“Dan. Game face on. Every. Kid. Is. Andy,” Marianne said. “Vi—enjoy.”

Their next moderator, Ms. Ruhl, once again explained the game structure, and Marianne sized up the team across from them. Interesting. Two of them squabbled in whispers. One of them, face half-covered in a hoodie, leaned back as if already defeated, and the other had his elbows so far on the table he looked like he might flip forward onto the floor.

They could win this.

“Dan,” Marianne whispered before they started, “lean forward as far as you’re allowed. And don’t move back even if you don’t think you know the answer. Like that kid—he’s ready the whole time. Try it.”

He nodded.

And they were off.

Dan hit the buzzer first, right out of the gate, and Marianne could’ve hugged him right then and there.

Vi came in next, acing three questions and all extension rounds like a mad genius.

Every time Nina’s leg began jiggling next to Marianne, Marianne hummed the Sugar Plum Fairy song from The Nutcracker, and Nina let her leg loosen.

“The Canary Islands,” Nina answered, her words streaming out so fast they mushed together. “TheSanAndreasFault. Ashgabat,Turkmenistan. TheDeadSea!”

And then, her confidence back in place, Nina went on a correct-answer spree in every subject, losing momentum only when the other team—usually the team member who was leaning forward so far—got to the buzzer first.

Dan answered the history questions after only a few words of them had been read, to the point where some in the audience let out a laugh here or there.

“On July 1, 1863—”

Buzz.

“Battle of Gettysburg.”

Question after question he’d cut off the moderator.

Battle of Okinawa. Battles of Lexington and Concord. Operation Overlord. Battle of the Bulge …

He began to give more information than was needed. Instead of “1776” as the date of the Battle of Trenton, he slammed the buzzer and said, with a sense of triumph in his voice, “December 26, 1776, Trenton, New Jersey. Eight A.M.”

Her team soared.

Marianne had to answer. She had to. Nothing had come up so far that she knew, but she could guess.

But how would she buzz in? She was slow.

On an extension round, when technically they were allowed to communicate if only for a second or two, Marianne whispered to her teammates, “Give me a chance on some. I’ll buzz in.”

So they let her. The next question was:

“The Brooklyn Bridge crosses what river in New York City?”

Marianne had no idea. Nina certainly knew. Marianne didn’t even remember the names of the rivers there. But she buzzed.

Silence.

“We need an answer,” Ms. Ruhl said.

“The Erie Canal?” Marianne guessed.

She wouldn’t look at the camera. She couldn’t.

“Incorrect.”

And the other team got it.

Time would run out. She had to keep guessing.

“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was written by which American author?”

The other team buzzed first. Vi and Marianne shared a look. They’d studied this one. A lost point, a chance for participation, gone.