When lunch time hits, Pablo comes around and kisses Audrey, whom he could tell is happy with how VA is looking, going into the playoff rounds.
"Let's go to I've Got the Recipe for lunch, as agreed previously. I need to be back at the main hall in an hour, though, since the playoffs begin at that time" Audrey then looks up the directions to I've Got the Recipe.
Which is about a block away from LSMSA, and hence they can get the meal done in time for them to go eat there. As they get a table for two at the restaurant:
"What makes this special to us is because, it's, well, State, and the first time I'm going to it" Pablo then looks at the menu.
"Pablo, stop; the HSNCT might not be as intimate, from what I've heard about it, but it's an even grander stage for us, in two months!" Audrey tells him.
"What will it be for you?" the waiter asks, while a few more participants at quiz bowl-State are also getting tables.
"Étouffée for me" Pablo places his order from the diminutive recipe.
"Me too!" Audrey adds, before turning to Pablo. "By now you have realized that we have by far the most fans at quiz bowl-State, even when that amounts to parents, love interests and the B-team!"
Finally, we can be together as we deserve it, without our parents interfering. Presumably the other couples on the quiz bowl team have their own plans. Like eating on campus, Pablo then waits on the crawfish étouffée he ordered. That, knowing that it has been a while since he had any crawfish at all.
"Étouffée as I never ate it before! Now that's what I call a romantic meal!" Pablo comments on the smothered meal.
"Oh yes, I sure hope we can have another lunch or dinner with a table for two, like this, at the HSNCT two months from now!" Audrey formulates her wish for eating at the HSNCT.
"And ideally eating dishes we can't have at home, then"
"That was sweet of you"
Once they both finish eating, they kiss each other just before the time comes for them to pay the bill for the two plates of crawfish étouffée. They were apparently lucky to get these for $60, taxes and tip included. Which Pablo promptly pays before returning to campus for the playoffs.
Upon returning to the LSMSA building, the schedule of playoff games is released for the teams on the top bracket of the large schools division. Curse the Courland Basket! How could Livonia improve so much in a short month that they would somehow be in HSNCT contention? Pablo ruminates while he sees Livonia somehow sneak into the top bracket at State. As much as I would love to believe that the lowest-hanging fruit to improve is in a team's early stages, is the state's circuit so decrepit that Livonia could somehow stand a chance against the Jesuits, Caddo Magnets or VAs of this world?
Led by Josiane, as well as Gerard's and Lilina's teammates from last year, it appears that VA is headed to victory in a middle school division that would see a very limited field, and only eight teams are playing. So Gerard and Lilina go and watch their former teammates play their final two games, with their love interests in tow, while everyone else watches the high school games. And certainly Pablo.
The first two games he watches result in VA winning over Benjamin-Franklin and Jesuit, cementing the VAs' position as potential medal contenders. But VA's third game ends prematurely, and in a convincing win over Catholic. As the VAs are assembled around the game room for round 9:
"If the Wildcats think Aija is their ticket to the HSNCT... we'll shut them out of the HSNCT, here and now!" Audrey exclaims.
"Even if we win against Livonia, there's no guarantee they won't finish third, and there's nothing preventing them from competing at another tournament afterward!" Myriam interjects.
YOU ARE READING
Can't Stop the Questions
RomancePablo, a sophomore playing tight end for Venomous Agendas High, plays the best football game of his life, but as the season comes to a close, his coaches tell him he can't rely on football to go to college, forcing him to buckle down on academics fo...
