The following week, during a Friday afternoon training session of the quiz bowl team, we have the following sequence, near the end of one of those training sessions for the state championship, which will be held in another week:

"Marcia, I feel like you do this just for college" a senior accuses her.

"Of course not, I don't do this just for college. Since I feel more comfortable with the VMC, I can spend more time on quiz bowl, for some of you it's your quiz bowl swan song. In that case, a medal at the state championship is your highlight. If there's anyone that does it just for college, I'm not sure it's a good idea, if any of you isn't a senior!" Marcia warns her teammates.

"I'm fed up with your gratuitous accusations!" a senior shouts. "I quit!" That senior leaves the room by slamming the door.

"Yes, a medal at state championship will help us for college, and the participation to the National that comes with it. But we lost a senior, and on top of that we don't have a reserve, so we must find reinforcements, now!" William, a non-senior, shouts.

"Do you have any idea where we will get the reinforcements we need? We can't go to the state championship with just three players; we need a minimum of four and ideally a reserve player, asks the last player still on the team with a senior's departure.

"My first choice would go to the mathletics team, so I'll go ask Trent without delay. Please stay here" Warren orders his players.

If he thinks we can gain access to either Krista, or Geneviève, it's no use. Not that they are useless in a quiz bowl context, but they are our girls at the USAMO! They were impossible to contact lately, I am not sure they are a good choice for quiz bowl, especially since the USAMO is just a few days after that! Marcia thinks, while she tried to remember what the departing player did best in competition. It seems like the slightest mention of the math team triggered in her another memory than what she really wanted.

She texts Randy, by asking him a favor: « Is there anyone on the football team that knows anyone that can help us for the quiz bowl state championship Saturday next week? Please, not Geneviève or Krista! »

"Jesus! Why would the coach assume there would be someone on the mathletics team that can help us?" Marcia asks, irritated of the assumption of her quiz bowl coach. "Why? We need a balanced team to medal!"

"Why the math team then? If we were weak in math and science, it would be a good choice, but we have you! After all, you scored a ten on the AIME, you're the strongest girl mathematically here! You answered nearly all math and science questions we correctly answered this season! In his position the debate team would be our starting point to get reinforcements!" William shares his viewpoint.

"Most people who aren't familiar with the quiz bowl realities will do as if a person on the math team will automatically be viable. It might have worked for lower-end tournaments like those that allowed us to qualify for the state championship, but not at State itself" Marcia adds.

Such as the LQBA Fall and Winter Invitationals South as well as the Dutchtown Academic Tournament, on which 5th place allowed to gain enough points for the Venomous Agendas to qualify for the state championship. But since the known participants at the state championship are also opponents against whom they played in the three tournaments they entered; they still hang on to the notion that they can get on the podium; some of them are already qualified for the national championship by finishing on the top 15% on any of these tournaments.

"Trent, can you do me a favor please?" Warren asks him.

"What is it?" Trent asks Warren.

"We lost a player for the quiz bowl state championship, we need reinforcements so that we can have a shot to win a medal and therefore qualify for the national championship!"

"Marcia is already on it, and you know very well that the USAMO is very intense and, for this reason, no quiz bowl for Gen and Krista less than a week from this competition!"

"I know you care about the USAMO because of your two stars, the pride of the parish. But do you have an alternative?"

"I have a call to make..."

"Go ahead..." the quiz bowl coach watches Trent dial Imélie's mother.

"Hi, madam, I'm calling about your daughter, I need your permission. A quiz bowl player became sick and can't attend the state championship, which will be held next Saturday in New Orleans. Your daughter answers very quickly questions in class, and the coach thinks she can play well..."

"Sir, you want her to enter a quiz bowl tournament? Wouldn't that hurt her studies?" Imélie's mother asks her daughter's math teacher.

"I think not. Not for a single week of preparation. If it's done properly, she will be able to study for all her courses simultaneously. And she will be supervised by an adult as well once in New Orleans"

"All right, I'll pass you my daughter"

"Now that your mother accepted to let you attend, if you accept, here's the plan: the quiz bowl team coach needs reinforcements for the state championship next Saturday" Trent then explains the plan to Imélie.

"Why did he lose a player?" Imélie asks her teacher.

"Big health problems, mental health apparently"

"Why should I replace this player?"

"You have always been very fast to answer questions in class. Playing quiz bowl well is a question of speed and of knowledge"

Yes, quiz bowl can make people sick, but maybe it's more complex than quiz bowl if we're talking about a senior! And someone that's tense enough to leave the team one week away from the state championship because of so-called gratuitous accusations from Marcia's part must surely have his load of problems. It's a lot more than just burnout coming from this activity.

"If you participate in the quiz bowl state championship, you will have a starting spot for the VMC final. Do you accept to enter?" Trent then makes his proposal to Imélie.

- Yes.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere is very tense among the 3 remaining players while they are combing their social contacts for potential replacement players for the team. Those they know have a talent in a field other than math and science (both are highly correlated in the coach's mind from a scouting standpoint). But it was simply an insurance policy because the player that left was the worst of the four the Venomous Agendas began the season with. Let's hope the reinforcements we can get are better than what we lost! Marcia thinks while her teammates look for reinforcements.

"Try Florence if you want, she is good enough in literature and social science if that's what we need" the third remaining player suggests to the other two.

"But you certainly know that you must not assume that, because someone is good at math, and often in science as well, they will be good everywhere quiz bowl takes us" Marcia explains.

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"I'm back and you're fighting over where to look for reinforcements?" Warren asks all three players.

"Yes, why look to the math team when we have me? You shouldn't assume that if we excel in math and science, we can excel everywhere!" Marcia explains herself.

"It might seem strange, but several of our opponents proceed like this. They believe that, if we can do well in math, then we can study efficiently and do so everywhere" Warren defends his decision.

"It's more rote recall for what we are missing. Excelling in math and science is not so much about memorization. Try the debate team also; the knowledge they need to function in a debate will often be useful here" Marcia then suggests to his coach.

"One each in that case"

Hehe, this opens up a world of possibilities at the state championship! Even if Trent has confirmed that we can't get Gen or Krista, no one will be playing every game in according to our new plan. He identified Imélie as the best candidate available on the math team; fresh like a rose, not very inclined to « fire-and-forget », let her come to the supplemental practices, and we shall see in what proportion to make her play vs Marcia; Imélie could cause excesses of confidence in our opponents the way Marcia could not, the coach thinks, while the proposal to go look to the debate team seems to have its merits.

Marcia quickly received an answer from Florence, even if quiz bowl does not seem to have much of a popular favor here. « I accept, here's my chance to redeem myself from a lackluster debate season »

"That was too fast: we fought each other not even five minutes ago that we already found someone else susceptible to represent us in competition! Luckily, I can count on the football team's support to find people even though the football team tends to ask for academic help more towards the end of each half of a school year" Marcia talks about this entire situation.

"Marcia? Who did you find?" William asks her.

"Florence. A debate girl, she is better in social science and in humanities from what I know about her" Marcia answers him.

"Now that we identified our reinforcements and our reserves, we will have a second extra practice for the new players to be able to integrate properly on Monday night. Imélie will be our second reinforcement girl for the state championship" Warren announces them.

This senior was a bundle of nerves and forced us to take two new girls just for a tournament or two, the most important of their extracurricular lives unless Florence also took part in a state championship, but in debate, Marcia thinks, while the session ends.

On Monday night, after an exhausting mathematical training session, Gen and Krista start seeing their first results of regular decision as it relates to college admissions. They visibly have high expectations, commensurate with their status in the local mathletic world... While Marcia, Imélie, Florence et al train, and the last two familiarize with the rules and answering technique, the three await their responses relative to their college admissions, waiting on the deadline of 6PM (local time) but Marcia is too busy with this additional practice...

"The time has come, it's your turn, Krista" Gen signals her friend.

"The decision has been made at Caltech; I am waitlisted. I can understand them, it's a tiny school, but even those who got in are all very good, and the waitlist too" Krista looks at the decision letter from Caltech.

"If that's how it's going to be, I say, wait until the USAMO results are released to send your letter of continued interest. Same goes for me too if I was to be on the waitlist, I don't know, at MIT... I religiously made the updates at every new result when possible"

Speaking of MIT, it's exactly what happened: Gen was waitlisted. I think MIT has never been my priority; I can always send a LOCI after the USAMO but no more than that, she thinks, while she turns to Chicago. But for months she was waiting for it (without necessarily agonizing on it) the response finally arrives from Chicago. After being deferred at Chicago several months ago...

"Congratulations! It is my great pleasure to inform you that you have been admitted to the University of Chicago's class of 2028... Bravo Chicago! Now I can rest easy and withdraw my applications at Sewanee and Tulane. There is still Carnegie, Brown and Harvard left but that's at the end of the month, and you too as well"

"I knew you would get in"

"Now, let's return to our sheep"

This verdict took a huge weight off her shoulders, and she can then calmly continue to study. But in the room next door, where Marcia et al train the new players for the state championship, the whole team must have overheard the discussion Gen and Krista had.

"Florence, you're a little slow, and you need to develop your answering speed this week. As for you, Imélie, you should be shorter in your answer, but you're fast enough for Saturday" Warren provides his feedback to the 2 new players.

"I heard Gen talk about she got into Chicago... there was no longer any doubt after the AIME. Chicago would not reject a national top-ten female mathlete lightly" Marcia comments.

"For you Florence: The sinking of this ship in 1915 helped push the United States into World War One. For ten points each, name this ship..." Warren asks Florence.

"Lusitania" Florence answers the question.

"Lusitania was a Roman province covering the territory of this modern-day country..."

"Portugal"

"We're getting closer... now it's your turn Imélie. A person can be heard, but not seen, around a corner. For ten points each, the reason is the amplitude of this effect is much greater for sound waves than for..." Warren then asks Imélie.

"Diffraction" Imélie answers.

"Diffraction is greatest for spatially extended waves, that is, waves for which this quantity is..."

"Wavelength"

"Diffraction underlies the interference fringes drawn by this English physicist that performed the two-slit experiment..."

"Young"

"You too, Imélie, you should be in good position now. I will send you lists of questions asked in past tournaments for your specialty areas, Warren announces, before announcing the start of a new drill. Imélie, Florence, we'll get to the next drill: you will play in pairs against the other pair of veterans" Warren announces the next drill.

At least these players appear promising to me and they're worth at least as much as the player we lost because of a fit of anger against me, which I believe is symptomatic of mental health problems, but I don't think he would listen to me if I told him he needs help. Nevertheless, all hopes of medals are allowed for us as the state championship approaches, Marcia thinks while she compares these three tournaments and the confirmed entrants in her head. How could he have played at the LQBA Invitationals South Fall and Winter as well as at Dutchtown with that kind of health problems? Here's to hoping Florence and Imélie won't betray their inexperience!

"The state's quiz bowl powerhouses aren't the same as in mathletics. To watch out for this year: the Caddo and Bâton-Rouge magnet schools, Benjamin-Franklin, Jesuit and Catholic. The medals will be played between these institutions, us included. Some of these schools, having already qualified for the national championship, will be tempted to slack off on Saturday, while we are hungry. They won't know until the start of the tournament, that we replaced a player. Nevertheless, we must stay vigilant, and at half-time I will tell you who to substitute" the coach harangues his players.

"It goes without saying there won't he a bronze medal game here, should we lose in the semi-final, so cross our fingers and let's try to reach the grand final on Saturday" Marcia then prays.

"Speaking of Saturday, I would say come here on Friday night with your baggage and we leave for New Orleans at the end of the practice" Warren then gives additional instructions.

No one at Jesuit or Catholic would dream of the USAMO, much less the IMO, and it would already be a miracle if anyone qualified for the AIME in these places, but year after year they can contend for gold at quiz bowl State.

But for this competition, there are only the parents of the two guys that make the trip to New Orleans; it's not like mathletics where the Venomous Agendas can draw crowds at the condition it happens at home. On the road, players ask questions to each other:

"Imélie, Marcia, for you two: A leader with that name has authorized the forced migration and the execution of a million Muslims in the Circassian Genocide. The death of another leader with that name led to the revolt of the Unions of Salvation and Prosperity..." a male team member asks them.

"Alexander I" Marcia responds.

"Good. Imélie, the next question is for you. A coalition can be dissolved by a parliamentary vote declaring that there is "no" amount of this concept held in the current leaders" William asks Imélie.

"Confidence" Florence answers.

"The question wasn't for you, Florence. Your turn will come shortly, but Imélie must answer a question before that. This type of event kills Lise Bolkanskaya in War and Peace, as well as Agnes Fleming in Oliver Twist" William asks another question.

"Death in childbirth" Imélie answers.

"Now, Florence: A is a 2-by-2 matrix whose top row is (2,3) and whose bottom row is (3,5). What number appears in the upper-left corner of the matrix that is the product of A times the inverse of A?"

"Two?" Florence utters, unsure of her answer.

"That was incorrect! That was one" Imélie points out.

"Listen, we were told all week that we needed to reinforce our assigned specialties and now we are asked questions outside of our specialties?" Florence asks, more than annoyed by this question.

"Shut up, Florence, and answer this new question. In contrast to interpreted languages, C uses this type of program that converts high-level source code into machine code" William asks again.

"A... compiler?" Florence answers while having a comic in mind.

"Voilà"

The debate team always lacked depth, I was their only good player, therefore the debate team couldn't contribute to extracurricular glories, being able tocontribute to those would be the best ending for high school for me. I have brains, too, quiz bowl gives me a better chance toaccomplish something with it beyond grades alone, Florence starts thinking about her motivations to start playing quiz bowl.