Two days after this exam marked by a cheating scheme that, according to some in the group, was absolutely perfect for security, Geneviève received a message by mail about the final of the tournament.
------------------------------------------------------------
Square Root of the Answer
Dear Geneviève,
On behalf of the organizing committee, the news to announce you are bittersweet. There were too many teams tied for first for us to designate a winner, so it's impossible for us to grant the grand prize promised to all deserving teams. It happens that the Louisiana team is one of them and is therefore the South-Central regional champion, ex aequo with a Texan team.
As the sole eleventh grade representative from a South-Central state to have obtained a perfect score, you earned the prize awarded to the best performance of a non-senior student from the South-Central region. You will thus be able to participate in a summer mathematical camp of your choice, all expenses paid.
In addition, you won the Mirzakhani prize awarded to the best performance from a non-senior female student, all regions combined, which comes with a $9500 scholarship.
As for what happens to the original first prize, each winning school will receive a sum equivalent to the borrowing limit in the form of direct loans for an undergraduate student, or $57,500.
The organizing committee
-------------------------------------------------
The regions as defined by the contest originate from the A-105 Circular of the federal Office of Management and Budget, and the contest's South-Central region corresponds to region 6, containing New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
The organizers awarded auxiliary prizes to non-seniors? I hope there will be another one that will take part in the SRA next year, and the fruits of an entire year of hard work are finally rewarded! she thinks, reading the letter, happy of what just happened, and explains everything to her parents, check in hand:
"Victory! We are in a multiple-way tie for first with several other teams! And I won the prize of the best female performance from a non-senior!" Gen announces in front of her parents.
"That's our daughter! Congratulations!" her father then howls.
"It's an ending as happy as I could possibly have wished for it, a highlight of this Cinderella season. We have $9500 that we can save up for college. I also won the prize of the best performance by a non-senior of the South-Central region, so I can attend a summer mathematical camp of my choice for free. I would like to attend the Young Scholars Program at the University of Chicago. For as long as my teachers were talking about this university..."
A Cinderella season for the mathletics team of the school, a happy ending but the booster club is unaware of. If it was a happy ending for Gen and the other three people on the team, it was happening otherwise for Sam who, despite his pivotal role in Monday's cheating scheme, has visibly slept poorly and comes over to her, trying to understand what happened during this chemistry test. However, she didn't check her own chemistry grade before Sam's arrival.
"Gen, I don't understand! Help me resolve this chemical nightmare before it's too late!" a distraught Sam asks her.
"Sam, did you lose confidence in Marcia? You always trusted her on a chemical level"
"Marcia was very busy studying for other courses, and you too as well for the past two days. She and you both seemed to know the material well" Sam retorts to her.
YOU ARE READING
The Quest for High School Mathletic Glory
Teen FictionNote: This is an English translation of a story previously written in French. Geneviève, a junior in a rural southwest Louisiana high school, quietly lived her high schooler life until the unexpected victory at the state calculus championship propel...
