When she stalked off, one of the team members leaned a head against the wall, devastated. The others continued to squabble.

Marianne hurried back to her group as they were about to make their way to the auditorium.

“Remington may be the best,” Marianne said breathlessly, “but they don’t get along. There’s trouble between them, or with their coach, I think. Maybe if we seem like we’re having a great time, like we’re getting along together really well, it could … I don’t know. What’s the word? It could psych them out. At least a little. If they’re not insecure about being smart, maybe they’re insecure about something else, something like their friendships or issues between them. As a team. You think?”

“You diabolical genius,” Dan said. “So should we play it up, all buddy-buddy?”

“Interesting.” Vi bit the end of her pencil. “If we can’t intimidate them in other ways, why not this? Okay.”

“Love it!” Nina shook her fists happily.

“Instead of showing we think they’re better than us, let’s just act like best friends without a care in the world,” Marianne reiterated.

She was making this strategy up on the spot, but it sounded good and was worth a shot.

Vi still had her phone, Marianne noticed.

“What’s up?” she asked Vi. “Don’t you have to put it away?”

Vi texted someone with abandon.

“My parents,” Vi said. “They’re not watching. They thought they’d make it home in time to catch the livestream, but they’re busy.” She handed the phone back to Mr. Garcia. “Whatever.”

“We’ll tell them all about it,” Marianne assured her. “For now, just think about how if we win this…”

“State Championships,” Vi said, her face forward. “Respect.”

Marianne could see that Vi knew what she had to do.

They took their seats up on the stage. The fold-up chairs in rows before them were about two-thirds of the way filled, containing most of the contestants who hadn’t made the cut.

Marianne gave the Remington kids her brightest smile and a huge wave. Vi, Dan, and Nina followed suit.

Then she said, “Love ya, we got this,” to each of her teammates and leaned her head on Nina’s shoulder before they started.

The Remington kids looked miserable. She noticed that a couple of them eyed their scary coach in the front row.

Marianne threw Mr. Garcia a thumbs-up and mouthed, “This is for you, Coach!”

Amir was back. He re-welcomed everyone to the event and congratulated all the contestants for their hard work. As he reexplained the rules, Marianne peered out into the audience and saw the cameras on her once again.

And the notifications popped up in her mind. She saw Skyla’s handle next to the “heart” button. She pictured Skyla laughing with Julie, anticipating how ridiculously stupid Marianne would look.

She tried to say hello and goodbye to the image and watch it float away.

But it came back.

“Let us begin!” Amir declared.

She could hardly hear the first question, but the Ermines must have answered correctly because within a flash they went into a geography extension round, where the team could confer.