A Spirited Blonde, An Innocent Mistake

The day of the competition was a brisk day, I remember being heavily dressed, in winter clothing, to shield myself from the brutal Cleveland winds. 

All members of the math team where in the same period Algebra class, as myself, though I was not well aquatinted with any of them. I couldn't help but notice a spirited girl, with short blonde hair wearing corduroy pants, I mentioned this only because it was somewhat of her trademark as she wore them for the better part of the year, though different colors and pairs. 

After claiming our name tags, all teams were instructed to locate their designated table by finding their name card. It was arranged so that each of the four team members were seated, in a vertical line, at a table directly behind one another. The intentional placement of each team member became evident when the explanation on how each of the problems were designed to be solved a portion at a time. This meant that the first team member would solve a portion of the problem, then handing their solution to the team member seated directly behind them. The second team member would then solve the next portion of the problem using only the solution that the team member in front of them had provided, how the person came to such a solution was not included. It just so happens that the spirited blonde was seated directly behind myself.

Overall our team did well, however, we did not place, mainly because of my innocent mistake. The spirited blonde took the initiative to confront me after the competition regarding my solution on the final question. She asserted that she had worked and reworked the problem but could not come to a reasonable solution. Unfortunately, my head had not fully been in the competition, later realizing that I was the cause of our team not making placement within the top three.