Peter walked into his English room, shocked when he saw the tables pushed against the walls. The young teacher finished pushing the last one to the side, adjusting her poncho as she straightened. "Woo! Welcome to English! Just drop your bags at the front and I'll explain this once everyone is here. I'm Miss Francis by the way."

Peter did what he was told, dropping his bag next to Beth's. "Is she new?"

The girl nodded, raising an eyebrow as Miss Francis stretched a piece of tape down the middle of the classroom. Students filed in, placing their bags at the front as they waited for the lesson to begin. The teacher clapped her hands, the keys on her lanyard clinking together as she moved.

"Welcome to my English class! I'm Miss Francis, and yes, I am new here. Is there anyone else who's new here? You? High-five, we figure this place out together. Okay! So many of you are probably saying "Miss Francis, what have you done to the room?" I'm going to explain. Everyone, against the walls." They lined up against the walls, the bright line between them. "What I'm going to do is a bit of a get-to-know-you sort of thing, so I'll say something like "who plays an instrument?" And then if you do, you stand on the line. Make sense?"

Everyone nodded.

"Sweet. First up, who here has siblings?"

The majority of kids walked onto the line, giggling as they bumped into each other.

"How many? One? Three? You have two? Five!? Wow, that's a lot. Okay! Who plays a sport!"

It went on like this for some time. Peter, Beth and one other kid liked algebra, Peter was the only one who had family in the military, a handful of kids spoke another language, Beth was the only one to have lived in another country and nearly everyone liked ice cream. Miss Francis smiled. "Last question: who here has struggled with something in their life?"

The room changed. Some kids walked straight over onto the line. Others sat back, shrugging as friends raised eyebrows. The rest walked slowly onto the line, a bit shy.

"I want all of you to know that this room is a safe space. No bullying, not harassing, no saying anyone is wrong or worthless. We're all equal, and we all struggle with things from time to time, so if you need anything, just let me know." The teacher began to pull the tape off the floor. "Okay, let's get the room back into order and start learning! And what were you saying about building things at home?"

<《¤》>

Peter followed Beth down the halls, growing slightly anxious. It was the end of the day, and it was time for decathlon.

Or more accurately, to see if Peter could join the decathlon team.

The girl opened the doors, waving a hello to the team. "Everybody, especially you, Nick, meet Peter. He wants to join." Peter gave a shy wave.

Nick walked over, shaking Peter's hand. "It's great to meet you. You done this stuff before?"

"Yeah, I was on the team in my old school."

A kid with dark hair and blue eyes behind glasses raised an eyebrow. "Which school?"

"Um, Midtown Tech?"

"HE'S HIRED!"

"NICK PUT HIM IN!"

"Hi welcome to our team HOW DID YOU WIN-"

"GUYS CALM DOWN!" Nick yelled, silencing them all. Beth giggled and Peter joined her. For a fancy school with an excellent reputation, they were crazy. Nick turned to Peter. "Sure. Luciana dropped out over the break, so we've got a spot."

"Sweet." Peter sat down, leaning on the desk.

"This is Alex, Lucy, Mike, Sam and you know Beth." Nick clapped his hands, pacing in front of them. "Okay, so we have competitions starting up soon. With a new member on our team from the best team in the country, we will smash them this year. Peter, what strategies did Midtown use?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, thinking. "We didn't really have a strategy, we would just run through questions, research stuff, occasionally ask each other random questions during class, etc. We're very random."

Nick nodded. "Okay. Well, let's start the practice. Who can tell me the atomic weight for nitrogen?"

Peter rang the bell. "14.0067 u."

Lucy raised her eyebrows. "How did you get that so fast?"

Peter shrugged. "Science is kind of my thing. It's fun."

"How smart are you again?"

His ear reddened and he curled smaller into his chair, mumbling something. "Um, can we get on with the practice?"

"Do you know your IQ?" Alex asked. "We won't judge."

Beth shared a look with Peter, reassuring him that what Alex said was true.

"Um... We're not 100% sure, but something like... 250+..."

The room went so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Peter slid down his seat, leaving only his hazel eyes peeking over the desk. "Can somebody say something please? This is really awkward."

"We have a literal genius on our team, what the heck." Sam sat back, studying Peter. "No wonder Midtown won."

Nick, noticing Peter's discomfort, grabbed the team's attention. "Yeah, and we have to practice if we want to win. Next question!"

<《¤》>

Tony honked the horn as he saw the familiar faces walk out the door of Midtown Tech. Peter perked up from the passenger seat, bouncing in his seat.

"Pete, breathe, you're making the whole car wobble."

"Sorryyyyyy." Peter tried to stop but didn't stop wriggling around until his friends opened the car doors.

"PETERRRRR!" Ned hugged his friend from behind, sitting behind him. "How are you?"

"I'm great! Also do you like my uniform?" Peter held out an arm, twisting round in his seat to get a good view.

"Looks fancy." MJ slipped in behind Tony, a book in her hand. "Good to see you, loser."

Tony took his glasses off. "Wow, for once I'm not getting all the attention. Okay, let's go!" He slammed on the accelerator, making Ned squeal. MJ shrugged and Peter grabbed the door, still not used to Tony's crazy driving.

"How's good old Midtown?" Peter asked, winding down the window.

"Meh, boring. Mr Dell accidentally took an Ambien before class, so we had a period of doing absolutely nothing."

Peter snorted. Classic Mr Dell.

"How's Corwest Private, Fancy?" MJ asked, smirking.

Peter rolled his eyes. "Bold of you to assume I'm fancy. I have a scholarship and I still wear jeans from Wal-Mart. And it's really good! The principal is nice, the kids are nice, the whole building is nice, yeah. I have an epic English teacher. She is hilarious."

"Nice. Sounds like a nice place." Ned looked out the windshield. "Where are we going?"

"McDonald's. I want a cheeseburger and the kid's always hungry." Tony pulled into the drive-thru, hiding his smile as the teens cheered.

"And Peter," MJ said, pulling on a curl to get his attention, "you're helping me with my math."

"Algebra or coordinate geometry?" Peter asked, sinking back into his seat. Man, it felt good to be with his friends again.