Marianne gave him a couple of pats on the back.

“You’re the best, Coach,” Dan said with a grin.

Vi’s mom seemed nice and said hello to everybody. She resembled Vi, but her face was more angular rather than round and full. She quickly sat down and stayed on her phone.

When her parents swooped in to find seats, waving her over to join them, Marianne spotted Lillian. And, next to her, Harper.

“Hey!” Lillian grabbed her and gave her a squeeze. “Harper, you remember Marianne, right?”

“Yeah.” Harper waved. “Hey. This is cool.” She motioned around the room.

Lillian beamed at Marianne and gave her a secret thumbs-up.

Marianne led her family over toward Mr. Garcia, and she took a seat next to him.

Jason and Luis settled in the row behind them.

“This is exciting!” Luis announced.

“Skyla’s going to do an amazing job,” Marianne told them.

As round one took off, Marianne noticed Vi gave everyone high fives and pats on their back throughout. Whether it was to show the other team they weren’t nervous and worked well together or if it was intended to pump up the Ermines, Marianne was proud.

“Right on, Vi,” Marianne said aloud, and ignored that her parents gave each other a “She’s so cute” look.

Skyla answered two questions leading to extension rounds right off the bat.

“Sensational,” Marianne heard Skyla’s papa whisper under his breath behind her.

Her natural calmness helped her. It seemed to help Nina, too, Marianne saw.

At the end of every round, Skyla looked toward their families and gave a little wave.

As Dan demolished the first few history questions and extension rounds, Marianne couldn’t help but say out loud, “Yes, Dan, you tell ’em!”

“Have you ever thought about coaching football one day?” Skyla’s dad joked.

“Shhhhh,” an entire crowd said toward both of them.

“Sorry!” she mouthed.

She heard Lillian snicker beside her.

Nina stumbled. She answered “Pakistan” when she meant somewhere else. Marianne saw her beat herself up for it.

Skyla took over on the geography questions. She seemed to know everything about every state in the country.

Marianne saw Vi place a hand on Nina’s.

Then Nina took a breath, put her feet into first position, and went all in:

Bhutan, the Nile River, the island of Luzon, Australia, the Great Lakes, 40,075 kilometers long, strike-slip faults, Tashkent in Uzbekistan …

The Ermines had this.

Hands shot out and buzzers buzzed and facts filled the air.

And before she knew it, the Ermines had won their first two games, leaving it down to the Etheridge Ermines and the Morningside Lions for the end-of-the-year trophy.

It was actually happening.

And they only had a half an hour to prepare.

Mr. Garcia herded them into a corner to go over strategy.

Marianne, Skyla, Dan, and Nina gathered around him.

But where was Vi?

None of them had seen where she’d gone.

“I’ll find her,” Marianne told the team, and she went off to search.