Here is the first part of Melody's first academic competition:
Melody’s Diary
November 14th, 1996
We just got back from the Math Bowl. It was a lot different than I thought it’d be. You picture something in your mind, and you have it built up this certain way, just the way you want it, or sometimes, you imagine it the way you’re afraid it’ll be, but either way it’s usually not quite what you expected once you get there. Sometimes it’s not even close. Sometimes that’s a good thing. I guess I thought it’d be a little easier tonight. I don’t mean the questions though. Those were easy at least.
When we first got there, before we even got out of the car, I asked Mom, ‘What if we lose?’
"You’re not going to lose honey," she said, laughing.
"What makes you so sure?"
"Because your team has you. I know how hard you’ve prepared. …It’s hardly even fair to the other kids."
"But what if I mess up a question?"
"You won’t dear. You’re like a little computer. Like Deep Blue. They’ll ask you a question, and just like that you’ll remember the answer," she said, snapping her fingers. "Just like at home. You’ll see. You always remember things. You can’t help it at this point."
"Yeah…"
"We should get in there angel. It’s almost 6."
"…Will you be mad if I miss a question?"
Then she leaned over and hugged me and said, ‘Melody you know so much. I know you’re gonna do great. I love you. No one’s going to get mad at you.’
When we got inside we ran into Dad. He had come straight from work.
"Daddy!"
"Hi Mel," he said, hugging me.
"Do you think we’ll win?"
"Ah as long as you try your best that’s all that matters. Don’t worry about it."
I didn’t really think that many people would be there, but there were tons! When I saw the crowd I thought maybe we had gone to the wrong thing. There were the 24 kids, a teacher or two with each team, the Principals, the other parents… everybody. Having to wade through all those people made me want to pack right up and leave before it started.
I saw Ms. Aiello standing at a table a little further down the hall. She was dressed in all black and had her hair pulled back tight. She looked so serious like that. Chris and Allan were already next to her.
"That must be where we sign in," I said, pulling Dad along.
"Hello Melody," Ms. A said. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. McDougal. It’s great to see you."
"You too," Mom said.
Dad just smiled. He looked so sleepy.
"It looks like our matches will be in the library, so we should probably get on over there everyone."
"Oh ok," I said, scribbling my name onto the sheet.
The next thing I knew we were in the library, standing off to the side, waiting for them to start the thing. Everybody in the audience was talking but I couldn’t tell what anyone was actually saying. Life needs subtitles sometimes.
Being back in Briarwood reminded me of the time early last Fall that I went to Alicia Clements’ sleepover birthday party. I didn’t know her or her friends very well, obviously, since I didn’t know anyone yet, and when she handed me the invitation in school I was pretty surprised. In a good way.
"It’s for my party this Saturday night," she told me, tossing it onto my desk.
"Oh cool," I said, opening the envelope. "Ooo a slumber party! I’ll have to find my sleeping bag."
"Yep. Guess so."
I could tell you about the party, and the games we played, and the kind of cake Alicia had, but the only two things really worth mentioning are the facts that no one had anything to say to me, and no one was very interested in answering anything I said to them. I was washing my hands in the bathroom at one point when I heard Alicia and her Mom talking in the foyer.
"I don’t care if your friends don’t like her Alicia. Include her. She is here for the duration of the party. And she’s new in town. Make an effort."
And Alicia didn’t say anything back after that, but I could hear her eyes roll.
Eventually everyday at Briarwood was just like being at that party. They had to let me in but nobody wanted me there. Tonight was no different. And you know, walking down those corridors, reading the signs on the walls, sitting in those dark green chairs they have… in a way it felt like I’d never really been there at all. As if my memories of fifth grade were actually just the memories of watching a movie or something. Maybe I imagined the whole thing.
There were two tables in front of us, where the teams sat, and a podium between them. The tables were about ten feet apart. They looked so boring I actually felt bad for them. They were just plain white with black legs. They should hire people to paint scenes on them. Dragons fighting, cheetahs racing, lovers hugging… anything.
"Do you think we’re ready?" I asked Ms. A.
"You three have prepared very thoroughly Melody. You don’t have any reason to worry."
I nodded but I still felt so nervous, no matter what anybody said. I wish we could’ve just taken another test or something. In private. With no crowd. It could be a hundred pages. I wouldn’t mind.
"We’re gonna kick butt," Allan said.
I thought Ms. Aiello would say something to him about his language, but she just laughed and said, ‘That’s the spirit.’
Chris wasn’t talking at all. Or blinking either, as far as I could tell. I didn’t even want to know what weird thing he’d say if I talked to him, so I just didn’t. I mean it’s not like I had to or anything. And besides, it looked like he was in the zone. I didn’t want to disrupt him.
"Six twenty-nine," I whispered, looking up at the clock.
I dug my nails into my palms.
I wanted to see where Mom was sitting but I didn’t want to look into the crowd so I just stared at the floor instead. They need new carpeting in there.
Suddenly the announcer man started talking. With a microphone. It startled me because for a second I had forgotten where I was. And what I was there to do.
"Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming out to support the opening of the 7th annual academic bowl season here at Briarwood Elementary. We have teams from eight schools here tonight, and our final two will be playing for the championship, downstairs in the auditorium, at 8:35."
"Ok everyone, remember," Ms. A said. "Take your time and think about each question carefully. The other team won’t get a chance to answer ours unless we answer incorrectly."
"Now if we could please have Teams 5 (That was us) and 6 take their seats at their respective tables, we can get this show on the road."
Even with the microphone the man’s voice was pretty quiet. I wonder how anyone hears him without it.
Chris and Allan walked towards the table but I just stood there for a second. Then I felt Ms. Aiello’s hand nudging me in the back.
"You’re on Melody," she said. "Go get ‘em."
As soon as I sat down I felt like I wanted to run again. Like run back home and up to my bedroom. My bedroom in Maryland. I wanted to quit and go home while everything was still ok, before anything went haywire. But of course I couldn’t. Not with all those people watching, and Mom and Dad there, and my team counting on me.
The host said something but I wasn’t paying attention. Then out of nowhere he’s already asking team 6 their first question.
"What’d he say a second ago?" I asked Allan.
"Just went over the directions again."
I nodded.
We had gone over the rules everyday at practice. And Mom quizzed me on them too.
One team got asked a question first. (They picked who went first by flipping a coin beforehand.) If you answered your question right your team got a point. If you got it wrong then the other team could try and answer it. Then at the end there’d be a harder question worth three points. There were 17 questions total.
"I’m sorry team 6 that is not the correct answer… team 5?"
I looked over at Chris and Allan and they were talking about it. I leaned towards them and tried to look involved. I didn’t want anyone to know I hadn’t even heard what the question was.
"What do you think Mel?" Allan asked me. "27?"
"Yeah," I said, nodding.
I should have asked the announcer to repeat the question. You can do that. I’ll remember for next time.
"Team 5 I need an answer," the man said, somehow sounding friendly.
I bit down on my tongue.
"27," Allan said, lightly pounding the table with his fist.
"27 is correct! One point for team 5!"
After we got that first point I took my first real breath of the night.
I wanted to look into the crowd, and finally find Mom, and see her smiling, but I didn’t want to jinx myself so I just stared at our microphone instead. I tried to not think about anybody. Or anyplace else. I tried to just focus on the questions.
The questions kept coming and we were doing really well. Chris and Allan didn’t even seem nervous. Especially Allan. He was actually having fun. I tried to make it look like I wasn’t worried. I don’t know if it worked or not. There was no way I was going to be able to project ‘fun’, but I hope it at least didn’t look like I was terrified.
After what seemed like just five minutes we were already on the second to last question. The last one before the three pointer. The man hadn’t brought up anything unfamiliar yet. As he looked at his next question card I was biting my lip, waiting for him to ask us something impossible that no one would ever know. I was so sure that’s how it’d go. I had been picturing it the whole time, ever since the car ride over.
I figured a really crazy question would come up, and everyone would turn to me, and I’d freeze, and we’d lose. Then everyone would be talking about how I should have gotten it. I kept picturing that, and then how it would be on the car ride home, with Mom.
I’d say, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then say it again, and again, and keep saying it, but she’d never even say anything back. Then we’d get home and she’d put me to bed, still in my dress clothes, and close the door. I wouldn’t even get a hug. I was thinking about that stuff the whole way through, during every match.
"I don’t want that," I kept thinking. "Losers don’t get hugs."
"Ok team 5, solve this equation."
He handed us a big sheet of paper with our problem on it. It read:
(X^3 + 9) + (36/4) = 143
"Geez," Allan said.
"We’ve gotta try it," Chris said, sounding agitated. "I can do it."
I didn’t want to say so, but I had already done hundreds of problems like this one already. They were some of the kind that Mom made me do in my head. When the man read the equation to the crowd I pictured Mom smiling at me.
I finished the problem pretty fast, even after I wrote it out with my pencil, but Chris and Allan were still working. I couldn’t see how Chris was doing, but Allan had a lot of cross outs.
"This is crazy," he said.
I nodded, trying to look like it had boggled me too.
"Team 5 do you have an answer?"
I looked over at the boys. Allan looked back at me and shook his head.
"Melody I got 41.6 repeating," Chris said.
"…41.6 repeating?"
"Yeah."
"You’re sure?"
"Yes."
"Uhh… I—"
"Team 5? Five seconds…"
"I got 5…" I said, looking down at my paper.
Chris looked back at his.
"No…" he said, confused at me.
"Need an answer team fi—"
"Five!" Allan shouted. "Our answer is five! Just like our team number."
Some people laughed.
"Oh God," I thought. "Here it comes."
"Whoa… ok, ok, no need to shout Allan. That’s what the microphone is for."
I looked over at Chris and he was glaring at Allan and me. He looked ticked.
"Five… is correct! Another point for team 5. Incredible."
"I knew it," I whispered.
I should have been the one to shout it out.
So there I am, actually feeling relieved for a second, but it was then that I noticed the scoreboard. My heart sank. I had been ignoring the stupid thing. I forgot about it.
With that last correct answer it made the score 10 to 4, us. I went easy on them a few times, I really wanted the score to be close, but, I didn’t do a very good job of that I guess. I didn’t want us to tie and have to go to overtime, it didn’t need to get that suspenseful, but I thought everyone would be happier if we didn’t run away with it.
"Yes!" Allan yelled in a whisper. "Now this is convincing. It’s like we’re up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter."
"Yeah, kind of…" I said.
Chris still looked pissed. I thought he was going to flip the table over or something.
"Alright, teams 5 and 6…" the announcer said, trying to sound dramatic. "Here, is your final question. It’s worth three, points."
I knew the answer to it, and, I wasn’t going to tell anybody, but, I did know it. Chris though, he wrote something down and handed it to the man before I could even say anything. He handed it to the guy without even asking us about it and you can’t change your response after you hand a paper in.
"Oh no!" I thought, watching him.
If he or Allan had come up with the right answer I was going to try and steer them towards something else. Or even do exactly what Chris did, if it came to that.
"Ok, team 5 has answered."
Allan gave Chris the ‘what the heck?’ look, but he just stared straight ahead like he couldn’t see us. I pretended to be mad too, and shook my head.
"Anddd team 6. Thank you," the man said, taking their paper a minute later.
"Team 6 you are correct. And team 5, I’m sorry but you missed this one."
I could let air into my lungs again.
"Our final score is team five, 10 points, and team six 7 points. Team five will advance to the next round. A valiant effort team six. Let’s give them all a hand," he said.
He lead the applause.
It was about the most embarrassing thing he could’ve done but I was so happy about the score looking better that I didn’t even really let it bother me.
"Hey we’re on the team too remember?" Allan said, standing up.
Chris just sat there, staring back at him. He looked like he was trying to shoot laser beams out of his eyes.
Ms. A glided her way over to us.
"Good work team," she said, smiling.
"Ms. Aiello Chris didn’t talk to us on the last question," Allan said.
"Chris? You didn’t consult your teammates?"
"…"
"Chris?"
"I had the answer," he said.
"Yeah the wrong one," Allan said. "I didn’t know it either but I bet Melody did."
I looked away.
"Well maybe the answer on the announcer’s card was wrong," Chris muttered. "Besides, we won anyway."
"Chris even when you’re sure about something you still talk to your teammates about it," Ms. A said. "Remember? You can use all the available time."
"Yes. Sorry."
He didn’t sound so sorry though.
"And winning isn’t everything," Ms. A went on. "You three learning to work together as a team, that’s the most important part."
"I wish it were just you and me," Allan whispered in my ear. "Like Jordan and Pippen. You’re Jordan."
