Venomous Agenda Memoirs

Chapter 20: Mathletic Compressor

While the policy pair continues to prepare for Last Chance, for which the debate team hired Florence to judge in their name, as they had for Columbia, two weeks after the district qualifier, the results from the USAMO arrive. So many in town hold much higher hopes for Jennifer and Valerie than they do for Cristiano. For years, girls have out-performed boys (more than simply out-numbered) in math to the eyes of the VA faithful.

As with last year, he lets the mathletes at the USAMO deliver the announcement before classes begin, with the results on hand. For months now, the parochial newspaper and the radio both closely followed the so-called "race to the IMO" but abstained from publicly announcing she was competing at the EGMO until the actual race to the IMO ended. That, even though competing at the EGMO was a foregone conclusion.

"So today, I really don't have the best news in the world to announce. It's about the race to the IMO. I lost out on the IMO team by one measly point!" Jennifer bursts into tears while in the principal's office. "Sorry I let you down, sorry I let down the entire parish, nay, the whole state! I had one... ONE! chance to make it, and I squandered it! And I still scored a thirty-seven on the USAMO for crying out loud! I hereby announce that I am handing over captaincy of the math team over to Valerie Watkins, effective May first"

I guess, going to Yale will keep me going for the next four years after this crushing defeat in the race to the IMO... the EGMO is a nice consolation prize, though, Jennifer muses while going to the bathroom to look for napkins so that she can safely shed tears in class. As unreal getting to the IMO would have been, falling short of it is equally unreal, too. If Gen taught me anything, it's that being the reserve for that sort of tournament would mean living under constant stress until you know whether you're called up for duty or not. But while the probability is technically nonzero, I may as well do as if I wasn't going to attend.

"I'm Valerie, and I'm not going to sugar-coat things. I didn't score as much as Jennifer. But, as a sophomore, I scored a twenty-nine on the USAMO. As such I'm attending MOP! I must not waste this golden opportunity to take up the mantle from Jennifer over the next year!"

"I'm Cristiano Ortega, a junior, I scored a total of twelve points at the USAMO. For next year, I will focus more on quiz bowl, since I feel the intensity of getting to the USAMO took a lot of time away from it"

While mathletes are common occurrences in quiz bowl, as mathletes, they aren't always that great. Marcia's estimate is that, on any given year, there are 5-10 players who scored 10+ on the AIME and also play at the HSNCT, Cristiano muses while he prepares his CV for college applications and wonders if he wouldn't be better served waiting another year.

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Upon returning home that day, around the dinner table, all three feel like the pressure is ratcheting up on Valerie, now that Valerie is the closest one to the IMO the Venomous Agendas have on hand that can still get to it.

"Now that Jennifer lost the race to the IMO, it's all down to you! You're going to MOP, so make sure you get to the top-thirty on the TSTST!" Glen screams at his daughter, angry about Jennifer's failure to make the IMO team.

"That's a tall order, all things considered!" Valerie retorts, realizing that she now bears the whole parish's mathletic hopes. Or at least once the VMC ends. "Pressure was already hard enough without me being at MOP. Now that I am at MOP, I know what next year will be made of! This is a complete nightmare!"

"By now you know there are very few female mathletes at MOP. At this point we are one of the most successful programs in the country as it relates to girls, post-pandemic. Four girls at the USAMO, two EGMO qualifications, seven girls with ten or more on the AIME, and I don't even want to talk about the VMC!" Selena then harangues Valerie. "You know what's missing?"