She was only a handful of facts in. It had been a few days. She was being ridiculous.

Marianne changed into her coziest pajamas and hopped on her bed. She grabbed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Chapter two. Francie wanted to read every book in the library in alphabetical order. Francie had never owned a book. She dreamed about having her own one day.

Half of this book was about a girl reading books. Did that count as a story?

When had Marianne last loved a book at school?

She liked graphic novels, but lots of her teachers didn’t allow them.

She opened the book again, but her eyes immediately drifted once more, and they fell on the flash cards from Vi. They sat on her desk, just waiting for her usual Violet Cross class.

She picked up the cards.

She had to win.

She removed the top one.

Win. Win. Win.

Five facts so far. This would be number six.

A group of elephants is called what?

A parade.

What a perfect fact.

A parade of elephants?!

Marianne pictured elephants dressed as clowns and holding batons and marching with drums and horns.

She leaned back in her chair, put her feet up, and googled it.

Wow! A group of wildcats was called a destruction. Amazing! Cobras—a quiver. Ferrets—a business. Sharks—a shiver. And a pack of crows was called a murder! Creepy!

She texted Vi:

A group of FELIS SILVESTRIS—imagine if we really called animals those names?—is a destruction. So cool. My favorite is crows being a murder lol like wow seems like unfair publicity for crows right

Three dots appeared on her phone, letting her know a response was coming, and then Vi wrote back:

One fact at a time. Okay?

Vi was right. It was too many facts at once. She had to stick with one at a time, so she could remember them. That was the key.

“Elephants—parade, elephants—parade, elephants—parade.”

She said the words aloud, circling her room, almost turning it into a song.

Her phone, laying on her bed, lit up. She ignored it and continued her recitation.

Then it lit up again. Over and over.

With a little skip, she went to pick it up.

A couple of missed calls from Skyla. Weird.

A handful of texts that made no sense like Lol you are hystericaaaaal and is this 4 real.

Oh no.

Her thumbs, moving as fast as if she were playing allegro on the piano, opened all her accounts.

And then she saw it.

Dan had posted an announcement of Regionals. Underneath it he wrote, “We made the big time. Come check us out. There’s a live feed, too! Link in bio. #QuizQuest #Regionals #EtheridgeErmines,” and, fatefully, he had tagged Nina, Vi, and Marianne.

It had been shared a dozen times.

They knew about Quiz Quest. All of them.

And there would be a live feed? A live recording? Oh no no no no no no no …

Underneath Ava Hayes’s posting of it, Lucas, Ava, Niko, and about thirty others had commented on it already.