“I bet it’ll be Ms. Burke, though.” Jess scrunches up her face as she says this. “Open your boooks, girls,” she adds in a high-pitched voice, imitating Ms. Burke’s country-tinged accent and causing Chaewon and me to burst out into a fit of giggles.

“Settle down.” Ms. Montgomery’s voice comes from the front of the room. The three of us manage to stifle our giggles and look up with smiles still tugging at the corners of our lips. “Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon,” we chorus back.

Ms. Montgomery smiles and slides behind her desk.

“Well, Transition Year Business … this is the best time to put your practical skills to use.” She raises an eyebrow like she’s challenging us. “So you guys can put your books away for the moment.”

The entire class exchanges glances with one another. This suddenly feels like a Defense Against the Dark Arts class in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. All that’s left is for Ms. Montgomery to whip out a boggart.

As I’m bent down, trying to stuff my heavy Business book into my bag, I catch a glimpse of the dark brown curls that have suddenly become so familiar to me.

Flávia.

In this class.

She’s sitting quite a few rows in front of us, though. Suddenly I regret not siding with Chaewon.

“Did your head get stuck to your bag or something?” Chaewon whispers, poking me in the ribs. I sit up, feeling a blush creep up my neck once more.

“—and so,” Ms. Montgomery is mid-speech, but doesn’t seem to have noticed my lack of attention. “We’re going to spend a significant portion of this year working on a business project.” She puts more emphasis than necessary on the word project, like it’s something fancy instead of something we’ve done for pretty much every class we’re a part of.

“And we have some real businesses involved, offering prize money.”

That has everyone’s attention. There’s a palpable shift in the mood of the class. While before it was Ms. Montgomery droning on about something, now it’s Ms. Montgomery droning on about something that has prize money.

She seems to sense our increased attention, because there’s a smile tugging at her lips as she peers down at us. She pauses for a beat. A long beat. Like she’s trying to draw out the suspense.

“So we’ll be developing our very own businesses,” she says. “Groups or individuals. It’s your business, so you have to make the decision. And it will count for a large percentage of your Christmas exams.”

The class breaks out into a groan as she says this, but the ghost of a smile remains on Ms. Montgomery’s lips. Because, of course, she’s still holding back the information that we really want to know.

“The prize money … donated by the sponsors hosting this competition will be …”