Pablo ends up studying a good fraction of the night, as he waits for his teammates to get back to him for transportation information. And not only that, but he makes a grim realization as he studies for the test. I think it's best for me to keep quiet about quiz bowl at school until this tournament ends, or else I'd be paying an implicit cost I'm not ready to bear yet. I won't be able to hide quiz bowl any longer once I attend the LQBA Fall Invitational South!
Speaking of social studies, the teacher announces the following at the beginning of the World History course:
"Next class, we will have a quiz on the Age of Discovery and the Renaissance" the World History instructor announces to the class. "This unit ends roughly with the founding of Jamestown as far as this course is concerned, so we're going to cover the late stages of the Age of Discovery today"
In class, they cover the Dutch, English and French wanting in on the New World, since they feel left out of the loop by Portugal and Spain. And they also started playing the colonization game later, too. Also, religious matters were part of the rivalries between these five countries, and several religious wars were fought during the Renaissance.
"On the topic of religious wars in Europe, wasn't the Mayflower's voyage a consequence of these?" a student asks, hand raised.
"You're about a week in advance"
Hehe: now I have an opportunity to take in as much material as possible in this area of history! Pablo furiously takes notes on the topics of the major events of the late stages of the Renaissance, as well as the motivations to go from exploring and staking claims on new lands, and then colonizing them.
"Knowing what happened in Europe and in the Americas during this period is one thing, but what happened elsewhere in the world during that timeframe? Especially since the Portuguese and the Spanish encountered peoples elsewhere" Pablo asks about another facet of the Age of Discovery he feels could come up in quiz bowl.
On that topic, he briefly mentioned that China and Korea were locked into war against the Japanese during that time (Imjin War) and the Age of Discovery planted the seeds of European domination over other parts of the world, but no more than that.
"Let's backtrack a bit. Last week you talked about the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation; what made wars of religion so virulent?" yet another student asks in class.
"We have a lot of ground to cover, but the short answer is that, in the Christian world, the Church provided public services back then that would today fall under government services, such as education, healthcare and public assistance"
"Is this going to be on the test?" one of those annoying students asks the teacher.
"Yes, as would any other question asked by the students in class whose answer is relevant to understanding the material"
That student might not be the most motivated in the world, but a lot of students keep quiet, with the questions being dominated by two camps: those who are struggling and those who are not satisfied with what's said in the lecture.
Once the lecture ends, and the bell rings, Pablo doesn't hesitate to text his B-team quiz bowl teammates, all of them asking to have lunch together. And Audrey, too, because he knows she has the same World History instructor, but is on the A-team.
They all wait in line, lunch money at the ready, to get their lunches and then eat around the same table. It's around the lunch table that Audrey reveals that she has brought some of her own Halloween candy leftovers for the B-team to eat.
"Audrey, you shouldn't have!" Pablo tells her upon receipt of the candy.
"Two nights ago, you gave me, and your parents, some painkillers..." Audrey tells Pablo, but is interrupted by Pablo.
"Painkillers? I didn't give you painkillers when we completed the AP Bio group project!" Pablo vehemently protests. "I gave you coffee!"
"And yet, drinking coffee that night did help relieve the pains from basketball practice!" Audrey explains why she even talked about painkillers. "I owe you for that night, and I'm just repaying that favor"
"Ballista, do you always drink coffee as a painkiller?" Nadine asks the basketball player.
I wonder if Nadine started calling me Ballista in a quiz bowl context because of me playing basketball or because of my last name... Audrey starts wondering, while having her mouth full of the candy she brought for everyone.
"Even though it's for a tenth-grade course, I feel like other quiz bowlers on the B-team could benefit from reviewing for our World History quiz on Friday" Pablo, in a desire to make back for what he views as poor performance at the previous practice, decides to turn this lunchtime into an impromptu practice.
For Lilina, as the history and social studies player on the B-team, this amounts to a refresher, but then stuff comes up none came across other than on a quiz bowl packet: the Treaties of Tordesillas and Zaragoza, the witch hunts, the specifics of the complaints levied against the Church by Martin Luther, the Ottoman wars in Eastern Europe, and so on, so forth. Yet most of the review seems to be factual in nature...
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
"As much as playing quiz bowl is about answering questions devoid of context, we all know that short-answer questions, on class quizzes and tests, might require you to explain your answer, and use relationships between concepts" Audrey explains to her fellow quiz bowlers, feeling that something is wrong.
"So why did European kings seek new routes to the Indies?" Pablo asks his teammates.
"The closure of the Silk Road's overland route" Lilina answers.
"Which was caused by the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453" Nadine adds to this conversation.
And, in the limited time they have left to eat, the five quiz bowlers exchange information about Renaissance arts, literature, and scientific discoveries, the role of the Council of Trent in the Christian Counter-Reformation... at which point Pablo asks a question about getting to the LQBA Fall Invitational South.
"I wonder whose parents will drive us to the tournament" Pablo asks his teammates. "My parents won't, and we will need to leave this town by five AM the day of the tournament"
The cat is now out of the bag. I hope that, by showing that I'm proactive, I can win my teammates' respect, and that I can actually get some progress made towards both the World History quiz and the stated objective of scoring at least one tossup per game, Pablo ruminates as the other 3 quiz bowlers ask their parents via text messages if they can drive the team to Metairie on November 17.
"Sorry, but we won't get an answer until tonight" Gerard points out to him.
"I get it, your parents are busy right now. However, better get an answer before it's too late" Pablo is left wondering when will the other 3 get back to him.
However, another of his football teammates has something to ask of him about the World History quiz in the hallway, one period later:
"Pablo, it's about the World History quiz on Friday" the second-string center comes to him.
"Let me guess... you want to sit next to me for the quiz? Or is it about studying?" a puzzled Pablo asks the center, whom he knows isn't the best at social studies.
"Studying? Is this quiz cumulative?"
"No. Just Renaissance and the Age of Discovery"
I wonder if anyone else would let me sit next to them for the quiz that I can trust, the center starts thinking of various people in their section and who could let him cheat. And that the scope of the quiz is narrow enough to make his own studying more precise. Then again, I don't want to sit next to the same person over and over.
"And yet, we're supposed to support each other, on and off the field!" the center retorts, wondering what's best for him.
"You might want to read a variety of sources; the best ones cover a specific topic within that time period" Pablo gives him a hint to study. "And don't hesitate to ask questions to other people you know, including but not limited to the teacher, or even me"
Ouch. During the football season, that guy always sat at the back of the room in tests, Pablo feels dread just thinking about who the center could possibly ask to sit next to. Now I think I have a better idea of what forms these implicit costs take. I'm sure Nadine, Lilina and Gerard are used to paying these costs. And probably Audrey, too. At the same time, is getting closer to Audrey, or even to college, via quiz bowl, really worth all that I'm enduring right now? I can't rely on football alone, but was quiz bowl the right choice? She might be a nice girl, or otherwise appreciate that I'm proactive with her, it's just a little early.
Once again, Pablo feels like he has a lot on his mind, and, as he gets his homework done that day, he just wants to vent the pressure he already feels before the first tournament begins.
"You put yourself far too much pressure on a world history quiz!" Pablo's mom warns him. "Or even your first quiz bowl tournament!"
"I'm not sure quiz bowl is for me, honestly. Before I started playing quiz bowl, I didn't feel the pressure to get good in class, much less to feel like people could start cheating on me in tests and quizzes!" Pablo complains about his predicament.
"Don't give up on quiz bowl yet! You can't base your opinion of the game only on practices and how your life at school has changed!" Pablo's mom sermons him.
"You asked me to see the season through; how am I to do so if I can't earn my teammates' respect! Playing on the quiz bowl team comes with its own set of academic and social pressures I don't have in football!" Pablo keeps screaming.
And I was never made to feel like I had to supply others with cheating, but I wonder if Audrey was made to feel that way, too... she's the one whose absence from this tournament made me play quiz bowl, she'd probably have a better idea of whether it's just me or it's common across quiz bowlers, Pablo then storms away from his mom and then proceeds to call Audrey about how he feels about his early days as a VA quiz bowler.
"Audrey, there's something seriously wrong with me. These past few days, it has gotten so much unhealthier than just a panic attack during practice, and I'm confused about something specific"
"What is it now?" the basketball player asks him, not sure to pinpoint the issue.
"Is it normal for quiz bowlers to feel like others decide where they sit in the room for tests based on where you sit?"
"Yes. The problem, Pablo, is that, by playing on the quiz bowl team, you're thrown into a world that's foreign to you. That was why you weren't my first choice for the reserve" Audrey retorts.
Damn it, I guess Natalie was her first choice to fill in for her on the quiz bowl team, but why did she have to tell me I wasn't her first choice now? Pablo ruminates and doesn't realize that he is doing it constantly by now.
"What do you mean, it's a world I'm unprepared for?" a confused Pablo asks her. "As a football player, people cared a lot more about my playing ability and only cared about my grades to the extent they determined whether I was able to play!"
"For all these years, you might occasionally have been able to get good grades, especially when football isn't in season. Good enough to be allowed to take AP Bio, remember?"
"I was able to fly under the academic radar until now because of my football position! I could get good grades, like you said, but without having my social identity tied to these! No one outside of maybe other footballers would have asked me to help them cheat on a test!"
"The difference being that I was known as a smart girl among the town's kids even before middle school, so being asked for help and even cheating regularly is natural to me. You, on the other hand, while you're much closer to me than to..."
"Yeah, I know, the DT and the DE"
"If I had to make a guess, I'd say you aren't in the top ten percent, but definitely in the top quarter of the class. Sometimes you have no choice but to answer their calls for aid" Audrey warns him.
"By now you know how intense the pressure is to conform to a certain image as a quiz bowler, and you're implying you fit it from the get-go"
"Next time, Pablo, that someone asks for help in class, just take it easy and do so to the best of your ability. Now, you should resume your studying for the LQBA Fall Invitational South"