I scanned the room. Some kids were strangers that had come from other schools. Others were not. Bailey Martin and Amber Lin, two girls who had been on my Triple T Team for the sixth-grade career expo, sat together on the opposite side of the room. And, unfortunately, the Tolley brothers sat in the middle of the room like they did in sixth grade, smirking and grunting. Doug, Scratchy, and I had taken the back row, not only to save our ears, but also to sit with our new friend Carlos who had found one wheelchair accessible desk in the corner.

Right as the tardy bell rang, the door to the classroom creaked open. A huge kid, dressed in faded jeans and an oversized, rumpled brown T-shirt, walked in.

Some of the kids started to whisper to each other. The big kid scanned the room for an empty seat. The only one was in the front row, closest to the door.

“That’s him.” Doug leaned over to whisper to me. “That’s Wiley.”

Mr. Dooley finished writing on the board.

MR. DOOLEY–HOMEROOM–MATH AND SCIENCE.

“AS I SAID BEFORE, WELCOME TO SEVENTH GRADE HOMEROOM.” Mr. Dooley hopped up to sit on his desk. “This year, I’ll only be testing you in the areas of math and science. If you’re wondering why I followed you to this school, I’ll just say this . . .”

We all leaned forward. I expected him to say that he couldn’t live without us, or something flattering like that.

“. . . there was an opening, and I took it.”

“There was an opening and you took it?”

“Yes, Mr. Baker. You heard me correctly.”

Doug turned to me. “There was an opening and he took it.”

Mr. Dooley continued. “Now, I know that some of you struggle with math. Here’s why I think that is. Most of you don’t like to have just one answer to a question. But to me, math is comforting, because there is just one answer! Two plus two is four. Four plus four is eight.” He grinned. “See? Isn’t that relaxing?” He laced his fingers together and placed them behind his head. “Doesn’t that make you want to sink into a plush beanbag chair and take a nap?”

No one responded. Mr. Dooley began to walk around the room. “Now, science, that’s a totally different story. Science is all about discovery! As we discover new things about our world, science changes. For example, is Pluto a planet or not? It was. Then it wasn’t. Fascinating, yet not so comfortable.”

“I never liked that Pluto got demoted,” I whispered to Scratchy.

“I thought Pluto was a dog,” one of the Tolleys blurted out. There was a little bit of nervous laughter from a few other students.

I raised my hand.

“Yes, Mr. Livingston?”

“Ummm . . . but Pluto never changed. We just changed the way we looked at it, right?”

Mr. Dooley rubbed his chin. “Correct.”