“Eh, practices are enough,” Dan said. “We’ll give it a shot, right? It’s all we can do.”

“Lazy,” Vi shot at him. “That’s lazy.”

“Lazy?” Dan looked extremely offended. “I’m just a realist,” he huffed.

Vi let out a disbelieving laugh. “And now you’re just sort of lying to yourself.”

“Do you think your hero Addison would put down her teammates like that?” Dan rolled his eyes.

“She’s not my hero,” Vi said carefully, like she was trying to control herself.

Dan stood up and stretched his back. Marianne thought she noticed one of the arm spasms he’d told her about when they first met, but she couldn’t be sure.

“You’re obsessed with her,” he went on.

“Dan, stop,” Nina pleaded.

Dan turned to Nina. “Why are you so afraid of her?”

“I’m not!” Nina insisted.

“She’s not scared of me.” Vi picked up her phone and looked like she was texting again.

“Well, she’s not having fun, either,” Dan fought back. “None of us are. And you’re going to call me lazy?” He shook his head. “You have no idea what a single day is like for me at this school,” he said under his breath.

“God, Dan,” Vi snapped. “If you don’t care about this team or want to be on it, then just leave, okay?”

“Okay!” Dan hastened toward the door, his forearm crutches supporting him as he stalked away on his tiptoes.

“No!” Nina cried. “Come on! We can’t have someone quit every practice!”

“Tell that to her!” Dan argued. He spoke to Vi: “I never saw this side of you—not really—until you became captain. You are the only person in the world who can suck the joy out of trivia.” He turned to leave.

“Wait!” Marianne hollered. “Dan, stop.”

He did. He leaned harder onto one of his crutches and listened to her.

“You guys are going to lose if you don’t stop all this fighting, whether you teach me anything or not!” As she said it, she knew she was right. If they stayed like this? Squabbling all the time? Their chances at Regionals and States were close to zero.

“Oh, that I know,” Dan said.

“Do you?” Marianne asked.

She’d spent a whole week altering her entire life to try to get the extra credit to get to high school, and these prodigies were just going to throw it away with their useless bickering.

“Vi, Dan’s right,” Marianne said.

Before Vi could protest, she continued.

“You have to be … Well … A little bit…” Was she scared of Vi, too? She could hardly get the word out. “Nicer.”

“Addison was nice.” Nina stared off into the distance, wrapped up in memory.

“And you all have to get over Addison,” Marianne went on.

It felt so good to talk about something that wasn’t academic. This kind of stuff was so clear, so obvious. Anyone could see it and understand it.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Vi said, placing her phone down beside her papers and rearranging them. “Mr. Garcia will be back soon. Dan.” Her stern face fixed itself on him. “Come back.”