But Skyla thought her strategy on the team was terrible. So she took the message back.

It was time to jump in to get to that 10 percent.

“Which country is home to the Burgess Shale?” Vi read off a card.

“Egypt!” Marianne randomly guessed.

“The correct answer is Canada.”

She’d been to Toronto a couple of times. All she remembered was the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Mr. Garcia darted in, saw them all hard at work, and left again. Excellent. That was exactly what she needed.

“Carol Ann Duffy was the first woman to hold which position in the United Kingdom?”

“Senator!” she called out. It felt so freeing to not have to worry about being right.

“The correct answer is ‘poet laureate.’”

“How would anyone know that?” she couldn’t help whispering under her breath as she returned to copying Nina’s posture.

Dan leaned over to her. “Hey, don’t worry. I can tell how hard you’re trying. And you’ll get there.”

Had he seen her biting her lip? Her leg jiggles? Had her fake “attentive kid listening” act worked?

And she felt that panic again, like she’d get caught, like—even worse—she knew what she was doing was wrong, she knew Skyla was right … but she couldn’t get out of it.

But maybe the other teams would be really bad and it wouldn’t matter if she brought their score down a little! Maybe they’d still win!

“Thanks,” she answered Dan.

“Dan, you’re yapping away again!” Nina scolded him.

“Okay, okay, sorry!”

Marianne noticed that Dan was answering about as many questions as her. Maybe she had a fellow Drifter on the team.

The fact-flying felt endless until Vi broke it up.

“Marianne, did you go over any of the flash cards I sent?” she asked.

Nina and Dan halted.

“… There were a lot,” Marianne repeated.

Even if Marianne was trying, how did Vi expect her to know all that so quickly? It’s not like Nina and Dan got every answer correct, either.

“She’s new,” Dan defended her.

“No, it’s okay,” Marianne said.

“We only have a little more than a month. We’re not going to win if we—” Vi slipped a pencil behind an ear and began a lecture.

“Can you please stop being so negative?” Nina shut her eyes and covered her ears. “It’s not helpful!” she nearly shrieked.

“I agree,” Dan said, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. His skin was so light that the rubbing left red marks on his face.

Nina opened her eyes and, after seeing Vi’s expression, quickly said, “Sorry. I’m sorry, Vi.”

Vi stood up and nearly threw her flash cards down. “It’s break time,” she snapped. She got on her phone, texting and pacing once again.

“I said I’m sorry!” Nina repeated, and then muttered something under her breath, clearly mad at herself. But she’d done nothing wrong …

Seriously, if the teammates were scared of or angry at one another all the time, Marianne wasn’t their only roadblock to gold and glory.