A basketball themed poster by @maddslawton! Thank you! Nice teamwork on that

Chapter 38: No Trophy

The auditorium of Preston Oakes High was built to seat two hundred people. 22 were in the room right now, and it was 22 too many.

And 1 too few. 

Luke Dawson, where are you?

I nervously stepped onto the stage under a large banner saying "POHS Mathletics." I think I've spent my whole life establishing how un-athletic I was, so this was a good way to undermine my confidence.

I squinted under the bright lights and made my way to one of the chairs on stage. My footsteps echoed in the auditorium. 

The doors to the auditorium stayed firmly shut.  With every step I took, I kept hoping to see Luke enter.  Unfortunately, no one did.

My mom and sister weren't here either. I texted them that I was taking part in a math competition today, but no reply. 

It's probably for the best. I didn't want to cause more second-hand embarrassment than I already do. 

I took a seat on stage behind a small desk with a red buzzer on it. My competitors had the same setup and we were all side-by-side, facing the 'crowd'. The guy next to me was doing finger exercises. 

A shadow in the crowd waved at me and I knew it was Austin. I never expected Austin Taylor to end up being my guardian angel, but he always seemed to be there. Supporting. 

Think like a proton. Always positive.

"Everybody ready? I hope your minds are as sharp as your pencils!" the presenter announced, building up anticipation to the first quiz question.

The guy next to me finished his finger exercises and hovered his hand over the buzzer, wriggling his fingers like he was conducting a spell. 

I tried to concentrate, despite the voodoo going on next to me.

I ignored the fact that more people in this room wanted me to fail than to win. My competitors, my teammate and ex-boyfriend Kaden, even Julia who was randomly here...

Instead, I focused on who wanted me to do well. Austin 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 Luke, 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 Luke'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 Austin. Definitely Austin. 

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

But Austin 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?" Austin asked since Kaden was staring directly at him.

I was wondering how Austin 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."

Austin 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 Austin'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, Austin, 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?"

Luke 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 Luke 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.  

Luke 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!"

I linked arms with Luke and pulled both boys towards the exit. Luke and Austin gave each other a high five over my head. Luke had definitely overheard Austin's response to Kaden.

I tugged at Luke's arm and told him, "You missed my whole competition." 

"I thought you said no trophy?" was Luke's reply. 

He clearly noticed Kaden's medal.

**

~Afternoon class~

Jake fell asleep next to me in English class. I kept shoving my pencil against his arm to wake him up.

I sat with my eyes forced open. I put all my energy into staring at the front of the class, that I must've looked like a possessed individual. I wasn't wasting any energy in movement. I was barely even blinking.

Finally, school was over for the day. I wanted to crawl to the car. I felt like I'd aged so much in a day.

"Teenagers are so energetic," I told Jake as we walked out of the worst English class of all time.

It's called English but I swear they were speaking French. I didn't understand anything.

"They're like energizer bunnies," Jake agreed, watching our classmates chatting and hurrying past us.

We stepped outside into the chilly winter air and walked towards Luke's car. We both assumed Luke was going to drive us home.

And he was already waiting for us. Luke was leaning against his car, with his gym bag swung over his left shoulder. I felt sorry to think that he actually had to exercise today.

He saw us and nodded his head in a curt greeting. He opened the car door for me and got inside, wordlessly. He didn't acknowledge Jake.

"How did your math competition go today, Millie?" Jake asked happily, getting into the backseat. His voice was still muffled by the bruising on his face.

"I qualified to the next round but lost overall. It wasn't super embarrassing and very few people showed up so I think I'll live it down," I said, "Thanks for asking."

I glanced at Luke. Where has he been? What's his excuse? Why isn't he saying anything?

"Nah, it's good practice for next time," Jake said comfortingly, "I would've come but the nurse wanted to check my face. I think she was worried that I've gotten involved in gang violence. In reality, I'm just related to my family."

Luke turned the music on and up, drowning out the sound of Jake's voice in the backseat. 

Luke was done with playing nice. He was frustrated at himself for missing my competition - I could tell. 

He hadn't slept. He was carpooling all of us. He had to work out earlier. He missed my competition and I think that last part affected him. The thought that we weren't 100% OK. To be honest, it affected me too.

Tonight would be an odd choice to go on our romantic date. Luke mentioned wanting to take me somewhere private, somewhere special for just the two of us. I wondered where that would be.  And I wondered what tone today had set for it.

A/N:  This chapter was a real dive into Millie's mind. Next one will be all about Millie and Luke :)

GOAL - Player Next Door has almost 15m reads!  If we hit that 15m by next Tuesday the 15th (see what I did there? haha), I'll post four chapters in four days! So please vote on the first book's chapters, share the story and comment on it :) See ya on Thursday!