“Wow!” Vi exclaimed.

“Do you know how hard I had to work to get this grade?” Marianne nearly shouted. “I am amazing!” Marianne spun in place, holding the paper in the air.

“Oh my gosh, maybe next time you’ll even get an A!” Kylie cheered, joining Marianne and Vi at the desk.

“Hey, let’s not get carried away here,” Marianne said. “This isn’t a movie.”

“Lol,” Kylie said. “True.”

Yeah, maybe one day Marianne would get an A. Or maybe not. Maybe she would never would get an A in math. Who could say? But right then? She was a B (minus) student, and that was just fine. More than fine. As Lillian might say, it was her fastest swim yet. And she felt like she’d won an Olympic gold.

“Wait, did he give you the extra credit?” Vi asked breathlessly.

“He did, he did!”

Vi exhaled and cheered.

Marianne went on: “And I’m going to summer school—which … blech, but okay, fine—and then I’m going to high school, and then I’m going to Hawaii and the moon!” Marianne performed another goofy little spin as Mr. Garcia tried in vain to calm the classroom.

But they were bubbling over with last-day excitement.

Lucas cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered out “Nice going, Blume!”

“Go, Blume!” Niko echoed him.

“B for Blume!” Jalilah whooped.

“Barely scraping by with a B minus isn’t exactly something to brag about…” she heard Ava Hayes murmur under her breath from a couple of feet away.

“Ava, seriously?” Vi barked in her direction. “Like if she doesn’t get a 4.0 she’s not good enough for you? Gross.”

Marianne laughed. “Give it up, Vi. Who cares what she thinks?”

“True,” Vi agreed.

All the kids in the classroom chattered at full volume, and Mr. Garcia gave up all control. He sat at his desk and worked on something on his laptop, waiting for the bell that was soon to ring.

Marianne stayed next to Vi, showing her which answers she got right and which ones she didn’t, and as the kids played musical chairs and switched around depending on who they were talking to, Marianne took an empty spot next to her.

“Wait, before class ends,” Vi said, turning over Marianne’s final so she’d stop talking about it for a second, “want to be on the Quiz team next year? There will probably be a lot more kids, so you might end up on B team at first, maybe C, but not for long, and we could really work well together, I think. I don’t know if there’s a role for someone to work just in a coach or captain capacity or—”

“Whoa there,” Marianne said, taking a breath, turning her face to the bright, almost-summer sun pouring in through the classroom windows. “One thing at a time.”

The halls had emptied out except for a few stragglers, Marianne among them.

The teachers looked as happy as the kids, some already taking down a few items off their walls or desks.