It’s already towards the end of July, 2018. Students and teachers of secondary schools within Heart city anticipate the beginning of the Mathematics Olympiad TV Quiz show which will begin on the 4th of August, 2018.In Nightingale Academy, the students had just finished their third term examination for the 2017/2018 session. The JSS 3 students however, didn’t take part in the examination as they have written the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), a few weeks before. Since they wrote the BECE, Ayo along with Funmi and Oreoluwa had ample time to study well for the competition. They believe they were more prepared than ever.Meanwhile, the duo of Perfect and Emmanuel also looked forward to the competition. They had just finished their examination a day before and had begun preparing for the Mathematics Olympiad. Although they have been preparing before now, they believed it wasn’t enough. Their mathematics teacher was also readily available

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the quiz master began to say, after the applause had subsided. “There we have our six contestants in the junior category. They are about to go through two rounds.” He paused to observe both the contestants and the audience. The joy on their faces gave him the reassurance he needed. This competition still holds value and he was glad to be its anchor.“The first round is 12 objective questions where they each have 5 seconds to input their answer on the digital screen in front of them. At the end of round 1, the top 3 contestants with the highest score move on to round 2” – he chuckled – “which is the Olympiad 60 seconds of fame.“In round 2, each contestant will be given 60 seconds to provide answers to questions as much as possible. At the end of round 1 and 2, the two contestants with the highest combined score in both rounds, move to the semifinals.”The quiz master sighed

“I now know why she’s smiling and using her fingers to stroke her cheeks,” Adura said out of the blues. Ever since she saw Ayo smile, she had been wondering what would make her do so. And just now, it became dawn on her.“Why?” Perfect asked. She had been as inquisitive as Adura was. She didn’t just give it much thought.“She’s actually crying and using her fingers to wipe the tears.”“You don’t mean it!”“She’s right!” Al-ameen supported the claim, not looking at the person he was talking to. Perfect shook her head. “I don’t blame her.” “Oh! No!” Emmanuel brought his palm to his face fully. “0.96 seconds?”“That was really fast,” Funmi said, giving her opinion, without being asked for one.“Yes,” Oreoluwa agreed with Adura. “I can now see her tears. She&rs

Back at home, on Monday evening following the first preliminary stage of the Mathematics Olympiad, Bukky was watching the video clip on television, because she wasn’t present to watch it live as events unfold. Ayo on the other hand was getting herself prepared for the semifinals, which obviously wouldn’t come until all preliminaries had been done.“Hey, Ayo!” Bukky, well relaxed on the comfortable two-seater couch, called out. “Did you notice how that girl kept looking at you?” She asked without turning to look at Ayo, instead she was focused on the television and pointing at it with the remote control on her hand.“Which girl?” Ayo asked curiously. She was seated in the study section, adjacent to where Bukky sat. It had just a chair and a table, which contained various study materials stacked neatly upon one another. She looked up from the tablet she was holding while she disconnected the wireless headset from her earhole.“The one in blue striped uniform.”

How time flies? It’s already the 6th preliminary stage in the Mathematics Olympiad. Aside from Ayo, who had qualified for the semifinals, Perfect had also qualified in the senior category during the 2nd preliminary and Funmi; in the junior category during the 5th preliminary. Perfect did excellently well, leaving the runner-up 15 points behind, which has been unheard of since the inception of the Mathematics Olympiad. She had answered a total of 16 questions in the 60 seconds of fame. While Funmi was only able to squeeze in after going through a tiebreak in the 2nd round.“It’s the 6th prelim!” the quiz master announced for all to hear. “It is good to see your beautiful faces once more after an exciting 5th prelim where we witnessed Damilola Oladapo, a student from Beacon High School, break a record previously set in this year’s Mathematics Olympiad in the junior category by another student from Nightingale Academy.” He paused to take a breath.“Isn’t that exciting?” he