Of all the silly nonsense! thought Nova, quoting Alice in Wonderland. She wanted to tell the boy, “NASA Bear is a professional payload specialist. A professional payload specialist is not an astronaut, but a scientist or educator. He or she is chosen by NASA to be a member of the space crew with a special job, like doing research or being the First Teacher in Space. A professional payload specialist would never try to eat a human, not so long as freeze-dried fruit was readily available.” Bridget had taught her all about professional payload specialists. But since Nova could not tell this to the boy, she set NASA Bear down on the floor and climbed under the table.

“My name is Alex. What’s your name is?”

Nova opened her mouth but no sound came out.

“Don’t be scared,” said Alex, smiling. “Is not a real bear, is pretend.”

“Alex, Nova, come out from under the desk, please!” called Mrs. Pierce. “It’s Morning Circle time.”

Alex took Nova’s wrist and led her toward the semicircle of chairs facing the bookshelves. She thought about pulling away, but she kind of liked how his fingers felt like ice. She scooped up NASA Bear with her free hand on the way by.

Six kids were already seated. Three boys, three girls. Behind them sat two adults, one man, one woman. Very even. Nova smiled. She liked even because it meant balanced, symmetrical, the same. Mrs. Pierce sat facing them with her back to the books, beside an easel, with a stack of cardboard cutouts on the floor beside her. Mrs. Pierce was a woman, so that made one more girl than boy, but since NASA Bear was a boy Nova supposed it was okay.

“Good morning, class!” Mrs. Pierce said.

“Good morning!” chorused Alex and a few of the other kids. Nova noticed right away that two of them—one boy, one girl—did not say anything. The boy was bouncing in his chair, making clicking noises with his tongue against his teeth. The girl was sitting in a wheelchair with her head lolled to the side. That looked uncomfortable. Nova reached toward the girl to help her but the lady teacher blocked her hand.

“Class, we have a new student,” said Mrs. Pierce. “This is Nova. Nova, can you wave to the kids?”

When Nova did not respond, the lady teacher picked up her hand and waggled it. Nova pulled away.

“Nova is twelve years old and in sixth grade with Mr. O’Reilly. Let’s go around the circle and introduce ourselves to Nova. We will say our names, our ages, and one thing we like to do.” Mrs. Pierce picked up one of the sheets of cardboard and placed it on the easel. On it, each student’s name was listed beside their picture. (Nova’s had only a hand-drawn smiley face, no photograph.) Mrs. Pierce tapped the name at the top. “Alex, can you start?”