Having barely returned from Chicago, where Trent's stepsister appeared a little troubled by the intensity at which her country town threw themselves behind her, that already rumors are circulating regarding the roster of the football team as of the mathletics team. At this stage, we only have three certainties: Geneviève, Krista and Marcia. But everyone in town knows that, as much as these three students form the spearhead to defend their state title on the Square Root of the Answer, a fourth player having the potential to learn single-variable calculus in four months and learning multi-variable calculus concurrently is required. And what about the Math Madness, the Purple Comet or the AMC12?
At the same time, the first practice session for the football team is held and certain positions will be watched tightly, such as the tight end who must be replaced after Dylan's graduation, the long snapper, to name only the positions that Geneviève acknowledges having known their previous holders personally.
"We have so much to catch up for the summer! How has it been in Chicago?" Marcia asks while Randy approaches.
"I have had more contact with the graduate students than the undergraduates. But, if the people at the YSP camp are an indication of with whom I will be spending four years in Chicago, I think that I will like, notwithstanding that Chicago isn't any windier than here. That said, one of the students claimed I had lead feet" Gen answers Marcia.
"What do you mean, you have lead feet? You never got a ticket as far as I know!" Randy comments, surprised by this claim.
"The most advanced at the camp also took part in the Square Root of the Answer, but if, to the eyes of this student that claimed that my proverbial foot was made of lead, doing multi-variable calculus in eleventh grade could still pass, solving PDEs in open air was tantamount to curricular speeding. Nevertheless, everyone had a sincere interest towards the world of mathematics, there weren't really students that sought to do intensive padding without regard for the material"
"If I told you that I will take calculus BC... you are an inspiration for us all, and we shouldn't fear the material" Randy announces.
"Me too" Cory adds.
"When I first knew you, you were lost in the material. What do you want now, play football or being on the math team?" Gen asks Cory.
"Being on the math team"
"Let me make that clear, Cory: I don't want to see you play on the team just so you can date me, or because your dad is a booster of the team! You know exactly what it takes to be able to defend our state title on the Square Root of the Answer, and you know how tall the order is! If you want to be part of the Venomous Agendas' glory, proudly wear the purple and the green in competition, you will need to pull your weight!"
"Last year, I had my best academic year in my life, and for the first time I got an A in a mathematics course! Why stop?" Cory asks her.
Elsewhere on campus, Krista appeared to be a little lost; after all, her only visit of the area seems to have been around the stadium, and not in the academic building itself. The two most followed teams in town draw the public's attention, wanting to know who the public's darlings for the upcoming season will be in the case of mathematics, or if there is a sliver of hope to recover from this disastrous 1-9 season for football. But she finds her way around with Marcia as a guide, and all these people find themselves in a room that's too small for the number of candidates for the team, therefore a second room is required to accommodate the remaining students.
"Please tick the box on the cover page of the diagnostic pre-test if you wish to be considered for the Square Root of the Answer. The second part is reserved for this purpose. If you do not want to be considered for the Square Root of the Answer, you may leave after the end of the first part..." Trent announces.
"Sir, the competition you call the Square Root of the Answer is now called the Vans Math Contest! Vans became the primary sponsor of this competition and not just because of its logo! It hasn't changed anything to the contest's content..." Cory announces in the middle of the instructions.
"The first part contains a mixture of questions from past editions of the AMC-twelve and the most difficult questions of the first part will give you an idea of what to expect from the AIME. The second part contains questions covering content that will be important to understand the material of the calculus BC course as well as the material of multi-variable calculus. If we were anywhere else in the state, I would tell you not to worry about multi-variable calculus before the second half of the year, but since we are the reigning champions, I believe that seeing single-variable and multi-variable material simultaneously will help us a little bit when the time comes to think about the final, especially for the new players. I will warn you, there will be cuts before we get to the final roster and, in a few days, we will know who will defend the state title at the Vans Math Contest! And with whom we'll start the Math Madness season"
I feel like I will dread this year... there are so many things to think about, college applications, the mathletics team, the student newspaper, and my 4 advanced placement courses! I think I will have enough to last me for a lifetime! All this will overwhelm me, and I must avoid burning myself at both ends! Gen thinks, while these parasitic thoughts resurface! Yet, when she can push them aside, the answers flow by themselves, and for both parts of the diagnostic test. The target size for the Vans MC is 5-6 people, and the remainder will take part in the other competitions, with the roadmap that prioritizes the Math Madness and the AMC12 for fall, and the Purple Comet for winter.
During the first meeting of the team, two days later, Trent begins the session with cuts. Unsurprisingly, the three senior girls qualify for all parts, but the two boys that qualify for the VMC take everyone by surprise. Everyone in town saw in Cory a boy that needed his father's involvement as a booster to make the team, but the greatest surprise is not Cory, but Vontae. Vontae never attended the team's practices last year, he kept radio silence if he was part of the collective pre-calculus study sessions last year in which Dylan and Randy dragged me. But if he performed well in pre-calculus, I will not hold it against him; for each calculus BC section, there is at least four, or even six pre-calculus sections. For Cory, the ACT served as a warning to him and he started working harder in class; on top of that, I gave him an exposure to the mathematics of the VMC, that he found amusing at first. I wonder if there will be a new tiebreaker round this year, which will act as the « true » final, Geneviève thinks, while, after the cuts, she reads the disappointment of some in their faces.
"If you have been cut from the team, do not let that discourage you from mathematics! I know it from experience, what it takes to succeed in competition does not carry the same demands as succeeding in class! Maybe less so in the VMC, but just to give you an idea, the first round of the VMC means taking the AP Calculus BC Exam in January, and, if applicable, the final amounts to taking a multi-variable calculus final in college one week before the actual AP Calculus BC exam. What the other contests on the menu emphasize is problem solving speed, granted, increasing in complexity, while, in class, we don't emphasize speed as much as in mathletics" Gen tries to calm down the students who were cut.
"Going back to what Geneviève said, I know that some of you decided to take part to the mathletics team tryouts in an attempt to get their time under the social spotlight. This applies to so many things in life, we must not feel like doing X activity on a whim, or under peer pressure" Trent warns the remaining mathletes.
"Last year I saw the members of the team, especially those taking part in the Square Root of the Answer, being treated like kings out of class. They were adulated by everyone in town..." Marcia adds.
They don't doubt that the school's big two mathletic rivals jointly challenged the math team for the pre-season. (The parish's other high schools play in another division of interscholastic sports and therefore cannot develop an athletic rivalry with the VAs) By doing so, even if it represents a mathematical David vs Goliath, for the three teams involved, the first pre-season meet forces everyone to get down to business.
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"Here are some unexpected news: our main two rivals, the one in our parish as well as the one in the neighboring parish, want to organize, next week, a back-to-school challenge. Personally, I believe it's better that all three of you be kept in reserve should things go awry" Trent announces while he designates the three girls that are groomed to be the VMC's stars.
"Is that it?" Vontae points out with sarcasm in his voice. "Last year, no one within a hundred kilometers took these contests seriously! The town may adulate us, but I don't think people want to see us take a long-answer test. This means it's not going to be a proof contest"
"I believe the Math Madness format is more appropriate, in which case there will be eight short-answer questions in thirty minutes, and the audience can blurt all the answers, good or bad. If a tiebreaker is necessary, we can move into calculus" Trent adds his beliefs.
With the pre-season game announcement between three high schools of the region, representing two adjacent rural parishes, Cory wastes no time to advertise this game on social and community media, and to add in a loose change collection. To transform this event, called the Mathematical Duel of the Parishes, in a fundraiser for the math team. Will they be there to watch me, or will they let the other mathletes have their place under the spotlight? I was under the municipal spotlight for the second half of last season, the team will have no long-term viability if we don't give a chance to the others to play in front of the crowd! I know that some will secretly wish that we get to the tiebreaker, here as well as in the neighboring parish, but for different reasons. For the Venomous Agendas fans, it's the chance to see their darling in action once again; for the neighboring parish, whose only fans in attendance will be the participants' families, it represents a chance to show that they have what it takes to play in the major leagues. However, on a football level, nothing is less certain. Some claimed that Dylan was the only good player to have graduated last June, but what allows them to say that the new players will be better than those who graduated? Geneviève thinks, while benching the three multi-variable calculus girls represents a handicap for the Venomous Agendas in the Duel of the Parishes.
It has to be said, the team of the neighboring parish has even obtained reinforcements in Annette and Trevor, the two ex-teammates of Krista, so that it's more « the town's B-team » vs « the stars of the rest of the region » at the beginning. In the meantime, she starts filling out the Common Application, starting with the basic information, such as identity, contact information, demographics, family, tests, grades and so on. All the parts to which she can respond without complication are sone, but she puts her essays on hold, knowing that it's everything that can cause complications. Especially regarding the University of Chicago, whose second essay can make people squirm.
For the Mathematical Duel of the Parishes, which is staged in a full house, the duel begins with an introduction of the teams in presence, in alphabetical order of the institutions they come from. Never would I have gotten such a treatment in my institution of origin; the school neglected us, we were entitled to nothing more than the extracurriculars directory! Annette thought while she walks in front of the crowd, without realizing that they don't represent the entirety of the team of the other parish's school represented here, and the majority of the representatives of the other parish effectively attend its school.
Both start booing Krista when they can see her on stage, but the boos allow to determine who are the Concepts' fans. Or, at any rate, the few Concepts fans (i.e., the fans of the Venomous Agendas' in-parish rivals) there were, who accepted to pay $7 to attend on the first row. Oh... here are all the Concepts fans that have any actual interest towards the mathletics team! They are obviously mad at me! They believe I betrayed them! I must know them all by name during the past three years spent as a Concept! Krista thinks while walking across the stage under the boos.
"Here are the rules: we ask the question, we give thirty seconds to answer, and both teams must answer, with a correct answer being worth a certain number of points described in the question. If, at the end of the round, we are tied, we then go to the second round, which will cover single-variable calculus and which will be sudden-death. If, after the first tiebreaker round we are still tied, we then go move on to multi-variable calculus" the quiz master makes his speech.
Their cross-parish rivals, the Majors, wondered how they will even be able to answer the questions among such a hostile crowd, with the few fans they have in attendance; the Majors and the Concepts don't have, together, enough fans to fill a single row of the auditorium, which contains 800 seats. But the other members of what, strategically, make up « the B-team» of the Venomous Agendas attempt as they can to answer the competition's questions without having their star mathletes present on stage. Such as this question: Michael walks at 5 feet per second, with garbage cans every 200 feet. A waste truck travels at 10 feet per second in the same direction and stops for 30 seconds at each can. While Michael passes in front of a can, he notices the truck leaving the next can. How many times will Michael cross the truck? None of the two teams was able to answer this question in time. (The correct answer was 5)
"Last question, for five points, and both parishes are tied. The fifth and eight term of a geometric sequence are seven and eight factorials respectively. What's the first term?" The quiz master asks the crowd.
"If, by dividing the eighth term by the fifth, we obtain eight, it follows that eight is equal to the common ratio cubed. Therefore, the common ratio is two" Cory begins, while Vontae calculates seven factorial in his head.
"We then have five thousand forty divided by sixteen. The answer is this three hundred fifteen" Vontae announces on stage, before the opposing team can do so.
"Three hundred fifteen" Trevor answers.
"Then we proceed to the tiebreaker!"
The two teams go backstage and, even though the Venomous Agendas gain their confidence back with the arrival of the three girls than many mathletics buffs in town, or the entire state even, consider as the best three female « mathletes » of the state, things went otherwise with the team of the neighboring parish.
"If it takes the best students of the parish just to tie against the B-team of the Venomous Agendas, the so-called best in the state... I would not dare imagine how our own fans, our own boosters would react" the coach of the neighboring parish team points out to his team.
"You see that the Concepts can get by without Krista" Trevor's father adds during the interlude that allows the public to get on stage.
"And the parish newspaper presented the Concepts as a top-twenty team! Seventeenth..." Annette claims, while the boos continue anew from the first row, near the interlude's end.
"This ranking is worthless!" A Majors player points to his coach.
And not just because the parish newspaper ranking was made without regard to school size, unlike high school football team rankings, which distinguish institutions primarily based on enrollment size, because of divisions.
"First question, for one point: calculate the limit of x going to three minus of four over three minus x"
"Minus infinity!" Annette and Cory answer in unison.
It's not with the first questions that we will decide anything! Annette thinks, while this tiebreaker round seems to galvanize both sides. The parish media, reputed to be pro-Venomous Agendas as it relates to mathletics, talk all the time about how their reputation in the circuit is built on calculus, and we shall show them how we get things done!
It's tighter than we thought! We cannot allow them to win! And to think my ex-teammates play the meet of their lives! Krista thinks while the questions follow on each other and the Majors prove wrong the predictions made only a month and a half ago. Unless all teams between the second and eleventh place are, in reality, so close to each other that they are indistinguishable ... as much as the members of the team share their answering rights! Cory, then Vontae, then Marcia, Krista afterward as the questions intensify...
"Next question, for seven points: The faces of a cube six meters across have a maximum uncertainty of zero point five millimeter. What's the maximum uncertainty on the cube's volume if we use the edge to calculate the volume?"
"Here it's a question of differentials, we must convert our zero point five millimeter in meters but we have three x squared times dx, therefore one hundred and eight times dx" Geneviève points out.
"Zero point zero fifty-four cubic meter!" Marcia howls, while the other team arrives to a little over twice that value.
"And the Venomous Agendas win!" The quiz master announces under the applause of the crowd.
Geneviève's parents wonder if the parish newspaper hasn't overestimated, for instance, the Bâton-Rouge Magnet School, or Brother Martin (which, even if private, functions like a magnet school), respectively second and third. For the rest of the crowd in attendance, we hear the reactions at the exit.
"It's much better than expected for pre-season! It was well worth it for seven dollars; who could have predicted that it was going to the tiebreaker?" Gen's mother asks Gen's father.
"I doubt the strategy used by the coach was actually the right one. He shouldn't have waited until the tiebreaker to put our stars on stage. It was too risky" Geneviève's dad comments.
"Winning this easily was largely feasible, but in pre-season leaving the newbies some game time is necessary! It will come back to haunt us during the real season, in football as in math, if we don't give the rookies a chance to play!" Randy comments as an aside.
"Shut up! We have depth; for our opponents, Concepts, Majors, anyone else, they have their starters and no one else" Gen's mom dryly tells Randy.
"We lost, but we can hold our heads high. We now have a better idea of whether the coach's goal for the season is realizable or not; he dreamed of getting in the statewide top-five by the end of the season" a Majors' fan commented on the side.
Any attempt to maintain a ranking of this nature is subject to the reality that, in the Deep South, almost no one takes mathletics seriously and therefore statewide rankings are highly volatile, especially when we aren't near the top.