"Hold," she said, pointing to the plate of brownies. "One of them is for you."
"What is this for?"
"Sophomore committee. We're having a bake sale today."
So when we got off the bus later on, we headed straight for the math offices to drop off the food. Halfway down the hall, I saw Micro wandering around, looking lost.
"Hey," he said, waving to me. "We're supposed to be in the math department, right?"
"Yeah. I don't think Tybalt's here though."
I was apparently wrong. Tybalt was already inside when we reached the math offices, and he was looking at our school's performance for last year's AIME. Someone—I believe Irving, although I could be wrong, got four questions right last year, and that was the highest anyone from our school achieved. Micro and I lingered in the back of the room as Tybalt and Mr. Stone discussed something. Then, Mr. Stone grabbed some scrap paper, rulers, and pencils, and led us downstairs to finally start the test.
AIME is three hours long.
At first, Tybalt said, "Oh, the questions at the end are really hard, so we probably won't take three hours."
Well, for mathematical minds as ours that are not as well polished (compared to those who say, "I didn't get a 120+ on the AMC, I failed!" If I got a 120, I would be really surprised at myself), we took three hours to do however many questions we each managed to tackle. In Micro's words, "Not a lot." But I'm apparently not allowed to talk about the difficulty of the test until an undetermined time later (or maybe it's only on the forum, I'm not sure), so I won't say how well I did. I'll just say that all of us took the entire three hour period we had, and that, on a Wednesday morning, was very draining.
We couldn't even talk to other people, unlike Moody's (although Moody's was way longer so I suppose it evens out), so I spent half the time listening to one person or another sniffle.
Anyway, Tybalt left first, then Micro, and I left last as I scrambled to bubble in random answers on my answer sheet so it looks like I did something (and increase the chance of me getting the right answer from 0% to 0.1%).
At lunch, I went to find Tybalt to compare answers. Sonny and Dino, who also sat at the table (so did Bryant, but he was on the other end), clamored to see the test.
"Is this ARML?" Sonny asked. I really have no idea why he thinks everything math and competition-related is automatically ARML. Probably because he only knows ARML through Dino.
"No," Dino said. "AIME." (Also, AIME sounds very confusing when you're saying it to someone who doesn't know what it is, because it sounds like Amy. Reese, among others, have asked, "Who is this Amy person?")
"Oh," Sonny said. Tybalt snatched the test back and proceeded to make myself less confident in my answers. I suppose the reverse could also hold true.
On my way back to my table, I saw Micro (who also has lunch, how surprising). I proceeded to plop down next to him and compare answers with him. Let's just say that we (all three of us) haven't reached a consensus yet.
But I mean, it's us. Paperclip. We haven't yet defeated a Massachusetts school in NEML. What's the chances of all three of us doing superbly well and all making it to USAMO?
(Very little, although Micro may have a chance with USAJMO—depending on his guessing skills.)
Later on, in physics, Mr. Stencil finally came through with his promise of pizza for us because our class scored the highest out of all of Mr. Stencil's classes on this "physics concepts" test we took. However, because it was Passover, half the class couldn't eat it. Tamir, obviously not restrained by such rules, loomed over the boxes of pizza as the class debated whether those who could not eat the pizza should get bonus points instead.
In the end, almost everyone gave in to the temptation (Camel after much consideration and only after seeing the mushroom pizza). Jeremy and Scott left the room to control their urges, but when they came back, Scott said, "You can still smell the pizza." It was too late anyway. All three boxes had been scarfed down already.
After physics (which was after school), I went to get my coat. I saw Yuma on my way there, and so I told him to save a seat for me on the bus. When I got on the bus, it was half-empty (probably because of spring sports), but I sat next to Yuma anyway. He sat next to the window, so when I turned to look at him, I saw Micro on the bus next to ours.
"Hey look," I said. "It's Micro!"
Yuma turned to see. "Oh yeah."
I started waving frantically at Micro, trying to get his attention. He didn't notice me, but Sonny, who sat behind Micro on the bus, saw me and waved back.
Not exactly what I was looking for. I tried to wave in a general front-ward direction, in an attempt to tell Sonny to get Micro's attention. Sonny only stared at me and made weird arm gestures as well. Again. Not exactly what I was looking for.
And to end this (instead of blogging about Easter Island, which I will get to, shortly), I'll post something Chile-related. Make of it what you will.
Ginny
okay
and
tell Owen that his llama is on the way
(hopefully)
17:32Dino
his llama?
17:32Ginny
(if it doesn't get quarantined)
17:32Dino
which Owen?
17:33Ginny
your brother
who else?
17:33Dino
yd u get him a llama?
17:34Ginny
we were going to get a llama for ourselves anyway
Gretchen and I
and he seemed interested
17:34Dino
a stuffed llama?
17:34Ginny
no, one from chile
17:34Dino
a real llama
17:34Ginny
well
real enough
17:35Dino
real enough?
17:35Ginny
sort of like "the things they carried"
17:35Dino
kewl
17:35Ginny
it's summery in chile right now though
so I'm not sure how it'll fare
on the plane
and we also need to find a large enough crate
but those are minor issues
17:36Dino
ur not ACTUALLY getting a llama
17:36Ginny
like I said
"the things they carried"
style
17:37Dino
never read that
17:37Ginny
it's a nice book
and I think it's referenced in the first page
17:39Ginny
also
he's not allergic to llama hair
is he?
17:39Dino
no....
17:40Ginny
okay
good
allergies would pose huge problems
5 rants:
I think that you confusing Dino is my new favorite thing ever, seconded only by you confusing Sonny. I giggled my way through this entire post.
Also! Look! At my awesome new picture!
Awesome new picture! Another wonderful Ginny creation or your own?
Haha, Tea, remember all the people on the RSI thread who were freaking out about their ridiculous AMC scores?
You all guessed right and are going to USAMO, where you will guess right and win, thus advancing to IMO. Where you will guess right and win. I have spoken. I know that's not how USAMO questions work. I still have spoken.
wow irving got four right and that's the record??
haha, about the sonny and the llama part. dino doesn't read. like anything. i'm not surprised.
but isn't it an alpaca?
I told Sonny today that I was trying to reach Micro and he said that he just thought that I was waving at him.
Yay for pictures! I shall have to make more of these. They're really fun.
Maybe we all subconsciously, telepathically anticipated the answers and therefore all guessed right and will break a school record (I don't think there's ever been a USAMO qualifier from our school?) and will be remembered forever and ever (in lieu of getting that 1st place trophy Mr. Booth wanted).
That must be it.
Oh, also, didn't see your comment Gretch (got lost as we commented at almost the same time).
The record is sad. But seeing as we have magically guessed all the answers right, maybe it will be better.
And I told him about the llama before I talked to Owen, because Owen wasn't online then, and I'd started talking about the calc test anyway. Afterwards, I asked Owen, and he told me Dino didn't tell him anything.
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