Sunday morning, Cory and Florence realize they waited far too long to sell a new crop of promotional material for a historical run to the USAMO. The parish media might make a big deal of it, keeping press clippings as mementos was not the end of the story. Cory invites them both to attend another photo-shoot for this promotional merchandise, made at Florence's home that does not hesitate to show them her silver medal won in New Orleans the previous day once they are in her photo studio.

"And... smile! As with the Math Madness, you will have your pictures across the parish, and even beyond. This time there will be the great seal of Louisiana in the background, the words USAMO, and your names in green, above your heads, on a purple field" Florence explains before she starts to take a few poses, initially with both girls and later each girl takes a few individual shots.

It would be easy to imagine what the promotional merchandise for the EGMO and the IMO would look like... but for the latter it would not be an artisanal creation from Florence! It wouldn't simply be hype that would be a fundraiser for the academic extracurriculars of the Venomous Agendas! Already the photo-shoot has ended that the Venomous Agendas, and other mathletics fanatics pre-ordered posters, at the same price as with the playoffs.

Monday morning, for the first time since the pandemic, the extracurricular portion of the morning announcement contained no allusion to athletic or mathletic results. And quiz bowl who flew under the radar, came back from the state championship with a pleasant surprise both girls, as well as Cory, were exposed to.

"Good morning: today's news will take everyone by surprise. The Venomous Agendas won the silver medal at the quiz bowl state championship and, for the first time in school history, will go to the national championship!" the principal makes his first announcement.

"Venomous! Agendas! Venomous! Agendas!" Curtis shouts in his class while his girlfriend is on the team.

"This announcement won't surprise anyone, however, and is a prelude to April the second. Geneviève got into the University of Chicago"

Now everyone knows it. The USAMO is tomorrow and all the time I have spent solving all kinds of special problems that would give panic attacks even to Marcia will finally be put to good use, Geneviève thinks while the myriad of mathematical notions dances in her head.

The latest edition of the parish newspaper devoted part of the cover page to this unexpected Venomous Agendas quiz bowl performance, with an additional page later. On the second page, for the first time, they played the comparison game with past female contestants at the IMO for the United States, while in previous editions, they instead tried to compare them with past Louisiana contestants at the USAMO and later on, other girls from elsewhere in the country susceptible to qualify for the EGMO or the IMO this year. Thus the closest comparable to these two girls is Alison Miller, but it's probably because Alison qualified only once and the other two, Melanie and Sherry, went there twice each. At least as far as Krista is concerned; Trent found that Gen had at least as much charisma as Melanie, who, to his eyes, was the most charismatic of the three, and certainly more than the other two.

"We'll go over the plan one last time before the competition, especially since we are the only ones in the state still in contention. First step: determining which two problems of the day appear more soluble, and we focus on that" Krista explains the plan to Gen.

"No need to remind me of what position we are in. But you undoubtedly know that, at the EGMO and at the IMO the podium is much larger than simply three contestants" Gen then adds more info.

"But, if we give in to panic attacks, we'll end up like Marcia, and so, even though we already made Louisianan girls' mathletic history just by being here. Regardless of what the female state record is on this competition, if the last female contestants obtained a nonzero result, in the event we aren't the first, we can hold our heads high so long as we obtain nonzero results. To the eyes of the parish, we are the darling girls that are completely invincible in the mathletic arena; I want you to know that this year has been the best year of my academic life and you made it possible"

"I hope that missing two days of courses are worth it. I'm not worried about our ability to make them up, but it's the chance of a lifetime to cover ourselves in mathletic glory; we must seize it! Especially when all hopes are still permitted"

At the EGMO, as with the IMO, gold medals are awarded to the best 1/12, silver medals to the next best 1/6, and the third quartile wins bronze medals. But sometimes the score distribution does not lend itself to such a clean distribution. Honorable mentions are awarded to those who solve at least one problem with 7 points but don't get on the podium. In mathletic historical literature, in general the emphasis will be placed on countries' performances rather than the individual mathletes'.

After all, if we can learn a differential geometry course in a single week, we can easily catch up on two days of high school courses without complication, Krista thinks. We feel completely invincible academically so long as we remain in the domain of high school but good Lord that our quest for mathletic glory made us obsessed. And so, even though people queue at the end of the day to get what their pre-orders bought them: a memento of this historical run.

The following day, the competition begins, and, behind closed doors, even though, deep down, they could compete in the auditorium with an audience, and it would change absolutely nothing. In a tiny room that's normally used for detentions. Shortly before the start...

"All hopes seem allowed for the EGMO and the IMO to the eyes of so many here, and especially the parish newspaper which, for months, played unending comparison games with you until now. First, they did so with past Louisiana contestants at the USAMO, then with the best girls in the country as of today, and finally with the most significant historical figures of American female mathletics. But now is the time to tell you the whole truth" Trent prefaces something bigger.

"Are you telling us we were hunting mathletic chimeras for months?" Geneviève asks.

"Unfortunately, yes. It will disappoint you, but the parish newspaper sold false hopes to the public for months. The parish newspaper believed that, if you performed well enough here, you would attend the MOP, or Math Olympiad Program, and at the EGMO, and, at MOP, you would be playing for your qualification to the IMO. Yet the parish newspaper has an incomplete idea, even though the portion assumed by the newspaper is correct. It's for the post-MOP that the parish newspaper is wrong" Trent reveals the cold, hard truth.

"Why?" both girls ask.

"Yes, you must do well on the AMC-twelve, and then the AIME, then the USAMO, but the process for the EGMO and the IMO lasts two school years. If you perform well on the USAMO of year N-1, yes, you will attend MOP, but it's not just the performance at MOP and the TSTST that marks its ending. The best thirty at MOP in year N-1 plus a maximum of four supernumerary girls eligible to participate in year N will have two TSTs, or Team Selection Tests, to take afterward, during year N. Then they will enter the RMM, or Romanian Masters of Mathematics, and the APMO, or Asia-Pacific Mathematics Olympiad, and finally the USAMO of year N. These events are worth a total of one hundred and twenty-six points, the first four are worth twenty-one points each, and the last one, forty-two. It goes without saying that the best six at the end of the process form the team for the IMO, and the best four girls then enter the EGMO"

"SCHAIZE! But why the parish newspaper would have done such a thing?" Krista screams at Trent while her facial pH increases as her face goes red.

"And we did all the sacrifices of the past few months for nothing?" Geneviève adds her scream to this cacophony. "We both did as if the procedure to qualify for the EGMO and the IMO was exactly as in the parish newspaper! Having known..."

"You're smarter than this! I no longer recognize you! You cannot compete in this condition!" Trent tries to calm them down.

"Delusions of grandeur, combined to their lack of ethics, of the parish newspaper led us to be very mad at them!" Gen screams at her coach.

"They press us like lemons, and it seems to arrange them to make us live in a lie for months!" Krista screams afterward.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Please set aside what I said for two more days, I beg you. Do as though you can qualify according to the methodology presented in the parish newspaper, and it should be fine"

It make me so want to strangle this sorry excuse for a journalist! Geneviève thinks, while realizing the parish newspaper created a monster that compresses her and her friend. It would be tempting to sabotage my own performance just to show them! But I must not forget what we said last night: take two problems that appear more soluble and focus on those. At the same time, if I do this... ouch, it would be wasting months of relentless efforts, and not even Krista would forgive me for it. She came to this school for me, I don't want to disappoint her.

Better underperform by doing our best than underperform to exact vengeance on someone! Krista thinks, while both girls are visibly not in their best mental state. When I think about all these good times I spent with her, with her I could do maths at an advanced level like I could never have done it otherwise. I wouldn't want to ruin everything but my God the newspaper made the both of us really angry!

As much as they would have loved to be able to make this determination they are referring to in a clear fashion, they need to make a lot of mental effort to regain their emotional control. But Trent feels they are vulnerable and that each second counts to snap out of their anger. He knows, however, that going from a style of competition to which they were used (the VMC might be a long-answer contest, in practice it looks more like a short-answer competition à from a purely mathletic standpoint) to another may require a lot of adjustments on the mathletes' part.

Jesus! What I'm seeing here is nothing like how the parish newspaper presents them; where did their confidence go? They seemed so sure of themselves during ALL previous contests this season! VMC, AIME, Math Madness or AMC12. What I saw from them on the AIME or the VMC looked more like what I would expect from girls potentially capable of qualifying for the EGMO or the IMO! They aren't driven by the same feelings! Trent ponders while he fixates both girls in turn, right in the eyes.

In the meantime, Vontae faces Imélie once again, who, despite her playtime being the lowest of the team at the quiz bowl state championship, is now a starting member on the mathletics team.

"Hi; how do you feel now that you're on the mathletics team for the VMC?" Vontae asks Imélie.

"I'm happy that I'm not committed for an entire year. But, at the same time, I feel like a rental player, regardless of whether you're talking about quiz bowl or math" Imélie answers him.

"Don't say that... never the quiz bowl coach would have taken a risk with you if you weren't worth it. You wasted your mathletic talent because of a traumatizing experience, but you're clearly good enough for the game to be worthwhile for the VMC. Tell me, Imélie, are you a senior or not?"

"No. But if I told you there are several on the football team that dream of dating me now that I am a starter on the math team?"

What I told both girls implies the following: one must be wondering if one of the other four contestants on the AIME that kept quiet about its result is a female freshman or sophomore; there was a 4th girl qualified for the AIME this year. Otherwise, for the next season, the best non-senior girl will be subject to an intense training for the EGMO and the IMO of the following season. This also means Imélie is not viable to accomplish what Geneviève couldn't, Trent ponders, while realizing his star was good at the wrong time, that everything would have happened differently if she scored that tiny extra point last year either on the AMC12 or on the AIME. It took them forever to regain their intellectual functionality to which I am used to. At the onset I felt they were mad at the parish newspaper and me to a lesser extent, and I see them having moments of clarity now.

This is where everything clicks for both girls; they only need to use it properly while their mental lightbulbs light up. Both girls hold on and they write down their final solutions, while knowing there are several ways to arrive at a conclusion, so that, at the end of the four and a half hours of the first day, they get an exemption from practices, and they made some headway into the third problem of the first day, reasonably confident of the completeness of their solutions on the first two problems, and so, regardless of which one is the « third » in their minds. Assuming the parish newspaper methodology is exact, if they can have a better second day than today, all hopes are permitted, even for the IMO! Trent ponders while he skims the solutions written by his players on the first day.

During the training session for the other team members, after the first day of competition, people must surely have noticed their two stars shine by their absence and therefore there are less students from outside the team that attend.

"If I told you that taking a four-and-a-half-hour test with three very difficult questions could exhaust you, then you would understand why neither Gen nor Krista are present today or tomorrow at practice. I announce you they will also be benched for the Purple Comet, irrespective of their EGMO participation. Speaking of Purple Comet, the contest is about questions on the level of the AMC-twelve and a little on the AIME so take everything you used to study for the Math Madness. The Purple Comet is a pressure-free contest, but we'll have two teams, each with two VMC players" Trent announces the other mathletes.

Meanwhile, Zack texts Tara while he feels the social atmosphere at school gives him nausea: « People at school, in the parish even, only talk about the USAMO and the EGMO; if only we could have a date out of my parish! » Other than the desire to stop envying my teammates, why did I want to date her anyway? Sabotage her for the VMC or the AIME? Or it's just because she had an intellectual level that appeared satisfactory to me? Or it's just because, for her, there wasn't a whole lot of people that were ready to accept her as she is in her area? Zack thinks, while Tara suggests coming at her place that evening.

The next day, if Trent hoped Krista had a better second day at the USAMO than the first, despite that she might have saved the deal, at least in appearance, after this panic attack, he will be disappointed pretty quickly. What's happening to me? Why am I doing this? I might tell myself to put aside what Trent told me yesterday for two more days, it seems like I'm going in circles in a vacuum! In fact, why couldn't he wait two more days to tell us why our dogs are dead for the EGMO and the IMO? Krista cogitates while her train of thought is derailing. She no longer thinks about determining which two problems appeared more « solvable ».

However, Geneviève does not seem affected by the state of mind of her friend on the verge of panicking and that starts hyperventilating. And to have intensifying cramps; she lies in pain while consumed by doubt.

"Krista? Krista! You're not well..." Gen asks Krista.

"What did I do to get there?" Krista asks in a tone of voice that leaves no doubt about her lack of comfort.

"You're getting sick! You're unrecognizable!"

"My brain is fried, I'm losing my mind..."

"You're smarter than this, Krista! Your health is worth more than the contest!"

"You ruined everything!"

Poor Krista! It's not the first time it's happening to her! Her mind is shattering! What is supposed to be, for the both of us, the best moment of our high school lives, will become her most painful memory. Now I must bear the hopes of the state on the national mathletic stage and I hope she will be back to her old self in time for the VMC, Gen reflects while she starts solving the first problem she determined was the one that appeared the most solvable. Regardless of whether I can qualify for the EGMO, the IMO or not, I MUST solve these two problems I picked, at any cost! Why stop now; we're already in an area that no Venomous Agenda set foot on before! She thinks before continuing the resolution of the first of these two problems she previously identified.

But with each manifestation of Krista's loss of control, Gen feels the compressor tightens on her. And on top of having the impression of losing her mental control, Krista trembles like a leaf, which hurts her even more.

"You're panicking! You must temporarily leave the room and once you will have calmed down, you will then decide if you want to continue" Trent gives his instructions to Krista.

"Panicking? How is that possible?" Krista asks him.

"Good Lord! You're so stressed out by this competition! Gen is stressed out too, but she didn't fall prey to panic attacks!"

And even though they take the USAMO in the detention room specific to seniors, Trent knows that there is not a single troublemaker at school that would be capable to help Gen or Krista in any manner whatsoever on the USAMO, therefore Trent can afford to leave this detention room unattended while Krista tries to recover her calm in the hallway.

Then seniors that are punitively detained from their courses while the USAMO is underway must do so in the juniors' detention room. Said detention room is full and, if there's anyone mad at Trent and the two mathletes at this stage, it's the juniors' detention room proctor.

Once her composure is regained, she returns to the original room to finish the competition pursuant to the 2-1 strategy. For her it transforms very rapidly into a 1-2 because, even if she regains her calm after this painful panic attack, it's clear this panic attack poisoned her. She might tell herself that she has what it takes to solve a second problem, but she operates slower than what she is used to. Anyway, for Krista, it's simply not her day.

At the end of the competition, Cory and Ted meet with their respective sweethearts outside the seniors' detention room. They seem to be happy of their accomplishments in more than troubled circumstances, at least as much as possible in a context of a dead-end contest.

"Will you forgive my obsession of the past few months? We couldn't see each other as often as we would have liked outside of math team practices..." Krista asks Ted while kissing him.

"Yes, but your obsession spread like wildfire. I hope your mathletic dreams come true" Ted wishes before kissing Krista.

As for Cory, he was pretty busy with the study of multi-variable calculus for the VMC, but he went for the kiss, too.

"You won't believe me, Cory, but... no IMO for me" Gen then tells her boyfriend.

"Jesus! If there was anyone here that could have qualified, it's you!"

"The coach told us the whole truth on the qualification process for the IMO and I would have needed to perform on the USAMO last year as well as this year"

"There's always the VMC..."

"I suppose. That, even though I issued a warning about this competition at the dinner"