Marianne followed Nina out to the water fountain.

Over and over, under her breath, Nina repeated: “Carthage. Carthage, Carthage, Carthage. Lost the Punic Wars. Hamilcar lost at Zama. And who was Hannibal? I always forget Hannibal.” As she said each new word, she tapped a different finger with her thumb like she was doing Morse code on her fingertips.

“You alright?” Marianne asked.

“Me?” Nina asked, raising her thick eyebrows as if woken out of a trance. “I’m fine.”

Marianne wondered if—like Vi—Nina only liked fellow smarties.

“I just don’t know why some of this isn’t sticking,” Nina sighed, wiping a little bit of water from the side of her mouth.

Marianne took a sip. When she lifted her head back up, Nina was still there. She was so small, and in her bright yellow sweater dress she reminded Marianne of a parakeet.

“You look like a beautiful bird today,” Marianne told her.

“Ha! Funny. Lucky I was done drinking, or I would’ve spit it out.” Nina blushed.

She caught a flash of braces in Nina’s smile.

“And I don’t know about ‘beautiful,’” Nina added, covering her smile again with her fingers.

“You so are!” Marianne assured her.

The yellow against Nina’s dark brown complexion was gorgeous. When Marianne wore light yellow, she looked sickly.

Why didn’t people tell other people the nice things they were thinking more often? Marianne liked to do that. Everyone always seemed surprised.

“So you like ballet, huh?” Marianne asked her.

“Hmm? Oh, the Misty Copeland folder.” Nina giggled nervously. “I used to be really into it. I go to the ballet with my parents sometimes? I take class, but only once a week, it’s not serious…”

“Cool! My dad plays in the pit for some ballets,” she told her.

“Really?” Nina jaw fell open. “I’m starstruck.”

“Ha, yeah. Sometimes I had to go, and it was so boring,” Marianne confessed. “Sorry,” she added. “I never knew what was going on, so I used to make up my own stories to the shows, like I’d be like, ‘That girl in the white is secretly a spy, and she’s trying to find her father’s long-lost enemy and get revenge!’”

“And then you’d find out that you were really watching Swan Lake and she was just a sad swan?” Nina joked.

They both laughed.

“Exactly,” Marianne said.

They stood there for a minute, by the fountain, Nina swaying back and forth and picking at the skin around her bright pink nails.

“Should we head back?” Marianne asked her.

Nina nodded.

They walked toward the room, passing a few other classrooms with clubs or teams in them. “We haven’t had any classes together, yeah?” Marianne asked. “Where’d you go to elementary?”

“Hillside?” Nina nodded a lot. Another nervous tic.

“I was at Acorn,” Marianne told her. “But you know Skyla, right?” Marianne remembered Nina had asked Skyla to join Quiz Quest.

“Oh, yeah, we have history and lit together! She’s so smart,” Nina gushed.

“Skyla’s great,” Marianne said. Skyla was super smart, sure, but it was weird to hear a genius-type like Nina say it like that.