- Ready, set, academic bowl!
- Mrs. Olinski is thinking about how she selected the four members of her team—all from the sixth grade at a school called Epiphany—to participate in the Academic Bowl. She doesn't really dig into this thought process until the whole Bowl is nearly over.
- By the way, this team is clearly awesome because it's called The Souls.
- Time for the action. It's the day of the final Bowl competition, and Mrs. O's team is going up against the older kids from a school called Maxwell.
- As you might have guessed, her students are the underdogs.
- Setting: a cold schoolroom in May, in Albany, New York. Everyone's gearing up for the final match.
- The state commissioner of education (fancy title alert!) asks the first question—it's about calligraphy.
- Cue Noah, one of the members of Mrs. Olinski's team.