Caitlin In Charge

• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• Chapter Seven
• Chapter Eight
• Chapter Nine
• Chapter Ten
• Chapter Eleven

Chapter One

Caitlin and her friends Natalia, Zoe, and Emma have just entered the sudden death round of her school’s trivia competition. Caitlin knows that if they win this question, their trivia team, representing Waverly Middle School, will move on to compete in the country finals. The winners of the county competition will move onto the state semifinals, then finals, and finally, the national competition in New York City.

The question is what is the fastest flying bird. The eighth grade team presses their button first, and says hummingbird. Unfortunately, that’s wrong. Caitlin gets a chance to answer. She looks at Natalia, an animal fan, who shrugs and says probably the golden eagle. Emma, a sporty and studious girl, says peregrine falcon.

In a split second decision, Caitlin uses Emma’s guess. And it’s right!

After the competition, they gather into Mr. Patel’s office. He’s the advisor of the trivia team, and he’ll work with them as they advance on. He says they need to decide on a team captain to organize and represent, and they’ll also be in charge of answering all questions moving forward.

On the way home, the girls elect Caitlin to be captain. She’s organized, determined, and not nervous on stage speaking in front of others. They decide to study every day at school, after school Wednesdays and Fridays, and on Sunday afternoons.

At home, Caitlin pulls out colored note cards and chooses one color for each topic: art and theater, animals and nature, American history, literature, and sports. She color-codes the schedule based on the same colors. She’s ready to go.

Chapter Two

On Saturday, all four girls are helping pass out hors d’oeuvres at a garden party at the Seaview House B&B. Natalia and Zoe are twins, and Emma is their cousin. Their moms all own the B&B together, and the three normally help out with Saturday brunch, but this garden party is a more special occasion.

As the girls pass each other and exchange their trays, they take turn giving each other little trivia questions. Natalia gives Emma one which asks what is the oldest known individual animal. Emma didn’t know it, and Natalia took pride in stating it was Ming the clam. Emma and Caitlin laugh about that one.

After the garden party, the four girls all head down to the boardwalk. Caitlin hands out copies of her colorful schedule, and outlines she was thinking of having each of them take a topic to focus research on. Then they’d share what they learned and run trivia questions each day.

Emma takes sports, since she likes sports and is on the swimming and soccer teams. Zoe, an artist and musical enthusiast, takes art and theater. Natalia takes nature and animals. There are five topics, and only four girls. So Caitlin takes American history and literature. Although Emma suggests splitting American history up into time periods, Caitlin is confident she can take both.

After their walk on the beach, Caitlin heads back to Seaview House, where Emma lives, to wash the sand off her dress. While upstairs in Emma’s bedroom, she notices a pamphlet about a short story competition at school. Emma explains she is thinking of writing a fantasy short story about a girl named Athena who has magical powers.

Caitlin offers to help her write it. They agree it could be good to have a more fun, creative outlet when their brains get tired of facts.

Chapter Three

At their first practice day, Monday, everything goes nicely. They’re on fire, answering all the questions and not skipping a beat.

By Thursday, Caitlin can tell Natalia is getting distracted. She complains that they don’t have any free time anymore, since they spend every free moment practicing. Natalia can barely stop herself from walking to a friend’s lunch table to see what they’re laughing about. But Natalia agrees with Caitlin and Emma; if they want to win, they need to focus.

The next Wednesday, Natalia and Zoe are even less focused. Zoe is getting tired, and she’s doodling a picture of herself falling asleep. Natalia gets up to leave to go walk the dogs at Seaview House. Emma insists Caitlin should let her go. Sometimes it’s good to take a break.

Instead, Emma and Caitlin open a leftover cheesecake in the fridge and talk through some more ideas for their short story. They set it in New York City, and give Athena a human best friend to travel with. Only Athena will have magical powers, and that’ll make her special. The biggest thing they agree on: their story is not a romance story!

The county competition is Saturday, so Friday afternoon is their last chance to practice. They meet at Zoe and Natalia’s house. But the house is quite loud! Mateo and Tomás, the twins’ younger brothers, are running up and down the stairs, and both of their parents and their grandmother, who they call Abuelita, all live there as well.

It’s hard for the girls to focus with all the noise going on. They still manage to get through about half their stack of note cards. Natalia and Zoe want to be done, though. They complain their brains have shut off.

Natalia is concerned. The competition is tomorrow! They still have so much to review. Emma reminds Natalia that they don’t want to burn out the day before, so they really need to know when enough practice is enough.

Caitlin agrees. They need to be at their best tomorrow…

Chapter Four

On the drive to the competition, Caitlin nervously reviews facts in her head. Zoe and Emma seem nervous, but Natalia just looks excited.

When they arrive, the staff at the competition explain they’ll have three rounds. The first round will have eight matches. Each match contains twenty questions and is between two teams. The four winners of round one move onto round two, which will have two matches. And finally, the last round will have one match to determine the winning team.

The girls anxiously watch the first match, where they see four girls from a private Catholic school win. They seem united, focused, and serious. The second match is the one they’ll be participating in. They easily take the lead, and answer all their questions right. They’ll be moving onto the second round!

But Caitlin is too nervous to watch the next couple matches. She heads to the bathroom, where Emma joins her. They nervously talk more about their short story to distract themselves. Natalia brings them back inside right before the end of the first round.

In the second round, they see the four Catholic school girls win. Then, they take the stage. This match is more evenly matched, and the points bounce back and forth between the two teams. Natalia and Zoe confuse a couple of facts, but they still win regardless. Emma and Caitlin held the team together.

After the match, Caitlin tells Natalia and Zoe they need to focus more if they want to beat the Catholic school.

As they head onstage to do the last round, Caitlin can sense coldness coming from Natalia. Caitlin feels a bit guilty, but she ultimately shrugs it off—maybe the hard truth will be what Natalia needs to focus.

The questions come quickly, and Caitlin is pressing the button so fast just to give her team the chance to answer, even if they don’t know the answer right away. All four of them work hard to get answers right. And finally, it’s time for the last question. Her team is ahead by one point. If they miss this, they’ll begin the sudden death round, in which the first team to get a correct answer wins. They need to get this point.

The question is what is the the name of longest living individual animal ever known. Caitlin presses the buzzer. She knows this. She knows this. But her mind is blank. She turns nervously to Zoe and Emma, who shrug their shoulders. Finally, Natalia whispers, “Ming the clam!” Caitlin repeats Natalia’s answer, winning the competition.

At their celebratory ice cream, Caitlin apologizes to the other girls. She lectured on and on about focus, and in the end, Natalia saved her, and the competition. Natalia shrugs… Caitlin was right, she did need to focus more.

Chapter Five

The next few practices go smoothly. All the girls know they need to keep studying hard. But by Wednesday, both Natalia and Zoe are losing focus again. Natalia knows it’s her job as captain to keep the team together and force them to perform their best. She suggests meeting even more frequently. Zoe and Natalia stare at her. Emma breaks the tension.

But that afternoon, the tension is back, and even tenser than before. Caitlin blows up at Natalia for not paying attention, and claims that Natalia isn’t even trying or holding her own. She storms out of the room, with Zoe following her. Caitlin knows Zoe always sides with her twin.

Emma reminds Caitlin that every person studies differently and has different strengths. A good captain wants everybody to perform their best, but knows each person requires different encouragement.

They go out in search of Zoe and Natalia, and they find them sitting on a garden bench. Caitlin apologizes to both girls for pushing them too hard. Caitlin has gotten so wrapped up in winning that she forgets what the trivia team is really about: the friendships.

Chapter Six

The state semifinals will have twelve teams competing. The first round will have six matches, and the second round will have three. This competition will have three winners that will move onto the state finals.

Because there’s so many teams competing, the parking lot at the community center is packed!

Caitlin’s team goes in the first match against the team from Queen Anne’s County. Caitlin presses the buzzer fast, and she feels like the answers are pouring out of them as if the internet is installed in their brains. By the end, their team wins by a comfortable six points.

Caitlin watches the other matches nervously. Many of the teams are worthy competitors, but some of them seem unprepared. She flexes her fingers. She knows it’s better to press the buzzer even if unsure of the answer than to wait.

In the second round, their team competes against the school from Talbot County. Their teams are evenly matched, and they trade off answers back and forth. By the end, they each have the same amount of points.

The moderator announces they’ll move into the sudden death round. Caitlin’s team needs to win this question in order to win. The question is what is the U.S. state with the oldest capitol building. Caitlin knows this one: Maryland.

At their celebratory dinner, Caitlin feels so joyous. All their families are talking and getting along, and she feels like she finally prioritized her friendships over winning, and it still paid off. Caitlin is becoming an awesome captain.

Monday morning, Mr. Patel pulls Caitlin aside. He hands her the packet of information and instruction for the state finals. Caitlin opens it, and it seems normal. Instructions and rules, directions, information about prizes, and local restaurants and hotels. But then she turns to the next page. It reads Maryland State Middle School Trivia Championship Judges’ Packet.

What is this? Some pieces are repeated information, like the local restaurants and hotels information. But there’s also information about how to ask the questions. But the next page seems even stranger. Contest Questions. A list of trivia questions follows. There aren’t any answers on it, but the questions are written in black and white.

Is this a study guide? Did they give this to her so she knows what to study? Or was it an accident? There’s no way they’d have given her the real contest questions, right? But before Caitlin can decide what to do, the girls come up next to her, and Caitlin stuffs the pages between her books.

Chapter Seven

All throughout the day, Caitlin has been sneaking glances at the questions. Some of them she knows the answer to, but others she has to look up. She figures that since there’s no answers, they’re basically just a big study guide. But she knows she has to tell her teammates.

After school, the girls meet at Natalia and Zoe’s house. For once, Caitlin welcomes the noise and chaos of their house. Upstairs in the twins’ room, Caitlin hands them the packet. They read the first half, nodding. But then they get to the second half.

Zoe asks how Caitlin got this half, and she shrugs and responds it was just attached to her packet. It seems like an accident. Natalia agrees with Caitlin that it’s okay to use the questions. Their team didn’t seek them out, and they’ll still have to find the answers and memorize them.

Emma thinks using the questions is totally wrong. She argues that because they’re provided by the test officials, it’s cheating. Emma thinks they should go to Mr. Patel and explain what happened. The test officials have time to change the questions if they’ve been compromised.

Caitlin is nervous about that. What if she’s kicked out? Or worse, what if the whole team is kicked out? Caitlin knows that having the questions is a clear path to winning, even if the girls still have to do a lot of the work themselves.

And suddenly, Caitlin is angry. Emma has been on her side the whole past few weeks. In fact, Emma’s been her best teammate. Why is she fighting with them and turning against them now?

Caitlin argues that they should use the questions as a study guide. Natalia agrees. Emma turns to Zoe and asks how she feels.

Zoe nervously looks back and forth between them. Eventually, she states that she just wants to go with majority rule.

Emma looks furious. She can’t believe the others would want to win this way. At the end, she sighs. She says she won’t tell on them, but she doesn’t want to be a part of the team if they use the questions. And she walks out the door.

Chapter Eight

The next day at lunch, Caitlin sits with Natalia and Zoe. Emma sits at a table across the room with other friends. Caitlin thinks Emma looks sad; she keeps glancing back.

Caitlin stayed up late last night looking up the answers to the questions in the packet. She removed all the index cards not in the packet, and added the correct answers. But as the girls went through the new questions, it just felt wrong.

That night, Caitlin couldn’t fall asleep. She watched the clock tick by. Eventually, she turned over and texted Natalia. She was also awake.

Natalia said Emma didn’t seem mad at anybody, but just quiet and sad. Caitlin confesses that she misses Emma, and she is actually questioning whether it is okay to use the questions or not. Natalia said she was thinking the same thing. They agree together that they should stop using the questions, and as a team, they’ll have to decide what to do.

Chapter Nine

The next morning, Caitlin goes over to Seaview House early. The good thing about being a part of a B&Bs house is that there’s always lots of fun foods for breakfast. They pick out eggs, sausage, croissants, and fruit for breakfast.

When they sit down, Caitlin apologizes to Emma. She wasn’t being a good captain to put Emma in a position where she felt like she had to quit the team. Emma is grateful they decided not to use the questions. And finally, they all agree that they need to tell Mr. Patel what happened, no matter the consequences.

Chapter Ten

Later that morning, the girls knock on Mr. Patel’s door. He lets them in, and is surprised when Caitlin hands him the Judges’ packet. He thanks them for their honesty. He also takes part of the blame, for not going through the packet before giving it to them. If he had, he would’ve caught the accidental packet and removed it before Caitlin got it.

Unfortunately, he’ll have to call the event organizers and let them decide what they want to do. All four girls understand.

Later that day, Emma springs up. She forgot to tell them that she submitted their short story to the short story competition! And she just got an email from the organizers. Their story about Athena will be featured in the school’s literary magazine!

Caitlin is thrilled, and Natalia and Zoe are so happy for them. No matter what happens with the trivia competition, it feels good to know that they did something right.

The next day, all four girls are called to the office. Mr. Patel is there, smiling. He explains that the organizers realized that if the Waverly team was sent the questions, it’s possible the other teams were sent the questions as well; there’s no way to know for sure. So, the organizers decided to keep the competition and competitors, but change the questions. This means the team will be able to compete after all!

All four girls are thrilled! But Caitlin realizes… the competition is in two days, and they’ve been studying all questions that certainly won’t be asked. They need to get to work!

Chapter Eleven

The state competition will be held in Baltimore. There’s six teams competing, and there’ll be two rounds. One round of three matches, and then a final round with one match between all three teams.

Waverly Middle School will be competing in the second match of the first round. Caitlin watches the first match attentively, looking for each team’s strengths and weaknesses. By the time it was her team’s turn, Caitlin was nervous, Natalia just looked surprised, and Zoe almost dropped her sketchbook. Only Emma looked cool and collected.

They take a deep breath. And the first question is asked. The score ping-pongs back and forth, her team scoring, and then the other team. Each time she hits the buzzer first, the other team’s captain glares at her. But Caitlin won’t let herself be intimidated.

By the last question, the two teams are neck and neck. If the other team scores, they’ll win. If Caitlin’s team scores, they’ll win. Unfortunately, the other team gets to the buzzer before Caitlin does. Everybody watches with anticipation as their team struggles to find the answer. At the end, they guess incorrectly. Caitlin smiles, and says the right answer. Waverly Middle School is moving on to the second round!

Caitlin and Emma watch the last match while Zoe and Natalia distract themselves. The last two teams are both worthy adversaries. By the end of the first round, Caitlin knows that they can win. But just to be sure, they should take their break cramming in a last study session.

The final round will have all three teams competing at once. This throws Natalia off a bit. It’s hard for her to watch two team captains at the same time. By the last question, Baltimore Latin School has seven points, and both Waverly Middle School and Valley Park Middle School have six. This means that Waverly needs to get this last question and the sudden death round to win.

The question asks who was the only U.S. president to get married in the White House. Caitlin hits the buzzer. But she doesn’t know who it was. She looks at her teammates, but they don’t know either. She thinks if she remembers seeing any pictures, but she doesn’t. The moderator gives Caitlin a ten second warning.

Right before time was up, Caitlin blurts out “Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Unfortunately, this is incorrect. She sits back in her chair. The Baltimore Latin captain hits the buzzer. After briefly conferring with his team, he answers “Grover Cleveland.”

The moderator congratulates the Baltimore Latin School. They’ll be moving onto the national competition. Caitlin shakes the other captains’ hands, and they step to the side of the stage.

Caitlin apologizes for giving the wrong answer. The other three girls agree that it wasn’t Caitlin’s fault. They were asked a question they didn’t know, which is better than forgetting the answer to a question they do know. Next year, they’ll have another chance. And they’ll study even harder.

But until then, they want to take a nice long summer break. Caitlin knows that whatever they do, they’ll do together.