The Quest for High School Mathletic Glory

Chapter 27: Doubleheader

By the end of the month, the doubleheader Cory spent weeks to organize with the booster club finally arrived, while knowing that the D-Day for the three girls is Tuesday regarding college. But unsurprisingly, because of what the organizers believed at the time as still being possible, Geneviève and Krista are excluded from the doubleheader held at the municipal stadium on Saturday night.

"Tonight, we're assembled at the municipal stadium for the Duel of the Parishes, take two, with partial derivatives and multiple integrals on the menu, pitting our Venomous Agendas against the team of the neighboring parish for the Vans Math Contest final. But we have, as first part, special guests, from Odessa in Texas, Permian Panthers!" Cory's father announces, while the Permian team gets in position.

"Oh? Why Permian?" Ted asks, wondering what could push their mathletics team to cross Texas to enter the first part of an open-air math pageant on a Saturday night.

"Remember Permian against us at the start of the season, and that was well before Gen and Krista are suddenly in the race to the EGMO! They were routed" Ted's neighbor comments.

It's not counting on the fact that, for the first part, it's the second line that will play instead; provisionally, Imélie will be on the second line for the purposes of this doubleheader. In the visitors' locker room, the Panthers don't realize anything.

"The main reason why I accepted the fees the Venomous Agendas paid for us to come here was because I used to teach here before I moved to Odessa! They seem to have it made for academic extracurriculars!" Permian's coach then tells his mathletes.

"Coach, what do you mean, they have it made for academic extracurriculars?" Svitlana, his star player, asks with an Ukrainian accent.

"Until this year we didn't even have a functional math team! Our opponents have a girl who is somehow in the running for the EGMO! Don't let that intimidate you! Don't let the crowd intimidate you!" the coach adds some more.

"I would love to meet with her later" Svitlana adds.

"EGMO?" her teammates ask, having never heard about this competition.

"You were the one that gave us Title IX funding, so I hope the price Ector County paid for you was worth it. At the same time, you shouldn't hog all the answers; the others need some game time as well" Permian's coach warns his star mathlete.

When we arrived on American soil, my family and I, we were not prepared for all the adulation the city gave high school football, but in mathematics, I was clearly above everyone else! Permian is very anti-intellectual in comparison to middle school in Ukraine pre-war, Svitlana, Permian's star player thought, while Permian's coach imagined that they would face the big Venomous Agendas team. It would not be the reality.

"For the first part, the only VMC entrant authorized to compete is Imélie; for the second part, Gen and Krista will be benched, too" the VAs' coach gives instructions to his players.

"But why? The public wants to see them again! I'm the impresario of the team; I might agree to give playtime to lesser players, people want to watch what they cannot do themselves, hence the reason why I want our two stars to have some time on stage" Cory asks his coach.

"Cory, I am a little annoyed. Do you want to get to the same result as at the dinner should we get, as an encore, a confrontation between the public and the two of us? You know, since the dinner, and maybe even since we know each other, the public is completely powerless over partial derivatives and multiple integrals!" Gen then asks her boyfriend.

"I will go solve PDEs in open air! You did it last year, it's my turn this year!" Krista announces.

"Krista, you think it's a good idea to do this? You forced my hand last year to solve PDEs in open air, that's what brought you here! If you want to solve PDEs in open air tonight, please, no heat equation! And I won't be solving PDEs in open air tonight!" Gen pleads to her friend.