And then, demoralized by her dim prospects of making it on the international stage, Faith crashed at the USAMO the day after Camden's arrest. Which the whole parish talked about that day.
She then decided to focus more on XC training for next season, unlike Salome, who instead picked track as her second activity. Predictably, however, Salome doesn't perform so great on the track, as she spent more time training in mathletics than she did her body.
But both girls realized that the pressure to overachieve with Valerie as captain was no longer present and they could get more enjoyment out of mathletics and whatever sport they decided to play on top of that.
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On April 4, since there just isn't a whole lot of students who still wait on their college decisions at VA, the main attraction for the morning announcement is Daisy.
"The most glamorous acceptances, as well as the most mundane, are past us, so I guess, I am the one remaining who still has to decide which college to go to. And I'll attend Connecticut College" Daisy announces in a solemn voice.
William and Mary was going to be too expensive, Trinity College waitlisted me, as did Tulane, to which my parents made me apply, and with the scholarships I have, it's going to be around the same price as LSU, Daisy reflects on the result.
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Two months later, Glen assists in a heartbreaking scene taking place while Chantal is still competing at Nats, right before the international extemp final starts.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the international extemp final at the 2028 NSDA Nats is Chantal's swan song as an extemper. For the past four seasons, she provided us with joy on the debate floor, may she be able to obtain successes in international relations at Princeton" Glen makes his presentation of the game, before his daughter takes over, with her short-term boyfriend in tow.
"I might have faded as a mathletic star last year, I might be a mathletic washout. However, after spending senior year away from the pressures of performance on the mathletic stage, I was finally able to expand my horizons somewhat. But as a new chapter in my life begins, unfortunately, it's obvious that it was due to happen at some point" Valerie then cries in front of the mic. "I'm breaking up"
And Chantal graduating proves another domino falling in the decline of VA academic extracurriculars, after quiz bowl earlier this year. People are now wondering whether mathletics are next, because mathletics going down the drain might mean there would be little to no money for the VAs to play middle school quiz bowl or debate.
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In the following years, the other schools in the parish, including but not limited to Lacassine and Elton, start to get better in mathletics. And their student bodies get better at math along with it. Yet, they didn't seem to be embracing other academic activities such as quiz bowl. Lacassine only lasted one tournament in quiz bowl, and its new principal gave up on it altogether.
2028-2029 marks the post-pandemic low in VA mathletics, with no USAMO presence for the first time in years. Along with it, the budgetary low in the academic extracurriculars so that, when VAs' high school quiz bowl team qualifies to the HSNCT, they resort to holding quiz bowl games during the same day as the math games against other schools. Or, if one of Iowa or Kinder were playing football or basketball at VA, prior to these games, in hopes of squeezing extra money during these games by way of extra tickets for both.
"First-round playoff exit at the Math Madness in both fall and spring; what is going on here, Myriam?" Glen goes on to ask Myriam at the end of the game.
"We only have two players scoring all eight points in math games this year, Faith and Salome. We have won handily on the buzzer against Mira Loma, though" Myriam comments on the game. "She might be going to Stanford next fall, but frankly, Faith is not the best person to captain this team"
And yet, no one is hurt more by the VAs' mathletic underperformance than the debate team. Down to half the players it used to have at its peak, not even the players they do have were able to win Nats berths, be it public forum, POI, Congress, LD or extemp (one of the Congressional players started playing extemp).
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For the 2029-2030 season, people end up being nostalgic about the glory days of Venomous Agenda academic teams provided one isn't a fan of quiz bowl. Because, unfortunately, the town's athletic attention was, and is, unevenly distributed across sports. The VAs' stronger fall sports that season, XC and swimming, both seem to fly under the radar. However, girls' basketball had eight winter days under the spotlight.
"I really hope Trillian will actually prove our mathletic salvation in the long run" Glen sighs out loud. "She might be in sixth grade now, but from what I've heard at Jennings Elementary, Trillian has been absolutely killing it in pre-algebra and her parents requested to have her take the AMC-eight and twelve. However, she can't be accelerated any more within the school system, because of parish policies designed to save the students from themselves"
"Honey, last season, quiz bowl finished thirty-third at the HSNCT, and that was with three underclassmen. If anything, I expect Myriam and the like to get better" Selena tries to reassure him about this season's VA squad.
That season, the VAs' quiz bowl team has 2 mathletes on it, Myriam being the more generalist of the two as a quiz bowler. In all likelihood, quiz bowl will be the main item of adoration among the population for the season, over mathletics.
"Fine, quiz bowl it is this year for the VAs, but remember what I said: I will remain in office until either I die, or some female parishioner makes it to the IMO. Right now, I wonder who is closest to the IMO, Trillian, poised to attend VA next year, or Blythe, at Lacassine, currently in ninth grade" Glen asks his wife.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Currently, Blythe is better than Myriam from a purely mathletic standpoint. Salome is not in the race to the IMO, and neither is Myriam, nor any of the other female mathletes currently playing for the VAs. But, if you were to wager on who, between Blythe and Trillian" Selena asks him.
Oh my God, not gambling! The whole Lacassine fiasco forced Lacassine to sell its thoroughbred, Full Moon Rising, and Camden to sell his 10% share in Futurity Force! One of the preexisting owners of Futurity Force doubled its stake in the horse, while Full Moon Rising was auctioned off by the court for a hundred grand to pay for restitution, fines and court fees. Camden was the guy who introduced me to horse race betting, but this whole fiasco made me not want to gamble anymore, not even informally... Glen gets flashbacks from the scandal this entire gambling fiasco caused Lacassine to the parish. And yet, Camden had no criminal history.
The fiasco happened because of Camden's gambling problems, which were brought up by the media when the plea bargain was announced. Camden pled guilty and was sentenced to five years in jail.
"Sorry, I don't want to wager anything. This reminds me far too much of the whole Lacassine fiasco two seasons ago. However, if you were just asking who's more likely to get to the IMO in their time in high school, I'd say Trillian. Sure I'd be happy for Blythe, and for Lacassine, if she makes it, but I'm not convinced she can get to the MOP"
"Think of what made Faith and Valerie able to both get to the MOP that year; was there anything that led them to the MOP that year that could be done at Lacassine and the district could do to help?" Selena asks him. "Like paying a summer math camp for Blythe?"
"There might be a better use of the MSPGO money than paying for Blythe to attend a high-level math camp. Even though the math and science achievement gap between VA and the rest of the parish has clearly diminished, it's still a little early to tell whether it leads to lasting changes"
Speaking of MSPGO money, the parish doesn't have as much of it (at least in real terms) now as the parish had when the parish first received MSPGO money, namely because of two factors: money is awarded primarily based upon the performance indicators (and the size of the district too) and, of course, inflation. Bâton-Rouge made no attempt to index MSPGO money but didn't axe it for some reason.
"I wonder if I can have past VA alumnae at the MOP or EGMO mentor Blythe, just not Faith since she is a terrible mentor who ran the math team into the ground after Valerie graduated" Glen suggests to his wife.
"After everything you made Valerie endure when she was in high school, not sure she would want to help another parishioner get to the IMO!" Selena voices her concerns over having Valerie being used as a pawn in district-wide power games again.
"Of course not. My first two choices would be Gen and Jennifer"
For now, I may as well send Blythe and Trillian a list of resources my daughter used, including but not limited to the WOOT system, Glen reflects on the options available to him before he emails both girls.
And then a new intra-parish rivalry emerges in mathletics: the VAs' mathletics fanbase gets increasingly bitter at Lacassine, especially since both teams meet in the spring Math Madness playoffs, in Division I no less. But the VAs' experience and depth won out over Lacassine that year. Yet, for everything Salome, Myriam et al managed to do, the VAs didn't make it past the second round.
And, of course, one shouldn't forget about that quiz bowl season, where people see in Myriam the second coming of Imélie, and is even compared to Imélie outright. Especially going into the HSNCT. At which the VAs finish in the top 10 once again by virtue of being tied for eighth, much like the 2027 HSNCT.
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The following year, 2030-2031, Trillian starts enrolling at VA, playing on the high school math team as a middle schooler at the insistence of her parents.
At the same time, the debate coach retires as a teacher and whatever fans the debate team still had, which is, unfortunately, not a whole lot, pray that Florence, now teaching French at VA, ends up turning the debate team's misfortunes around as the new debate coach.
"Let's hope that Trillian will actually prove to be the real deal! After the disappointments of the past few years, with Myriam, Salome, Faith and, yes, our own daughter, may she bring us joy in mathletics!" Glen muses while he prepares to attend the VAs' high school mathletic season opener against Lacassine.
"Myriam might have been a disappointing mathlete to your eyes, but, as a quiz bowler, she's about as spectacular as Imélie. And man Imélie was good on the buzzer!" Selena exclaims while she gets ready for the game, which is actually a doubleheader.
The first part of that show is a quiz bowl game. Said quiz bowl game is played against one of the VAs' major out-of-state rivals on the buzzer (by this point, 4 big out-of-state rivals emerged in academic competitions, Boston Latin, DCC, TJHSST and Whitman) with their opponents playing remotely.
Sure, winning against the Boston Latin Wolfpack in some regular-season game is nice, but what followed in the math game taking place right after the quiz bowl game ends simply mesmerized the parishioners attending the game. Trillian, in her debut as a Venomous Agenda mathlete, captures the hearts and minds of the town by scoring a perfect game, with and against other players who are several grades ahead of her. They never saw mathletes that young perform that well on a stage intended for much older kids. Like Blythe, a tenth-grader, who scored a perfect game for Lacassine. Or Myriam, a VA senior who always seemed to be on the cusp for the USAMO but never actually got to it.
"Way to go, Trillian!" Myriam then tries to encourage Trillian after this strong showing during that game, under the crowd's chants of Trillian! Trillian!
And it turns out that the glory days of parochial mathletics are back, with first, Blythe being the first Lacassine mathlete to make it into the MOP by 2031-2032, placing well outside the top-30, and therefore not competing at the EGMO either.
However, races to the IMO seem to mostly repeat themselves from Glen's standpoint, and, while Trillian is the youngest in parish history to have made it to MOP, also attending it in 2033 as a rising sophomore, the hype is just unreal. So, on July 4, 2033, he joins Trillian at the parochial radio station for the traditional announcement of TSTST results taking place when the parish produces a MOPper:
"I am Trillian Coradines, a rising sophomore mathlete for the Venomous Agendas. As per usual on July the Fourth, whenever anyone in the parish made it to the MOP, I announce the results of the TSTST personally on radio. It is my honor to announce that I finished fifth at the TSTST, and atop the girls, so I am officially in the race to the IMO!" Trillian speaks with a Basque Country accent.
Glen then makes a list of all the parochial mathletes who competed at the USAMO at any point of their mathletic careers, then another one for those who competed at the AIME without qualifying for the USAMO, so he can update the page on the school district's website for these two categories, sortable by gender and by years competed in.
"In the past few years, this parish has seen educational improvement. However, I must acknowledge that there are limitations to what can be accomplished given the socio-economic makeup of the parish, and the kind of environment the parish's kids grow up in. Nevertheless, as superintendent of this parish school board, Trillian being a girl of color in the race to the IMO is a testament to what this parish is able to accomplish with the right support" Glen then speaks after Trillian on air. "So good luck to Trillian, and may she represent our country's BIPOC well in the race to the IMO, alongside Louisiana"