The Queen of Quiz bowl.

WOM is an acronym that stands for - Well Oiled Machine - It was the moniker the senior laden Quiz bowl team at Madison High coined themselves going into their final year of competition. The nickname was well deserved. The quartet consisted of the four brightest minds Madison High had to offer. Bob Castle, Sam Worthington, Curt Cringle and Nathaniel Frader. The WOM, as expected, dominated the regular season of their Quiz bowl schedule. The only thing standing between them and a third straight league championship was their arch rival Dopeyville.

Quiz bowl rules are fairly simple, each match consists of ten questions. Two each in mathematics, history, literature, science and current events. The squad with the most correct answers at the end of the match wins. In the event of a tie at the end of regulation, the orator will ask an eleventh question - The dreaded hodgepodge category - Fortunately for the WOM, their dominance of the area Quiz bowl scene guaranteed they never ventured into the hodgepodge category. Well, that is, until they met Renee Higgins and her Dopeyville mates in the league championship finals.

"Hey Renee, why don't you guys go pick up your second place trophy? They already have your names engraved on it. We all know the WOM is going to win." Renee Higgins was Bob Castle's Quiz bowl crush. She was the smartest girl in the league and captain of the Dopeyville squad. He couldn't help but spout off a little before the championship match was about to begin. Renee wasn't a girl who took flak. So after Castle's quip. She decided to let him have it. "The WOM, you guys have got to the coolest boys in the league...Not! I tell you what Castle. Someone needs to teach you clowns a lesson and I am just the person to do that." You know how they say it's never a good idea to poke a sleeping bear with a stick? Well, Bob Castle and the rest of the WOM were about to learn that lesson the hard way.

Earlier in the post I made light of how the rules of Quiz bowl were structured and in the event of a tie at the end of regulation a hodgepodge question was asked. Well, the WOM had yet to be tested to that limit and Renee was about to give them a lesson they would never forget. "Timeout!" Bob Castle decided to rally the troops before the final question of the match. "Come on guys! This question is for all the marbles. We're the WOM! We never lose! Now break!" After the huddle, Castle and the rest of the WOM retook their seats. He then glanced over at Renee right before the orator asked the hodgepodge question. She was smiling at him.

Bob Castle can still remember the orator's final question like it was yesterday. "The hodgepodge question is women's literature." Right then and there - He knew the WOM's goose was cooked - "For the league championship, which team can tell me first. Who was the author of Sense and Sensibility?" Before anyone on the WOM could blink, Renee buzzed in. "Yes," the orator replied. She then leaned backed in her seat, stretched her neck a bit as to gloat and said, "I believe the correct answer to that question would be Jane Austen." The orator wasted little time in his response, "That is correct, congratulations, Dopeyville is the new league champion."

Castle and rest of the WOM felt like digging a hole in the auditorium floor when the trophies were being handed out. "Second place this year. Come on up guys." The WOM found it difficult to accept anything but the championship trophy, but the orator was having none of it. So they made their way to the stage. "Second place this year goes to the Madison High Bulldogs, congratulations." The WOM begrudgingly accepted their runner-up trophy and then began their solemn walk off stage. Much to his dismay, Castle wasn't going to get off easy from his earlier boast to Renee about how the second place trophy already had Dopeyville's name engraved on it. "Hey Castle," Renee quipped as she and the rest of the Dopeyville squad were passing him on their way to the stage to accept the championship trophy. "It looks like they are going to have to change the engraving on the WOM's trophy."