I woke up this morning, but didn't feel very well rested. I rubbed the sleep from my groggy eyes and got ready to prepare for the day. Even though I'm too young to have coffee, I felt like it would really boost my energy. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Like a country girl, I had to make do with a glass of orange juice to go with my meager piece of toast with marmalade, before I eventually went off to the place I always go… school. I sighed to myself.

The air was somewhat muggy today, and the sky was a pale grey with overcast clouds. The humidity beat down on my skin from the instant I stepped out of my uncle's bus-shaped vehicle and onto the deserted playground. I stretched my tired body, looked to the left, and took a look towards the sandbox where I had helped Eli, Jenny, and Kristy dig yesterday. From this angle, the entrance to the tunnel couldn't be seen, so it was almost as if it didn't exist. I had a feeling that would be important at some point in the future, so I made sure to make a mental note of it. With that in mind, I stepped into the school building, steeling myself, like Steely Dan, for the beginning of the day. As usual, I was the first in the classroom again, besides Mr. Pony. I didn't really have anything to do, so I just headed down to the rug in the middle of the classroom. While I was waiting for the next person to show up, I began to doze, like a bull. My eyes drooped and I grew drowsy. Sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floor, it wasn't long before I had nodded off.

Suddenly I felt a firm hand shaking my shoulder. "Wake up, Jordan. Sleeping during class is against the ru-ules."

I blinked my eyes awake and turned around to see what was going on. I saw Randy standing behind me, towering over my seated form. I looked around a bit more to try and take in my surroundings. I was in Mr. Pony's room, and I must have fallen asleep waiting for everyone else to get here.

"Ah, oh," I said, stumbling to my feet, off balance. I took account of who all was here. It only seemed like half of the class was here so far, and Mr. Pony still looked like they were playing on the computer, so I didn't think I had missed anything. "Sorry, Randy." I looked back and forth at all the other kids, from Jenny to Skylar, who had just walked in, and noticed that they all seemed to be staring at me. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing," Jenny was the first to speak up. "You just look so different without your glasses, Jordan."

My face lit up with understanding. "Oh yeah," I replied. "I forgot that I wasn't wearing them anymore. From this point on, I'm going to be wearing contacts."

Everyone turned to look at Julia. Since Rachel hadn't arrived yet, she was now the only other person wearing glasses, or should I say, glass. She kept her arms to the side of her long, white coat slimly. "I do not plan to remove my glasses," she stated. "Not only am I not wearing contacts, but these have… sentimental value to me." She just left it at that, and the conversation moved back towards me.

"The new look definitely suits you," commented Kathleen. I could feel myself blushing slightly. "Back when you had glasses it always felt like you were hiding behind them. But now, it's like, Pow! The real Jordan comes out."

I sweated and raised my hand slightly as if to offer an alternative point of view. "I'm not too sure about that, but thanks." The rest of us began chatting as a group, breaking the usual silence that generally filled the time before everyone had arrived and the day could begin. Some things never changed, however, and Eli entered the classroom seconds before the WATCH Tower bell rang and Mr. Pony rose from their desk to signify the start of the day.

Using their own two hands, Mr. Pony cracked their neck to the left and to the right. "Whew," they stated, swinging their shoulders slightly. "That feels a little better. All right, kiddoes, just like I promised, we'll be doing a few of the practice spelling bees today. But first, we'll do centers like normal. You have until I ring the handbell for centers, and then after that please report to your assigned seats."

"Got it," said Kathleen. She still seemed pumped up from the announcement of the spelling bee yesterday. Clearly she was ready to interact with some people and spell some words. I saw her stride confidently towards Jeremy from across the classroom. It made sense for them to hang out, I thought, since they both played sports. I took another quick look around. It looked like most other people were pairing up for centers, and even Rachel seemed to be engaged in conversation with Owen. For whatever reason, I decided that I was going to talk to Julia, and see what she was up to. Had she prepared for the practice spelling bee?

"Morning, Julia," I said, raising my hand somewhat as if to offer an alternative point of view.

"Yes," she replied. "Good morning, Jordan. How are you today?"

"Tired," I admitted, still a bit embarrassed from falling asleep in front of everyone.

"Hm," she exhaled sharply. "I already saw. Personally, I am feeling rather… animated."

"Animated?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "It is one of the spelling words I studied in preparation for the spelling... bee. I intend to win the entire competition."

I was already feeling a bit nervous. Spelling definitely wasn't my strongest suit – I'd do much better in a stamp collecting bee, or a tooth fixing bee, and I wasn't sure I had a chance of defeating someone as smart and well-prepared as Julia. Sweating a little bit, I gulped. "Even the school-wide one? There'll be fifth graders there, you know. I bet they can spell up to five times better than any of us."

"For certain," she said, closing her eyes, grasping one white-coated elbow with one hand and raising a pointer finger with another. "Remember, in order to know the names of all the different chemicals and elements, you must be able to spell them."

"Yeah, that's true," I said, putting my hand over my nose and mouth. "By the way, Julia, I have a bit of a Chemistry-related question for you."

"Oh? And what might that question be?"

"I always see Biology, Chemistry, and Physics grouped together as sciences, but I'm not sure what any of those really are. So I guess, what is the difference between Biology, Chemistry, and Physics?"

Julia stared at me blankly for a second before re-closing her eyes, raising her pointer finger on one hand and using the other to grasp her elbow. "Those are… eh, easy to confuse if you are not familiar with them," she offered. "Anyways, I will tell you."

I ended up having a pretty lengthy chat with Julia about the differences between Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Although she didn't have Randy's teaching ability, Julia explained the difference very well, and I felt like I learned a lot that day.

"...So as you can see, each science is for its own purpose, but they are all related somewhat. However, the chemistry is my favorite."

"I see," I said, putting my hand over my nose and mouth. "You clearly know your stuff, Julia. How did you become so interested in chemistry to begin with?"

Julia adjusted her glasses with one hand and extended the other as if to accept an ancient coin. "Simple," she answered. "I actually got into it from my older brother, Kevin. When we were both younger, he received a volcano of baking soda as a gift for his birthday. The volcano was enchanting to him, and I also had curiosity as to how it worked. Kevin and I both developed an interest in chemistry from that point on. As he took on advanced classes in his high school, so did I with accelerated learning programs."

"Wow," I said. "That's pretty cool. Kevin seems like someone that you look up to a lot."

"Indeed," said Julia, crossing her arms like a mummy in a coffin. "In a way, it is because of him that I am at Paige Prep."

"Yeah, I guess," I agreed. "What is he doing now? Is he still in school?"

"He is currently... studying chemistry at university," answered Julia, looking to the left slightly. "Someday, that is my goal as well. That is why I am taking so many advanced classes now."

"Well, with planning so far in advance, you'll be sure to get into a good college," I said, the feeling of intimidation returning to my bones.

"Yes, and already I am seeing the results," she continued. "In fact, with my help, Kevin succeeded in creating an especially powerful compound."

"Really? What is it?" I asked. "Maybe I've heard of it."

Julia's expression darkened and she raised one hand as if she were putting on a heavy duty rubber glove. "Oh, I'm sure you've heard of it. Do you know what is Loctite?"

I was taken aback. I felt like I did know what Loctite was, but couldn't say for sure. After thinking very hard over several excruciatingly long minutes, my brain could only come up with three possible answers: a type of safe, a poster tack, and a resealable plastic bag. I knew it wasn't the third one, because that was Ziploc, but wasn't sure whether it was the first or the second one. Loctite sounded like a combination between 'lock' and 'tight', right? Isn't that what you did to a safe? I had spent long enough thinking about this, it was time to choose an answer.

"Loctite? You mean like the type of safe?" I asked.

Julia looked to the side and spread her fingers to her chin as if she had just received a surprise present. "No, Loctite is not a type of safe," she said confusedly. "Though I can understand why you'd think that."

Shoot, I thought. Looks like I guessed wrong. Time to try again.

"Loctite? You mean like the poster tack?" I asked. Julia nodded. Whew, I thought. "Your brother invented that?"

"For certain," she confirmed. "It is quite versatile, don't you agree?"

"Versatile? What does that word mean?" I asked.

"Well, let's just say… that it can be used for many things." A wry smile spread across the lips of Julia. She reached up her hand to adjust her glasses and accidentally ended up getting her fingerprints on the lens. "Ah," she said, taking a step back.

"Oh, are you all right?" I asked, a bit alarmed by her sudden movement.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just smudged my glasses is all."

Almost instinctively, I reached into the pocket of my tender, professional black cardigan. I procured my glasses cleaning cloth, which I had left in there for some reason, and handed it to Julia. "Here," I said. "You can use this."

"Thank you," she stated, using the cloth to wipe the smudge off her glasses. Her movements were very precise, much like a dentist's should be. I realized that if I wanted to become a better dentist, I should make my movements more like Julia's.

"Actually," I added, on second thought, "you can keep that. I'm not wearing my glasses anymore, so I don't need a glasses cleaning cloth."

"I already see," she acknowledged, folding up the cloth and putting it in one of the pockets of her coat. "Thank you, Jordan. What is it we were talking about again?"

I wracked my brain. This conversation was becoming more and more difficult to follow. "Loctite, right? The compound you and your brother made."

Julia crossed her arms like a mummy in a coffin. "Yes," she agreed, remembering. "We were talking about how versatile it was. I was just going to mention that that is one of the words in the spelling bee." The pit of nervousness returned to my stomach. "Speaking of which, the first practice round will begin soon, so I'm going to look at my notes one more time."

"Right," I agreed, my nervousness manifesting itself in the form of sweat on my face. Even though I was only in kindergarten, I could feel the rigorous and insurmountable academic pressure being forced upon me, as if I was about to take an exam or a standardized test. "Uh, good luck in the spelling bee, Julia. I'll talk to you later."

"Thanks." she turned and strode back to her desk, her long black hair and long white coat swirling with her. My head still spinning from trying to digest the information that the two of us had just exchanged during our conversation, I likewise stumbled along around the classroom. By the time I had shaken my head and come to, I was standing right in front of Skylar. I blinked my eyes, somewhat in surprise.

"Are you okay, Jordan?" she asked, looking somewhat startled. "You were acting pretty dizzy right then. Do you have amnesia again?"

My frustration with being asked that question was intense enough to dispel any dizziness I had left in me. "No," I said firmly. "I never had amnesia in the first place. That was just a nasty rumor some people were spreading about me."

"All right," she replied sympathetically. "William mentioned something about it to me earlier, but I just wanted to make sure for myself. It sucks to be the target of gossip."

"Yeah," I agreed. "It almost feels like a prank that only part of the class is in on. Some of them remember me having amnesia, and others don't. I know that I don't remember having amnesia, and wouldn't I know better than anyone else?"

"Well, that's, like, part of the issue," she answered, frowning slightly and raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow like Jack Black. "If it's amnesia, you wouldn't know, because you forget, right?"

"But there's nothing I forget," I said. "I'm sure of that."

Skylar folded up one of her slender arms to bring her hand to her chin thoughtfully. "If you're sure of it, I believe you," she concluded. "The way I see it, everyone has, like, two versions of themself, one that everyone else sees, and a 'behind the scenes' version that only they can see. And if that's what the 'behind the scenes' Jordan thinks, then, it doesn't matter what anyone else says."

I was a bit taken off guard by the sudden depth the conversation had just taken a turn towards. I might have expected something so insightful and philosophical from Rachel, but not necessarily from Skylar. I put my hand over my nose and mouth. She did have a point though, and with her social media presence she'd definitely have firsthand experience with the 'behind the scenes' version of herself to be speaking from. I wondered if -

"Are you okay, Jordan?" asked Skylar, lowering her voice for the next question. "Do you need a mint?"

Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I realized that I had never replied to her last comment, and with my hand over my nose and mouth, it looked a bit like I was smelling my breath. "No," I quickly corrected, removing my hand from my face. "I was just thinking about what you said was all."

"You seem a little spacey today, Jordan," Skylar observed, grinning. "Not enough coffee this morning?"

"No," I replied, looking a little disheartened. "My uncle doesn't let me drink coffee, because it's a grown up drink. But I could use the energy boost, that's for sure."

"Oh man," she said. "I wouldn't be able to function without coffee. Have you tried tea?" she asked, before adding with some thought. "You seem like you'd be an Earl Grey type."

"No, I just have orange juice," I admitted. "It's jam packed full of Vitamin C, but it doesn't really give me the energy I need for the day."

"Yeah, that's true," agreed Skylar, inspecting her nails. "You know what, Jordan? I'll actually let you in on something, Jordan – though it might not look like it, the 'behind the scenes' Skylar is pretty tired too."

"Really?" I asked. "Have you been having weird dreams too? I never feel well rested the morning after."

"Not just that," she answered, "but I've also had to deal with a bunch of YouTube drama recently, and even yesterday I had to go to the hospital after school."

"The hospital?" I asked, my now-glassesless eyes widening in alarm. "What happened? Did you get hurt? Is everything all right?"

Skylar closed her eyes, grinned, and flashed the peace sign to calm me down. "Relax, Jordan, Everything is fine. It wasn't for me."

"Oh," I said, calming down a little. "Then what happened?"

"It was because of my older brother," she answered, looking down at her nails again.

Huh, I thought. It was a bit odd that Skylar mentioned her older brother, especially since Julia had just done the same thing when I talked to her earlier. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was important, so I made sure to make a mental note of it for later. "Oh, I didn't know you had a brother," I said, trying to fill in the conversation.

"Yeah, his name is McKenzie," she replied.

"His first name… is McKenzie?" I asked, a little in disbelief.

"Yeah," she chuckled as she answered. "So, you know how crowns are made out of wax?"

I wasn't sure what that had to do with the conversation at hand, but decided not to overthink the question. "Yes?"

Skylar nodded and continued. "Well basically, McKenzie got it into his head that the crown wax was the same stuff as earwax. So what he did was put one of the crowns into his ear to get more wax, but he accidentally stuck it in too deep and they needed the doctor to get it out."

I winced at her description. "That sounds awful. Why would anyone do that?"

"Idk," answered Skylar, making sure to spell out the acronym. "He's just, like, an older brother. They do dumb stuff for no reason sometimes. Do you have any siblings, Jordan?"

Finally, a question that I didn't need to think about the answer to. "No," I responded. "I'm an only child."

"Ah, so you wouldn't really understand, then," she said, looking down at her nails again slightly disappointedly.

"I guess not," I agreed, putting my hand over my nose and mouth to think, and also sniff my breath to see if I actually did need a mint… okay, I didn't. I had no firsthand experience of what having an older brother was like, but between the vastly different accounts Julia and Skylar had given me, I was having a difficult time imagining it. For now, I decided to put that train of thought aside and bring up another hot topic. "Oh, by the way, are you ready for the practice spelling bee?"

Skylar shrugged her shoulders ambivalently. "As ready as I'll ever be," she said. "William seems super pumped for it, but I kind of, like, don't care about it. Let the nerds go to the final stage or whatever, but the spelling bee, or just school in general? Not really my thing."

"I feel that," I agreed, thinking back to Julia's intimidating confidence from earlier and feeling the nervousness returning to my form. "I don't really expect to win, but I'll still try my best."

"That's the spirit," she said, closing her eyes, grinning, and flashing the peace sign again. "I'm sure a smarty-pants like you will do just fine. At least, better than some people."

I was a bit unsure about the compliment, but decided to roll with it. "Thanks," I said a bit awkwardly.

"Dingalingalingalingaling!" Mr. Pony's shrill voice symphonically complimented the handbell they were ringing, snapping people out of their conversations and drawing their attention back to Mr. Pony. "Attention, class! Centers are now over. Please report to your assigned seats, because soon is the moment you've all been waiting for – the practice spelling bee!"

Some members of the class buzzed with excitement during the hubbub of everyone crossing the room to get to their assigned seats. Skylar and I shared a few parting words before going our separate ways.

"Guess it's time to go," she said. "Are you going to be having lunch with William later today?"

I hadn't really thought about it until now, but, "Yeah, I guess so," I replied.
"Coolio. Catch you then." she turned and strode towards Randy, William, and Kristy at her table. As I turned to walk towards my table with Jenny, Kathleen, and Kiki, my conversations with Julia and Skylar had given me a lot to think about. While their outlooks on the spelling bee and school in general, as well as their opinions of their brothers, might be totally different, I couldn't help but think they had more in common than met the eye, especially with their dedication to chemistry and social media.

As I sat down in my chair, I took notice of Jenny and Kathleen cramming to my left and Kiki just vibing across from me. I was a little jealous of how she could be so relaxed in this situation – I could feel my blood pounding in my temples as I became more and more nervous.

"Ahem," Mr. Pony cleared their throat as they stood next to the easel pad. The room quieted down, but the energetic undercurrent remained. "Okay kiddoes, now, like I promised, we're going to do a practice spelling bee to prepare for the real one. I'll read off the rules, and then we'll get started!"