The sun was particularly bright on this late summer morning, casting a line of rays across Lexi’s freckly arms. The flowers that sat on her teacher’s desk were tilted towards the window, trying to create a final blooming before the fall frost. A bubble of giggles rose in her chest as she pulled out her Corgi notebook and flipped to the first page. She had to stop herself from shoving her face against the page to smell the fresh, unused paper, instead choosing to write Advanced Math, Quarter One, across the top right corner. She was scribbling the date underneath when the sun and its warmth was stolen by a large shadow.

Her hand froze as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She stared at the oddly shaped darkness on her arm, not daring to look up and confirm her suspicion as to who it belonged. Because there was only one eighth grader large enough.

        But he’d been suspended. It couldn’t be him; she was sure of it. Right? Anyway, this was advanced math and he’d had to repeat second grade. Maybe she was wrong? Maybe a giant mountain lion had decided to sit beside her and block the light instead. That would be less terrifying, honestly.

She slowly tilted her head, just enough to see a pair of worn, adult-sized tennis shoes tapping against the floor. Crap. Mountain lions don’t wear shoes.

Her eyes trailed up the desk to the figure’s old, gray t-shirt which clung tightly to his broad shoulders, then finally she glanced up at his face. Yep, there was no denying it any longer. Jacob was back in school. Worse, he was sitting right beside her.

Her chest tightened as she gripped her pencil and attempted to remain calm. This was not a problem. Sure, he was back, but that didn’t mean he was in the right class. That didn’t mean his presence would be permanent. There was no way a kid like Jacob would be in advanced anything.

          Lexi waited as her teacher flipped through her folder, before finally looking up and noticing the new arrival. Mrs. Karaeti placed the folder on her desk and headed straight for Jacob. Phew. She would tell him he’d made a mistake and send him on his way.

Only, she didn’t send him anywhere. Instead, she held out her palm. Jacob stared for a moment, before reaching up and smacking it with his. Mrs. Karaeti furrowed her brow as she stared at her hand then held it out again.

“The assignments, Jacob,” she said with a half smirk. Jacob looked down and blushed.

He placed his filled-to-the-brim backpack on his lap and dug through it, pulling out seven wrinkled pieces of paper and handing them over. Lexi could see his assignments as they exchanged hands. They were all the papers they’d worked on the week he was suspended. His handwriting was almost illegible, but Lexi was used to reading her father’s atrocious scribbles, so she could make out what he'd put. To her surprise, the answers were all correct.

There was no way. He must’ve looked them up online or cheated off someone else. She knew Jacob. He could be a good linebacker if his mother ever let him play football. He might be able to get by in history class. Other than that, he was below average. Average on his best day.

And to top it off, he was her old bully. He used to trip her so often, she stopped getting up to sharpen her pencil or use the restroom. He called her every nickname in the book. Lexi- Lecture, can’t sit still Lexi, One-friend-Lexi. He could see her insecurities better than she and used them against her any chance he got.

She stared at the tip of Jacob’s head, as though if she concentrated hard enough, she could cause him to have a headache and need to go to the nurse. She must’ve stared a bit too long because Jacob looked up and around as if he could feel her eyes on him. Then, the strangest thing happened.

He smiled and waved.

Lexi’s eyes widened as she looked away, her cheeks turning scarlet.

She almost took advantage of her 504 Plan she had because of her ADHD and left class to study in the library. Then her father’s stupid voice filled her ears, "Don’t let your enemies run your life.” He’d always remind her of this whenever she’d asked to drop out of school for one reason or another. Leaving one of her favorite classes because Jacob was in it was definitely letting him run her life.

          The rest of class proceeded as normal. She kept waiting for Jacob to make a mistake, to ask too many questions, to say something rude, but he didn’t. He sat in his chair, with his back straight, and took notes that resembled a doctor’s prescription.

The only odd thing to happen was when Mrs. Karaeti asked what the answer to a problem was. Before Lexi could raise her hand, the teacher called on Jacob, though not a typical way teachers might. Jacob had a history of not paying attention. Whenever he was looking off into the distance, the teachers would call on him and ask him a question. Usually, Jacob would stay silent or say something rude that sent him to detention. This time, however, was different because Jacob had raised his hand and gotten the answer right.

“That’s correct, Jacob. Thank you,” Mrs. Karaeti said and wrote the answer on the board.

          That’s correct, Jacob, was a sentence Lexi had never heard before.

When class ended, she rushed out of the room, ready to tell her best friend, Isaac, about the alien that must’ve taken over Jacob’s brain.

“Maybe he developed good study habits?” Isaac suggested as they headed to history. “Yeah, he just woke up one day and decided to change his entire personality.”

Isaac shrugged. “Maybe.”

Lexi figured her alien theory was much more believable.

After history, they headed to lunch. Lexi sat at the end of one of the long tables and unloaded her bag while waiting for Isaac. He always went through the lunch line and grabbed a Rice Krispies Treat for dessert.

Just as she was about to take a bite of her sandwich, her usually empty end of the table became a little fuller. More like a lot fuller, since the tallest, biggest-boned eighth grader took the seat a few spaces down.

Jacob. Again.

          She looked around to see if there was anyone he was sitting with, but he was alone. He looked over at her and smiled. “Hey, Lexi.”

What did that even mean? Hey Lexi? Such a simple sentence, but from him it sounded

like Morse code. He pulled a plastic bag from his lunch box and held it out to her. “Want one of my cookies?”

Lexi had to be dreaming. That was it. She was dreaming of some strange world where Jacob was nice and good at math and smiled. She pinched herself, then yelped. Okay, she was awake.

          “Uh, no thanks. Peanut allergy.” She did not have a peanut allergy. That was her go-to when turning down food from strangers, or people who used to bully her. It was easier than

saying she didn’t want any.

“Oh, okay.” He glanced at her peanut butter and honey sandwich questionably, but then shrugged and turned back to his lunch.

Isaac came over to their spot and pulled out his math homework. “Alright, work your magic.” He handed her a pen and she went to work, thankful for some normalcy. Doing Isaac’s

homework always calmed her down. Usually, she would explain all the work as she did it, so she wasn’t an enabler, but she was too nervous to speak with Jacob by her side.

Isaac didn’t have that problem.

“Hey, Jacob,” Isaac said with a wave. Jacob waved back and grinned, his teeth filled with cookie crumbs.

Isaac took a bite of his treat and asked, “Where do you want to meet after I’m finished teaching?”

Lexi took a big gulp of her water. “Maybe your place?”

Isaac shook his head. “No, it's Friday, the whole place will be packed. What about your house?”

“Can't. Mom and dad are teaching a class tonight.”

Lexi's parents had a class every Friday that taught adults how to read. They lived in a very poor town where a lot of the older adults had dropped out of school early to work and support their families. When Lexi's parents opened their bookstore, a lot of those people came in looking for books but struggled to read them. So, they came up with an idea to meet for tortilla de papas, coffee, and a quick lesson once a week.

“Well then,” Isaac whispered, “I guess we can meet…”

“By the trees,” they said in unison and fist-bumped. The trees were their secret hiding spot where they spent most of the summer. It was Lexi's favorite place in the whole world.

The rest of the day went as normal. Jacob wasn’t in Advanced Science or English and she was eternally grateful when he didn’t show up during her other favorite class, coding.

She clicked on her computer and pulled up her project, but as soon as her fingers rested on the keys, she froze. The typical energy that flowed through her was gone. She must’ve depleted it by keeping her guard up all day. Great.

“Dude, if you have to go to the bathroom, just raise your hand,” Isaac whispered from the seat beside her.

“What? I don’t have to go to the bathroom.”

He raised his brows so high, they disappeared into the dark brown curls that covered his forehead.

“Then what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

He clicked his tongue. “Sure. Then why do you have that face?”

“What face?”

“That face that says something’s wrong, or you waited too long and now you have to urgently use the bathroom. Since it’s not the second one, something’s wrong.”

          Of course, something was wrong, but she didn’t want to talk about it at school. She was terrified someone would overhear; no one at that school needed to know more of what made her upset.

“Really, I’m fine. You’re just trying to get out of working on the assignment anyway.”

He stuck his tongue out but leaned back to look at his blank screen. They’d been in class for over a week and Isaac was still attempting to perfect his first line of code.

“Well, it’s not like it’s easy.” He typed “var" onto his screen then looked back down at his textbook and groaned. “We should’ve taken cooking. I know cooking. I like cooking. Cooking makes sense. And when you cook something, you get food. When you write code you get more words.”

“Yeah, but eventually you can create anything. Come on, it’s easy. Just like math.”

“Lexi, I’ve explained this a million times. Most people don’t think math is easy.” He shook his head and looked back at her. “Now, tell me what’s bothering you. Do I need to kick someone’s butt?”

Lexi snorted. Isaac was the opposite of Jacob. He was short and had toned, but tiny arms.

He could beat someone in a limbo competition, but not a fight. Besides, he was the most chill person she knew. He’d probably end up befriending his opponent before the first punch was thrown.

He tapped his fingers against their shared table and waited for her to answer. She knew he wouldn’t stop until she came clean. Unless she could find a way to distract him.

She pointed to his screen and said, “You forgot to add a function.”

He clenched his jaw and hit his fists against the desk. “Dang it.” He pressed his pointer finger against the backspace and stared at his little progress being destroyed.

Problem solved.

After class Isaac darted out the door, thankful to be done for the weekend. Lexi headed to her locker and pulled a few books out, shoving them into her bag for a late-night study session. She tried to shove her math textbook far enough to close the zipper, but there was something blocking it from going all the way down. She reached her hand into her bag and pulled out a fluffy, white orange. She gagged before turning to toss it in the bin beside her.

Lexi reached for another book from in locker, but it was too heavy for one arm. She stumbled, causing her backpack to fall—and everything spilled across the floor.

She barely had time to kneel before Jacob was by her side, helping her pick up her books.

She froze as he held the stack out. “Here.”

Her arms reached out while she stared at him with wide eyes. “Uh, thanks.” He smiled again. That was four times in one day. Something was definitely wrong with him. She put everything back in her bag and stood. “Are you stalking me?” She just had to ask. By now, curiosity won over fear. He’d been in her math class, sat by her at lunch, and now just happened to be near her when she dropped her bag? What was going on?

His smile fell and he shook his head furiously. “No, no, no, no, no! Never. I just, I had overheard you and Isaac talking about hanging out after school and was wondering if I could join you guys?”

Lexi opened her mouth to say no, but no words came out. Her throat clenched as she pushed the anger down. Breathe Lexi, breathe.

Did she want to hang out with Jacob? No. Absolutely not. She had the right to say no, even if he wasn’t her old bully. But, thanks to her stupid conscience, she had a flashback to

second grade, where she was the one in Jacob’s shoes.

She’d gone up to this group of girls who were playing a game based on a book series about super-powered animals. She’d watched them play for weeks and finally had built up the courage to ask them if she could join.

          She wandered over, her light-up shoes glowing with every step. Standing by the leader as she assigned different characters to the girls, Lexi was quickly the only one left. The girl asked her, “What are you doing?”

          “Um, I was wondering if I could join?” Lexi had asked, repeating the sentence she’d practiced in her head a hundred times. The leader stared at her before bursting out laughing.

“Do you even read Plato’s Farm?” she’d asked with crossed arms. Lexi was already on the edge of tears, but she held them back.

“Uh, no. If I read them tonight, can I play tomorrow?” Lexi asked. Another one of the girls laughed.

“There are seven books in the series,” she said with a sneer. Lexi shrugged.

“Okay, and?” she asked innocently. It wouldn’t be the first time she pulled an all-nighter and she’d seen the size of the Plato’s Farm books. They were a fifth the size of books she usually read.

The leader huffed and said, “Sure. You read every book tonight, and you can play with us tomorrow.”

Fire flowed through Lexi’s brain. She ran home and read every book through twice, so she wouldn’t forget anything if they decided to quiz her. Her super focus came in strong. She might’ve only gotten three hours of sleep, but by recess the next day, she was ready.

She marched over to the girls and said, “I did it. Ask me anything.” “What’s Lato’s favorite color?” the leader asked.

“Easy, green.”

“What did Paris’s mom tell her when they reconnected?” another girl asked.

“That she had the power inside her all along, which is kind of an overused plot, but it was nice to see her reconnect with her mom after five years,” Lexi explained.

The group stared at her with dropped jaws. “What?” Lexi asked. “You actually read the whole series in one night?” the leader asked. “Yeah. I said I would. Now can I join you guys?”

The girls looked at each other, as though silently debating with their eyes. The leader turned back to Lexi and said, “Sure, you can be Terro.”

“But Terro doesn’t speak or move. He just gives prophecies when asked.” That didn’t sound like a lot of fun. Lexi hated poetry.

“Exactly. It’s a very important part. You tell us what to do. You lead the game.”

Hmm, Lexi had never thought of it like that.

She took her job as Terro very seriously. She sat with her legs crossed and her neck tall and waited to be asked a prophecy. She waited and waited and waited, but no one came over. When recess came to a close, Lexi asked the leader why no one had spoken to her, and the leader said, “We’re finishing our game from last week. Maybe tomorrow will be your time.”

It took Lexi two weeks to realize they were never actually going to involve her in their

game.

She’d spent years waiting for someone to let her join their games, but they never did.

Eventually, she decided one friend was enough and stopped asking. As she looked at Jacob, all she saw was that little girl who wanted to play a game so bad, she read seven subpar books twice in one night.

She knew it wasn’t the same; that girl had teased her for no reason while Jacob had really bullied Lexi; she had the perfect reason to deny him. But something about the hopeful way he looked at her as he waited for her answer made her say, “Sure.”

She had no idea that one word would turn this okay day into the worst day of her life.