Marianne caught sight of Lucas and his big, grinning mouth. Ava signaled to him to come join.

Even though Nina sat two people away from Marianne, she could feel the table shaking slightly from Nina’s jittery legs.

From the doorway she heard Mr. Garcia say, “I’m a big believer in a second chance,” and “If I catch even the slightest—”

And she knew Lucas would be sitting at that table across from her soon.

She’d never felt more like Horse Girl.

And Mr. Garcia was a big believer in second chances? Since when? Only for kids who aced their math tests?

Lucas came in and joined his sister.

“Thanks a lot, Mr. G.,” Marianne said under her breath and into her crossed arms.

“Huh?” Dan asked.

Into his ear, Marianne whispered what had happened earlier—how Mr. Garcia had stood up to Lucas, but it was obviously for the sake of Quiz Quest, not her. Either way, she had thought Mr. Garcia was finally getting a little nicer.

“I doubt Mr. Garcia knows about the post, though, to be fair,” Dan said. “Or he wouldn’t let any of these kids do it. He’s probably just happy it seems like they’re interested in Quest.”

“Maybe,” Marianne grumbled.

Vi and Nina sat straight forward, serious, ready, as the kids across from them whispered and giggled.

“So he basically called Lucas Darth Vader, though,” Dan added.

“Yeah, kinda. But Lucas jokes around with everybody. He really isn’t that bad,” she whispered, checking out of her periphery to see if Lucas could hear them. He was deeply involved in telling some kind of entertaining, dramatic tale to the three girls.

“Are you kidding me?” Dan said. “Sounds like he’s the worst.”

“Alright, scholars, prepare your buzzers and your minds!” Mr. Garcia pointed to the tape on their tables to remind them to keep their hands behind it until they were ready to hit the buzzer during a question.

“But my left arm sometimes—” Dan started to remind him, but Mr. Garcia nodded, to show he knew. He remembered Dan’s arm might have to rest beyond the tape line.

Nina’s knees jiggled up and down so much that Vi finally hissed, “Will you stop?”

And the scrimmage commenced.

“If a cube inscribed in a sphere has one side with a length of two units, what is the circumference of the sphere?” Mr. Garcia began.

“Of course he starts with a math question…” Marianne muttered to herself.

To her shock, Dan shushed her.

He’d never done anything like that before. Looking over at her teammates, she saw a ferocity in their eyes. They sat hunched over, as close to the tape as possible, and she could swear they looked like they might growl at the other team.

Vi got the math question right immediately, and they went into an extension round.

The Ermines huddled, scribbling, then showed one another their papers and with a quick nod, Nina buzzed in and gave the correct answer. And then two more times, the same routine. Marianne, not writing a thing, hearing only a swirl of numbers that went much too fast, allowed herself to glance toward Lucas, Ava, Jalilah, and Kylie.