By the end of the month, on April 27, everyone in town, and even people from elsewhere in the parish, believes in the Venomous Agendas becoming the Cinderella team of the Square Root of the Answer. Every high school mathletics team in the region is in the crowd, wanting to see their idols for the first time in person. More than ever, and also more than anywhere else in the country, and maybe even the entire world, mathletes are treated like rock stars in town. Four mathletes, one pep rally like the pre-pandemic football pep rallies.
Because of what makes this competition special to the eyes of the town, Glen realizes quickly that there are too many attendees for the school's auditorium and the municipal stadium is the only suitable venue for a pep rally centered around the Square Root of the Answer. Yet it seems like the local population treats the mathletes as circus freaks.
Once the crowd gets to the stadium, and the PA system is active, Éliane begins the night with her own speech addressing the crowd regarding how important the Square Root of the Answer is to the locals, and how far the VAs came to even compete there:
"Three months ago, no one could have seen coming the victory of our school at the state stage of the Square Root of the Answer. This season has been exceptional for the Venomous Agendas, with historical records on the AIME which, even though our performances have not inspired this town as much as the SRA, do not detract from their exceptional character. Tomorrow, the biggest mathematics competition in parish history begins and, regardless of what happens next, let's enjoy our trip under the limelight because it may very well be the only time in our lives that we will be able to obtain public recognition for having talent in multi-variable calculus!" Éliane addresses the crowd. "For me this represents the ultimate hour of glory before my departure for Duke this fall!"
Trent then has the mathletes fan out over each board so that they don't all see one person hog all the attention. People tend to either have a lot of questions or to have no clue what's going on. Only a handful few actually understood anything among the crowd without asking questions.
In that sea of questions, one of the questions seems to stick out like a sore thumb, and Glen somehow catches a glimpse of it, his presence going unnoticed because it is, well, the mathletes' night.
"Hello, my name is Krista, and I think I will transfer to your school next year if my parents allow me to. We briefly talked about differential equations in class; how does that change in several variables?"
"With multiple variables, one must first ask if we can separate the variables, so that we can decompose a partial differential equation in two ordinary differential equations with a little algebra. To do so we suppose that the solution takes the form H(x,y) = F(x)G(y), and we insert it into the partial derivatives in the equation. But, with one or multiple variables, one must pay attention to both initial conditions and boundary conditions" Gen explains to the attendees.
"Wow! Can you solve a PDE in front of the crowd?" Marcia asks, while knowing almost no one would understand anything to this demonstration.
"The great classic, the heat equation. We thus have"
Forget about Catalena playing on the math team for next year, Krista is much more likely to be the real deal for Title IX money! Glen only sees the dollar signs in his eyes, and not just the per-student operational allowance from the parish [https://img.wattpad.com/63a5d964a671ae719323b08ccd4c87145ec1d948/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f567047732d585a374f6f365a7a673d3d2d313335313532313037342e313736373764626131373930323133393932303038303035393632392e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
Forget about Catalena playing on the math team for next year, Krista is much more likely to be the real deal for Title IX money! Glen only sees the dollar signs in his eyes, and not just the per-student operational allowance from the parish. Which, in turn, comes from the state. Krista was apparently swayed into transferring here over... Gen solving PDEs in open air?
Bewildered by the crowd's reaction to the PDE being solved in open air, the principal wonders how easily the team can raise the $200 for next season now, especially since the before-after image flashes in his mind. But even $400 in Title IX money is still better than no baseline funds for the mathletics team. He then overhears Marcia talking to Gen...
"Oh, I am not worried about your success. Unfortunately, you cannot answer everyone, in fact, even with the entire team combined, the team will be unable to answer everyone. Today you shall see that I can do advanced math, too!" Marcia exclaims in front of Gen.
"Marcia, I invite you to try out for the math team and thus take part in other meets next year, especially if people are satisfied by the answers given during this pep rally" Gen issues an invitation to Marcia.
More questions surface in Glen's mind, now that Gen issued an invitation to Marcia to try out for the math team next year. It's not the first time I'm nervous about roster changes, but I accept it's part of life as a high school principal. I really, really wonder how Krista and/or Marcia stack up to Éliane, if these two are going to play. Yet I am remembered of how you can be very good in math courses but not do so hot as a mathlete. It has to do with personality, with how a student approaches the material. Good mathletes push the material's envelope while you can easily imagine someone for whom no material outside the course matters. But Marcia is a quiz bowler, so she's used to pushing the material's envelope. Still, I'd rather have the Title IX money attached to her used for quiz bowl, and I have no mental health concerns over Marcia beyond what I consider as baseline for all students, at least not as far as I can tell. He then listens to his boss harangue the crowd for a few moments:
"This year is a golden opportunity for the parish, or barring that, the town, to give back education the place it deserves! What you are seeing here is the result of a handful of students that work hard in class and that make continuous efforts to learn the material! From now on, we have a clear position to fight with the Department in Bâton-Rouge for funding!" the superintendent of the parish school district harangues the crowd.
Mathletics could prove a fad for what Glen knew, but better ride the wave when it's still hot in his mind. And, for some reason, he keeps replaying this scene of Gen solving for PDEs in open air, and, apparently, filmed by another Venomous Agenda fan for uploading on YouTube. Krista, so many unknowns, I would love to meet with her under less... hectic circumstances. With her parents of course, he muses while he approaches Krista's parents. After Gen's speech ends, of course, even though he feels Gen's speech was trying to be too many things at once. A valedictory address, and also a warning should things go south at the SRA final.
"I'm Glen, the principal of this school. I overheard your daughter expressing a desire to transfer here and finish high school as a Venomous Agenda. I believe she was talking about... partial differential equations? I think it would make no sense to discuss transferring any further at this point, and you would be better served asking the principal at your school of origin first regarding the paperwork aspect of transferring" he explains to Krista's parents before giving them his business card.
Intra-parish transfers are typically much more straightforward, from an administrative standpoint, than out-of-parish transfers. There aren't a whole lot of intra-parish transfers, a handful transfer out of the parish but very few transfer into it. As such, the school district's child welfare and attendance department mostly deals in truancy.
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"Just don't be too rash, honey. I don't want you to change high schools just for wanting to do mathletics with a specific person. Finish the year at your current school and then you can think of transferring" Krista's dad then asks his daughter.
Turns out that the paperwork portion is pretty standard: proof of residency, birth certificate and immunization records. And, of course, the release form from the previous school as well as the transcript. For some reason, Krista makes me nervous in ways an average student does not. With the average students, while somewhat prone to behavioral issues, at least expectations are easier to manage. Krista, on the other hand, shows signs of promise, but I don't have a whole lot to go on so I might have to call a teacher or two at her current school after the school year ends, Glen muses, while the hope remains for him based upon seeing the mathletes' progress through multi-variable calculus that night.
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Yet, the results of this tournament are slow to come by, and, of course, he needed to tend to the other affairs of the school, such as making sure the final exams take place without a hitch. Once said exams ends, at commencement, after Memorial Day, he'd get an opportunity to celebrate the results. Which no one associated with the team believed it was a good idea to disclose during finals season so as to not distract the student body and the community.
"Before the commencement ceremony begins, we would like to underscore the exceptional end of the mathematics season, which ends with a thirteen-way tie for first at the national final of the Square Root of the Answer, and we have one of the thirteen teams in the tie. And we also won the prize of the best female performance by a non-senior" the principal starts, referring to Geneviève since she was the only VA non-senior at the SRA final.
And then Trent explains to the community media what the roadmap is, what are the challenges to accomplish it, and what the hopes are. But after the graduation ceremony ends, Glen starts with a call to the principal of Krista's old school.
"This is Glen, I am calling about Krista, a potential transfer student, and I want to ensure her transfer happens without a hitch. So is there any information, such as discipline or medical issues, I should be made aware of regarding Krista? I mean, issues that wouldn't appear on the release form" Glen asks the other principal, struggling to hide his emotions.
"She just came to my office earlier this morning, asking for the release form as well as the transcript. She seems to be a decent human being, she seems not to have particular issues" the other principal tells him on the phone, before calling her parents about scheduling a possible appointment to meet with her, so they can fill out the paperwork of the VAs' school and then officialize the transfer.
"Thank you"
When the documentation package arrives to Glen, in electronic form, which the principal of the Concepts' school (the school Krista transfers from went by Concepts in sports) emailed to both the CWA department of the parish's school district office and him, he wastes no time reviewing the transcript after glossing over the other documents.
Rest assured, Krista, that all your credits will transfer, Glen sighs, realizing that Krista quoted the unsatisfying academic and extracurricular life as a reason for transferring. And he is also dealing with what feels like an academic carbon copy of Gen. A very strong student who took AP courses as soon as the opportunities presented themselves, and up to the parish's limit of 4. Then again, I expected nothing less out of a person whose first exposure to this school involved making Gen solve PDEs in open air. She appears to operate at a very high math level.
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But because there were so few transfer students in and out of the school, he also realizes he has the luxury to meet with the parents of any new transfer student. When he gets the chance to meet with Krista and her father:
"I am Glen, principal of this school. Rest assured, Krista, that the transfer will be approved, with all credits transferring. But there is one caveat, and I suppose your old principal told you about it, the parish will not provide transportation for her. Is that something that's logistically feasible for you and your family?" Glen asks Krista's father.
"Krista's mother is an outpatient addiction counselor, and her workday begins after school starts, so I suppose she can drop her daughter off before work" Krista's father mentions the logistics of attending this new school.
"I've reviewed your transcript, and I expect your light to shine very brightly here. I have a couple questions for you, to ensure that you will be able to get the most out of your senior year as a Venomous Agenda. First question: what made your academic and extracurricular life unsatisfactory to you?" he asks Krista before the stamp of approval could be put.
"Academically I feel like I hit a rut and the social environment of my old school was, well, suffocating to someone like me" Krista explains while bursting into tears. "I had the impression my academic prowess, and intellect, too, made my social life much more difficult than I would have liked. I unofficially took the SRA final about a month ago or so, I was able to handle it just fine. I understood as clearly as Gen did what solving PDEs in open air entailed"
"Speaking of the SRA final, I need to ask Trent about your result on it. He graded your copy. You made Gen solve PDEs in open air, so I have pretty high expectations as it relates to math, and you on the math team. So I'm wondering how was life on your previous math team"
"The season was, like, one tournament long and I was the only one who was issued an invitation for the AIME in my time there, then again mathletics was brand new at my old school" Krista keeps answering. "I was by far its best mathlete, and it was worse than flying under the radar. Because the season was so short, I was not very satisfied with life on the math team"
"You're already somewhat familiar with Gen but don't go around thinking that you'll fly under the radar here, nor that Gen will be the only other mathlete with whom you'll play" Glen explains to her.
"Of course not, especially not when you have pep rallies where the mathletes are given the opportunity to review the material for a contest in open air. But I concede I was the one who brought up partial differential equations to begin with, hence the impression you might have gotten that I made Gen solve PDEs in open air. Marcia was actually the one who asked to provide an example"
Flying under the radar would mean the student body wouldn't care about how we perform in mathletic tournaments and, in my interactions with other students, I can fit in without trouble, and I'm treated with respect the same as anyone else. However, mathletes with any actual talent will often be known as smart kids, irrespective of their actual performance levels, Krista muses while she has a feeling that, even though the coursework wouldn't be that different in quality vs her old school, the real kicker will be, well, life on the math team. If the pep rally that made me want to play with Gen is any indication, I won't fly under the radar here, and people actually embrace mathletics here to the extent no one would virtually anywhere else in the world.
Meanwhile, Glen receives an email from Trent regarding Krista's result at the SRA final. Which is promptly forwarded to her.
"It goes without saying that mathletics here will be a lot more intense than at your old school. So you will be training for two hours each day after school on the math team, and you performed the same as Gen on the final, really" Glen then hands her a tablet with a webpage containing the school's merchandise website, and more specifically the uniform. He also proceeds to hand out school forms to her father, which are more for the parents.
"Time to return home, I guess" Krista's father then sighs, upon receipt of an envelope containing paperwork.
"Welcome to the Venomous Agendas, Krista" an ecstatic Glen then shakes Krista's hand as well as her father's hand, before leaving the office.
On her way back to her home, Krista then texts Geneviève, whose share of the popular attention has clearly diminished now that we are in the vacation period, that is, the mathletic off-season. « My parents are OK for me to transfer to your school; would you like to meet again at dinnertime? Around the stadium is OK for you? » Krista texts Geneviève, with this fresh as a rose memory of this PDE solved in open air.
« It would be fantastic; I would love it if Marcia came to see you as well » she responds. If Krista is to be part of the mathletics team of the school, then I believe it's a good idea to introduce her to a potential future teammate, and I feel that, for the next season, we would like to fixate a roster for the Square Root of the Answer before any other contest. We saw it this year, the SRA is a tournament that requires an entire year of preparation. However, it's the most demanding contest on the calendar in terms of required background; one must, at a minimum, take calculus BC concurrently. But will she be part of this only for the SRA or will she participate in other tournaments? Gen thinks, while waiting on Marcia's answer, who takes her time to think about it.
At my old school, I was practically a one-eyed person in a kingdom of blind people. I was the captain of a very bad team. Unfortunately, the neighboring parishes are not much better, Krista thinks, while in both towns, calculus is only a chimera to the eyes of the public, hence the aura that this material could have. And solving for PDEs in open air? It was a circus-worthy novelty for them.
« Marcia agrees. Around the stadium tonight then » Geneviève adds once Marcia answers her. When she arrives at the stadium at night...