After the prizes of the Venomous Agenda Classic are awarded under the form of older textbooks and packs of bulbs, Flo makes a honorable mention:

"I thank all the staff of the tournament for making this possible. And certainly Sylvie Bouchard, whose devotion to the Venomous Agenda swimming team led her to make this sacrifice of reffing this tournament to help raise funds for the replacement of the weight room!"

"Thank you" Sylvie bows and then leaves.

The pictures of the hazards of the weight room having made headlines on the day of the Venomous Agenda Classic, donations came from across southwest Louisiana. And, since they are playing, the basketball and soccer teams are the ones who are most active in raising funds for the weight room, with the football team also taking in a lot of money.

By mid-December, the time has come for the VAs to award the contract for the weight room equipment, right before the finals season start for the second quarter. Hopefully the equipment will be installed in time for the start of the third quarter, Jabari sighs, while he lays down a roadmap for getting the new weight room in service. And also announces that the weight room will be closed during finals season.

The old equipment of the weight room, the oldest of which dates back to 2005, that is, the opening of VA's current campus, is being removed as soon as the contract is signed. Which took him, the substitute teachers and the custodian an entire day. Joined later by students on detention.

And the only equipment that could be sold off, that is, some of the weights and bars, found some takers on that day. Like people whose children will soon enter VA and are poised to play a sport as VAs. And a few of whom would attempt to live vicariously through their kids.

Next, Jabari issues an invitation to all coaches of Rule of Two teams to attend New Year's Eve on December 31 at school, as well as players on these. Unsurprisingly, while most coaches accept the offer, the same couldn't be said of the players. The players who accept, however, tend to play sports.

So, in the middle of the finals season, the new weight room is getting installed, but the weight room would remain closed until New Year's Eve.

By December 31, after eating dinner, Flo is about to leave home for the countdown of New Year's Eve, to be held on campus.

"I invite you to see VA's new weight room at midnight" Flo invites her parents to the new year's countdown.

"For the past two months, I couldn't go out for shopping without someone telling me about it! This cost our community good money, I sure hope that it will provide the students with safe equipment for exercising!" Flo's mom sighs.

"Sure, we do hear about the academic teams some, just that it's a bit weird that the school would choose to open the weight room on December thirty-first, when students are going to celebrate the holidays away from campus!" Flo's dad comments on the choice to use the New Year's countdown for opening the new weight room.

"By now I hope that the facilities we have will be enough to reduce, or even eliminate transfers-out for athletic reasons. However, it's not an excuse for the administration to suddenly shift its focus to athletics" Flo adds.

"Let's not overcompensate and become like these schools on the other side of the state border; what makes us different from almost every rural school in the Deep South is how we focus on academic teams" her mom formulates her wishes.

Consider quiz bowl. For ten points, fix this community had us as the top rural team in the nation, then Glasgow (KY) second, Hallsville (MO) third, and Hathaway fourth. Nearly all the other quiz bowl powerhouses are in urban schools. In debates, however, Texas has a handful of rural schools capable of earning Nats berths, Flo starts ruminating about what makes VA so different from everyone else in the world of rural schools. And mathletics, too...

She rereads the original article she gave her students (translated from French) to read a sad tale of how a school could have come on the verge of closing because of several years of poor academic performance. And prays this doesn't happen to VA.

Upon arriving at VA that night, she comes across the two foreign exchange students playing sports for the VA, Leila and Oleg a bit before midnight:

"How do you feel about student life here in the US, now that you spent half a year here?" Flo asks the two foreign exchange students.

"In Syria, I had the impression that well-roundedness was not valued, be it between physical education and academics, or even between social studies and science. And we were made to feel like study machines that need to specialize early. Too early for my taste at times. Here it's generally understood that you don't often know what you want to do in life at our age, and also that you can't have too much of one thing" Leila goes first. "And initially I feared people would bully me based on religion, but so long as I keep quiet about it, I was fine. In my corner of Syria, there weren't just any swimming pools at all, and it's also dry"

"Same goes for Russia as far as being a study machine is concerned. However, everything revolves around the Unified State Exams as well as subject olympiads" Oleg comments on his experience at home. "Maybe because I live in an urban area at home, and we're in a rural area, but school spirit just isn't as central to social life in Bryansk as it is here. You do have to study still, and I could take AP courses in science without complications"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The swimming coach approaches Leila to ask her follow-up questions, but more specifically about her experience of swimming for the VAs.

"As you said during your first practice, Leila, you came from a desert region. I never asked this of you, but what made you want to pick up swimming as opposed to, say, cross-country?" the swimming coach asks her.

"It's a sport I never had a chance to play at home. At first, I struggled with technique, but in three short months, the past physical demands of soccer caught up to me, and I seemed to rely on my kick more than I should have" Leila answers the swimming coach.

I was put in at State because Carmen had a rotator cuff injury. Yet, I was still the slowest VA on the 4x50 and 4x100 relays. But because of my limited experience of the sport, I didn't blame myself for the Venomous Agendas finishing last at State in both. I guess, it was a wonderful three and a half months swimming for the VAs, Leila reflects on her season of swimming competitively for the VAs' diminutive team.

The attendees on VA's sports rosters keep talking about their respective sports, especially to those who didn't play theirs. It so appears that some athletes are somehow nexuses of attention. Jabari and Norman, on the other hand, draw more attention from the other adults attending this celebration while the music starts being played, than they did from the students.

There might be dancing taking place by this point, but not everyone joins in. Flo, for instance, seems content to just sing along, and is even given a timeslot to sing her own song.

When she does sing Petit papa Noël, in French, she replaces the following two lines "Avec tes jouets par milliers // N'oublie pas mon petit soulier" by "Avec tes jouets par millions // N'oublie pas mes petits bottillons". Which prompts a response from the cross-country and track coach, who teaches physics.

"Why replace the order of magnitude of the number of toys in the song?" that coach asks Flo, unsure of whether changing the lyrics is warranted.

"Santa Claus must have had millions of toys to distribute around the world, and probably an eight or even nine-figure number" Flo's answer is grounded in the belief that even hundreds of thousands of toys wouldn't last Santa very long on December 24.

"I guess, demographics got the better of you" the soccer coach, and also the one teaching the middle school and high school French I courses, then starts singing another song altogether, the Lacassine Special.

Unlike Flo, who sings in French with a little Québécois accent, the soccer coach, however, has a clear Cajun accent when singing in French. That much is clear to both Leila and Sylvie, who stand side-by-side when they listen to both songs, while one of the coaches readies a ribbon and a pair of scissors for the main event, the New Year's countdown.

As midnight approaches, the parish's superintendent arrives on-site, even though VA's weight room was refurbished without a single cent of parish money spent on it. Or more specifically, on its equipment, since, technically the parish's expenditures are fully borne out of labor. When the superintendent arrives at the weight room:

"These past two months have shown that, if we put our hearts and minds to it, we can get projects for what's best for our kids' future" the superintendent is then handed the ceremonial pair of scissors as the countdown begins.

"Five, four, three, two, one, happy new year!" Jabari counts down to the new year and, as the countdown ends, the superintendent cuts the ceremonial ribbon of VA's weight room, outfitted with brand-new equipment as used in commercial gyms across the region.

"May this new weight room actually make future classes of Venomous Agendas healthier!" the superintendent makes his wish for the new VAs' weight room. "We replaced equipment dating back to the opening of this campus in 2005"

A lot of eager athletes came to VA to at least catch a glimpse of the new weight room, and, since so many of them are not dressed adequately to exercise at this time, they take pictures of the new equipment, with new purple V and A decals on the weight room's walls, lined in green. And donated by the parents of a current VA athlete.

As the attendees circulate pictures of the new weight room on social media, people all over southwest Louisiana are shown a weight room that seems capable of holding more students than the previous layout, with brand new equipment.

"At the end of the school year, I might no longer be working here, since I was approached to pursue other opportunities" Jabari then announces, but unsure as to what these opportunities even are. "But for now, however, I hereby announce the reopening of the weight room!"

Probably to become principal somewhere else, maybe at some other school struggling in athletics, I don't know where though, Norman wonders what other opportunities Jabari could be pursuing, knowing there is no shortage of schools whose communities feel like athletics have been mismanaged. Including potentially in a parish that would deem letting a school to rot an acceptable price to pay to play football.

"May this be the first step of VA towards Class Four-A. Even though VA was somehow included in the discussion to move up to four-A because of my teammates' actions..." Sylvie then reveals the cold, hard truth about VA in 4A, which she previously told Flo.

The appeal was granted specifically because of the rules double-counting the eighth grade athletes on last season's VA rosters, who are included in the LDoE-certified enrollment data! Sylvie told publicly what I didn't disclose, Norman is suddenly reminded of the history of VA's enrollment. For as long as I have been working here, the enrollment slowly increased, from about 550 high schoolers in the pandemic to 598 today. For us to make the jump into 4A successfully in two years, we must start budgeting for it. Assistant coaches, football or baseball, cost us one-third of the extra section stipend each.

Norman believes that two more assistant coaches are needed for 4A football, one for strength and conditioning and the other for special units, but ideally both should have knowledge of coaching offensive or defensive linesmen. And an assistant coach for baseball (for coaching payroll purposes, softball and baseball are, together, considered one team, much like coaching both genders of the same sport is), with all the costs in substitutes these imply for away game days.

"Although quiz bowl doesn't use LHSAA divisions, what would moving up to four-A imply for the finances of the academic teams? Would this mean our budget gets cut?" Flo asks Norman, worried about the implications for the quiz bowl team.

"No. Quiz bowl is actually pretty lean, all things considered, if we consider only the regular season" Norman answers her.

I hope the parish will give us about thirty grand more next year for sports. Barring that, I hope that Jabari will actually get a principal job somewhere else next year, because he's the second-highest paid staff member at VA, and anyone who has expressed interest in becoming an assistant principal will be lower-paid, not to mention their replacement at the teaching position they will move up from, Norman tries to think of how VA could afford the a minima costs of moving up to 4A, which he estimates to be $30k higher per year than in 3A.

Flo then proceeds to take a group photo of the VA athletes, their coaches, and the three administrators present.