When Olivia returns home that day, she finishes what homework she has before dinner. Around the dinner table, her parents start to process what Tamara told them in an email they received earlier today:

  "Let me make that clear. You said you wanted to take Geometry over summer nights with Annette?" Olivia's mom asks her daughter.

  "I want to keep the option of taking AP Calc open senior year!" Olivia exclaims.

  "I didn't think calculus was that important to you... The transformation you underwent as you played quiz bowl was almost like a complete one-eighty!" her dad comments on how she changed as a student. "Also, why do you already think about taking calculus?"

  "I don't know what my major will be, nor where I want to go to college, so I'd rather keep my options open! Unlike some, who already know it's going to be either Tulane or LSU!"

  "Like who?" her mom asks.

  "Lexie and Todd!"

  If she wasn't known as such already, she would definitely be a brain, at least among cheer. Then again, maybe 3-5% of the student body would be like her current self, her dad reflects on what her current attitude towards academics implies for her life at school.

  "I'm concerned that you'll crash and burn. You might feel like you have lots of untapped intellectual potential, because you were able to pull your weight on a VA quiz bowl team in "win-now" mode, but there comes a time when you need to take a break!" her dad tells her. "Keep in mind that summer school often means that a lot of students in there have failed before!"

  "That's nothing new to me. Not everyone can be as smart as even I... And it's no reason to put them down! But what say you? Will you let me take Geometry over the summer?"

  "It's not whether you can succeed or not!" her mom retorts.

  "Fine, I'll let you take Geometry, and all the APs you wanted. But promise us that you'll take care of yourself over the next school year!" her dad rules.

  Finally, I have my schedule sorted out! But dad makes me feel like the pressures of quiz bowl are going to crush me, Olivia muses as her parents sign off on the schedule for next year. Ned then texts her:

  Ned: What about we meet each other at my home tonight, after the baseball game?

  Olivia: No thanks

  Ned: Maybe after the softball and baseball playoff bracket release next week?

  Olivia: Sure

  By this point, she starts doing her homework and spends whatever time she has left to play Protobowl on more quiz bowl packets, focusing on collegiate sets, like ACF Regionals/Nationals, Penn Bowl and, of course, Red Army sets as well as past HSNCT sets.

  The following week, the baseball regular season ends on a high note. On Monday night, Lothario wins his second start at home, and hence securing the 3A District 3 championship for VA. And, of course, Ned hit the ball twice in that game.

  Like the boys' basketball bracket release almost two months ago, the baseball players are assembled in the band room, along with their love interests, including Adriana and others.

  Their coach has the feed from the LHSAA's central office in Baton-Rouge up on the screen, where the baseball playoff brackets are released, starting with Division I Non-Select's. When Division II Non-Select turn's arrives:

  "And the Venomous Agendas will begin the baseball Division II Non-Select state tournament..." the baseball coach announces while a band drummer rolls a drum. "With a first-round bye, and the five seed!"

  "Venomous! Agendas!" Adriana and Olivia shout from across the room. "Venomous! Agendas!"

  "Because of how grueling the home stretch has been, you'll have today off!" the coach announces to the players.

  The baseball players and their guests leave the band room and most of them leave campus. However, Ned brings Olivia to the practice field's home plate beforehand:

  "Olivia, lately, you seem much more tense. I know that quiz bowl is in win-now mode, as is baseball, but it seems like quiz bowl has consumed you!"

  "And I'll take a whopping four AP courses next year, so I'd better tell you now!"

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  "Please... please, Olivia, l really hope you're taking AP US History or US Government!" Ned prays for her course choice. "I'm taking these too!"

  "First off, a lot of APs are closed off to sophomores, but I'm taking these two you mentioned! Next year, you know how busy I'll be, and there will be times when I might be sleep-deprived..."

  "I didn't think you'd turn into a study machine! Already that two APs were a lot for me..." Ned sighs. "But you're still sweet!"

  "Oh, Ned..." Olivia gets ready to kiss him at home plate.

  Even though, in the past, she claimed she wasn't the smartest cheerleader in the world, that's how I feel about her right now! She might be... pretty, and relatively nice as well, but the other cheerleaders seem to differ in ways I don't particularly like, some of them might lack confidence, Ned's train of thoughts seems to go at full speed, while he kisses her.

  "What about, tonight, we prepare dinner together after we finish our homework?" Ned asks her after the kiss ends.

  "Sure! May as well enjoy what precious little time we have together before the HSNCT!"

  Once the couple finishes their homework, Ned whips out rabbit meat from his fridge, while Olivia reviews the early stages of the recipe of rabbit sauce piquante the couple is about to cook for his whole family. Since the first step requires simmering the rabbit in the stock for 45 minutes, they spend that time preparing the other ingredients.

  Olivia then prepares the sauce piquante part of the recipe while the rabbit simmers in the stock. At the same time, questions surface in her mind. While I did eat sauce piquante stuff in the past, never did I eat rabbit meat! Does Ned's family deem a baseball bracket release an event worthy of eating rabbit meat? Also, how does rabbit meat taste different from other meats I ate in the past?

  A while later, after cooking onions, garlic, chives, celery and peppers, tomatoes and all that, the rabbit stew is served with leftover rice.

  "Dinner is ready!" Olivia announces to the household.

  As everyone gets seated, and the rabbit stew, served to everyone, Ned is about to start talking about the baseball bracket release.

  "So VA starts the baseball playoffs with a first-round bye. And the fifth seed!" Ned announces to his parents.

  "This means we play at home next week. We'll know only on Saturday night who we'll play" his dad points out, before buying two tickets for the first game.

  Ned's family discusses the pressure the baseball team feels going into the playoffs to make up for the lackluster performance of the football and basketball teams. Baseball, in win-now mode? It sucks until you win it all...

  But when Ned's mom starts eating the rabbit stew, she realizes something is amiss. That the couple's rabbit stew tastes a little odd.

  "That was awful! Maybe you'll cook better once you start taking Chemistry!" Ned's mom comments on the rabbit stew to her son. "My cooking didn't improve until I took it!"

  "Mom, I didn't do it alone!" Ned retorts.

  "Yeah, you can't take Chemistry freshman year!" Olivia adds.

  "So while cooking isn't chemistry, knowing chemistry and geometry will help you cook better. Especially when food geometry changes its taste!"

  "I guess, it's trickier to have the right shape for rabbit meat to taste good..." Ned sighs.

  So perhaps this rabbit stew doesn't taste so good because of the shape of the rabbit meat! The difference food shape makes is more obvious with pasta and chocolate, though, Ned's mom keeps to herself.

  "I keep hearing all the time about how quiz bowl and baseball are both in win-now mode, yet I never heard about the game beyond tournament results, and maybe awards earned by players!" Ned's dad has lingering questions about the game. "You play the game, Olivia, surely you can tell me what makes the town so attached to quiz bowl!"

  "Yeah, all we know about quiz bowl is that it's very intense intellectually to play and that VA is a QB powerhouse!" Ned's mom retorts.

  "It's precisely because, like you said, we're a quiz bowl powerhouse! And quiz bowl is the most consistent, year-on-year, of VA's teams!" Olivia explains herself.

  "How does it feel to date Olivia?" Ned's mom asks him.

  "She's a pretty low-maintenance girlfriend. However, with quiz bowl, and four APs next year on top of that, we'll need to cherish what little time we have together. Like tonight!"

  "How lucky! I seem to hear about your sports teammates' girlfriends asking more from them than Olivia..." Ned's dad adds.

  "What about we go to my room for a bit?" Ned asks Olivia after this meal.

  "Sure!"

  Olivia is treated to a bedroom where his football and baseball gear are put side-by-side, but otherwise nondescript. As the couple gets into the bed:

  "I get it, we're bad, or at least inexperienced cooks. But we had to start somewhere. Maybe rabbit stew was a little complex for us!" Ned comments on that. "Will you forgive me for my foolishness in the kitchen?"

  "Yes. It's the first time I ate rabbit stew!"

  "I don't blame you. Rabbit meat isn't something we eat very often either, it's just so expensive to get it!"

  "Remember what your mom told us: her cooking didn't improve until she started taking Chemistry! And apparently Geometry would help us in the kitchen, too!"

  "Speaking of Geometry, I'll take it over the summer, too! Yes, there are some football players who need to shore up their grades for next season, but it's by no means every rising junior on the team..."

  Oh boy... why is he taking Geometry over the summer? Olivia refrains from asking him directly for the time being. Did they suffer so much from the football season that not even their love interests, or popularity, could save them in class? My cheer teammates helped other athletes at times in class, and some of these players' suffering is all too real... But my turn has arrived.

  "I guess, you're rubbing off of me, and I'm happy that you're not putting all your eggs in the athletic basket!" Olivia gets ready to kiss him once again.

  She definitely improved as a kisser, Ned realizes as this kiss makes the couple forget about this mess of a rabbit stew they cooked together. Once this kiss ends:

  "Now, if you may excuse me, I need to return home to study for the HSNCT!" Olivia announces to him. "Have a good night!"