The following day, at work, Glen reads a memo sent to him from VA's principal. It's about the sales of Venomous Agenda merchandise going through the roof in a way that not even Gen's or Jennifer's participations at the EGMO did in their respective years. Trillian became the epitome of American girl's mathletics who, even though, by her own confession, she was hothoused as is typical of so many early birds of any field, is still a mathlete who's somewhat confident in public speaking.
This town is seemingly taking forever to process everything surrounding Trillian's qualification to the IMO, including but not limited to Trillian's gold at the EGMO. Because of Trillian winning gold at the EGMO, first of all, the town ratchets up their expectations going into the IMO, and the rest of the nation follows suit to varying extents. And she couldn't go very far in town without being recognized...
Yet, in a board meeting that he calls for later this week, he asks for the following when the meeting begins:
"You all know about the size of the accomplishment getting Trillian to the IMO represents. However, some of you might not have been on the board when I promised, as far back as when I was the principal of what became VA, that I would either work for the board until death did me part or the VAs got a girl to the IMO. Now that the second condition is met, I hereby announce my retirement effective June thirtieth. But we need to draft a succession plan for that date" Glen solemnly announces to the parish's board.
Or more specifically, the second half of the second condition. The first half, the Venomous Agendas winning the Math Madness, was met seven years ago. I remember Salome scoring the game-winning point very clearly even though she never competed at the USAMO, he gets flashbacks while the board members discuss what they look for in a superintendent.
As per usual, heated debates take place over where extracurricular attention should be devoted. Some think that sports should be given more attention at the parish level, others would rather maintain the present course. It appears that, under Glen, schools had a lot of athletic autonomy, and the parish would simply absorb the busing-related costs of extracurriculars of any kind. The parish's needs are much easier to agree upon than what they want out of a superintendent.
"We are now ready to vote on the succession plan; those who accept the plan, raise your hand" Glen announces to the board.
The succession plan is adopted by a two-thirds majority.
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Once the board meeting ends, Glen orders his very own special editions of the Venomous Agendas math team T-shirts, with the 2034 IMO logo on it, one lime green and one purple. However, he asks his wife about which items in the IMO special edition collection she would like before ordering any of it.
"Because we'll be in Delhi to support Trillian, I may as well buy a pair of special edition VA racertanks, one purple, one lime green" Selena then comments on what she could possibly buy to do so.
"And maybe some memorabilia of this happy occasion in different form than just clothing" Glen peruses other sorts of IMO memorabilia to order along with the clothing.
Even though the other two national championships the VAs are entered in are welcome breaks from the incessant attention given to the town from mathletics, their performances just aren't on the same level.
First, at the HSNCT on the Memorial Day weekend, the VAs lost to Boston Latin in a last-tossup showdown, in which Alyssa scored the winning points. Thus the VAs finished twenty-fourth out of over 400 teams competing.
Then came Nats. This year around, Nicole's brother makes it to triple-octos at Nats in LD, while the PF pair, led by Myriam's younger brother, finishes twentieth.
The town is now forced to acknowledge that boys actually can make an academic impact because, whereas girls dominated the VAs' academic teams' top performers up to this point, boys were the spearheads of both the quiz bowl and debate teams this year.
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By July 4, however, Trillian, as the sole MOPper of the state, makes her traditional announcement of TSTST results (after all, since she is a non-senior on the IMO team, she is invited at MOP) on parish radio.
"This is Trillian, your beloved mathletics Olympian, and, since I am, once again, the top girl at the TSTST, I will be in the race to the IMO for next year!" Trillian speaks on air with her signature Basque Country accent. "But tomorrow I will leave this town for Delhi so that I compete at the IMO, and hopefully, bring back the gold!"
At the same time, the couple prepares their baggage for the trip to India, as they take the same flights as Trillian does. This year, though, Trillian is the special guest at the Fourth of July's celebrations at night, so the town's residents can have one last glimpse at their star mathlete. Before she leaves the parish to compete at the IMO in India, and taking an early morning flight in Lake Charles to do so.
In Lake Charles, however, Trillian doesn't seem to turn as many heads as she did in her hometown, but still gets some measure of attention from airport security, namely from another Hispanic security agent.
"Good luck at the IMO, Trillian..." the security agent tells her as the carry-on baggage is on the conveyor belt.
"Thank you"
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The first thing that comes to mind when the couple arrives in Delhi is that they need to get to the hotel as soon as possible. They're getting tired as they leave the airport in the dead of night; however, the IMO team instead rents an electric minibus.
But little do they know is that, for all the hype surrounding Trillian at the IMO, very few US fans actually make the trip to Delhi to support her, or anyone else on the team, really. The other mathletes might have had their share of appearances on local media, maybe their entire states, but no real nationwide attention the way it happened with Trillian. For months now, Trillian was the mascot of the American mathletic world because of intersectionality, and hence feels the most pressure.
The following morning, the couple goes to the exchange office to buy some rupees before they go eat breakfast:
"What about some naan and chicken curry?" Selena asks the waiter.
"Mild, medium or hot?" the waiter asks her in return.
"Probably mild then"
Selena realizes that, by Indian standards, mild curry is a lot hotter than if she was to eat a mild chicken curry or tikka masala at an Indian restaurant at home.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
But, as soon as breakfast ends, they need to be quick in visiting the Old Delhi, and, in particular, the Red Fort and the nearby Jama Masjid. With the obligatory selfies for them.
"Oh, we would have loved to visit in more detail the Old Delhi, but we need to get back to the IICC, and we cannot take for granted we'll be there in time for the opening ceremony if we don't leave now!" Glen warns Selena as the two leave the Jama Masjid behind.
On the day of the opening ceremony, it's as clear as day that the locals didn't seem to get into the IMO as much as the contestants did, given the limited number of even Indian fans coming to the sponsor booths at the IICC (India International Convention and Exhibition Centre), where the IMO proper is held. Or the opening ceremony itself.
And the opening ceremony itself features traditional Indian music before the parade of nations. Which is much longer than at the EGMO because there are simply many more countries competing.
Trillian herself said that she didn't expect much to differ between the EGMO and the IMO, beyond the social aspect, especially since the EGMO problems were drawn from problems submitted for the IMO. I'd be inclined to believe her, Glen has some memories of the 3 past EGMO opening ceremonies he watched in livecasting because his parishioners were competing. Of course, at both olympiads, the host country appears last.
"Because we can't be there for Trillian during the contest itself, what will we be doing during the next two days? For the rest of the trip, we'll be going to the same places Trillian will be visiting" Glen asks Selena at the end of the opening ceremony.
"No trip to India would be complete without a trip to the Taj Mahal" Selena then suggests him, even though Agra is about two and a half hours away from Delhi, and that's assuming there is no traffic jams of any kind, around toll booths or just simply within Delhi or possibly Agra.
Supporting Trillian at the IMO was my husband's excuse to even travel to India, not sure how he plans on doing so, Selena is left wondering as to why and how. Until he comes up to find Trillian at the IICC right after the opening ceremony ends.
"For two more days, Trillian, please put aside any notion of this contest carrying any implication at home, or on your future. Just be yourself, remember your training and you'll be fine!" Glen advises Trillian as soon as he could find her, while taking care not to get too close.
"My parents are busy negotiating a movie deal at home while I'm here, at the other end of the world, competing at the IMO" Trillian answers the retired superintendent, with a little melancholy in her voice.
"That's news to me! I couldn't imagine even, say, Melanie Wood to be subject to a movie deal based, however loosely, on her life. A movie based on you would feel too much like X+Y except for the main character's race and gender" Glen, consumed by his own feelings about the parish's mathletic history, then pauses.
Of all the past female Venomous Agenda mathletes I encountered, Trillian's closest comparable is still Gen. However, the big difference between Gen and Trillian is that Gen is a product of the parish's past, which, pre-pandemic, routinely mishandled what few gifted students it had. As a result, Gen was a very late mathletic bloomer, but she's the one who first made the VAs into the mathletic powerhouse it is today. Gen also had the misfortune of the pandemic, which Trillian didn't, Glen couldn't help but compare side-by-side Trillian and Gen in his mind, before returning to Selena. Gen's parents make her a much more lovable mathlete than Trillian, but Trillian's accomplishments must not be discounted.
"Because the IMO is very similar to the EGMO in several respects, we won't know the final results of it until several more days. However, I believe they will stick to excursions within the immediate Delhi region while the team leaders are grading the contestants' copies, so if you have any other area to visit, we have two constraints: it must be outside of Delhi, and we must be able to get there, and back to Delhi, within a day. While the Taj Mahal meets both, it's only one attraction. We need a second one for the second day" Glen announces to her as they return to the hotel.
Of course, the first day of the IMO proper is about the couple getting to Agra and pay about 1500 rupees each to enter the Taj Mahal and its iconic main mausoleum, entry to which costs an extra 200 rupees to anyone age 15 and over. However, they quickly realize that they couldn't simply visit only the main mausoleum while there; the Taj Mahal is much, much more than just the main mausoleum. Yet their tickets are valid only for 3 hours, so they need to budget their time properly while visiting the Taj Mahal.
"Venomous Agendas? IMO?" a befuddled tourist asks upon looking at the couple's lime green clothes in an Indian accent.
"It's the name of the school one of the competitors at the International Math Olympiad attend" Glen answers the befuddled tourist.
Meanwhile, at home, VA's principal realizes there has been a possibility they have yet to explore, but they know the school can't reap any fruit from it until yet another year. Opening the school up to foreign exchange students. Capitalizing on the IMO berth to get their haul of foreign exchange students didn't cross the principal's mind until the IMO gets underway, and then drafts a plan to be brought to the attention of the new superintendent to open up the parish to the foreign exchange student market, whereas it was previously closed.
Especially now that VA is a name known internationally as being a school churning out female mathletes at a rate unheard of elsewhere in the world. And so, the principal expects exchange students to mostly come to VA for mathletics or for sports, subject, of course, to the extracurricular rationing in effect. And language or culture would then become secondary, while students on exchange would be charged pay-to-play fees for sports, provided it's legally permissible to charge such fees based on visa status (F-1 or J-1).
But the superintendent then responds that any such plan to open up VA to foreign exchange students would need to open up the entire parish to them, and not just VA, under the same stipulation, with the requirement for J-1 screening of prospective hosts as well as I-20 training if potential exchange students would rather attend on a F-1 visa.
Back in India, the couple visits the Amber Fort in Jaipur on the second day of the IMO itself, then proceed to visit various museums and other attractions in Delhi itself for the next two days along with Trillian.
At the closing ceremony, the results are announced and hundreds of mathletes from all over the world are anxiously awaiting these. Knowing that, for so many of them, the results will carry implications for their future. Some of them count on strong performance at the IMO to even be able to attend college at all, while others do not. Trillian wins gold, as so many in Venomous Agenda-land predicted, expected even.
And, of course, by winning gold, she makes it onto the top-5 for girls which, this year, is made up of silver and gold medalists. Once the ceremony ends, Glen forms up with Trillian as he did after the opening ceremony:
"Don't forget: expectations towards you don't end just because you won gold here. Especially not in the long run. Stay on your guard, at least in the short run, since everyone at school will want to date you, and often not for the right reasons" Glen issues his warning towards Trillian.
"What do you mean, expectations don't end in the long run?" a confused Trillian asks him.
"While we might be happy for you now, your predecessors, to whom you were endlessly compared for months, not only in the parish, but, from April onward, nationally, all had illustrious careers in mathematics. People will start expecting you to follow the same sort of career trajectory as they did. As far as I'm concerned, you held your end of the bargain"
"What do you mean, I held my end of the bargain?" Trillian asks again, about to cry. "What's your end of the bargain?"
"Maybe I didn't tell you this, but I promised years ago that I would retire as a principal if VA could get a girl to the IMO. But it happened that I became superintendent years before you qualified to the IMO, and I amended that pledge to include all high schools in the parish. That, even though, back then, I knew everyone else in the parish was not in position to get that one girl to the IMO, which turned out to be you. Now that I'm retired as a superintendent, I have no control over what happens to you next"
"You could prove me wrong if only you could help me get this idea of a nonprofit off the ground. Obviously, it's about girls and people of color in mathematics"
"So you want me to become your manager in an artistic sense?"
Hinduism has 30 million gods, most of which don't even have names or avatars. So the deities I called "the Hindu mathletics gods" are actually quite varied. And yet, I can't help but feel like there's a chance Trillian could fail. That she could end up like Sufiah Yusof rather than Melanie Wood. Last I heard about Sufiah, it was about how she ended up working as a social worker, without making any splash as such. Sufiah may have failed to live up to her early promise, but if she's happy now, it's all that counts in the present, Glen, overcome with the emotion of Trillian's offer, starts crying.
"The parish proverbially sacrificed so many girls to the Hindu mathletics gods over the years, I think I have no choice but to assist you in running it so that the parish can start paying back its debts"