Everyone that need to use the Common Application in the AP English course must have finished their primary essay, and several students have already started writing their secondary essays. For a lot of people in these advanced placement courses, they were content with just attending LSU, in which case their process was mostly stress-free. But the few students for whom this assignment would actually have served them seem to revolve around the mathletics team shortly before its first training session prior to the first game of the Math Madness season.
"Now that we have finished writing the essay, who plans on applying out-of-state?" Shane asks.
"Me" Krista answers.
The only reason why I am asking this is because all good things come to an end. Knowing where others submit their applications allow to know whether we can maintain a friendship with them later on. Krista might be new, but she is in my English course, Shane thinks, knowing that it's not a secret for anyone at school that Geneviève submitted her application at the University of Chicago in early decision. No University of Chicago for me; I have no desire to endure four years with other people as obsessed as she is!
"Me too!" Randy adds.
"And me too!" shouts Cory.
"And, of course, me, no modification to my list for now" Marcia adds.
"Coming from Marcia I am not surprised, but Randy or Cory?" Shane asks.
"It's my dream, but the math team represents the best chance for me" Vontae explains himself. "And, on top of that, the Vans Math Contest! It's a little early for me"
"I know that, in the minds of a lot of hardcore football fans in town, COVID ruined everything, but what if I told you I scored a thirty-one on the July make-up ACT?" Randy announces, shortly before the start of the football team's practice session.
"Now, where do you want to apply?" Shane asks the others.
"I started with my safety, McGill" Cory announces.
"Don't know" Randy shrugs.
The biggest difference between McGill and, I don't know, Tulane, is that McGill is non-holistic so long as we aren't waitlisted. From what I heard about this place, it's only on the waitlist that we even have the opportunity to talk about extracurriculars or to submit an essay, knowing that accelerated law or medicine is only available to local students, Cory thinks, while knowing that his worst high school year, ninth grade, is ignored there, otherwise, it would not be a safety.
"Some people consider this place as a backup plan for the Ivy League, but its financial aid is a little poor" Cory explains.
"As for me, MIT, Caltech, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia and Cornell" Krista continues.
"Krista, Marcia, I beg of you, do not neglect your safeties!" Shane prays. "I don't stress out over that"
"So where did you apply as a safety?" Marcia asks him.
"I applied to Tulane in early decision, and that makes it a safety for me"
In this context, what people call a safety is a less selective institution in which we are certain, or nearly so, to be admitted, for a given dossier. A match, often subdivided in three sub-bands, high, medium and low (the height of the bands refers to the probability of rejection) would be an institution that's realistic to get into without being guaranteed. Finally, a reach (Ivies and their equivalents are largely considered to be reaches for everyone) is an institution that will be difficult to get into.
Obviously, if one is talking about a student on the three mathletes' levels, one can more easily afford to have a top-heavy list, and to have one or two safeties in reserve, but for a more average student, such as Randy or Cory, one must not harbor any illusions, and one most focus on the bottom. Not that Randy or Cory are average students in absolute terms, they are just not at the top.
When the mathletics training session begins, with the new players that seem to be more interested in the session's content than the three stars of the team, Trent makes an introduction of the opponent of the day.
"Our first opponent this season will be Permian High. Obviously, Permian hasn't accomplished anything special in the mathletic sphere, but it's not an excuse to slack off; it's not like in football where win-loss record counts for more than the score for ranking purposes!"
"Sir, what is the ranking based on?" a new mathlete asks.
"The ranking is based on the cumulative top-five of the team"
"Permian? How did the system assign us such an opponent?" Cory asks, surprised to hear that name.
"People at Permian must have clicked the wrong button and choose to play us blindly or it's a random system" Krista comments.
"Wait a minute, are we talking about the same Permian that was the subject of Friday Night Lights?" Vontae asks, without having an idea of what to expect going into the first game of the mathematical season.
"Yes"
In the meantime, in Odessa (TX), in the most complete anonymity, the Permian Panthers don't have the slightest idea of what awaits them. One teacher, six students, and they simply accept what they are assigned. No matter what happens, eight questions, thirty minutes and voilà.
"No matter what's happening today, no matter the results, it's not the end of the world. Just do your best and it will be fine! It's our first year entering this competition, so the administrators will watch our progress!" the Panthers' coach attempts to motivate his players.
Undoubtedly, even the most fanatical Panthers fans don't have the slightest idea of what will their mathletic season be made of. For them no extracurricular activity of an academic nature holds their interest.
"For today, as with the rest of the season, I invite you to work on your own. We have five games to shine, and we will show the town, the parish that we don't need calculus to make our mark in the mathletics world!" Geneviève harangues her teammates before the game begins. "Winning today is the easy part, every point counts for the playoffs! And the state title too! Everyone in the parish counts on us!"
In Louisiana, there are only four participants in the Math Madness for the season, Lafayette High, 8th on the pre-season ranking, Brother Martin coming in third, the neighboring parish and themselves obviously. Thus, to the eyes of the parish newspaper, this competition promises to change the deal in the mathletics teams ranking. Of the joke and hoax that this ranking was in pre-season, to the parish newspaper, every hope is permitted for the mid-fall ranking to be much better, and which will be released on the week of the first playoff round.
The town expects nothing less than the state title, but the two teams of the state that took part in this tournament last year were in the weakest divisions in the playoffs. The real wild card for the state title will be... the neighboring parish, Trent thinks, while he keeps an eye on his players.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Not even two minutes into the game does the scoreboard on the screen of the room where the team is assembled starts showing that the Venomous Agendas are taking a comfortable lead on their Texan opponents, which will rapidly prove uncatchable, especially with their three stars leading the charge. An easy victory, very easy, of 37-10 of the Venomous Agendas, but people at Permian did not seem to be discouraged.
"We lost! Thirty-seven to... ten?" the Panthers' captain announces the score, surprised of the underperformance of their own side during the game.
"We just got unlucky this time around. Next week, we're going to do better!" Their coach try to cheer his captain, as well as his other five players. "Just because the Venomous Agendas beat us today does not mean we can't defeat the next opponent we will be playing!"
The Venomous Agendas' state of mind is quite different; they just won a convincing victory, but their optimism regarding the rest of the season is visibly not unbounded...
"The Venomous Agendas win against the Panthers!" an exuberant Vontae shouts.
"That's it, Vontae... Just because today's victory has been very easy does not mean that the coming games will be just as easy" Marcia warns the team.
"So one may be wondering who would trade away a bit of mathletic glory for a bit of football glory..." another mathlete sighs.
The Venomous Agendas' football season is not very encouraging: the team has lost the first six games of the season, and the seventh game is held the next day, at the municipal stadium. When she returns to class... the announcement comes like a swing of Damocles' sword on the student body during the morning announcement. In a pre-calculus class...
"Good Morning. First announcement: the mathletics team won its season opener, by the score of thirty-seven to ten against the Permian Panthers! And I know that it will be difficult to swallow for some of you, but the football head coach has been fired!" the principal announces on PA.
"But why have waited so long to fire the head coach?" Ted asks. "We lost fifteen games in a row with him!"
"You weren't even here when his predecessor died from COVID complications" the pre-calculus teacher points out. "He also was the athletic director of the school pre-pandemic. We make do with what we have, and none of the teachers wanted the position back then"
"As an interim head coach, we will appoint, for tonight, the most senior assistant coach" the principal finishes his announcement.
Since the pandemic, the Venomous Agendas managed to win a grand total of five football games... the Venomous Agendas fans that continue to follow its football team after these pandemic years sigh in relief when they learn the news. However, Randy couldn't help himself but comment on the mathletic victory of the Venomous Agendas when he sees Marcia again afterwards:
"This victory against Permian is a good sign for the AMC-twelve or for the playoffs"
"Randy? Never would I have believed you utter AMC-twelve from your mouth! But why do you say it's a good sign?" a surprised Marcia asks Randy.
"Since the time I'm your friend... the questions asked last night are on the AMC-twelve's level, you won by a convincing score, so we can go deep in the playoffs this year"
"Judging by the state's other teams, it would be surprising to see the others steal the state title from us this season. The public expects nothing less on our part, but it's in the playoffs that it will get real"
One must talk about the state's other teams. The Venomous Agendas' domination is simply outrageous, with Brother Martin and Lafayette trailing the Venomous Agendas by at least fifteen points! And the neighboring parish, their closest pursuers, are 8 points behind. So the rest of the state's hopes only depends on whether we fail? Marcia thinks while Randy is about to ask her something else.
"Do you want to go to tonight's game? Say yes, please, do it for me, we fired the head coach that made us lose the last eleven games, I would like you to be there for tonight's game"
"No thanks, Randy, I am overwhelmed by my literature readings" Marcia tells no to Randy.
Once she returns home, Geneviève hurries up and finishes her readings for the literature course, but is she surprised when she hears someone rings the bell at her door, about 30 minutes before the seventh game of the season...
"You want to go to tonight's Venomous Agendas football game?" The town's electronic components merchant asks her, while he parked his car in front of the entrance. "We have a new head coach; everyone is better than his predecessor in my opinion..."
"Does it cost me anything?"
"Non. You will attend for free. After this victory on the first math game of the season, I think you should relax a bit"
"Of that I will need. I might have confidence in a mathematical game, there are so many things going on around me and not just college applications"
What Trent didn't tell us is that our performance during the first game will influence the opponents that we will get in the subsequent games. There is this no chance that Permian confronts us again during the regular season. Lafayette maybe but not us, she thinks while the journey continues with the electronic components merchant, and the book that makes up her residual readings in literature.
"Tonight's opponents: Iota High. I don't expect much, but we shall see"
"I personally dealt with two or three players, I have Randy, a cornerback, in the AP English literature course, and I helped the starting fullback of tonight with algebra this summer. Marcia is closer to the footballers than I am but I knew two other footballers that graduated last year"
"Who are they?" the electronic components merchant asks Gen.
"Dylan, the tight end, who was with me in AP French, and the long snapper, who took AP Chemistry"
"Wow! I would never have believed in my lifetime that footballers finally decided to try in class! People never talked about the academic details of the people on the football team! But you? There was only one other person pre-pandemic to whom I could compare you in my electronic components' merchant life! But, unlike you, that person wasn't admired across town as you are!"
"I would love to believe that my highlight of my student life in this town has been the resolution of PDEs in open air, but what impact did this scene have?"
"You are a child of the town, from now on you are a source of inspiration for not only the town, and it may seem weird to you, but also the girls on mathletics teams Louisiana-wide"
"Is the parish newspaper really the only publication of the state to cover mathletics beyond the town's school alone?"
"Yes"
Now, for the game itself. Gen continues to make her readings, but quickly realizes, faster than during her weekends at church at least, that it wasn't that productive, even though the crowd isn't that noisy.
Yet, the two teams are tied by halftime, but it's just because Randy makes an interception of a pass destined to Iota's wide receiver who would otherwise have resulted in a run that would have led to a touchdown at the end of the second quarter.
But, at the end of the fourth quarter, the Venomous Agendas asks for a timeout while they are trailing by a point. The Venomous Agendas could choose to go for the Hail Mary, but the long snapper that replaced the guy that cheated during the AP Chemistry final prefers to go for the field goal, even though the Venomous Agendas are 15 yards out from the goal line. Everyone watches, powerless, the long snapper throwing the ball by the rear, and the placekicker starts kicking the ball.
Everyone has their eyes on the ball for the last seconds of the game, Bulldogs fans as well as Venomous Agendas ones, and the ball's trajectory is such that the ball could hit the horizontal goal bar, but an air current pushes the ball a little bit behind it. The reaction from the Venomous Agendas fans is quick to come and is unrivaled even by the sack of the opposing quarterback in the third quarter. The crowd howls like it's not even possible...
"The Venomous Agendas clinch their first victory in more than a year with their new head coach!" the game announcer shouts over the stadium's PA system.
If the football team wins, once again, more than once per season, what future for the mathletics team? She questions herself while she finishes the reading among a cheering crowd, before returning home, in the electronic components vendor's car. Between a football win and a mathletic win, what does that represent for the people that make this possible?
"I must admit the long snapper is much better this year than the one we had last year. That said we didn't often have the chance to score field goals earlier in the year..." Gen comments on the differences between long snappers.
"No more last year either. Even in our closest losses, only once did we try, last year, to go for a field goal in an attempt to tie the game or to reverse course. Last year's long snapper almost didn't play all season. I conclude that you watched the game that he actually played" the electronic components vendor adds to this discussion.
"I must admit I don't know much about football, beyond positions. Even with the footballers I know, they don't really talk about their sport to me. But I would not dare imagine the faces of the Permian players' parents after their defeat against us during the first game of the mathematics season. We might be perfectly unknown to their eyes, and to practically everyone outside the state, except to SRA participants last year..."
"Remember last year at the same date"
"I remember it as if it was yesterday. Everything went poorly in extracurriculars. The mathletics team desperately sought a way to stand out and the coach saw in the Square Root of the Answer our salvation. I perceived it as a risky wager from a purely competitive standpoint, especially considering that last year I narrowly missed the AIME, and Éliane was the only one qualified for this competition before me"
Ouch... not even a year ago, the mathletics team was in the same situation as Permian today, and most math teams in the country as well. No one suspected back then that we would become the town's stars. I was nothing more than a student, granted, with the nerd label because of my academic performances, but relatively ordinary otherwise, she thinks, while a before-after mental image appears in her mind.