Can't Stop the Questions

Chapter 10: Subapalooza

For the following week, everyone on the quiz bowl team keeps studying for their respective tests, and often in conjunction with quiz bowl. And all quiz bowlers had their share of parents wanting them to tutor their kids, at least in their areas of quiz bowl specialty. Only, this time around, for the LQBA Winter Invitational South, there are 3 parents driving players to the tournament on top of the coach.

On Saturday morning, at 7 AM, Audrey's mom comes to Pablo's home, with her own daughter and Myriam already onboard. As with last time, the tournament starts at 8:30AM, with check-in time at 8 AM; however, the tournament takes place in Eunice, which is about forty-five minutes away, as opposed to almost three hours for the previous meet. For this purpose, he loads the bags of coffee for the B-team in his backpack, along with his laptop and other materials he uses to study and do homework on the road.

"Good luck, honey!" Pablo's mom gets him to his teammate's car.

When in the car, in the back seat, he can't help but notice that Myriam is placing bets on horse races at the other end of the world.

"Myriam, how the hell can you even wager on horse races anyway? You're too young to be betting on horse races!" Pablo yells at the quiz bowl captain.

"I can't bet in my own name. To the eyes of the law, I'm betting in my mom's name" Myriam answers him.

Since I am in my fourth year of serving a six-year, state-wide ban from on-track betting, dad made me bet on horse races in my mom's name, and I inherited his bankroll in full when he got arrested, Myriam struggles to tell him the whole truth about her horse betting habits.

"I hope you're not betting on horse races in class or when on other schools' premises!" Audrey formulates her wishes to Myriam.

"Of course not. I only bet at home and in the car" Myriam answers her teammate.

But they don't even drive a full kilometer away from Pablo's home that they hear the brakes squeal every time they brake. Now I know what to buy Audrey for Christmas. I really hope the brake pads in her family's car can hold out until then, Pablo muses, while also realizing that replacing brake pads typically means replacing the brake fluid, too. However, he feels like it's not his place to tell her about the brake problems, since he feels like it will ruin his plan for the holidays.

Upon arriving at Eunice High, they see several of the same teams competing as at LQBA Fall Invitational South, namely, all the Southwest Louisiana teams, as well as all the Lafayette-area teams. It's then that Warren assembles his B-team players, but he can't formulate a plan for who plays when until he receives the preliminary schedule. Audrey and Pablo meet each other before going with their respective teams:

"Good luck, Pablo" Audrey wishes him before meeting the A-team with Myriam.

"Thank you"

"You barely broke ten PPG last time, I hope you're going to play better this time!" Caleb jeers at him upon arriving with a bunch of middle schoolers in tow.

When said schedule arrives, Nadine, Lilina, Gerard, Caleb and Pablo are then assembled for one final meeting before the start of the tournament.

"For the first game, we're going to play Hanson Memorial. They're not known to be regulars in quiz bowl so Pablo, you're going to start this game" Warren then turns to Lilina. "However, you won't be playing this game since it appears that, together, Pablo and Caleb will be able to handle history and social studies just fine"

"Fine, I hope Pablo has studied some for this tournament" Lilina sighs while she sits on the bench for that game.

Meanwhile, the A-team is in a different pool, and will be mostly left to their own devices for the preliminary rounds. As with last time, the tournament has teams split into three pools of 6 teams.