For the first time in a while, I woke up feeling refreshed, like a mushroom. My mind must have been so worn out from all the work spelling, dreaming and thinking all those deep thoughts that it had just passed out. Nonetheless, it was a new day – the rain from yesterday was gone, and the sun was back out. I had some healthy, steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast before being dropped off by my uncle's bus-shaped vehicle. As I approached the gate to the playground, I noticed some loose change on the ground. Man, my day was really off to a great start! I counted it up, counted it up, counted it up, counted it, and it came out to 65 Kč. I felt like I had heard that recently, but couldn't remember when. Nonetheless, money was money, so I started gathering it up.

"Morning, Jordan," I looked up from bending over to see Jenny walking up behind me.

"Morning," I replied, putting the coins in my pocket. "You ready for today?"

"More or less," she answered, walking next to me towards the kindergarten building, before adding "I'm a little disappointed that I'm not participating, though."

"Yeahhh," I agreed, the bittersweet afterburn of yesterday's disappointment lingering over today's fresh mood. "Once I beat Eli, I really thought I had it for sure."

"I'm sure Kristy will do well, though," she said, as I opened the door to the vestibulum. We headed inside the classroom, and soon, everyone else arrived, and the WATCH Tower bell tolled to signal the start of the day.

"All right, you lot," snorted Mr. Pony to us all gathered on the rug. "So, if you aren't already aware, there's a big spelling bee going on today."

"Good," replied Julia. "What will happen then? When does it begin? When do we go to the gym?"

"Whoa, hold your horses," said Mr. Pony. "So many questions at once, I'm getting there! The spelling bee doesn't start until the second period, so we're going to head over a little before then. Once we get there I'll tell you what to do."

"So what are we doing until then?" asked Jeremy.

"Centers, like usual," replied Randy.

"Randy's correct," said Mr. Pony, putting their hands over their mouth mischievously, "but I figure you'd rather hear it straight from the horse's mouth!"

"Ur making a lotta horse puns today," remarked Kiki, her tone of voice making it very clear that she was using 'ur' rather than 'you're'. "Is that why ur called Mr. Pony?"

Mr. Pony made the you-know-I-had-to-do-it-to-em pose, as if they were grasping a large baguette. "That's private information!"

"Quit horsing around, you lot," inputted Owen, pumping his fists in front of himself determinedly. "I dunno about you, but I want as long as possible to hang out with my friends. Right, Jacquesypoo?"

"Huh? Y-yeah, sure," answered Jacques, a little taken off guard by being put on the spot like that.

"Owen's got the right idea," laughed Mr. Pony, putting their hands on their stomach. "I'll leave you be for now. Go and make merry with your brethren!" and with that, they were gone, like a thought – but not truly. They had simply gone over to their rolly chair.

Well, okay then. I already knew who I was going to talk to: Julia, Randy and Kristy, the three who had qualified for the spelling bee. I wanted to give them my support like Kathleen had said yesterday.

Up first was Randy, just because I also wanted to follow up with him about his role as Mr. Pony's assistant that he had mentioned yesterday, just because I was interested in what all that entailed. Did he have some sort of special access to things we normal students didn't? I figured the best way to find out was to ask him directly.

"Morning, Randy," I greeted, as if we were sharing a tumblr of coffee over the water cooler at our office jobs.

"Morning, Jordan," he responded. "Are you here for another lesson?"

"No, actually," I admitted, "but I do want to thank you again for tutoring me. I definitely noticed the difference during the third practice round yesterday. It was a lot easier to figure out words I didn't know."

"Good," he responded, closing his eyes and smiling satisfactorily with his mouth open. "I'm glad I was able to help."

"Also," I added, "I wanted to say good luck today. I wish I could participate with you, but unfortunately I didn't qualify..."

"Thanks," he replied. "And don't let it get to you. As much as I want to believe I can win the whole thing, there's probably a lot of really good older kids from other classes that make us look like chumps."

He had a point. Even if I had made it to the school-wide event, I probably would have been in way over my head – an easy elimination. Nonetheless, I recalled the words of reassurance Kathleen had told me after I had lost yesterday. "Well, if you've made it this far, the only thing you can do now is your best." Another thought crossed my mind. "Ah, by the way, I happen to know who the three first graders in the spelling bee are."

"Really?" he asked, making a sound like he was about to cough as he pronounced the 'r' in 'really'. "Who are they?"

"Tim, the one who was in charge when we got our pen-pals," I explained, "and two others named Emma and shep. I don't know if you've met them."

Randy scratched his cleft chin and looked downward and to the side slightly. "I don't think I've met them, but I feel like I know of them. Their names sound familiar, at least. Maybe I read them on a class list or something."

That made me think of the other thing I wanted to talk to him about. "Ah, by the way, Randy," I asked, offering up my hand as if I were presenting an alternative point of view, "you've mentioned in the past that you were Mr. Pony's assistant. What exactly do you do?"

"Hm?" he responded, as if he weren't expecting the question. "Well, most of what I do is helping out Mr. Pony with their teaching duties. That's what an assistant does, after all." He stopped and looked away from the conversation for a few seconds to think of some examples. "I can do things like pass out and collect papers, run errands to other teachers, or even watch the class when Mr. Pony has a more urgent matter to attend to."

None of those things seemed unusual, but I wondered what 'urgent matters' Mr. Pony would need to attend to.

"But the most important thing," continued Randy, "is that on top of being assistant, I'm also a student like you. So I'm supposed to keep track of the class from a student's point of view and help the teacher figure out what is and isn't working."

"I see," I replied. So in a way, Randy was also representing the rest of the class. Now that I thought about it, he did tend to take charge and make decisions on everyone's behalf, especially during group activities.

"This is where my role as a tutor comes in as well," he added. "If another student has an issue with not understanding some of the content, they can just get extra help from me instead of having to ask Mr. Pony."

"But why not just ask Mr. Pony?" I wondered out loud.

"Some people are too scared to ask the teacher," reasoned Randy, "so they might just ask a classmate instead." That was true. I remembered during my first few days I had found Mr. Pony's antics a bit strange, but by now I had just grown to accept them. It was definitely possible that some of my classmates were still weirded out by Mr. Pony. "I want to be someone people can go to with their issues."

I frowned. What he was saying made sense for a few days ago, when Jeremy had been 'bullying' Owen on the playground, but it didn't answer one other question: "Then why did you make me show and tell my stamp collection?"

Randy's icy stare hardened for a second, and then… it lingered. "Because you were keeping it a secret from everyone. And secrets secrets, are no fun, unless you tell everyone."

"I was keeping it secret because I didn't want everyone to know!" I insisted.

"Well, why didn't you want everyone to know you were a stamp collector, then?" he asked.

I looked down disheartenedly. "Because… it's embarrassing."

Randy crossed his flanneled arms. "The only one who's going to be embarrassed about you being a stamp collector is you, Jordan." I looked back up to meet his icy gaze. "But don't you think it's better now, that everyone knows? You don't have to worry about keeping it a secret anymore."

"I guess that's true," I answered.

"That's why it's bad to keep secrets," stated Randy. "Not only do you have to worry about not telling anyone on accident, but it's also unfair to them."

"Unfair?" I repeated.

"Correct," he confirmed. "You're keeping something away from everyone else. Why do you think we have that rule about not sharing food unless you have enough for everyone?"

As I paused to think of a comeback, Randy continued his point. "Why do you think we even have the ru-ules in the first place? They make things fair for everyone."

I paused for a little while longer, but guessed I couldn't come up with any good response. "I guess that's also true," I admitted. "If there were no rules, people would just go around stealing everything for themselves."

"Exactly," he said. "And if you stole something, you'd keep it a secret, right? Otherwise, if someone knew, they'd just steal it from you. It's better if everyone just has it to begin with."

I had the perfect follow-up thought to that. I reached into my pocket, my hands jangling around the change, chips, stamp collection, and other stuff until they closed around the pilot wings. Yes, I thought, I do have them. "In that case, Randy," I began, "I have something else I'd like to share with you, and don't worry, it's not food."

"What is it?" he asked, curious.

"A pair of pilot's wings," I answered. "It's a pin worn by pilots and flight attendants, on airplanes." I handed him the pin.

He took a look at it. I felt like someone heavy, but not necessarily hot, was breathing down my neck. "These seem pretty neat," he said, before attaching the pin to his flannel. Now he looked like both a lumberjack and a flight attendant. "You know, it would be kind of cool to be a pilot."

"Yeah, you could use it as a good luck charm," I improvised, only remembering after the fact what happened to the last person I gave a good luck charm to. "Something like… 'with these golden wings, like an eagle, you'll surely soar to victory.'"

Randy fiddled with the new pin a little, admiring it. "That was pretty inspirational, Jordan. Has anyone told you that you'd make a good poet?"

"Poet?" I asked, sweating a bit disappointedly. Hadn't he just told me to stop being secretive about being a stamp collector? "No, I've never gotten that before."

"Ah, Nevermind then," he dismissed. "Thank you for the wings though, I'll be sure to wear them during the event today."

"No, thank you," I returned. "For tutoring me yesterday, that is. Just think of these as a thank you gift."

"Right." We shook on it, and then parted ways. Because I was insecure in my masculinity, I noticed that his handshake was firm, with a noise that sounded like he was about to cough on the 'r' in 'firm'. The embrace of his grip caused my hand to tingle for a while after he had released me.

Now that I had given Randy my support, I still had to talk to Julia and Kristy. I scanned the room to see Kristy already engaged in conversation with Kathleen, while Julia was sitting alone, appearing to be reading something. Rather than interrupt Kathleen and Kristy's conversation, I decided to talk to Julia first. I'd always be able to talk to Kristy later, right?

"Hey Julia, what's up?" I asked, approaching her and catching her attention.

"Not much," she replied. "I was just doing a review of the words one final time before the spelling bee. But, I suppose I could take a study break to… de-stress."

"Ah, okay," I replied. "Speaking of which, I wanted to wish you good luck in the spelling bee. I don't know if this information helps you at all, but the first graders in it are Tim, Emma, and shep."

Julia chuckled drily, closing her eyes and raising a finger as if to give some sage advice. "Tim, hmm? Given what he said to me when we first met, to eliminate him would be… cathartic." I didn't know what that word meant, but that was why Julia was in the spelling bee, and not me. "But no matter. Already I feel like I am familiar with the words in Mr. Pony's cards, so if those are the same words that will be used today, I should have no problem winning."

Geez, I thought, a bit offput by the stark contrast in confidence between Julia and Randy. It seemed like Randy had already resigned to the fact that there were better spellers out there, whereas Julia believed she could win the entire spelling bee.

"Then," transitioned Julia, "is there anything you wanted to talk about, Jordan?"

I put my hand over my nose and mouth briefly to think. "How about chemistry?" I offered. "Have you, uh, done any experiments lately?"

Julia held up her hand as if to present something. "I have not," she admitted, "Not since I started in this school. You see, to perform an experiment requires preparation, and many other conditions must be met as well. It is not as simple as one might think."

"Yeah, I can imagine," I said, curling my hand to my chin thoughtfully.

"Then, for the subject of chemistry," continued Julia, "since these 'centers' are meant to be a bonding activity, why not talk about bonds?"

"Bonds?" I repeated.

"Yes, bonds," she confirmed, re-closing her eyes and raising a finger as if to give some sage advice. "In chemistry, bonds are connections between the electrons of atoms that allow them to form chemical compounds." She spread her arms wide as if she were presenting an idea from her imagination. "For example, the chemical name of water is H2O, a compound born from the bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms."

"I see," I said, though actually, I couldn't see at all – the atoms, and bonds, Julia was talking about were way too small to be seen with the naked eye.

Julia crossed her arms like a mummy in a coffin. "There are three main types of bonds: Ionic Bonds, Covalent Bonds, and… James Bonds."

"James… Bonds?" I asked, looking slightly taken aback. "Isn't that the guy from those spy movies?"

Julia chuckled drily. "Precisely. That was but a joke." I sweated embarrassedly. If she hadn't told me, I probably never would have known… neither her tone of voice nor her body language changed at all during her delivery.

Julia continued her explanation, and I had the sense that she would have whether or not I had questioned the James Bonds thing. "I can explain to you the difference between the ionic and covalent bonds, but before that, I must explain about valence shells and electrons." She then launched into a detailed, yet complicated explanation of how the different types of bonds, ionic bonds and covalent bonds, worked, and all of the background information one would need to know to to understand bonds and bond accessories. I started second guessing what I had gotten myself into… though I tried my best to follow along, and it was clear Julia enjoyed discussing chemistry a lot, most of the information went over my head. As a result, I felt like I couldn't contribute much to the conversation.

"So would you say," I asked, in conclusion, "that the bonds between chemicals are similar to the bonds between people?"

Julia stared at me blankly for a second. "Perhaps," she answered, as if she wasn't expecting the question. After a few more seconds of thought, she added, "in the sense that bonds are what connects both chemicals and people with one another, and that there are multiple types of them."

That was close enough to the answer I was looking for. "In that case," I said, raising my hand halfway as if to offer an alternative point of view, "Julia, I feel like the bond between us has definitely just been strengthened by at least an electron."

Julia chuckled drily and put her hand in front of her mouth as if it were a spiderweb. "If you say so. Say, I wonder, what would happen if a bond between people were to reach a full eight valence electrons. Perhaps it will become a certain type of bond. A bond that… tends to cause lots of discourse when broken."

I wasn't quite sure what Julia was talking about, so I couldn't tell whether that was supposed to be another joke or not, though in a way I figured that in a sense that was part of the appeal of Julia's sense of humor.

"Dingalingalingaling," said Mr. Pony as they rung their handbell to catch our attention. That was a bit sooner than I had expected, were centers really over so quickly? I hadn't even gotten a chance to talk to Kristy.

"Hut-tention, you lot!" announced Mr. Pony. "Like I said earlier, the spelling bee begins at the start of second period, so we all need to pony up and get over there by the time it starts."

"Heh," said Kiki. "That was another horse pun."

"As a result, we'll need to end centers a bit early today. Finish whatever conversation you're on now, and then get lined up and ready to leave! We'll be gone until the end of the day, too, so don't leave behind anything you're going to need before then." Mr. Pony stopped announcing and went to go shut down their computer before we all left.

I turned back to Julia. "Well, it's almost time for the spelling bee," I said. "You ready to head to the gym?"

"Yes," replied Julia, closing her eyes and raising a finger as if to give some sage advice. "I must… work out."

I was pretty sure that one was supposed to be a joke. Right?

"Anyways," she continued, "I should probably finish my review of the words before we leave. We can talk again tomorrow, if you like."

"Right," I nodded, before we parted ways. As the rest of the class hustled and bustled around me to finish up their centers and gather up their things, I headed over towards the front entrance to assume my position as line leader. The sun reflecting off the damp ground gave a misty glare to my view of the campus outside through the window – at the very least we wouldn't be walking through the rain again. Soon, the rest of the class had assembled behind me, and on Mr. Pony's signal, I led them on our hundred-foot journey towards the gym, the spelling bee, infinity, and beyond.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The next chapter is gonna be a while, since it's a long one, but if you all want I can post it in 2-3 normal-length parts. I may or may not just post the entire thing in one shot as a stylistic decision anyways so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯