By the end of the month, with Gen and Krista spending a lot of time outside of their homework to train for the USAMO, the morning announcement, made during the AP Physics course, contains results on the AIME.

"Good morning, everyone, the results on the AIME have finally arrived! And our hopes that a Venomous Agenda represent us at the EGMO, or the IMO are still alive!" the principal announces to the student body.

Ouch... Everything townsfolk know about the EGMO or the IMO, the European Girls Mathematical Olympiad and the International Mathematics Olympiad, respectively, is they are international mathletics competitions, and now the school administration is in league with the parish media? Will this dream turn into a nightmare? Everyone in the parish knows who one is talking about if we evoke the possibility to qualify for these contests: Krista and I, Geneviève thinks, while the image people have of these competitions has no common measure with what these competitions actually represent. All they have in mind is their difficulty level is higher than the AIME, but no more than that.

"For the first time in school history, we have a student, or should I say, two students that qualify for the USAMO! And, for this year, the only two qualifiers in all of Louisiana for the USAMO are here!"

"VICTORY!" Krista shouts, exuberant, and Gen claps into her raised hand shortly thereafter. "Our best moment in our lives as Venomous Agendas!"

"How do you imagine a contestant at the EGMO or at the IMO?" Gen asks after the announcement ends. "Also, how do you imagine these competitions?"

"More or less like you two" Imélie answers in a soft voice. "Mathematics maniacs. That said, from the way people around us talk about it, it goes without saying that it will be far more difficult, and that you said during the dinner that it was unrealistic. Now everyone seems to believe in it"

The noose is tightening on the both of us; the parish newspaper anointed us as the only hopes of the state for the EGMO long before today, and now the state pins all its hopes on us for the USAMO and the IMO on top of that? Krista thinks while the implications of the morning announcement becomes clear to her eyes. However, she hesitates to discuss this with people outside the team, even though, all day long, both girls are bombarded with questions about these three competitions.

Especially since the mid-winter parish newspaper ranking will undoubtedly be the best possible ranking of Louisiana's mathletics teams; unsurprisingly they will remain at the top, but the movement would likely come from the positions 3 and lower since, now that it is qualified for the national final of the VMC, the neighboring parish is still ranked second after the AIME. Together, the best two schools of the state count for nearly two-thirds of the Louisianan participants at this mathletic tournament.

Meanwhile, the scene at a training session for the VMC at Whitman starts turning sour, with Zhou who is increasingly ulcerated by the poor performance of the Vikings at the AIME, with the parish newspaper webpage dedicated to the coverage of AIME results open on Zhou's laptop.

"How did we even win against the Venomous Agendas anyway? They claimed it takes five players with AIME experience or level to defeat them, TJHSST did and they lost! Was our victory against them in the quarterfinals a fluke? All other teams in the semis met the criterion apparently, and all of them did better than us at that competition..." Zhou comments.

"Zhou, why are you still talking about that tournament? You were our best player on the AIME, and we're going to face them again in the VMC! Every single one of our major mathletic rivals will be there! TJHSST, Montgomery Blair, University High, and, of course, the Venomous Agendas" another Viking then points out.

"I scored a six and it's the best this school can somehow manage? After losing a game by an irreducible fraction of a second in which we were asked AIME-level questions, you would think I would do better on the AIME than a six? You guys scored fours or fives. They had Louisiana's only two USAMO qualifiers on their roster, we don't have any" Zhou adds oil on the fire.

"Stop it, Zhou, we need to study divergence and curl, and then use these, along with the flux-divergence and Stokes theorems, is that clear?" the Vikings coach screams at them, in Zhou's direction.

"All right, our VMC dreams are still alive" another VMC participant sighs.

"So divergence is simply the scalar product of the gradient with a vector-valued function" the coach starts lecturing.

But, back in Louisiana, the ten students that participated in the AIME are all assembled at this training session and they can finally discuss their results on this tournament without people stopping in order to question them about these three tournaments the AIME ultimately gives access to.

"I accept that we talk about our results on it, but I also want that, if that is relevant to you, that you make the necessary adjustments on your college applications. As is the case for us three" Gen warns her teammates.

"I got a two" announces Randy. "I think Louisiana Tech won't hold it against me"

"Two?" Marcia asks, surprised of her boyfriend. "This God-forsaken question number fifteen cost me a spot at the USAMO!" Marcia cries after realizing that she ruined her mathletic run by a tiny little point. That she could have gone there, too.

I am in the same boat as Éliane was last year... I am not - bad - by any means, but a 10 on the AIME and a 114 on the AMC12 would make a lot of mathletes blush with envy! I started panicking on the last question, and I lost my mind. I am still losing my mind... Marcia thinks, while she still feels like hyperventilating while having numbed legs. A little different from when she tried to solve this problem #15 in question, but she gets increasingly angry, especially when she tries to adjust her outstanding applications.

"What will UPenn or Yale, or even Duke think of me now that I am eliminated? Columbia rejected me because I didn't accomplish enough on a mathletic level as of the decision date!" Marcia sobs. "A ten on the AIME will not help me attend!"

"Marcia, if you think a ten on the AIME will deny you from Duke, UPenn or Yale, you have no idea what that represents. You know that a lot of girls attend without entering even the AMC-twelve. You applied to Columbia before the result of the AMC-twelve is released" Trent tries to cheer Marcia up.

"Yes, coach, and I said it when the result of the AMC-twelve was released, of how Éliane and Gen were among the top forty female mathletes nation-wide last year. They both had a ten on the AIME and Éliane is now attending Duke" Randy then adds.

"Gen, you might be disappointed, but I didn't get as much as Marcia. Six for me" Cory gives his result.

"Six for me too" Vontae answers.

"I don't blame you. If that's how it's going to be, then I am still in the running for Chicago, MIT, Harvard, Carnegie, and same thing with Krista at Caltech, Carnegie, Cornell or Stanford. Krista and I have both scored a thirteen"

"I feel like an idiot compared to the both of you... You are so much brighter than I am!" Ted comments, while he missed the AIME by a tiny point and a half and he entered the AMC12 for extra credit.

"Me too! All that I know in math is one plus one equals two, you and me" Randy tells Marcia.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"But, Randy, you could never have had even a two on the AIME, or an A in calculus BC, if all you knew mathematically was just one plus one equals two! What a poor joke!" Marcia then tells her boyfriend.

"We must always have these discussions once these results release. Now, Marcia, you said that you needed to reserve a day per week for the quiz bowl team to have adequate practice. Which day did you choose?" Trent asks Marcia.

"Friday"

"Then everyone except for Gen and Krista are now exempt from practices on Friday, but the practices of Monday through Thursday will be thirty minutes longer. As for you, Gen and Krista, you will have Friday night to yourselves, to practice for the USAMO"

The WOOT system, operated by Art of Problem Solving, should be able to help us. But I know only that this problem is a problem of number theory and algebra at the same time that the system gave us, coming from the 2022 USAMO: Find all the pairs of prime numbers for which p-q and pq-q are both perfect squares.

"We must have p-q = a^2 and pq-q = b^2, with integer a and b. Consequently we must have p(q-1) = b^2-a^2. Two cases to consider: p equal to two, p greater than two. Because q greater than two will induce that the difference of squares be even" Krista starts attempting to solve the problem.

"Don't forget: on the real USAMO, more than on the AIME, no one expects that we are able to solve everything. I think we can, on the real USAMO, spend two hours on each of the two problems we feel we are most likely to solve... making this determination is crucial" Gen adds in a piece of wisdom.

"There are two aspects to this training plan: the problems and the underlying material. If we don't know the material, we're on the wrong foot, and the further we advance, the more the knowledge of the material counts"

"Better have a start to a solution and potentially score a point or two than getting nothing at all"

They might accept that a 13 on the AIME cements their position among the elite of the girls' mathletic circuit, they don't realize anything, nothing and re-nothing. There is something seriously wrong about the dreams sold by the parish newspaper. The parish still believes in it, but once the time comes, I will only say the truth, nothing but the truth, the whole truth, probably at the release of the USAMO results, Trent thinks while they continue to study.

When Friday comes, Marcia holds her quiz bowl team meeting with the players as well as the coach de the team. The players were content with training on questions from past state championships, and other questions used in past tournaments.

"As you all know, we are qualified for the state championship, and, if it's like the last time I went there, it won't be easy, but getting on the podium will allow us to qualify for the national championship! For the first time that we can dream as a team..." Marcia harangues her quiz bowl teammates.

"You went to the state championship?" asks a player surprised to see Marcia act like this.

Here's my chance to accomplish what I spoiled in ninth grade! A chance to participate in the national championship, a shot at glory; mathletes have their moment of glory, but we are entitled to our fifteen minutes of glory too! Marcia thinks, while the quiz bowl coach starts asking his questions in a session, which, unlike the math team sessions, don't draw outside students.

"The Carolingian Renaissance occurred under the rule of this son of Pepin the Short. First question: Name this king of the Franks"

"Charlemagne" answers another member of the team.

"Next question: Charlemagne was given this title by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day in year eight hundred"

"Holy Roman Emperor"

History, literature questions follow, and Marcia's three current teammates start having problems with this chemical question that begins with a mention of carbonic anhydrase. The Henderson-Hasselbalch theorem? It was one of the objects I was asked to supply answers to as a cheater on the AP Chemistry final of last year! Marcia thinks, while the question alludes to the theorem under the name of equation. In fact, maybe the teacher falsely presented the equation as a theorem, even with the proof being given.

"The pH" Marcia answers.

"Hasina wants to know the smallest value of x that will satisfy the absolute value of twice x plus four is equal to twelve"

"Negative eight!" Marcia answers in a lightning flash, like the previous answer, before the question ends.

"For the following exercise, we shall place you in pairs, and we will play according to the rules of the state championship. Marcia is obviously much stronger in the areas of mathematics and sciences, therefore the second strongest in these two fields will play against her" the quiz bowl coach announces.

The training session continues with 20 questions asked in pairs, and it seems like, for math and science, the only hope of the pair not containing Marcia lies in the possibility that Marcia gets it wrong.

"If we go to the national championship, it would be the first time in school history" the quiz bowl coach warns his team members. "Never the Venomous Agendas got on the podium at the state championship; our dreams are still alive, but Marcia, you cost us a shot at the podium last time, I hope you will not disqualify us this time around!"

"You really did that? YOU disqualified us last time?" asks a teammate bewildered of this sad episode of Marcia's past as a quiz bowler. In his mind, Marcia was a quiz bowler that played by the rules. "What exactly did you do to disqualify us?"

"I gave too much information too often in my answers, and we were disqualified for anti-sporting misconduct,"Marcia explains herself. "It also had the effect to transform our correct answers in incorrect answers"

Ouch: this team bears no resemblance to the team of 2021. At the time I was the new player, my preserve was still math and science, the other 3 were quite good, but today I am the best player! And I am no longer just the math and science girl to the eyes of the team, although my quiz bowl teammates this year do as if I possess a right of first refusal on any mathematical question in these competitions, as if I earned it by being on the math team! Marcia thinks, while she mentally plays the comparison game between the two editions. Because she expects a different result and not just because the roster for this tournament has changed.

At the same time, Florence is writing her business memo because most sections in AP English decided that so it shall be, but the business memo of this new assignment must be written about a particular point in a reading made earlier in the year, that the student would want to clarify, and addressed to its author. Much better as homework compared to the old proposal; I know several in the course sped through it, Geneviève included, I think most did it. This attempt to negotiate and debate the merits of homework gives me some hope that we can save this course, she thinks while finalizing this letter. And the bell rings at her home, Curtis arriving with a bag of ingredients.

"Flo! It's me, Curtis; you didn't forget about this candle dinner we're supposed to have between the two of us?"

"I was about to finish my AP English assignment but start preparing this if you want"

"Thank you, Flo; the dessert is already ready, as are the drinks"

Knowing Curtis, preparing the drink, for him, means protein milkshakes, even in a candlelit dinner. I would like to believe that he kept his nutritional habits from his life as a wide receiver, but is it a good thing to drink protein milkshake when I am not as physically active as he is? Florence thinks while the pouring of this protein milkshake is the first thing Curtis does to prepare dinner. Before the dinner starts...

"Ô Canada! // Our home and native land! // True patriot love in all of us command // With glowing hearts we see thee rise// the True North strong and free! // From far and wide, Ô Canada, we stand on guard for thee// God keep our land glorious and free! // Ô Canada, we stand on guard for thee // Ô Canada, we stand on guard for thee!" Florence sings.

"For what reason are you singing this?" Curtis asks.

"I will talk about this to my parents later, but I will attend Laval... if they let me go there"

"Laval? Where is Laval?"

"In Quebec City, in Canada. I know it will surprise you, but we have our lot of problems here, granted, it's not perfect in Canada, but it's not at all the same problems as here. Hence Laval: from what people there tell me, to have the same undergraduate academic result here, you practically need to attend a place like Michigan or Berkeley, or the Ivies"

"You never talked about the local problems you think you can dodge by attending Laval over, I don't know, Skidmore or LSU"

"It shows that the debate world and you don't mix. Several topics that appeared during this debate season alluded to them. Like the overturning of Wade vs. Roe"

"Flo, shut up and eat..."

That night, Geneviève starts dreaming of what an IMO qualification would look like, with this montage of sequences that appear to hear in a dream; before her departure for the IMO at Bath in England, she'd appear on national TV, she'd mark the state's girls' mathletic history - actually both Krista and her already marked it even though neither is there yet, just not to the same degree an IMO qualification would. After all it would be entirely possible that there never were Louisianan girls at the USAMO, or even girls of the state with 13 on the AIME or better, but in any case, it's the best feminine performance of Louisiana at these competitions for years and years - and Venomous Agendas groupies would, from now on, contain fanatical fans of girls' mathletics from around the world. The name « Venomous Agendas » would then be associated for eternity to women's mathletics, like Mojo to Permian football.

Comparison games with Melanie Wood, Alison Miller, or Sherry Gong (her predecessors at the IMO for the United States in chronological order) which, however, are not currently made by the parish newspaper. Obviously, she would be handed the key to the town the day before her departure.