spirals its way into the hoop, and the Cardinals’ point guard picks it up.

Dribbling the ball at full speed, the opposing point guard seems to hesitate between passing options. On the one hand, Heather seems to block the opponent’s passing line to Susan, on the other, Cora and Audrey are caught in a game of cat-and-mouse with their counterparts.

Carrie attempts to block the point guard’s line of shooting, causing her to try and find an opening. Seeing her passing options blocked, the Cardinals’ PG decides to shoot from the three. Which narrowly misses, but their power forward catches the ball close to the rim, before passing to Susan.

Damn it! [Heather] Campbell is seemingly everywhere on defense for the Venomous Agendas tonight! The Golden Bears’ scout starts taking notes on her defensive game. I came all the way to some rural school’s barn because, somehow, our previous commit at center proved to lack development and hence projected to become a marginal player, and we cut her off. However, we need a big solution that would have good enough grades and have the required talent, and bigs with a 4.0+ A-G GPA as well as power conference-caliber talent just aren’t very common. Heather is our last chance to snag that big before it’s too late!

And yet, for some reason, this game is kept close because Susan and the Cardinals’ forwards, both small and power, kept scoring, as did the VAs. Especially Heather and Audrey, who both played their best game.

Here, Cora gets fouled by the Cardinals’ big and takes an elbow hit, interfering with a mid-range jump shot, and causing her to fall. Because Lacassine commits its sixth foul of the first quarter, with a few seconds to go, and the quarter tied, Cora is awarded two free throws.

“Cora, here’s your chance to bust Lacassine’s debt ceiling!” Pablo shouts in Cora’s direction.

“Debt Ceiling! Debt Ceiling!” Lilina shouts in Cora’s direction.

The Cardinals’ fans are bewildered by VA fans even hearing the words debt ceiling at a basketball game, much less in reference to a specific player.

Debt ceiling? Why did I hear these words at a basketball game of all places? Is that my new nickname among the VAs’ fanbase? Cora seems to feel that something’s not right in her mind as she takes her first free throw of the night. Which goes in, but not without the ball spiraling into the hoop.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

During the second free throw, which is much cleaner than the first, and also goes in, some Lacassine fan questions Lilina about why the VAs would even nickname a player Debt Ceiling.

“Debt Ceiling? Never in my life would I have imagined a basketball player even being nicknamed as such...” a Lacassine fan asks from behind Lilina.

“Ballista and Carrier are other nicknames we use for other players. What makes Debt Ceiling unusual to you?” Lilina asks.

Speaking of Ballista and Carrier, Audrey blocks a shot from Susan, dribbles the ball down the court, and passes it along to Carrie when the opponents double-team her. But then Carrie shoots from downtown, narrowly misses a three-pointer.

By that point, Audrey catches the rebound, moves around the paint to shoot, with only one second left to the quarter. And... the shot goes in, bringing VA into a 4-point lead as the buzzer rings the end of the quarter.

“Now that’s my Ballista!” Pablo tells Lilina, referring to Audrey, before turning to the Cardinals fan who asked them about Debt Ceiling earlier. “Let’s say that AP US Government is Cora’s best AP course”

“Ballista as a nickname for a basketball player is one thing, but VA seems to pride itself on academics a bit too much! Are all VA players brainiacs like... Cora?”

“No. Only three you could call such”

Meanwhile, at Lacassine’s bench, the Cardinals’ coach isn’t very happy with how the quarter ended.

“By committing three fouls, you caused the Venomous Agendas to get into the bonus zone and hence take the lead! You’re benched!” the coach yells at their big, before turning to their starting power forward. “You will play down the center, guard Heather...”

“Coach, what’s the debt ceiling?” the Cardinals’ big asks, her ears ringing. “I kept hearing about it after that foul!”

“Is Debt Ceiling a codename for a player?” the starting power forward asks, clueless about federal politics.

“No. However; try to avoid fouling number twenty-three!” the coach hollers.

“I’ll tell you what the debt ceiling is after the game!” Susan tells her teammates.

We don’t need a big for next season, and hence Heather is of no interest to the Green Wave, but, for a while now, I had Audrey pegged as a walk-on. It’s a little premature to put her in scholarship territory, though, Tulane’s scout takes notes on Audrey, while Cora might have just entered what he called “walk-on territory”.

But what becomes clear is that both VA leads have seen a rise in their basketball talent over the summer and fall that can be summarized in one word: meteoric.

However, what becomes clear that, by getting their big out of play after one quarter, Lacassine only shuffled their weak spot around since the second-string power forward proves not to be that great, just with fewer fouls being charged. In turn, this made the VAs change their game, where they instead focus on blocking and the ball on defense over trying to win them over with physicality and steals. Which made the opponent take fewer free throws. More like both sides, really.

And, by half-time, it became clear that both Audrey and Heather were the primary offensive options for the VAs, while Lacassine had one good option in Susan and more “okay” ones.

Speaking of half-time, in the visitors’ locker room, Kent is visibly not the happiest camper.

“Don’t let up, ladies, this game is still wide open. However, I’m unhappy with the contribution of some of you, namely, Vanessa. For the second half of the game, you will be benched, and Tamara will take your place!”

“Yeah, it seems like the first half of this game revolves too much around Audrey and Heather!” Vanessa voices her discontent with her teammates.

“As much as you feel like the game revolves too much around me or Audrey, our opponents make the same mistake of making their game revolve too much around a few key players!” Heather vents to her teammates.

“Carrie, how does it feel to be playing point guard rather than small forward?” Audrey asks.

“I have better spacing as point guard than I ever had as small forward! And then I can contribute to the team more without feeling pressured to close in on the paint!”

And, with how tight the game remains, it seems like both sides make their starters eat massive amounts of minutes, only cycling players in and out when they show clear signs of fatigue. The intensity of the game is such that signs of fatigue accumulate faster than they would have liked.

Did I eat too many minutes for my own good? A winded, sweaty Audrey pants as she waits for the opportunity to return to the bench. And before she makes it to the bench, Lacassine’s big collides with her as the opposing big comes back to play. And attempts to block Tamara’s shot.

Yet, for some reason, there is no foul called on Lacassine’s big since she wasn’t deemed to have interfered with Tamara. A Tamara who scores her first three-pointer as a VA on the same occasion.

“Ballista, you played your best basketball tonight, but playing at that level drains you” Pablo tells Audrey from behind the VAs’ bench.

It seems like, as the fatigue levels on both sides increase, their focus decrease and they can’t seem to pass or shoot the ball as accurately as they did earlier in the game. Which means the ball gets out of bounds more often, too.

But because they could feel the intensity of the game, it keeps everyone on their seats. Even when both teams, led by Heather and Susan respectively, are trading points back and forth, alongside with the lead. Even when the players play a game of musical chairs in the fourth quarter. How much of a home advantage does Lacassine have over VA to play such a tight game? Pablo muses while he watches this relentless game of accidental out-of-bounds and substitutions play out.

And yet, after yet another fatigue-impaired pass results in the ball going out of bounds again, the VAs inbound the ball and Vanessa catches it. Vanessa dribbles down the court, and, with the clock ticking on her, leaps in the air, near the three-point line, and shoots the ball. Which leaves the shooting guard’s hands a split-second before the buzzer rings.

At that point, the ball is in its downward descent, hits the backboard and then spirals into the hoop. Much to the annoyance of the Cardinals’ fans, Vanessa scored a three-pointer of a buzzer-beater.

“And the Venomous Agendas win, sixty-eight to sixty-five!” the scorekeeper announces.

“Way to go, Vanessa!” Carrie tells her before returning to the locker room, while scouts frantically look for their respective target players.

“We all gave our all tonight!” Kent then turns to Heather. “And certainly you. Your problem, Heather, is that you tend to lose focus in the classroom on game days!”

“Fine...” Heather sighs.

The Golden Bears' scout (i.e. Berkeley's) then texts Heather before she could even shower.

"I wished we would have met under better circumstances, but unforeseen circumstances forced our hands. The good news is, you're offered a full scholarship to Berkeley. And you might even visit Berkeley, all expenses paid, but you need to notify us what works for you"

"One question: how much playing time should I expect?"

I understand that Berkeley has serious issues if they are making the effort to see me play in person with less than two weeks left for me to even apply there! Am I somehow the solution to their big problem? Yes, I played well, and I won't deny it. Especially not with 29 points and 10 rebounds. But one stellar game does not make someone a Power-6 prospect! Heather struggles to process what's happening.

"Final determination of your expected range of playing time will be contingent on how you perform during your visit!" the scout texts her.

Meanwhile, the scouts from Dartmouth and Tulane both text Audrey, while Susan is busy dealing with the W&M scout.

"On behalf of the Tulane Green Wave, I hereby extend a scholarship offer to you"

"You should also consider attending Dartmouth, too. I trust you understand the difference between playing in the Ivy League and the rest of Division I"

Obviously, colleges jockey for positional needs. Somehow I had interest from Tulane and Dartmouth but no interest from Columbia or Berkeley, even though I had better grades than Heather! I played a good game, too, also a double-double. 20 points, 10 assists. These two colleges had big problems, whereas Dartmouth and Tulane have needs on the wings. It seems like W&M has holes in the backcourt, Audrey thinks of which scout was there for whom. Susan is probably going to play for the Tribe... She was the best Cardinals player tonight. And she's also a straight-A student as well.

Once Audrey emerges from the shower and then the locker room, she takes the time to talk about her basketball future with Pablo.

“Since I have offers from Dartmouth and Tulane, maybe you should consider asking whether you can walk on at either school” Audrey asks Pablo.

“Tulane I believe they weren’t that great at my position historically. However, Dartmouth will probably give me anything remotely close to meaningful playing time. I won’t fool myself: I don’t think I can play for the Green Wave on a scholarship, I am not G-six material!”

So Audrey and Heather both went from “marginal Ivy Leaguers” to “Power-6 material” on the court... Now that’s what I call a meteoric rise! I’ll be honest: I may as well be a marginal Ivy Leaguer from a purely football standpoint! Pablo is then reminded of Tulane’s conference membership, and the American being, in football, a Group of 6 conference (a.k.a. a second-tier FBS conference) and a Power-6 in basketball.

“Here’s the deal: if you play for Dartmouth, I will try what I can to play on the Big Green. After all, FCS DI, and Divisions Two and Three don’t differ that much in football talent requirements, and I may as well give football a chance then”