Alas, it was not to be. The Venomous Agendas didn't win the HSNCT, but they finished in eighth place, an improvement over last season. With Cristiano and Sadie graduating, and no one appearing poised to play on their level, it feels like the pressure is ratcheting up on Anna to get better at science in a quiz bowl context. In the week following the HSNCT, the year-end report sent in from Venomous Agendas High contains, on the one hand, the manifest of graduates, and, on the other hand, the manifest of transfer students, broken down into 4 categories: inbound transfers and outbound transfers, each subdivided by in-parish and out-of-parish, normally with their destination schools listed. And, of course, the names of the students who will be enrolling from feeder schools.
One name stands out in VA's out-of-parish outbound transfer list: Anna Tessier. To so many among the humanities and social studies faction in town, Anna transferring out of VA and out of the parish altogether is the straw that breaks the quiz bowl team's back. Anna always seemed to have stronger nerves than everyone else, and she's clearly a brain, too! I hope the VAs' fanbase is ready to accept a year or two of no HSNCT... the pill will be difficult to swallow when you had 4 years of consecutive top-25s and suddenly all the talent that made it possible has dried up. But I'm sure her family had good reason and hopefully unrelated to how the school or district is run, Glen ruminates on what Anna's transfer means to the VAs. He then proceeds to put the projected enrollment of all the parochial schools on a spreadsheet so that he can then submit the data to Bâton-Rouge for the MFP.
Around the dinner table that night... the three family members still in town are gossiping about Anna.
"So Anna will leave town. This leaves a gaping hole down the quiz bowl team. Also, Valerie, if you don't get past the TSTST this time around, you will play quiz bowl rather than band!" Glen then warns Valerie.
"While there were VA mathletes who had some quiz bowl success, none of them went to MOP. Marcia, who is the earliest of them, told a few years back on the parish radio about how even ten on the AIME was very good for a quiz bowler" Valerie then retorts. "I never heard of anyone treating quiz bowl as punishment for mathletic failure! Not sure that leaving band for quiz bowl is a good move for college applications either!" she keeps whining. "On top of that, what use am I to the quiz bowl team? Because of you, dad, I focused far too much on math to be of much use in quiz bowl!"
"Fine, stay on band"
I am a smart girl, but just because I am better at math than Anna doesn't make me smarter than her. Anna is much better-rounded than I am. Of course she was going to play quiz bowl! I may as well ask her about where she plans on transferring, Valerie then texts Anna about her future transfer plans for the following year after returning to her bedroom. I really hope that extracurricular rationing will be made clear on the counselor's report.
"I'll be attending the neighboring parish since my dad found another job in Allen Parish" Anna answers her friend on the phone.
What do many in the VA community called the neighboring parish is actually called Kinder High; like VA, it has operational quiz bowl and debate teams. In fact it's the only other school in all of Southwest Louisiana with both teams in working condition. As with VA, it changed its team name after the pandemic (their teams were called the Yellowjackets pre-pandemic) and they are known as Majors since.
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The following week, Glen prepares to pick up Faith so that both of them can go to Bâton-Rouge and, from there, to Pittsburgh, paid for by the MAA.
"Hey Faith, how do you feel about the MOP?" Valerie asks her teammate before she rides her father's car. "I hope you're ready to get a lot of attention; there's, like, six or seven girls at MOP, eight or nine at most"
"People around us, and certainly your dad, seem to act as if our intellectual capabilities are infinite. Be it Salome, Anna, Chantal, you or me, and this makes me a little nervous" Faith then shakes on her seat.
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And for the next ~10 days, townsfolk are not inclined to talk about the TSTST or the race to the IMO. They instead talk about the NSDA Nats, about Chantal, who definitely stole Sadie's thunder on the debate floor this season. As if Chantal is going to become the VAs' version of a Lily Nellans or McKinley Paltzik. And also about the policy and public forum pairs.
The unhappiest VA right now would be Daisy, since she somehow went within 1 game of competing there as well, and she lost in triple-octos at Last Chance in LD.
When the international extemp final rolls around the corner, the town wastes no time to organize a giant party at the municipal stadium where the population can watch 6 high schoolers, including their beloved Chantal, deliver 7-minute speeches on topics the townsfolk are mostly clueless about. And get cross-examined for 2-3 minutes each.
"Speaker code number two-one-eight-seven (Chantal) will answer the question..." the maître de cérémonie of the IX final introduces Chantal at the actual venue where the IX final takes place, before most people fail to realize that it's about the Asian golden ticket syndrome.
As one can easily imagine, the attendees go crazy when Chantal's speech ends, despite the majority of the spectators not understanding much of the speech. Oh boy, Chantal speaks about an uncomfortable truth, but, in the US, seems to mostly remain confined to upper classes, and a handful of high achievers of all classes. Notwithstanding the elite few VAs at the top of the parish's intellectual food chain, by and large, students aren't chasing prestige in this region and it's also much easier to change majors here than in Asia. Of course, it's about the mismatch between skill supply and demand, Glen reflects on the content of what Chantal had to say and whether a similar situation is encountered in the US. In fact, it was precisely the core of one of the questions asked in her cross-ex period. And this is why I, as a principal, regularly said that "where you go will not define what you will become".
And they go equally crazy when Chantal's turn to cross-examine the following opponent, who was speaking about global supply chain decoupling and inflation, ends. Which feels much more as if Chantal was to deliver the negative opening statement in a policy or LD round. But without being rude.
Of course, Chantal winning international extemp at Nats makes not only the parochial newspaper want to cover it upon her return to Louisiana soil, but also other media outlets of the state. However, she doesn't get much rest since she is to begin her internship at the Council on Foreign Relations in DC for the rest of the summer.
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Fast-forward to late June, during the final day of the TSTST. At this point of the MOP, both Faith and Valerie appear confident of making it into the top-30 and hence in the pool of mathletes considered for the IMO. Somewhere in Wean Hall, on Carnegie Mellon's campus...
"Good luck, Valerie..." Faith then wishes her teammate.
"You too; however we both know who counts on us to succeed at the TSTST" Valerie then replies to Faith, while walking.
Focus, Valerie, I can do it, I did it last year, I can do so again! And Faith, too; she has grown a lot as a mathlete, Valerie then muses before the two get seated for the third and final part of the TSTST.
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But then Valerie's mind and memory both feel noticeably slower compared to what she is used to. As she feels her brain frying inside her head, it drags her into a vicious circle. It makes her feel dizzy... Why is it that I can't seem to think straight? I feel frozen in place, my train of thought having derailed already; I'm not normally like this, parasitic thoughts seem to gnaw at Valerie, as she feels dizzy after having read the 3 problem statements.
Faith, being at the other end of the room, appears to be unaffected by her friend and teammate being hit by what feels like a panic attack right out of the gate.
Why is it happening now? Why am I losing control? What did I do, or fail to do, to get myself in this position? Valerie keeps questioning herself, while any attempt to regain control over this panic attack seems only to make her feel more nausea, and her legs feel numb. My own brain seems to be malfunctioning right now; headaches seem to be mounting by the second... I can't focus when I have headaches, nausea all at once! She keeps ruminating while, in a desperate attempt, she raises her shaking hand to signal to the proctors that she needs assistance while the pains spread from her head to her abdomen as the result of this panic attack.
Every passing second becomes more and more painful to her, and the proctor takes her out of the room seeing that something's not right with Valerie, as she starts hyperventilating and her own movements get more and more erratic, despite not having consumed any substances, drugs or alcohol.
"What did I do, or fail to do, for this to happen?" a distraught Valerie then cries in increasingly violent pains in the hallway, now away from the tournament room. "My belly hurts so much... what's happening to me?"
"I think I should call an ambulance for Valerie, she has it really bad" the proctor accompanying Valerie then proceeds to call 911 while Valerie slams her back against the floor as she falls against it, only making her pains even worse, and also making it feel like she is about to vomit, but she doesn't.
Poor Valerie! the proctor starts thinking of ways to stabilize Valerie until the ambulance could arrive to take her away from the premises. I hope she is OK, during the past few weeks, she showed a lot of promise, and Faith as well, the proctor also combs through the emergency information on file for her. Especially since she can no longer function. Her condition appears to be deteriorating, and she can tell she won't be very happy, nor will her family. That is, before she blacks out, crushed under the weight of years of accumulated pressure and stresses of mathletic origin.
"Mr. Watkins, I'm calling regarding the MOP. Your daughter has been hospitalized and lost consciousness during the third and final day of the TSTST" the proctor then announces to Glen on the phone.
"Sir, at what hospital is my daughter?" Glen asks the TSTST proctor who called 911 to get Valerie to the hospital.
"UPMC Shadyside" the MOP proctor answers him.
Glen then turns to Selena. "Valerie became sick at MOP, she's paying the price of years of relentless mathletic pressure. I think we should see her in Pittsburgh, we owe her that much, and I made her focus on mathletics not only because it's an activity VA could do on the cheap when I was its principal, it's also an activity that can be done on the cheap on the parent side, if done properly"
"I really hope that our daughter is alright, and you won't pressure Faith for the upcoming season the way you did our daughter!" Selena then pleads with her husband.
"I won't do so personally, and I won't pretend to know how Faith's mom acts towards her daughter, after all, my dealings with Faith's mom were mostly professional" Glen then answers her.
The couple then buys what plane tickets they can get departing from Bâton-Rouge (and hopefully board the same return flights as their daughter) so they can get to Pittsburgh on the double. And see their bed-ridden daughter at the hospital.
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When they arrive at UPMC Shadyside late the following day, the couple realizes they are a little late to the party. When they are allowed to see Valerie...
"Sorry, honey, we came as quickly as we could. It's the first time you're in hospital, and it had to happen on the third and final day of the TSTST!" Glen then turns to the nurse. "What happened?"
"Valerie seemed to have been under an immense amount of stress. She had a big panic attack. When she awakened, she kept mumbling about... the IMO or the TSTST I think?" the nurse then answers the couple.
"Because of this big fat zero on the third day of the TSTST, I lost the race to the IMO right out of the gate!" Valerie, still having traces of the stress in her, keeps crying.
"Exactly; this is what I kept hearing about her with the visitors. But she never told any of the visitors what exactly the IMO and the TSTST were" the nurse explains to them. "It's the first time I ever heard about these things"
"Valerie is a mathlete. The TSTST is a major tournament held at Carnegie Mellon, which determines who gets to enter a year-long league whose top-six finishers then compete at the IMO, or International Mathematical Olympiad" Glen explains to the nurse, who now has a better idea of what to expect.
The cold, hard truth hits Glen like a ton of bricks: Valerie found herself in this situation because she was relentlessly pushed as a mathlete. I guess, I can always ask Faith, or about Faith, and if, from my daughter's own admission, she's no longer in the race to the IMO, Faith will then have to carry the entire state's hopes on the mathletic stage. Because, if I'm not mistaken, there are no other people from Louisiana at MOP, Glen then starts to cry in turn.
"What did I do, or fail to do, for Valerie to get a nervous breakdown that gets her hospitalized?" Glen asks himself within earshot of her daughter.
"I hope my parish will forgive me for not getting to the IMO..." Valerie, still burdened by the heavy amount of stress the parish placed her under, sighs.
"For all the mathletic successes the VAs obtained, at least by Louisiana standards, winning the Math Madness, getting gold and even getting an individual award at the VMC named after a VA graduate, the public knows that high school mathletes face the same realities as high school athletes, namely that high schoolers in general have a finite lifespan as such. So upon returning home, let's get started on choosing where to apply to for college" Selena then makes herself clear about the parish's forgiveness.
"I'm still proud of you, you did what you could at the TSTST. Also, because you're no longer in the race to the IMO, you ought to use the summer to recharge your batteries; you're exhausted from years of intense mathletic training. You already have the MOP for this summer so I believe you can afford to ease up a little bit and explore what passions you might have" Glen then suggests his daughter.
"The problem is that I was given no opportunity to explore my passions! Mathletics began innocently with the encouragement of the middle school teachers, and I became really good at it. But in high school, it always seemed tied to institutional or parish-wide objectives!" Valerie complains.
"I really should have told you this before, but never did, out of fear that you would hate me, but the parochial school system plunged you into a perfect storm. I myself was a mathlete, during my own high school days, but I never achieved even the USAMO. Much less the IMO. It's more than wanting to show the parish and, later, the state legislature that girls can do mathletics at a high level, and, from there, use them as role models to effect a turnaround" Glen finally confided to his daughter.
"By now you know just how common the usage of children to fulfill parental wishes really is, sports or mathletics" Selena continues.
"And I know what forms it take: it's either about reaching competitive levels the parents never did or having their children get into colleges they never themselves did" Valerie then answers, while her father starts planning for Valerie's college application process, which starts soon.
"Since your grades and scores make any of Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt, Emory and Tulane realistic, let's start with reviewing each of these universities. You do understand that early decision is the way to go at any of these and, at that level, except for Tulane, you can't take admission for granted. Now, Tulane is an in-state auto-admit under early decision for you, but the Tulane of my time wasn't nearly as hard to get into as today's Tulane. Academically it feels like a larger version of a liberal arts college" Glen starts talking about Tulane. "I attended it, Dexter graduated this year"
That sounds like the kind of colleges Anna would like. Tulane, Columbia, UChicago, that sort of schools. Chantal, on the other hand, just needs to decide where to apply under ED among a list of six I heard about at a math team practice alongside other juniors. All three of us are aware that everyone will be like us if we actually get into our respective dream schools. Whereas all other juniors on band or math team would be happy just attending LSU, Louisiana Tech or Louisiana-Lafayette, Valerie reflects on what makes this process painful for her. A world of possibilities opens up to her.
"You spent some time at Carnegie Mellon so you should have an idea of whether you could see yourself spending four years there" Selena asks Valerie.
"Oh and if the college you're applying to uses the Common Application, you may either choose the why of mathletics or how you have come to realize that using others to further your own goals is unacceptable as an essay topic" Glen adds to this, knowing that he started receiving requests for letters of recommendation from students whom he knew when they were underclassmen. "Remember also that you must not merely re-state what's elsewhere on your application"