Bring Your A Game

Bring Your A Game Mr Chapter 58

I Could Teach You

Elise flashed a smile and said, “I’m Elise.”

Samantha gaped at her in astonishment. “Wait, you’re Elise?”

Elise nodded. “In the flesh.”

For a moment, Samantha could not recover from her daze. She thought about what Elise had said to Amanda minutes ago, and only then did all the pieces click. “That explains why you put Amanda down the way you did; if someone was badmouthing me to my face, I’d have slapped them!”

Seeing how serious Samantha was amused Elise. She liked that Samantha was not the stereotypically aloof heiress that one might expect, but she gave off the impression that she was kind and approachable instead.

“By the way, Elise, I heard that Zachary Newman is here at the boot camp, too. Having the both of you here is like waiting for a legendary showdown to happen! I can’t wait to see which of you will emerge victorious at the end of the boot camp!”

This was the second time Zachary’s name was brought up in Elise’s presence. She figured he must be some kind of math whiz for everyone to praise him behind his back.

Presently, Elise and Samantha came to a stop at the classroom doorway, whereupon they saw that the room was filled to the brim with other boot camp participants. Their arrival instantly caught the room’s attention, though everyone’s gazes lingered on Samantha the longest. After all, it was hard for a fine-looking girl like her to keep from standing out in a crowd.

“Excuse me,” one of the boys piped up boldly, addressing Samantha. “You can sit next to me if you’d like.”

However, his invitation was swiftly rebuffed when Samantha, having taken one glance at the vacant seat next to him, said apologetically, “Sorry, but I’m going to sit with my friend.”

Elise over to the last row of seats and declared, “Let’s sit here,

and she fished it out to see that there was a new message from Jamie, which read, ‘Hey, Boss. Heard that you’ve gone into

Jamie, Elise thought with a rueful smile. A few taps on

she kept her phone just as a middle-aged man appeared at the classroom entryway. He was holding a thermos flask as he walked in, and a

Welcome to the Mathematics Olympiad Boot Camp. I’m Henry Bolton, and you may address me as Mr. Bolton. I’ll be in charge of your studies for the next half a month, and as we kick off this boot camp, let’s hope that all of you will give it your best for

or two that evening, but now that she was going to surrender her phone, she might very well die of boredom

make a difference to her boot camp experience. When the student in

make, come see me privately,” Mr. Bolton announced. “Seeing as today’s the first day, I’ve prepared a set of exercises for all of you to get a feel of what this camp is all about. Think of it as an entry test, something that will ease

with frenzied energy when everyone heard this. Those who were gathered here for the Mathematics Olympiad Boot Camp were mathletes in their own right, and

each row, and silence filled the room as everyone set themselves to work. When Elise got her papers, she perused each page fervently and found that almost all the questions were

up her pen, she began writing down her workings and

students on the other side of the door when another teacher came down the hallway and asked

Bolton grinned as he explained, “I figured I should see how well

got full marks in the

higher regards for another student—one of his own, no less—by the name of

I’m giving these kids a test run. It’s the only way for us to pick out the cream of the crop,” Mr. Bolton pointed out with a long sigh. There had been a make-or-break question from the National Mathematics Olympiad last year, and no student had cracked it to date. Having deliberately put it to the test today, Mr. Bolton hoped that a hard blow would knock

news, Henry,” the other teacher quipped humorously before

in a blink of an eye, and everyone looked defeated as they handed in their

I couldn’t come

to think about how I did on the test.” A couple of students huddled together to lament over the paper, and the boy who spoke first glanced over at Zachary, who sat not too

pursed his lips and answered plainly, “I gave it my