“I never got to congratulate you on the magic-level results,” Mr. B says. “I’m not exactly surprised now that I know you started potionworking so early, but it’s still amazing. Nice job.”

“Oh. Um, thanks!” I say.

“How did your classmates take it when you totally blew them out of the water?” He laughs heartily. I can’t bring myself to laugh along. He glances at me, then sobers abruptly. “So . . . not good?”

“Well . . .” I look out the window at the tangle of greenery below the road. “Not really, no.”

“Makes sense. They’re jealous.” He sneaks a quick glance over at me, giving me a flash of the sincerity in his blue eyes. “Want to tell me about it?”

God no. I should have just laughed along with his joke and pretended everything was fine. Now I’m going to sound like I’m complaining. “It’s not really a big deal.”

“If you’re upset about it, it’s a big deal.” A few moments of silence go by. “Come on,” he wheedles. “Talk to me.”

He’s impossible to ignore. I suck my bottom lip into my mouth and chew on it for a second, trying to come up with something to say that doesn’t sound whiny. “It’s nothing new, honestly. People are just saying I only have a high magic level because I have a big family, or because I have access to a magic-sharing pool.” It occurs to me too late that his family is ridiculously rich and probably does have a magic-sharing pool. Whoops. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” I add quickly. “But it feels like people just want to invalidate me all the time. Like, no matter what I manage to achieve, I must have cheated or gotten extra help somehow.”

He lets out a thoughtful hum and then goes quiet for a minute. His fingers tap at the steering wheel. “You know, my family never thought I would amount to anything,” he says. “I was always the family fuckup growing up.”

Um. Okay. That’s personal. Where’s he going with this?

“But you know, I’m here now,” he continues. “I do something I’m really proud of. I started the scholarship at T. K. Anderson, and I run a pretty successful theater program, if I do say so myself. And I think next year is finally the year we’re going to be able to expand the scholarship program to some other schools.”

My eyes widen. “Oh. Wow, that’s amazing.”

He waves away my admiration. “Yeah. Anyway, all that’s to say, it’s not always easy when people don’t believe in you. I get it. But all you need is one really big win to show them that they’re wrong.”

I nod slowly, letting his words sink in. That’s what I always thought, so it’s nice to hear my own feelings reflected back to me.