Play No More (Player Next Door sequel) ✓

38 | No Trophy

"...and that leaves Preston Oakes High School in last place," the announcer summarized, referring to my position in this game. "Now for the speed round. Questions will be easier, no use of pens or paper allowed. Ready for the first question?"

No.

"35 squared is..."

Multiply the first digit by itself and add 1. So 3 x (3 + 1) = 12.

Then add a 25 at the end. So 1225.

I hit the buzzer a second too late. I was behind the guy next to me, who, again, yelled. He won the point.

"Corrrect. Now, what prime numbers below 11 is 784 divisible by?"

Obviously 2 and not 5. Not 3, since the sum of the digits isn't divisible by three. There's a trick to 7.

Double the last digit of the number and then subtract it from the remaining number. If that number is divisible by 7 then the original number will be too.

So 4 * 2 = 8. 78 – 8 = 70. 70 / 10 = 7. So yes, divisible by seven.

I hit the buzzer and felt the realization that all 22 pairs of eyes in the audience were staring at me. 

The lights were too bright, I don't know why they were trying to blind us.

"Divisible by 2 and 7," I spoke into the silence.

The announcer said, "Corrrect. First point for Preston Oakes. OK, next question. Solve for the-"

"YES!" Someone yelled out from the crowd, "She got it!"

That was Austin. Definitely Austin. 

Math competitions tend to be very quiet. There's a polite round of applause at the end of every answer, so screaming out like Austin, is very unique. 

But Austin didn't care. This was his first time at a math event and he was going to do it his way.

**

The mental math round was my jam. I was back in the game.

I didn't have a standout performance by any stretch, but I qualified to the next round of competitions in January. So that was good.

However, in life, there rarely seems to be good without the bad.  First place in today's competition went to..... Kaden.

And he was thrilled.

**

Kaden wore a ribbon with a plastic gold circle on it. The top prize. Top prize goes to the very intelligent and very immoral individual.

I slow clapped.

In the name of team-spirit, I was standing with the rest of the mathletes, applauding Kaden's win. My boyfriend beat him up last weekend, so maybe that's how karma balances itself out.

Julia was hovering in the background, waiting to congratulate him. She can wait.

"Thanks everyone," Kaden told our math crew. He dove into a self-congratulatory speech that no one asked for. "We got a strong team this year. Moments like these remind me that those who are popular in high school mostly also peak in high school."

"Why do I feel like this is targeted at me?" Austin asked since Kaden was staring directly at him.

I was wondering how Austin had managed to get into our mathlete team huddle without being questioned. He seemed very comfortable.

Kaden continued, "Grades and salaries have a strong positive correlation, so this is more proof that people like us only go up. Let's stay on this track and take it all the way."