Zenon's Game Chapter 177

Instead, I focused on who wanted me to do well. Axel was front row at a mathlete competition for the first time in his life. I don't think he even knew what I was competing for.

And Zenon, even if he couldn't make it, wanted me to win.

The announcer called out the first question: "What is the greatest whole number that must be a factor of the sum of any four consecutive positive odd numbers?"

You know what's positively odd, why didn't I get a coffee this morning? That is really unlike me.

So what was the question again? Something about a whole number?

"Eight!" the guy next to me yelled out, smacking his buzzer.

Is yelling really necessary? I thought that's why we have the buzzer – to not yell.

"Corrrect!" the announcer exclaimed and turned his flash card to the next question.

OK, that was the warm-up. Focus!

The announcer cleared his throat, "Now the next question is..."

Turns out, the next question's also a warm-up. Maybe my whole life is a warm-up.

Maybe I should've slept last night instead of going over to Zenon's. They say nothing good happens after midnight... I bet Jake agrees with that.

"...and that leaves Preston Oakes High School in last place," the announcer summarized, referring to my position in this game. "Now for the speed round. Questions will be easier, no use of pens or paper allowed. Ready for the first question?"

No.

"35 squared is..."

Multiply the first digit by itself and add 1. So 3 x (3 + 1) = 12.

Then add a 25 at the end. So 1225.

I hit the buzzer a second too late. I was behind the guy next to me, who, again, yelled. He won the point.

"Corrrect. Now, what prime numbers below 11 is 784 divisible by?"

Obviously 2 and not 5. Not 3, since the sum of the digits isn't divisible by three. There's a trick to 7.

Double the last digit of the number and then subtract it from the remaining number. If that number is divisible by 7 then the original number will be too.

So 4 * 2 = 8. 78 – 8 = 70. 70 / 10 = 7. So yes, divisible by seven.

I hit the buzzer and felt the realization that all 22 pairs of eyes in the audience were staring at me.

The lights were too bright, I don't know why they were trying to blind us.

"Divisible by 2 and 7," I spoke into the silence.

The announcer said, "Corrrect. First point for Preston Oakes. OK, next question. Solve for the-"

"YES!" Someone yelled out from the crowd, "She got it!"

That was Axel. Definitely Axel.

Math competitions tend to be very quiet. There's a polite round of applause at the end of every answer, so screaming out like Axel, is very unique.

But Axel didn't care. This was his first time at a math event and he was going to do it his way.

The mental math round was my jam. I was back in the game.

I didn't have a standout performance by any stretch, but I qualified to the next round of competitions in January. So that was good.

However, in life, there rarely seems to be good without the bad. First place in today's competition went to..... Kaden.

And he was thrilled.

Kaden wore a ribbon with a plastic gold circle on it. The top prize. Top prize goes to the very intelligent and very immoral individual.

I slow clapped.

In the name of team-spirit, I was standing with the rest of the mathletes, applauding Kaden's win. My boyfriend beat him up last weekend, so maybe that's how karma balances itself out.

Julia was hovering in the background, waiting to congratulate him. She can wait.

"Thanks everyone," Kaden told our math crew. He dove into a self-congratulatory speech that no one asked for. "We got a strong team this year. Moments like these remind me that those who are popular in high school mostly also peak in high school."

"Why do I feel like this is targeted at me?" Axel asked since Kaden was staring directly at him.

I was wondering how Axel had managed to get into our mathlete team huddle without being questioned. He seemed very comfortable.

Kaden continued, "Grades and salaries have a strong positive correlation, so this is more proof that people like us only go up. Let's stay on this track and take it all the way."

Axel interrupted the cheer, "You seem really excited about this plastic toy, but there are outliers to every sample size and I'm willing to bet that you're one of them."

Oooh. My mouth formed an 'O' at Axel's comeback. I never never expected him to say that.

And I really wanted to give him a high five for it.

The team captain quietly interfered, "Excuse me, Axel, but this is a team meeting only."

He's part of my team.

The mood suddenly changed and the attention diverted from Kaden to someone behind me.

Toby elbowed the team captain and pointed. I really didn't need to turn to recognize who it is. I could tell by the look on their faces and his distinct voice:

"Have you already forgotten what happened this weekend?"

Zenon finally made it.

No one on the Mathletes uttered a word. They definitely hadn't forgotten, and they were terrified of round two. The imagery of Zenon punching Kaden was a meme in my mind.

I turned around to face my boyfriend. He was wearing his basketball uniform with the word DAWSON displayed on large letters across his broad back.

Zenon calmly added, "Because I'm down to remind you any day. Crazy how this nerdy crew can be so b-"

"OK!" I cut him off before he could swear, "Well done to everyone. Good show, good show to the whole team. Teamwork makes the dream work. See ya!"