After two more grueling rounds of quiz bowl, VA A and VA B finish with 6-1 and 5-2 records respectively. Before they go out for lunch, Warren announces the following to their players:
"It pains me to admit it, but even though Saturday night is not the best time to visit a college campus, we will tour Emory after dinner. After all, Emory seems a realistic choice for all of you to attend, and maybe play quiz bowl for them!" Warren tells the VA quiz bowlers.
"Why tour Emory at night?" Scott asks the coach. "Wouldn't it make more sense to tour Emory during the day?"
"In the summer, Emory does not have nearly as many students on campus on Saturdays, regardless of whether it's at day vs at night"
Oh boy. I wonder if I can realistically attend Emory, assuming I stay a straight-A student, and Audrey to play basketball for them. Or Heather, for that matter, Pablo is reminded of the cold, hard truth of Emory when Leonard, the A-team history player explains what kind of grades and ACT scores are typical of Emory admits.
"As I will attend Emory next fall, I will be our tour guide tonight at Emory" Leonard explains to the students.
"Until then, what about we eat lunch and we then go to the College Football Hall of Fame?" Pablo explains to Audrey. "I'll even pay for your ticket provided you have your student ID!"
"In which case I will pay for the lunch" Audrey tells him while everyone else went their own way to get their lunches.
And, as such, they don't feel like eating at Sear, no more than High Velocity is going to be for them. For months, neither ate Asian food of any kind and, as such, they go to the Pacific Rim Bistro. Upon entering the restaurant, they find it full of HSNCT participants, many of which came from the coasts.
"Here's our opportunity to eat what we never had a chance at home!" Pablo tells her when they get seated in the restaurant.
And yet, we know that Asian players are much more common in quiz bowl than in basketball or football. Fingers crossed that Audrey has gotten over the loss at Pearl River... Pablo is reminded of the players on opposing teams and how the demographics differ wildly from basketball to football or quiz bowl.
After a while, the time comes for them to place the order:
"Chicken Panang curry for me" Audrey places her order.
"Tom Yum soup for me" Pablo orders his meal, too.
"How spicy?" the waiter asks both.
"Hot" both people tell the waiter.
These meals make their mouths heat up and drink iced water. I guess, it's good to eat new meals once in a while, but Panang curry isn't something I would eat regularly. No more than I would eat pelekie zirni regularly either... Audrey muses about what she's eating. Pelekie zirni might be good if I wanted chickpea salad.
"Thank God that we aren't playing games this afternoon! Hopefully this will subside by tomorrow morning..." Pablo still feels like his mouth is on fire.
Poor Audrey! Even chugging iced water only dented into her sensation of burning! Pablo then hurries up eating his Tom Yum soup. And yet, by doing so, he feels his hunger has been cut, having eaten less than half of his bowl before he feels full. That's even hotter than the hottest chili con carne I ate in my life!
"Are you OK, Pablo?" Audrey asks him, under the not-so-nice looks of other diners, while he feels like his blood is turning into molten metal.
"No... Please pay the... bill! I'm out of here!" Pablo's pains intensify with a half-eaten bowl of Tom Yum soup he's struggling to eat.
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...
