I awoke, with a start, in my uncle's bus-shaped vehicle. I took in my situation. That was right… I was on my way to school yet again. The terror of my dream still gripped me as the memories of the day before came rushing back to me, fuzzy at first, then slowly becoming clear. The spelling bees, the underground room, it all came rushing back to me now. I had fallen asleep on the way home yesterday as well, and after I had gotten some spaghettioes in me, went straight back to bed. However, my vivid dreams ensured that I didn't really get a good night's sleep, so I had fallen asleep on the ride to school as well. In short, I was a sleepy boi.

It turned out, the start that had awakened me was the lurch of the bus-shaped vehicle coming to a stop in front of the kindergarten building, so I hopped off and waved goodbye as it drove off. The wind was brisk and the gray clouds overhead were looking ornery, so I skrrted through the playground quickly and entered Mr. Pony's classroom. As always, I was the first student to arrive. I started to put my hand over my nose and mouth, thinking about how peculiar that was, but a warm "Good morning, Jordan," from Mr. Pony forced my attention back to socializing.

"Good morning, Mr. Pony," I replied, realizing now was a good time to bring up my concern. "Where's everyone else? I'm always the first one here."

"Huh?" Mr. Pony replied, tilting their head to the side quizzically. "I dunno. School doesn't start for another..." they took a quick glance at the corner of their computer screen "… twenty minutes or so, and nobody's called out sick or said they'd be late, so they probably just haven't arrived yet."

I frowned, trying to think of a counterpoint. Mr. Pony's voice and gesture interrupted my train of thought once again. "See, there are Kathleen and Jenny now!" I turned around to see the two beings in question entering the door together.

"Hey Jordan! Hey Mr. Pony!" shouted Kathleen from across the room, waving at us. I raised my hand and waved back.

"Unless someone calls out, everyone else should show up pretty soon," restated Mr. Pony from behind me. "Someone's gotta be the first one here, and you always show up early, so it's not so weird."

"I guess so," I agreed hesitantly, pushing the concern out of my mind for the time being. I left Mr. Pony to go say hi to Kathleen and Jenny. As they had predicted, the rest of the class showed up within the next few minutes, and soon the day was able to begin.

"Good morning, everybody!" greeted Mr. Pony officially. "Today, we're gonna start with centers first like usual, but after that we'll have to take another look at the weather before we decide what comes next. We might have recess inside today, if it rains."

"How are we gonna do that?" asked Kathleen. "All of the recess stuff is outside."

"It does not have to be outside to be considered recess," inputted Rachel, raising her finger as if to declare something. "As long as we take a break from our normal school activities, anything can be considered a recess."

"That doesn't make any sense," argued Kathleen. "Recess is as normal of a school activity as… classes, or lunch! And it's for running around and having fun, and we can't do that if we're cooped up in here."

"You can't have fun in my class?" asked Mr. Pony, looking down disappointedly. "You wound me, Kathleen."

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth!" she insisted.

"Hey guys," inputted Skylar. "Can we get started on centers?"

"She's right," agreed Randy. "We shouldn't be wasting time arguing about this."

"You lot should listen to Randy," supported Mr. Pony, and Skylar looked indignant about Randy getting credit for her idea. "But tell you what: while you're doing centers, I'll shoot the gym teacher a little e-message to see if we can reserve the gym for recess. That way, you can run around to your little hearts' content!"

"Awesome! Thanks, Mr. Pony!" said Kathleen, suddenly stoked at the prospect of an indoor recess. There were a few other murmurs of agreement before people split off and headed their own separate ways for centers.

I had to take a few seconds to collect my thoughts. Who did I want to talk to today? Was there anyone I needed to talk to? I wracked my brain, thinking back to the events of yesterday. I felt like I had tied up all of the loose ends for the most part… at least, as best as I could. I didn't have any way to deal with that weird underground room, or Owen's strange behavior. However, I did have an idea about how to change my losses in the spelling bee, and it involved talking to that being. The way I said that made it sound like I was talking about a hunky romantic interest, but I was really only talking about Randy. In a surprising turn of events, I walked over to him.

"Hey, Jordan," said Randy, sounding like he was about to cough as he pronounced the 'r' in my name. "What's up?"

"Hey Randy," I replied. "I wanted to say congratulations for winning the spelling bee yesterday. Could you give me some advice for the one later today? I want to try and win this time."

Randy looked at me for a second before responding. "Yeah, I can help you out with your spelling. Do you have something to take notes on?"

I thought for a second. "I have my assignment book," I replied. "Will that work?"

"That's probably best," he answered. "Since we're always supposed to have that with us, it would mean you can review the notes at any time. Here, let's go over to the quiet coloring table so we can sit down." I followed him to the front of the classroom where the table in question was located.

As I was taking a seat, Randy drew two #2 pencils from the bin of crowns. Oh man, if we were going to use actual pencils, instead of just crowns, that meant I was about to get tutored tutored. I wasn't sure if I was ready for this.

Randy gave his chair a stylish twirl as he pulled it out before sitting down next to me. "All right, Jordan, tell me," he began, "How do you spell?"

"Huh?" I asked. "What do you mean?

"When Mr. Pony reads off your word from the card, what do you think as you're spelling it?"

I put my hand over my nose and mouth thoughtfully. "I don't really know," I admitted. "It's not really something I'm paying attention to." I thunk a bit harder. "I guess if I know how to spell the word, I'll spell it, but if I don't I'll take my best guess. Isn't that what everyone does?"

"Sort of," replied Randy, re-thinking of a way to re-word the question. "What I mean is when you get a word you don't know how to spell, how do you try to spell it?"

I tapped the eraser of the pencil to my face as I thought. This was a deeper question than I was expecting. "I guess… I sound it out in my head, and then guess letters based on that?"

"That's good." Randy nodded approvingly. "But usually, there are certain groups of letters that combine to make certain sounds." He wrote out chocolate, cheese, chapstick, and children in cursive that was almost as elegant as his eyelashes. "You see, all of these words start with the same sound when you say them, and they also start with the same two letters." He circled the 'ch' in all four of the words.

"I see," I said, pretty sure that I saw.

"This goes for most of the rest of the sounds in the words too," continued Randy. "If two words have a sound that rhymes, then they are probably spelled the same way." He wrote 'sick' underneath chapstick and circled the 'ick' at the end of both words. I could see the veins in his forearms flex through the sleeve of his flannel as he wrote.

"But sometimes," he continued, writing 'please' underneath cheese, "that's not the case, and you need to remember all of the different ways you can spell that noise." He also wrote 'sneeze' 'disease', and 'seize'. I had a feeling that this was an important moment, so I made sure to comment on that last one.

"Oh! And also," I inputted, underlining the 'ei' in 'seize'. "If there's a rule about the word, like 'i before e, except after c', I'll make sure to follow that."

"That's also good," he agreed. "You've got to make sure you follow the ru-ules."

I nodded as well. Randy continued to tutor me thoughroughly for the next several minutes. When he explained things, it felt like I was relearning things I already knew, but in a new way that made them easier to understand. Despite not really learning anything new, I felt like I could spell words I didn't know better now, thanks to Randy's help. Overall, I'd say it was a productive tutoring sesh.

"Okay, I think I understand now," I said, my eyes flitting around the scrawled-on pages of my assignment book as I reviewed the information Randy and I had gone over. "Thanks so much for your help, Randy."

"You're welcome," he replied, making a sound like he was about to cough as he pronounced the 'r' in 'you're'. "If you ever need more help with school work, just talk to me."

I considered walking away, but hesitated to ask him a question. "By the way, why? Why did you help me out like that just now?"

"Huh?" he responded. "Because I wanted to make sure you understood it."

"Yeah..." I agreed, still searching for some deeper meaning. "But, like, why did you want to make sure I understood it? You've already qualified for the main event, what good does it do you to help me?"

"Well, from a school point of view," stated Randy, "winning the spelling bee is important, but what's more important is making sure that the class learns to spell the words. The competition is just a means to an end."

"I see," I said, putting my hand over my nose and mouth thoughtfully. "I guess I never looked at it that way."

"When I grow up, I want to be a teacher," admitted Randy, "So it'd be my jo-ob to look at it that way." The way he said jo-ob made it sound more like 'ja-ahb'. "Unfortunately, right now I can't be the teacher, because that's Mr. Pony's jo-ob. So I have to settle for being the Teacher's Assistant, or TA for short."

As his words were registering in my brain, so were those of a large man shouting loudly in the distance "If you answer my questions five, you'll get a special surprise! Wait a minute, they don't have those in stinking Kindergarten!"

"And as the TA, I have to help Mr. Pony out with making sure everyone follows the ru-ules and learns what we need to."

After hearing this from him, it occurred to me that I may have misjudged Randy a bit. At first, I thought he was just being kind of a jerk and using the 'ru-ules' to boss people around, but now I understood he was only being so strict because as Mr. Pony's assistant, he had to.

But at the same time, did that really mean that he had to give up his free time to tutor me during centers? Was that something his role required him to do? What exactly was he required to do as TA? I had been the first person here every day, so it's not like he showed up early to help Mr. Pony prepare for the day… I suddenly found myself more intrigued by Randy and his position than before. "Hey Randy," I began, restarting the conversation after it had taken a noticeable thinking break.

"Sorry, Jordan, but if you have more questions for me, they'll have to wait until sometime after Centers," he responded. "You're not the only person who asked for tutoring help. I've got to go help Jenny after this, and I want to make sure we have enough time to cover everything."

I closed my mouth, a bit disappointed, but nodded in understanding. "Yeah, you good," I said. "It can wait until tomorrow anyways." Randy headed off towards Jenny, who was seated in her assigned seat, before taking my chair to sit down next to her. Was that what they call 'disrespect'? Was that what they call 'a display of dominance'? Was I reading too much into this?

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, now alone once again. I scanned the room, seeing if anyone else was available to hang out. Most everyone was either engaged in conversation with someone or just chilling out, maxing, relaxing, all cool. I figured I'd go talk to William. Our eyes met from across the room and we approached each other. It had begun.

"Hey, William," I greeted.

"What's up, Jordan?" he asked. "Man, I hope we get to have recess in the gym today. I've never been there before."

"Yeah," I kinda agreed. "It would be cool, but I also want to work on the tunnel some more."

"That's true," he replied, screwing up his face thoughtfully. "Hold on though, if it's supposed to rain, wouldn't all the rain get in the tunnel?"

That thought hadn't even crossed my mind until just now, but I realized with the horror of someone who had remembered they had left their stove running at home that he was correct. "Oh man, that's true," I said in shock. "Should we tell Eli? Do you think he already knows?"

"I dunno," admitted William, exhaling in some slight disappointment. "It looks like he's talking to Kristy now, so I don't know if we should interrupt him."

"I guess not," I agreed. "We can tell him after Centers, or even during lunch. Actually, has Eli ever had one of your sandwiches?"

"Not that I can remember," he said, "and I know I don't have amnesia. We should totally invite him to sit with us today, so he can have one. We can ask him about the tunnel then."

I felt like something like the tunnel flooding would probably be more urgent to Eli than to tell him possibly as it was happening, but it wasn't like we could do anything about it at the moment anyways, now that school had begun.

"Also, speaking of later today," added William, pumping one of his fists across his body excitedly, "Are you ready for that third spelling bee? I'm gonna win this time for sure!"

"I don't know if I'm going to win," I replied honestly, "but I definitely feel a lot more ready for this one than I did for the last two."

"Did you do some studying?" he asked. "I did a bunch last night. So much that I had to take a snack break and play some video games!"

"That's good," I assured him, though secretly I wondered how much time he had actually spent studying compared to snacking or gaming. "But no, I actually talked to Randy just now, and he was able to tutor me on how to spell better, so I think I'll do better this time."

"Oh yeah," he agreed. "He actually helped me and Jenny out with some maths work a few days ago. It was like I didn't understand, and then all of a sudden, it just clicked."

"It was the same for me," I said, "and yeah, he said that he was going to help Jenny out with spelling too."

"Aw man," said William, beginning to sweat a bit nervously. "I dunno if I'm gonna win anymore. You and Jenny are already so smart, and now you're gonna be even better."

"It's okay, I'm sure you'll do fine," I said. "As long as you studied and know how to spell the words, you should be good." He stiffened a little, which did little to confirm the secret wonder I had had earlier. "Besides, Randy actually let me in on a little secret: the spelling bee itself isn't so important."

"What do you mean, it's not important?" he asked.

"He said the only thing that mattered was whether or not we learned how to spell, and the spelling bee is only there to get us to do that."

"That makes sense, I guess," concluded William. "Remember when Julia asked about getting top marks yesterday?"

I took a second to flash back to that scene, after Julia had claimed a decisive victory the first spelling bee. "Yeah, Mr. Pony said that we had all passed with flying colours."

"But still, I want to win," he added, pumping one of his fists across his body excitedly. "It'd be cool to be in a spelling bee in front of the whole school. I'd end up looking like a fool. Everyone'd know who I am. It'd be like being famous!"

I wasn't so sure about that last part. "Well in that case, I hope we both make it to the final round, so one of us makes it to the main event."

I reached into the pocket of my cardigan. All my hand brushed against there was the two chips, the metal disc, and my stamp collection. My assignment book was in my back pocket, so what was in the other front pocket of my cardigan? I reached my other hand in curiously and felt my fingers jostle against a small plastic object. They eventually closed around it and withdrew it from my pocket so I could inspect it. And then I saw, held in my hand, an object that seemed simultaneously so familiar, yet so foreign. Looking at it gave me the same sensation that the metal disc did.

"What's that?" asked William, intrigued by the item I was holding.

"It's… a frog," I replied, after examining it for a second. Indeed, it was a plastic toy frog that hopped when you wound it up. When did this get in my pocket?

"Oh yeah, it looks like one of those wind-up things," he replied.

I stared into the frog's small, beady, painted eyes for a few seconds. "Do you want it?" I asked. "It could be like a good luck charm, you know, for the spelling bee."

William looked at the frog with an expression of neutral goodness. "Uh, sure!" he replied, accepting the mysterious frog from me and inspecting it more carefully. "You know, I feel like I've seen this thing before. Where'd you get it?"

"I don't know," I replied. "But it seems familiar to me too. I guess I must have picked it up at some point and just forgotten, since I haven't checked that pocket in a while."

William wound up the frog a little bit, just enough for it to hop once in the palm of his hand. "Heh heh," he chuckled. "It's pretty neat though. Thanks, Jordan." I was glad that he liked it, since I didn't really have much use for it.

"Man, you know what would be great?" he asked out of the blue. "a school menu, so we could know what was for lunch beforehand."

"The day just started," I said in shock. "And you're already thinking about lunch?"

"Well, yeah," he replied. "If Eli's gonna join the rest of us, we'll need a lot of time to make sandwiches. I wanna try out this new recipe I had in my head, but it's tough when you don't know what food is gonna be there."

"That's true," I said, before adding "What's the new recipe? I can keep an eye out for anything in it when we're at lunch later."

William and I spent a while discussing various recipes for sandwiches. Though it was only the beginning of the day, the conversation made me hungry. I was looking forward to lunch a lot more now. But even after Centers was over, we still had at least one period to get through before lunch began.

"… and I would use cheddar cheese, since it has a strong flavor and melts easily. It'd be perfect for a panini-pressed or toasted sandwich."

I learned that there was way more to sandwich making than meets the eye. Calling William just a sandwich maker was an understatement, this man was a true sandwich artisan. Which meant, I had to get his opinion on a very important, yet controversial sandwich-related issue.

"Hey William," I asked. "Do you consider a hotdog a sandwich?"

"Huh?" he asked. "Oh, yeah, definitely."

I disagreed. "Why do you think that?" I ventured. "The hotdog bun's only one piece, and a sandwich needs two pieces of bread on either side, right?"

"That's bologna!" he countered, extending his neck out a bit as he spoke, like a turtle. "A sandwich doesn't need to have two pieces of bread, it just needs to be something sandwiched between something else. The bread for Subway sandwiches isn't even completely cut in half!"

"I dunno," I said. "If that's true, doesn't that make, like, a taco a sandwich?"

"Well, yeah," he answered. "Bro, we literally made burritoes together a few days ago." He put a strange emphasis on the word 'literally'. "Were those not sandwiches then?"

"I don't know, maybe?"

Mr. Pony's handbell interrupted our conversation. "Attention, everyone! I'm'm'a have to cut Centers a bit short today, to bring an important schedule update."

"Whoa," commented Kiki. "That's like a fourth level advanced contraction."

"Ahem," continued Mr. Pony. "So, it turns out the fifth graders had already reserved the gym during our recess period, which means that we won't be able to have recess there."

"Aww," went a bunch of students, especially Kathleen.

"However, the gym is empty right after this, meaning that I've gone ahead and scheduled an impromptu gym class!" Mr. Pony whipped a baseball cap and ThunderDrum 57 whistle out of seemingly nowhere and blew it harshly. "Let's go, you lot! Stop lollygagging around! This is a water break, not a tea party! One two one two mush!"

"Uaah!" said Kristy, making a gesture as if she was throwing salt over her shoulder. "What's with the sudden change in attitude?"

"...Anyways," inputted William quickly. I had almost forgotten I had been talking to him. "There's actually a chart based on what you think is or isn't a sandwich. I can show it to you next time, if you want."

That sounded intriguing, much like Randy's role as TA. "Yeah, I'll check it out sometime," I agreed. I wasn't sure if I wanted to fully commit, since I felt kind of bad hanging out with the same people multiple days in a row when I hadn't even talked to some others once. Man, being a kindergartener sure was stressful.

"Hurry up, Jordan!" Kathleen's impatient voice drew me away from my thoughts. "We need you to be line leader so we can go!"

"R-right!" I hustled over to the front door. Little did I know, this would be far from the last time I had to hustle today.