Moments later, the old professor and two staff members stepped onto the stage to present the five members of the Medford Math Olympiad team with gold medals and blue varsity jackets—the ultimate symbol of a championship team.
It's worth noting that Ms. Sharon, as the team's faculty advisor, also received a varsity jacket as a commemorative gift.
Next, a photographer stepped forward to capture this historic moment for the Medford team.
Seizing the photo op, Cady took her own medal and placed it around Ms. Sharon's neck.
This gesture was a mix of gratitude for Ms. Sharon's care during the competition and guilt for having badmouthed her earlier. In short, Cady was extending a very public olive branch, signaling her desire to bury the hatchet.
Ms. Sharon clearly understood the girl's intent. To be honest, she had long since let go of the rumors Cady had spread. By the time the awards ceremony wrapped up, the two were thick as thieves, looking almost like a mother-daughter duo.
---
As the event wound down and Mike prepared to board the bus back to Medford with his team, Carter, the captain of Marymount, approached him.
"Mike, I have a few questions. Can we talk?" Carter asked, having waited outside the math hall specifically for this moment.
"What? Still salty about losing?" Kevin, currently riding a massive ego high, asked snarkily. For some reason, the sight of Carter's curly hair just ticked him off.
"Cool it, Kevin..." Mike calmed his captain down before walking aside with Carter.
"What did you want to know?" Mike asked.
The Marymount captain seemed like a genuinely nice guy—a classic "goody-two-shoes"—so Mike didn't mind chatting with him.
"I... I just wanted to know, did you guess on that last question?" Carter had a lot of doubts, but what ate at him the most was Mike's sudden shift in performance during the "Sudden Death" round.
He knew it was a rude question to ask, and his face flushed with embarrassment.
"I didn't guess. I calculated the result. If you want, I can walk you through the math," Mike replied calmly. He didn't take offense.
"No, that's okay. Thank you," Carter said, a look of realization washing over him. "So, your behavior before that... it was all an act."
For a smart person, it isn't hard to reverse-engineer the truth once you know the result.
Mike smiled. He didn't say anything, which was an answer in itself. Strictly speaking, psychological warfare is part of the game.
"I hope we get a chance to compete again," Carter said. He looked relieved to know the truth, though his tone still held a hint of frustration. Losing without understanding why is the worst kind of defeat.
---
After saying goodbye to Carter, Mike returned to the bus where Kevin was waiting.
"Mike, what did Goldilocks want? Do I need to go teach him a lesson?" Even after snatching the championship from him, Kevin was still incredibly annoyed by Carter.
It was easy to imagine that if these two polar opposites were forced to spend time together, they'd act like a classic sitcom odd couple with a serious love-hate dynamic.
"Carter seems like a decent guy. If you got to know him, you two might actually become friends," Mike teased, deliberately changing the subject.
"Not in a million years!" Kevin looked like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. However, he dropped the subject of harassing the Marymount captain.
"Alright everyone, it's not even 5:00 PM yet. We can still make it back in time for the school dance," Ms. Sharon clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.
As the advisor, she truly cared about her students. Aside from Mike and Cady, the other three members of the Math Olympiad team were essentially social outcasts at school. Even Kevin, with his hip-hop style, wasn't exactly popular.
Ms. Sharon wanted to use this victory as a catalyst to help them integrate better into the school's social hierarchy.
"Really? That's awesome! These jackets are going to make us totally popular," Kevin said excitedly, looking down at his new championship gear.
Having helped bring home the trophy, all he wanted to do was take a victory lap.
The other team members looked interested too. The idea of returning to school as conquering heroes was pretty intoxication.
"Um, can you just drop me off at home?" Young Sheldon piped up quietly, looking like the odd man out.
Between his germophobia and social anxiety, the thought of a crowded, chaotic school dance was a nightmare.
"Don't be shy, Sheldon! You're part of the team..." Kevin tried to wrap his arm around Sheldon's shoulder, but the boy nimbly dodged the contact.
In the end, democracy won out. The vote was cast, and the bus set a course for the school dance.
"Mike, can I see your medal?" Sheldon asked curiously during the ride.
Although the first half of the competition had bored him, seeing Mike and the others bathed in glory and applause had sparked a tiny bit of longing in Sheldon.
"Here." Mike handed the copper medal to him. "If you want one, we can always do this again next year."
On its own, the medal wasn't worth much, but what it represented was significant. After mentioning next year's competition, Mike stopped paying attention to Sheldon and went back to getting cozy with Cady.
---
Back at Medford High.
The school auditorium had been transformed. Under colorful strobe lights and thumping bass, countless students were grinding and swaying on the dance floor.
"Regina, aren't you going to go out there and work the room?"
Standing near the stage, Karen (the one with the nice hair but vacant stare) asked the "Queen Bee" after expertly rejecting a boy's dance invitation.
Tonight, the students would vote for the Prom King and Queen. As a top contender for Queen, Regina needed to be out there campaigning.
"I'd rather take a few more hot photos than beg for votes," Regina said, seemingly confident that the crown was already hers.
She cast a dismissive glance at the sweaty students on the dance floor, then struck a pose to showcase her best angle so her mother, Mrs. George, could snap a picture from nearby.
Clearly, the Queen Bee preferred building her portfolio of private photos—likely to send to Mike later—over wasting time mingling with the commoners.
Soon, the dancing wound down, and the event moved to its main event: voting for the school's most popular boy and girl.
Damian and the punk-goth Janis—two people who hated dancing and didn't fit in—were manning the ballot box at a corner table.
"Hey, Draco, who are you voting for?" Damian asked curiously as an acquaintance approached.
"Mike and Regina, obviously. I'm rooting for them," Draco, a guy who prioritized aesthetics above all else, said excitedly.
Visually speaking, Mike might have been the most handsome guy in Medford High's history, and Regina was the undisputed ceiling of female beauty at the school. For shallow high schoolers, looks were enough to decide the vote.
"No way. I think the girls should vote for Cady. Just because she stole Regina's boyfriend..." another boy argued with Draco.
During the Math Olympiad prep at the end of the term, Mike and Cady had been seen together constantly. To the student body, this was "proof" that Mike had dumped Regina for Cady.
Given Regina's high-profile, tyrannical reign, gossip about her downfall was incredibly valuable currency. Students with nothing better to do loved this kind of drama.
"I'm voting for Cady too. Anyone who steals the Queen Bee's man deserves a vote for bravery..."
"Yeah, a vote for Cady is a vote for chaos."
In no time, the students, fueled by the latest gossip, began skewing the vote for Most Popular Girl heavily toward Cady.
As for Most Popular Boy? Mike was leading the pack with zero competition.