“Let’s just not talk about this anymore, okay?” Marianne pleaded.

Skyla took a beat and then stood up. “Got it. I have to go practice clarinet, anyway. ’Night.”

And she left for home without looking back.

Every day, Vi sent Marianne a list of topics to study. Inevitably, they were long and varied and overwhelming.

For half a week, Vi FaceTimed her and walked her through one thing a night.

“One by one,” Vi said. “That’s the plan.”

There was no “Hey, how are you?,” no talk about life or TV shows or even the team. Just a person or idea or place at a time.

The Battle of Yorktown. Mauna Loa, the largest volcano in the world. Gregor Mendel’s discovery. The story of Tom Sawyer. The capital of Canada (not Toronto?!).

Marianne refused to do math. She had enough of it with her mom every time they hung up.

“Eventually we have to do it,” Vi reminded her several times. “But I suppose for now,” and she’d sigh, “There are enough other things to learn…”

Then, before they signed off, Vi commanded her to do homework before a clipped “Tomorrow, then.”

Marianne couldn’t tell anything about Vi from her background. All she ever saw was Vi’s pale, looming face under a lamplight.

But the lessons almost, maybe, kind of worked. And before the next practices, Marianne felt a little less dread, if only because if Yorktown came up she could now report that it ended the Revolutionary War. And she could remember that because Vi had helped her picture the dirt flying from the trenches that the soldiers dug, covering them in mud and sweat. She had brought to life a story of hours and hours of hand-to-hand fighting in the wet soil.

Like her grandpa always said, “What a country!”

Marianne walked into that week’s second practice to a big wave from Nina and Dan.

“Welcome back,” Dan said.

“Hey, can I show you something?” Nina grabbed Marianne’s phone and helped her install a flash-cards app. “This will be so much easier. Here’s our account.”

“You call yourselves the Etheridge Ermines?” Marianne loved it.

“Technically, we’re supposed to be the Etheridge Eagles, like the sports teams here. But Addison said that was too ‘conventional.’ And ‘ermines’ look sweet, but they’re ferocious. She said that was like us.”

“This Addison sounds like she was a pretty big deal to you guys, huh?” Marianne asked.

“She was perfect,” Nina said.

Marianne laughed, but then she saw that Nina was serious.

“Oh okay, cool!” Marianne said.

Vi threw Marianne a nod of acknowledgment but sat quietly texting.

When Mr. Garcia arrived, he asked them what they’d determined as far as specialties.

Would he ask her? She had no idea what to say. Her stomach turned and tossed like a storm. What if she said “scientific theories” or something and then he tested her on it? Could she just say, “My specialty is random facts Vi teaches me!”? That would be honest but not what he wanted.