The Hetalians' New Groove

Chapter 10: The History Tournament

"So is everyone ready for the test round?" Said Arthur. It was a week after the London outing, and the annual history tournament at the college was coming up in the next few days. The Hetalians were going to be competing, and each team in the tournament needed 5 people so they'd selected a team of Jenny, Ludwig, Eleanor, Sandra and Francis to be on the competing team. Every member of the band was currently gathered in the lounge and Arthur was about to ask all the questions for the team's practice round.

"Oui."

"Yep!" Came the replies from the girls as well.

"Ja."

"Okay, here we go. What is the highest mountain in South Africa?" Arthur began to read out the practice questions from a piece of paper he was holding as he stood in front of them.

Eleanor put her hand up. "Aconcagua." She answered.

"Correct. Next question: What is the name of the Cuban leader whom Fidel Castro overthrew?"

"Batista." Said Ludwig after only a couple of seconds of hesitation.

"Also correct. What is the last name of the author of The Brothers Karamazov?"

Sandra put her own hand in the air. "Dostoevsky."

"Correct, my dear!" He smiled at his girlfriend. "I must say, you lot are doing pretty well so far. But let's make the questions a little harder shall we?"

"Dudes!" Alfred exclaimed the next day as he approached the other 11 members during the lunch hour, meeting them for lunch on the campus' grassy hillside like they usually did. "I found out today that for this history tournament in 3 days, our team's gonna be going up against Natalya Arlovskaya!"

"What? Isn't that the Belarusian student who's a stalker to Ivan?" Said Kiku as he picked up another piece of sushi from his box by using his chopsticks.

"She is." Answered Ivan with a nod of his head. "She's also the one who almost got into a fight with Eleanor at Antonio Carriedo's party a few weeks ago." He was sat right next to Eleanor at this moment.

"So she's competing in this? And we're gonna be going against her?" Asked Eleanor.

"Yep. Apparently. It's what I was told." Confirmed Alfred. "And I think she knew you, Jen, Sandra, Ludwig and Francis were gonna be on our team for the tournament because she saw the sign-up paper."

"So she's gonna be competing not only because she's studying history, but to get to Ells, too?" Said Jenny.

"Possibly. She most likely wants revenge on me for getting into a relationship with Ivan." Answered Eleanor.

"Whenever we see Natalya, we should probbaly use psychological warfare." Francis suggested. "My idea is that when we do see her, we should wait until she looks at us, and then laugh, in order to basically say, 'yes, you are a tough competitor and you seek revenge against one of our team members, but we are also strong competitors and we have a reasonable chance of defeating you'."

"How would that laugh go?" Said Feliciano out of curiosity. He had made pasta for his lunch and currently had some strings of it hanging out the corners of his mouth, as he had been halfway through eating it when he asked this.

"Hon-hon-hon-hee-hee-hee-hee!" He demonstrated this laugh.

"No, I don't think so. That just sounds more like the French version of saying, 'I am a tall and thin woman who wants to make a coat out of your dalmations'." Arthur furrowed his eyebrows.