They Rejected My Daughter novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: Round One
The district round was held on the second Saturday of March in a high school gym with the bleachers pulled out.
Twenty-two schools had brought tables, and every table had a stack of blank paper and a bell.
I sat in the third row between Chloe's father and Ms. Walmsley.
Ms. Walmsley had a coffee in each hand and had given one to me without asking.
Down on the floor the Ridgeline team wore green T-shirts that the vice principal had paid for out of the school budget, not the booster fund.
The math teacher stood behind them with his arms folded.
He was their coach now, and he looked ten years younger than he had in December.
Cedar Hill sat three tables over in plain gray sweatshirts.
Ruby was in the center seat, with the girl with the braid on one side and the girl in the green jacket on the other.
She had her pencil in her teeth and was reading the room's rules sheet for the third time.
"She's going to chew through that," Ms. Walmsley said.
"She does it on the car ride, too."
The head judge rang a bell, and the first problem went up on the screen.
It was a bad hour for my nerves.
I do not understand eighth-grade competition math.
I understood the faces.
When the Cedar Hill table got a problem, the braid girl would shout something, and Ruby would write furiously, circle her answer and turn the page face down.
When Ridgeline got one, the whole green row bent over a single sheet, and Chloe's long hair swung down over her eyes as she worked.
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