The following day at work, Laetitia meets with a customer, apparently a VA booster, asking her for some advice for painting on hardwood.

"Say I want to paint on a hardwood surface. What should I do then?" the customer asks her.

"First, I'd say, sand the surface to paint, then put an acrylic primer on it. For hardwood, I highly recommend acrylic paint as well. But how big are we talking?" Laetitia asks.

"At a minimum, the paint area, the out-of-bounds area, lines and logos..."

"Oh my God, don't tell me that you're planning on repainting the school's basketball court?"

I can't believe the booster club waited this long after the school name change, announced after NSDA Nats, that is, debate nationals, a few weeks ago, to get their act together and repaint the court! Four years ago, when then-Jennings changed its team name to Venomous Agendas, they could only change the logos and remove the mentions to Bulldogs, but kept the out-of-bounds area wine red, Roland, the customer reminisces about the court's painting history before showing her the shade of purple he wants VA to paint the court with, and the lime green shade for out-of-bounds lettering.

"That will take you lots of varnish, but before I can determine how much paint of which color is required, which color do you want the lines painted in?"

"Purple, please, as with the out-of-bounds paint..."

"Speaking of out-of-bounds paint, how wide is it?"

Roland, also a fellow JFBL player, tells her about the dimensions of VA's basketball court by showing her the diagram of NFHS court regulations on mobile. 84x50. And the booster then answers her:

"Six and a half feet wide!"

"Two more things: first, the color of the free throw area..."

"Lime green, as with the markings in the paint!"

"I guess, you want the paint to be purple as well? That's a lot of purple paint..."

Laetitia starts estimating the amount of paint required to get the project on the road. And, of course, the primer and the varnish, to be put on the court before and after the paint respectively.

"It seems like the parish won't pay for new paint for the basketball court, and yet the court's paint dates back, for the most part, from before the pandemic..." the booster starts to dread the bill for the paint and varnish as the estimated cost of all these things go up, assuming acrylic paint is used.

"Before he became superintendent, VA's previous principal cut money from the athletic department and the booster club had to foot the bill to replace the aging equipment the school wouldn't! The booster club's coffers are now empty because we paid four people to take the SAT in August!" Elsie, the spouse of the booster, and also the booster club's treasurer, laments about the booster club's finances.

And yet, Laetitia fails to account for the cost of sanding the portions of the court requiring the fresh coat of paint. Or the other painting instruments, such as rollers, masking tape and all that, required to paint the court.

"I'm afraid that repainting the court is going to set the town back a lot of money..." Laetitia's face is a little down, upon seeing the sheer amount of paint and varnish required. "VA's home court demands the use of polyurethane paint!"

"Why?" Elsie gasps. "You just said that acrylic paint was the way to go on hardwood!"

"Polyurethane lasts longer than acrylic paint, and you know as well as I do that VA's home court sees heavy foot traffic!"

7 gallons of primer, double that amount of purple paint, and 2 more gallons of lime green paint. And, of course, 3 coats of water-based polyurethane varnish. That's the expensive part in the estimate, which she emails to Roland by virtue of having his email through the JFBL.

"Damn it! This entire deal of giving the court a fresh coat of paint is going to cost us, and I feel like the most expensive parts aren't so much the lines, but painting, well, the paint and the out-of-bounds area!" Elsie starts to wonder if doing the same things VA's basketball rivals did is a good idea.

"Perhaps that was too ambitious on your part. You said it so yourself the booster club was out of cash!" Laetitia starts to feel like the opportunity to make a sale might slip away.

"If it was only about the lines, without replacing the center court logo, the paint or the out-of-bounds area, five hundred dollars would do the trick. But changing the school name forces us to re-paint the out-of-bounds area..."

"Is financing an option for you?"

That sucks. I think Al is one of those people for whom the booster club paid their SATs, Laetitia starts to ruminate as she tries to hand the couple off to customer service, where they can explain the financing options, feeling unable to do so.

When lunchtime arrives to them, Laetitia confronts Albert about the SAT, even when he resumes studying more sociopolitical topics in AP US Gov through practice passages.

"Guess who did I serve?" Laetitia asks him.

"My sister?" Al hazards a wild guess.

"The booster club treasurer and her husband. They said the booster club has no money left after having paid for four SATs... what's the meaning of this, Al?" the paint clerk starts to feel steam coming out of her ears.

"What does the booster club want money for this time?" Albert feels she talks about the booster club having no money left for a reason.

"Replacing the paint on Jennings' basketball court! They were asking for two coats of paint, and three coats of varnish, polyurethane ones!"

"VA!" Al corrects her. "Venomous Agendas is just a little long!"

"It will be a little hard to get used to..."

"That's very expensive paint, but I can't blame them because VA's court sees a lot of action, and the parish doesn't seem willing to spend for that..."

"Back to the SAT: I think you're one of those people for whom the booster club paid for it, but who else did they pay the SAT for?" Laetitia leers Al. "Have any idea?"

"Anna, Daisy and Rebecca; I study for it with them!"

"I might have understood you, or other athletes, but why did the booster club spend their money on these three? Star players on academic teams, of all people!"

"I get it, none of these three come from money, and neither do I. While Anna rose to quiz bowl stardom at the HSNCT, Daisy isn't a star debater by any stretch!"

"Still good enough to make it to the state championship, though. I'm not sure why they support nerds like even... Daisy! Daisy doesn't seem to be the kind of girl that needs a free SAT!"

"You said the booster club planned on repainting the basketball court. How much is this going to cost them, if they follow through with this plan?"

"Easily between six to ten grand, maybe a few more grand if they want to get it done professionally"

"It seems like the parish's sports facility maintenance budget is centered on its football stadiums, and replacing paint or signage on anything else is secondary at best!"

"We might be the laughingstock of Division II Non-Select football and basketball, because there just isn't much money for sports, yet, somehow, we're nationally competitive in all three of debate, mathletics and quiz bowl! So maybe the state will step in and fund what the parish couldn't provide..."

"Don't count on that: the state government takes a while to give out the money!"

"Who has its priorities straight, us or our out-of-parish opponents?"

To this question, Laetitia and their other co-workers on break draw a blank, unwilling to open a can of worms.

Oh, the basketball court's paint job: I really hope it's not a case of currying favor with the coach: I heard so many stories of this kind for years from across the state, especially those who play for underfunded teams, Laetitia then reads up on an announcement from Roland on the JFBL's Discord server. Which is then teased on his other social media accounts. Roland is teasing a shoe drive so that he could raise money for VA's basketball teams.

And Roland is also asking for donations of sandpaper, paint or varnish. About which Al texts his parents about, while forwarding them the shoe drive announcement.

Albert: Because Heather will play basketball for VA next year, and maybe to forgive myself to her, I want to donate the court's green paint

Cody: No thanks, we can't afford it; where to donate the shoes?

Albert: My workplace

At which point the pair assembles a deposit box to put used shoes in for the benefit of VA's basketball teams.

Shortly after the hardware store's closing time, Laetitia comes to the nearest basketball court, where he sees Heather and Carrie practicing. Once their free throw warmup ends, she approaches the pair of middle schoolers:

"Even though you're still in middle school, what I'm about to tell you might help you play better on defense. However, your roles won't be the same due to your positions!" Laetitia turns to Carrie. "Guards, and to a lesser extent, small forwards, tend to be called upon to defend the zone and the perimeter, and as such lateral movement is key to contest a player's ability to shoot, or to receive a pass!"

Heather asks Laetitia about what's in it for bigs. "Other than boxing out offenders to contest rebounds, and attempting to block a shot or pass, how else can I contribute on defense? Like how I could clear an attacker off the paint?"

"It's funny that you mention the paint: I had a customer who let on that Jennings..." Laetitia laughs upon mentioning the need to clear the paint off.

"VA!" Heather talks back.

"VA's home court paint needs to be redone because the school's name has changed. But sometimes forcing the opponent to commit a violation is key; causing an opponent to lose possession can save you!"

By this point, the drills resume, with Carrie being made to guard someone much bigger than she is. And, try as she may to prevent Heather from getting past the three-point line, let alone to the paint, it seems like Carrie relies a little too much on finesse, and then Heather could make a run to the paint.

In reverse, however, Heather blocks Carrie's shot but couldn't quite maneuver in a way that gets Carrie off the paint.

"But why do you coach us here?" Carrie asks Laetitia at the end of the drill, a little confused.

"Let's say that I was once in your shoes. Even though I was one of the best players on a team that won what was then four-A-State, I graduated without any college offers! Because of that, I never left town again..."

"Why did you stay home?" Heather asks.

"If I couldn't play in college, I sure as hell wouldn't play professionally. And I was at risk of getting in no-pass, no-play trouble, too, so trade school was a dicey proposition, and I could basically forget about college; my family couldn't afford it!"

"I guess, you run a fantasy basketball league to stay involved in basketball after you stopped playing..."

But while I read that people in her position sometimes get divorced if they either marry too hastily or marry as a way out of poverty, it would be inappropriate to ask if she went through a divorce, Heather ruminates as the drills resume.

"But why couldn't you coach basketball then?" Carrie asks Laetitia. "I knew that some people who played well but couldn't compete anymore turned to coaching to stay involved in their sport!"

"You can't really do it full-time in this region. Doing it for a living would have meant teaching, and usually middle or high school. And I had no real strong subject, so that was out of question! I couldn't go to college, remember?"

"And yet, some of our opponents hired teachers specifically to coach sports teams!" Heather retorts.

Oh God, these kinds of teachers. From what I heard about our basketball opponents, often they try their best to teach but they don't always know the material very well, Carrie ruminates while she's reminded of past discussions on this topic with other players and their parents.

"Football is obviously the sport where this happens most often. Basketball a little bit, but you see, a lot of principals tend to think that women can only coach girls' teams..." Laetitia sighs.

"You said you played on a team that won four-A-State. What position did you play?" Heather asks her coach-of-the-day.

"Small forward. I used to mostly go to the paint to score!"

"Why are you telling us all this?" Carrie asks the ex-SF.

"I take joy in seeing future basketball players grow, and the growth extends beyond the court..." Laetitia's eyes brighten then. "Just go to the hardware store I work at if you have any pairs of shoes you want to donate because you don't wear them anymore!"