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Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for Abbi Waxman and her novels
  3. Berkley Titles by Abbi Waxman
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Summer
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. TWENTY-ONE
  28. TWENTY-TWO
  29. TWENTY-THREE
  30. TWENTY-FOUR
  31. TWENTY-FIVE
  32. TWENTY-SIX
  33. TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. TWENTY-NINE
  36. THIRTY
  37. THIRTY-ONE
  38. THIRTY-TWO
  39. THIRTY-THREE
  40. THIRTY-FOUR
  41. THIRTY-FIVE
  42. THIRTY-SIX
  43. THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. Fall
  45. THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. THIRTY-NINE
  47. FORTY
  48. FORTY-ONE
  49. FORTY-TWO
  50. FORTY-THREE
  51. FORTY-FOUR
  52. FORTY-FIVE
  53. EPILOGUE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  55. Readers Guide
  56. Questions for Discussion
  57. About the Author
  58. What’s next onyour reading list?

The format was simple. Each team sent up a person to compete, and that pair of contestants were asked three questions on random subjects. The fastest buzzer got first chance. If they guessed wrong, the other contestant got to answer. If she didn’t know, the first contestant could throw it to their team. If their team didn’t know, the other team got a chance. No one understood the points system except QuizDick, which was completely intentional. It was calibrated to be precisely complicated enough that people would attempt to understand it for about thirty seconds, then give up and rationalize that it added an element of chance to an otherwise pretty cerebral game. Then they’d order another drink.

Captains went first, Nina up against Victoria One, whose doctoral thesis was about a subject so arcane and abstruse that there were only seven other people in the world who understood it. However, when faced with the question “Who wants to steal the Krabby Patty formula?” she completely blanked.

Fortunately, Nina had wasted her youth with the best of them, and was able to answer.

The next question, “How long can golfers search for their balls?” created such an uproar of hilarity that the contest was temporarily halted while everybody took a minute to grow up. It was particularly enjoyable to Nina, because it was clear QuizDick hadn’t read the question out loud in advance and hadn’t seen the problem until it was too late.

She waited for the commotion to die down, then said, “New question, please.”

QuizDick shuffled his cards. “How many hearts does an octopus have?”

“Three.” Nina was rock solid on sea creatures; she’d spent almost the entire summer vacation of her eighth year memorizing them. All of them.

“Last question,” said QuizDick. “Which racehorse holds the record for the largest margin of victory in a race?”

Nina closed her eyes. Horse racing was the Achilles’ heel of her Achilles’ heel, i.e., the sport about which she knew even less than she knew about all the others. But there was silence; Victoria One didn’t know, either. Nina hit her buzzer.

“Can I offer it to my team?”

QuizDick nodded. Nina turned and looked hopefully at Laura, her sports expert, who was looking at Leah, who was looking at Lauren, who had leapt to her feet and cried, “Secretariat.” Then she looked at Nina in amazement. “How can you not know that? There’s a book! There’s a movie.”

Laura turned to Bob. “Even I saw that.”

Bob nodded. “He was a bighearted horse.” He looked at Tom. “He still holds the world record for that distance on dirt.”

“Shh,” said Tom quickly. “Don’t let Nina hear you.”

THIRTY