They were so wrong. And telling them who she really was? Who she really, truly was? That might be even worse than just repeating the year.

She lifted her backpack and pulled it on her lap like a blanket. She held it close to her torso. “Nah, forget it, guys.” Then she stood up to head to the door. But her legs wouldn’t move. She didn’t even know where to go. Home to study with Mom? What was the point?

“Again? You’re leaving again?” Vi said from behind her. “So much drama…” she added under her breath.

“I told you. You don’t get it,” Marianne said, snapping as much as Marianne ever snapped at anyone.

“I said it the other day, guys,” Vi grumbled. “She doesn’t care about school at all. Or anything else, apparently.”

“It’s because I can’t!” The strange and unpleasant sensation of anger simmered inside Marianne. “I wish I could, but I can’t!” She finally turned toward all of them, pulling a backpack strap onto her shoulder.

“What are you even talking about?” Vi asked, throwing a look to the other kids like “Can you believe this girl?”

“We already turned in our roster…” Dan interrupted, kindly but nervously. “You kind of … have to do it?”

“I can’t!” she repeated, feeling an intense urge to cover her ears and not listen, stop the conversation. She took a step toward the door.

“I told you, I told you,” Vi singsonged the words. “She’s exactly what I thought, and she—”

But before Vi could finish, Marianne’s secret burst out, no longer trapped inside where it had stayed for so, so long.

“I can’t learn!” Marianne closed her eyes. “I! Can’t! Learn! Try or don’t try, doesn’t matter, I can’t do it!”

As the words left her, she deflated. The room was so quiet that all she could hear were the skid of sneakers out in the hallway and a few voices shout a couple of verses from a hip-hop song as another kid groaned, “Please stoooop.”

As the rapping faded, Vi said in a stern, clear voice, “That’s impossible.”

“No,” Marianne assured her, “it’s true.”

Vi shocked Marianne by lightly pushing her back down into her seat.

“Everyone can learn,” Vi retorted.

Was her whole life going to consist of people saying this to her over and over again until she had to prove them wrong?

“You don’t— I just—” Marianne tried to explain, but instead growled, “Argh!” and dropped her head into the crease of her elbow.

“She’s right?” Nina offered. “I mean, maybe not everybody can learn everything, but…”

“No.” Marianne shot her head up and shooed away their words with a wave of her hands. “It’s too much. You have no idea. I’m basically still in the third grade. Don’t know how I even made it to that.” Now that Marianne had started telling her secret, she couldn’t stop. “Where are all fifty states? I dunno! How do I convert fractions into something else? I dunno! I’m not a learner. It’s not me. You can try to fix my brain again and again, but trust me, ‘effort’ is not the answer. Never has been, never will be. Your team? With me on it? It’s toast.”