A/N: This chapter is a little short but, as I was writing this chapter, I decided it might be better to split the in-game scenes from the out-of-game scenes.
"Gerard, you seem more stressed out than usual. You went into the MSNCT playoffs, you have an idea of what this means" Pablo seems to notice that Gerard's facial expression is not like what he is used to in a quiz bowl tourney.
"For some reason, you don't seem that stressed out, even though you're by far the least experienced on this team!" Gerard retorts.
"It's not that I don't stress out, it's just that I don't think it's the right place for me to show the stresses I'm under! By now, you know that I can't rely on football to go to college, so this meant I had to give my all on the buzzer"
"If you ever feel like mathletics and quiz bowl are too much for you to handle simultaneously, you must remember the following: the best quiz bowlers aren't the best mathletes and vice-versa. I even have the interview of Marcia on the parish radio when VA first attended the HSNCT" Warren tells Gerard while he tries to help Gerard.
"I guess, I don't have a choice..."
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March 2024. The VAs lost the state title at quiz bowl-State to Jesuit in overtime. However, the VAs earned its first HSNCT berth and, for this reason, Marcia was invited to an interview at the parish radio station on Sunday after quiz bowl-State.
"This season, you proved to be a late mathletic bloomer. How does it feel to juggle mathletics and quiz bowl?" the host asks her.
"For the first three years of my high school career, quiz bowl was low-maintenance and flew under the radar. However, I went into senior year expecting that quiz bowl would fly under the radar as it always did up to that point, so I focused more on mathletics. However, I didn't neglect quiz bowl practicing" Marcia answers the host.
"Your mathletic record this season doesn't lie. Is it common for quiz bowlers to perform that well in subject olympiads?"
"While quiz bowl and math teams both lean top-heavy, quiz bowl and mathletics don't reward the same kind of students. My latest estimate is that, in any given HSNCT, about five to ten HSNCT players will have ten on the AIME or better, of which three to seven will have entered the USAMO as well. And, if this estimate is accurate, I would then be one of the best mathletes entered in this competition" Marcia follows up.
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"One caveat: Marcia belonged to a different era in VA quiz bowl history"
Marcia... her first three quiz bowl seasons were marred by inadequate training and her teammates' nonchalant attitudes; Warren reminisces about Marcia's tenure as a quiz bowler during the pandemic.
"For some reason, math teams are a popular choice for teams to pick quiz bowlers from. Not just for us, but for our opponents, too. Why?"
"Gerard, two things: coaches often assume that mathletes are strong in math and science, and, unfortunately, some coaches assume that being good in math and science means you can get good in every subject area covered in quiz bowl"
"Coach, by that logic, wouldn't the debate team be a good place to look for quiz bowlers?" Gerard asks his coach.
"You would have thought, based on past VA track records with debaters in quiz bowl, as well as the knowledge requirements of debates, that debaters can be good non-science quiz bowlers. However, our experience is actually atypical. While smarter kids are essentially required to make a good debater or a good quiz bowler, not many quiz bowl teams even think of debaters as viable sources of quiz bowlers, and they demand different things from players. Even the few teams who draw quiz bowlers from a debate team found out debaters may not even have a history inclination in quiz bowl!"
"At the same time, I'm questioning whether I really should be playing at the HSNCT!"
"Gerard, I really hope you aren't questioning yourself based off of a handful of bad tossups!"
"No. It's just that, the deeper we go, the more the town will pressure us next season! I don't think I can handle it anymore!" Gerard starts crying.
"I must warn you: if you want to transfer somewhere else where you can fly under the radar and still play quiz bowl, you might not get the same academic experience!"
In Kinder or Iowa, this would mean I would be both their best quiz bowler and mathlete, as well as possibly valedictorian, Gerard thinks. I would be trading the spotlight away for maybe bullying. Not sure which one is worse...
Both teams go to the food court for lunch, and, because VA B doesn't have a bye for the playoffs, the clock is ticking on VA B to grab lunch before the prelim awards ceremony, due to the length of the lines at restaurants in the food court.
By 1 PM they make it in the nick of time for the prelim awards ceremony at the Marquis Ballroom, which they patiently await the top 40 scorers in the prelims.
And, while no one on either team made it to the top-40 in scoring, the next 8 best freshmen are called on stage in ascending order of PP20TUH. The first Freshman Rising Star is named:
"Now, for the Freshman Rising Stars! Lilina Ortiz, from Venomous Agendas B!" NAQT's president then hands her a small trophy.
"Woohoo! I am a Freshman Rising Star!" an exuberant Lilina jumps for joy before the card collection time arrives, after realizing that Nadine and Lilina both scored about 40 PP20TUH each in the prelims.
And yet, since, historically, the lowest Sophomore Rising Star scored a bit more than the Freshman Rising Star, Nadine knows that she doesn't stand much of a chance to be a Sophomore Rising Star herself.
When the time to collect the cards come for the teams, it seems like cards are assigned to teams based first on their win-loss record and then their PP20TUH as a team in the prelims (which includes bonuses for teams, as opposed to tossups-only for players).
"Looks like we start the playoffs with a better card than we finished the prelims with" Leonard comments on how VA A begins the playoffs with card number 6.
"And VA B begins with card seventeen!" I guess the Mira Loma game could have gone either way" Nadine realizes they will need to play one more game.
Pablo then proceeds to text Ethan and George, asking them to tune in the parochial radio, since it appears the parochial radio is covering the HSNCT for the whole parish. And all other players follow suit, and add their parents into the mix, too.
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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...
