Marianne paused. She listened to the chatting outside the door, up and down the hallways.

“But I think for me? Maybe I need to imagine what my friend Skyla would say. She would say to get over this idea that I’m so stupid because thinking I’m so stupid makes me stupid. She’d tell me it was okay to guess. It was okay to try. That my only problem is that I’m … afraid.”

Marianne felt certain it was true. And she knew that no test from any specialist her parents took her to would pick up on that fear—the terror of truly giving something a real shot, failing, and then having solid evidence that she simply wasn’t … well, good enough.

“What about me?” Vi asked.

Marianne stepped back and took in Violet Cross, the whites of her eyes all pink.

“You’re a star student. So, you’ve got that part down. Maybe just … try and have fun being you? Instead of, like, hating it? Enjoy being incredible? At least a little bit?” Marianne raised her shoulders.

Vi pulled her hair back up again and tied it into a loop. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll try.”

“Ya know,” Marianne said to all three of them, “when I first joined and thought I could answer any question I wanted with the wrong answer and it wouldn’t matter? Honestly, I’ve never felt such relief in my life at the thought. Maybe we can all just try to be okay with, like, being wrong? And remember that another person on the team may help us out?”

Mr. Garcia knocked on the door. “I’ve got the room.” He lifted up his wrist and pointed to his watch. “Five!”

Nina hopped up. “We have to go!” she said. “Hold on.” She took a deep breath in, held it, then let it out. “Hello, I-hate-to-be-late thoughts. We will be fine. It’s just a short hallway. Goodbye.”

Marianne cheered and Nina did a little pirouette.

“You know what time it is!” Marianne hollered. They proceeded to complete their entire secret handshake. “Flawless!” She clapped.

“Goooooo, Ermines!”

As everyone settled into their seats for the next match, Marianne scanned the room for Nina’s parents.

“Mr. and Mrs. Anderson?” she greeted them. “I’m so sorry, but my parents didn’t really get a great view of things last time and between you and me they’re kind of upset they drove all the way to Ann Arbor and aren’t really getting to see the show…”

Would they buy it? She had to really sell this.

“Do you mind switching with them for this one?”

She hurried them toward where her parents sat, behind the team, and placed her parents directly in front of her, where the Andersons had been.

“I’ll explain later,” she said.

Nina waved to her parents behind them, and Marianne whispered, “Forget them. It’s just you and your genius mind. You got this. Breathe in, breathe out, point those toes, I’m right here.”

“Okay, okay.” Nina played with her pen, flipping it from finger to finger.