The Quest for High School Mathletic Glory

Chapter 26: The USAMO of wrath

Sunday morning, Cory and Florence realize they waited far too long to sell a new crop of promotional material for a historical run to the USAMO. The parish media might make a big deal of it, keeping press clippings as mementos was not the end of the story. Cory invites them both to attend another photo-shoot for this promotional merchandise, made at Florence's home that does not hesitate to show them her silver medal won in New Orleans the previous day once they are in her photo studio.

"And... smile! As with the Math Madness, you will have your pictures across the parish, and even beyond. This time there will be the great seal of Louisiana in the background, the words USAMO, and your names in green, above your heads, on a purple field" Florence explains before she starts to take a few poses, initially with both girls and later each girl takes a few individual shots.

It would be easy to imagine what the promotional merchandise for the EGMO and the IMO would look like... but for the latter it would not be an artisanal creation from Florence! It wouldn't simply be hype that would be a fundraiser for the academic extracurriculars of the Venomous Agendas! Already the photo-shoot has ended that the Venomous Agendas, and other mathletics fanatics pre-ordered posters, at the same price as with the playoffs.

Monday morning, for the first time since the pandemic, the extracurricular portion of the morning announcement contained no allusion to athletic or mathletic results. And quiz bowl who flew under the radar, came back from the state championship with a pleasant surprise both girls, as well as Cory, were exposed to.

"Good morning: today's news will take everyone by surprise. The Venomous Agendas won the silver medal at the quiz bowl state championship and, for the first time in school history, will go to the national championship!" the principal makes his first announcement.

"Venomous! Agendas! Venomous! Agendas!" Curtis shouts in his class while his girlfriend is on the team.

"This announcement won't surprise anyone, however, and is a prelude to April the second. Geneviève got into the University of Chicago"

Now everyone knows it. The USAMO is tomorrow and all the time I have spent solving all kinds of special problems that would give panic attacks even to Marcia will finally be put to good use, Geneviève thinks while the myriad of mathematical notions dances in her head.

The latest edition of the parish newspaper devoted part of the cover page to this unexpected Venomous Agendas quiz bowl performance, with an additional page later. On the second page, for the first time, they played the comparison game with past female contestants at the IMO for the United States, while in previous editions, they instead tried to compare them with past Louisiana contestants at the USAMO and later on, other girls from elsewhere in the country susceptible to qualify for the EGMO or the IMO this year. Thus the closest comparable to these two girls is Alison Miller, but it's probably because Alison qualified only once and the other two, Melanie and Sherry, went there twice each. At least as far as Krista is concerned; Trent found that Gen had at least as much charisma as Melanie, who, to his eyes, was the most charismatic of the three, and certainly more than the other two.

"We'll go over the plan one last time before the competition, especially since we are the only ones in the state still in contention. First step: determining which two problems of the day appear more soluble, and we focus on that" Krista explains the plan to Gen.

"No need to remind me of what position we are in. But you undoubtedly know that, at the EGMO and at the IMO the podium is much larger than simply three contestants" Gen then adds more info.

"But, if we give in to panic attacks, we'll end up like Marcia, and so, even though we already made Louisianan girls' mathletic history just by being here. Regardless of what the female state record is on this competition, if the last female contestants obtained a nonzero result, in the event we aren't the first, we can hold our heads high so long as we obtain nonzero results. To the eyes of the parish, we are the darling girls that are completely invincible in the mathletic arena; I want you to know that this year has been the best year of my academic life and you made it possible"