“You know me, Miss Pepperman, I’m always busy! And the play is going fantastic. Rehearsals start again on Wednesday. I would love to hear your opinion on the script, especially on the third act. I took out some things to make the plot more comprehensible for the year-nine pupils, so . . .”

“I will be happy to read the script, though I doubt I will find anything to criticize,” Miss Pepperman laughed.

After a bit more talk about whatever play Jasper was working on, she walked back to the front of the class and clapped her hands. “Good morning, children! This year I am happy to welcome five new students to this class. Two of you I already greeted, to the rest of you: Hello, my name is Miss Pepperman. I will be your teacher for English Literature this year.”

Some mumbled responses sounded through the room.

Miss Pepperman smiled brightly at us, eyes twinkling behind her thick glasses. “I know that some of you may have reservations regarding literature, but I promise that even you will be able to find some joy in my lessons. After all, we will start this year with a lecture on Wuthering Heights by the exceptional Emily Brontë.”

The rest of the period passed quickly as the class read the first chapter out of the worn paperback books she handed out.

Whenever Miss Pepperman asked a question, Jasper was the first one to put up his hand. I was nervous to participate at first, but after Seth nudged me with his knee to say something, I followed Jasper’s lead.

It was strange to see how invested he was, while Noelle sat next to him with her arms crossed stubbornly in front of her chest, not saying anything. When it was her turn to read, she simply passed the book on to Jasper, who read her part without hesitation. Miss Pepperman’s only reaction was a resigned sigh, like this wasn’t the first time this happened.

After seeing Noelle’s behavior in English Lit, I was all the more surprised when her hand was constantly up in math class only two hours later.

In every class, I realized one thing: I needed to catch up. Amelia hadn’t lied when she said the school expected peak performance and some things mentioned today I had never even heard of, like the natural logarithm or Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. While I assumed I could read up on the latter, the former seemed impossible to teach myself, especially considering my rather slender grasp on all things mathematical.

I would have asked Amelia, but she had a student council meeting that afternoon, and Seth had seemed just as lost as I was. So, when I came back to my room after the assembly and the tour across the castle grounds, I was determined instead to ask Noelle for help. She was good at school, and excellent at math, so I was confident she could help me. All I needed to do was get her to talk to me. And that couldn’t be so hard now, could it?