Simon's POV

The next day at school, I went on a mission to find someone who could take Alvin's place should he be unable to rise to the occasion. I asked all the intellectual students I knew, but no one seemed to be available for the practices or the competition.

In the cafeteria, I met up with the other Mathletes...or MathTrons as I guess we're called now. "I think we need another alternate." I said to them quietly. Alvin was close to our table. He was sitting with his comic book club. I had to make sure he didn't hear anything I was saying.

"You still think we can't trust Alvin?" Kevin asked in a soft whispery voice, frowning.

"No no. This is simply a precautionary measure to make sure we're covered if the worst should happen." I reasoned.

"Why are we whispering?" Cheesy questioned us, in a semi-quiet voice.

I dropped the volume of my voice even lower. "Because we can't let Alvin know we're getting back-up. It'll make him think we WANT to replace him."

"I'm confused now." Cheesy squinted his eyes. "You really want to replace him?"

"No. Like I said, I don't. I'm covering all the, you know, "what might happen" scenarios." I answered.

"Ohhhh. Okay, with you now." The chubby cheeked human responded.

Kevin chewed the eraser of his pencil as he added more physics notes to the master notebook he liked to use for studying. It impressed me. He seemed to be taking this the most seriously. The boy in the black glasses looked up from the notebook and back at me. "Who were you thinking of getting as the new alternate?"

I hoped he wouldn't ask that. My plan has been for my team to throw out suggestions. I didn't want to admit I had….absolutely nothing. Still, I needed to be honest with my team. "I haven't found anyone yet. Do you have any….ideas?"

Kevin, Warren, and Cheesy all shook their heads.

Warren cast a glance in Alvin's direction. "He seems to be your best option right now." The boy in the purple striped flannel shirt told us.

I sighed. I guess Dave's plan wasn't as simple as I thought. Another idea flashed through my mind. It was somewhat unethical and I almost hated myself for thinking it. Once I thought harder though, I realized it WAS for a good cause...and it wasn't really cheating. I needed to find Eleanor right away. She was the keystone in this plan. Without her, I was sunk.

When the bell signaling the end of the lunch period rang, I located Eleanor as she was leaving the cafeteria.

"Eleanor, I need your help." I said.

She looked at me suspiciously. "With what?"

"I need you to do a little snooping and find me a student here that's got consistently amazing grades on science tests, specifically physics." I explained.

She folded her arms and smiled. "No problem. How soon do you need the info?"

"Before the 11th." I stated, feeling my heart pound. "Preferably as soon as possible."

"I gotcha." The pigtailed Chipette in the seafoam green jacket and jeans replied. "I'll text you when I find someone."

"And make sure they're also interested in being in the Physics Bowl." I added.

Eleanor cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "How am I supposed go do that?" She asked.

"I dunno." I could sense that 3 minutes had passed since the bell rang, leaving me with little time to make it to AP Chem on time. "I'm sure you'll figure something out. You're good at being sneaky and stealthy. It's your superpower."

"I'll do my best." She told me before vanishing into the crowd of human students. She's very good at going unnoticed, to a creepy extent at times. She also enjoys popping out of nowhere and scaring the living daylights out of everyone. I'm not sure how she does it, but I think it's something worth studying.

I walked down the hall, carefully avoiding the other students. "No running!" I reminded them. As Safety Inspector, that's my duty. Unfortunately, no one listened. To make matters worse, the late bell rang before I made it to Dr. Wilson's classroom. I'm usually not tardy. It was extremely frustrating.

Alvin smiled smugly the second he saw me. I was surprised to see him here. I assumed he would be even later than I had been.

"Well, well, well, looks like I'm not the only Seville boy who's late." He chided.

I jumped into my seat and glared at him. "At least for me this isn't typical."

"Lucky lucky you." Alvin grumbled.

Kevin, who sat between us, looked uneasy. "Please don't start arguing." He begged. Kevin was the only member of the MathTrons to attend Dr. Wilson's class with us. He also typically attended computer science with me.

"We're not arguing." Alvin spoke in his haughty voice he uses when he's feeling like a scholar. "We're having a discussion."

"A discussion that would most likely descend into arguing." I pointed out.

"Not necessarily." Alvin replied.

I refused to create a problem where there didn't need to be one. "Let's just open our textbooks and be the stellar students we are…and the stellar students we pretend to be." I said, focusing on my work.

Alvin went slack jawed for a few seconds. Then, his tiny nose scrunched in annoyance. "I know that was directed at me." He growled. Then, he sighed as his expression became forlorn. "Are you still mad about the whole history project thing?"

"I am harboring complicated feelings." I admitted. "It has been a rough week, and you have not helped to make it better."

"I…..I try." Alvin adjusted his glasses and stuck out his lower lip. "Really, I do."

"Yeah. Because wasting the entire evening making a self help book no one will read is really trying." I retorted.

Alvin said nothing back as Dr. Wilson entered the room. He clearly didn't want to get in trouble with the teacher. He respects Dr. Wilson. I wish he showed Miss. Smith, our main teacher, respect, though I completely understand why he doesn't. She's very hard on him.

AP Chem was….interesting. Alvin raised his hand to answer almost every question on our homework sheet. He didn't actually get to answer them all, because that wouldn't be fair, but the ones he answered were flawlessly worded and indisputably correct.

"How did you do that?" I asked him after class.

Alvin tapped his head with his fingers. "My brain's really kicking today. I hope it lasts."

"Why wouldn't it last?" I asked.

Alvin didn't answer me. He scurried ahead to his next class.

"I will never understand him." I said out loud.

Kevin heard me and looked down to meet my gaze. "See you at practice today. Same time? Same place?"

I nodded. "Affirmative."

When it was time for practice, I grabbed my backpack from my locker and walked to room 202. The whole group was already there waiting for me, including the pain in the tail that shares my DNA. They were all wearing the new T shirts that Alvin and Theodore designed for them.

Alvin tossed my T-shirt at me. "Come on, Statistical Mean! Let's hustle! We've got a lot of stuff to go over and I still gotta leave at the same time I did yesterday."

I slipped the shirt on over my head, giving me a layered shirt look since I already had a long sleeved shirt underneath in a different shade of blue. "Alvin," I told him firmly. "You are not the leader of this team."

"Then who is?" He wondered.

"Nobody." Kevin answered. "We're all a team and nobody is really in charge."

Warren sat down at a desk and started reading a comic book. He was still listening to our conversation though, because he added onto it. "I thought Simon was the leader."

"He does kinda act, like, in charge all the time." Cheesy commented.

"Someone has to keep us focused on the goal." I told them.

"Speaking of goals, did you guys see that soccer move I did in the gym today? Wasn't it awesome!?" Alvin was immediately sidetracked by another topic. Super. Yeah, he would be an asset to the team for sure. (Yes, that's all still sarcasm.)

"Uh, must have missed it." Kevin replied, rubbing his finger on the springs of his notebook.

"Case in point. If it weren't for me, we'd never get anything accomplished." I murmured. "Focus, men. We don't have time to chit chat." I raised my voice to get their attention. "Warren, can you read the questions while we all answer them?"

The black haired boy with the pale skin put down his comic and took his flashcards from his backpack. "Absolutely." He cleared his throat as we all took our positions. "Are you ready?"

"Let's do this!" Kevin shouted.

"Bring it on!" Cheesy narrowed his eyes and put on his "game face."

"Game on!" Alvin hollered.

I rubbed my temples. "It's not a game." I reminded the three, but mostly Alvin.

"Uh….I mean, SCIENCE ON! Errr...uh… oh oh! Got it! LET THE SCIENCE COMMENCE!" Alvin tried poorly to make up for momentarily thinking this was a sports game.

"Okay, your first question is….." Warren pauses for dramatic effect. I really wished he wouldn't. "Which statement best describes Hooke's law?

a. The extension of a spring is directly proportional to the force applied.

b. The extension of a spring is directly proportional to the force applied, provided that the limit of proportionality is not exceeded.

or c. The extension of a spring is inversely proportional to the force applied, provided that the limit of proportionality is not exceeded."

I slapped my desk, this time for a reason OTHER than having an angry outburst.

"Simon?" Warren called on me.

"b. The extension of a spring is directly proportional to the force applied, provided that the limit of proportionality is not exceeded." I blurted out.

"Correct!" He said. I already knew it was correct, but of course he had to say that. After all, it's what the judges would say.

Warren moved on to the next question. "What is the name for energy stored by a stretched spring?

a. Elastic potential energy

b. Gravitational potential energy

or c. Kinetic energy"

I was about to "buzz in" when I heard humming. Loud and high pitched humming.

"It's math and it's the physics of you and me…..know your energy." Alvin was humming and then singing as quietly as he could. It wasn't quiet enough.

"Alvin, knock it off!" I scolded.

"Huh?" He blushed redder than the T-shirt he was wearing. "Sorry. Sorry. Did not know I was singin' that was out loud."

Warren crossed his arms. "Since you were singing about energy, why don't you answer the question?"

Kevin and Cheesy exchanged worried glances with each other.

Alvin rubbed his head. "Uhhhh….is it….A?"

"Yes, actually it is A." Warren was a little bit surprised. I could tell he thought the same thing I did. Alvin had gotten lucky. He had guessed.

Alvin smirked. I wanted to wipe that expression off his face...and I knew exactly how to do it.

"When you're at the actual competition, you have to say the entire answer. Any idea what option A actually was?" I waited for my sibling to reply.

"Uhhhh…..it was….elastic something energy….uhhh….potional….potential! That's it! Elastic potential energy! Bam! Knew it! Ha!"

"You're gonna have to be faster than that when we're at the competition." Cheesy looked worried.

"I will be. Duh! That's why we practice. I'm new at this, but lucky for all of you, I am a VERY fast learner." Alvin bragged. It was getting sickening.

Kevin gulped. I could tell his faith in Alvin was beginning to falter.

I sure hoped Eleanor could find us someone to replace Alvin before he turned our Physics Bowl team into the laughingstock of Santa Barbara High. This was going exactly as I expected. I made a mental note to plan out more ideas to help Alvin hone his recall skills, in case Eleanor wasn't able to fulfill my request. I grimaced as I thought of what Alvin would say about my methods. There would be a lot of push back at first, before he finally accepted that I was right and rigorous studying works better than procrastination.

Alvin's POV

"FOCUS! FOCUS! You can't mess this up!" I yelled at myself in my head. Following my near screw up and lucky guess, I was determined to find a way to prove I know this stuff. Because I DO know it! It's in my head! I can feel it!

As the rest of the team answered questions, I commanded my head to cough up the knowledge I needed.

The only person on the team getting questions incorrect sometimes was Kevin. And even then, Kevin was at least quick to answer. I was fumbling, hard. If it were a football game, I not only dropped the football, I practically kicked it right between the other team's goalposts.

"For an object moving in a uniform circular motion, the direction of the instantaneous acceleration vector is?" Warren asked.

"a. tangent to the path of motion

b. equal to zero

c. directly radially outward

or d. directly radially inward"

I got excited and slapped the desk.

"Alvin?" All eyes in the room were on me.

I was about to answer the question when my thoughts instantly scrambled and took another detour. I had noticed something different about this question compared to the others answered. "Why do some questions have 4 answers to pick from and the rest only have 3?"

I watched Simon's eye twitch. "Because some are meant to be more challenging."

Kevin sighed. "Are you going to answer or not?" He asked, looking slightly annoyed with me. "Because if not, I know the answer."

"Oh, yeah, uhhhh….it's A. Tangent to the path of motion!" I answered, smiling.

"You can't keep picking A for every answer." Simon told me angrily.

"But I am pretty sure this one's A!" I insisted.

Warren shook his head. "I'm sorry. That's incorrect."

I felt my face flush. Of course! How could I have been so stupid? Why was I thinking tangent? I dunno, maybe cuz my mind had wandered off on a tangent. That's tangent the vocab word, not tangent the math term that's pals with sine and cosine.

"The answer is D." Kevin spoke calmly in that weird sounding voice of his. "Directly radially inward."

"Correct." Warren flipped to the next flashcard.

I sunk down in my seat. Maybe I couldn't do this. It wasn't like homework and classwork where I could do a little and then take a break to warm up my brain again. I needed to somehow be "on" for the entire competition. But I HAD to do this! Otherwise, the team would be short a player! They'd have to forfeit. It would be all my fault and Simon would never let me hear the end of it!

"2.0 side, dude. If you're available, I could REALLY use your help!" I begged him inside my head. At least, I HOPED I didn't accidentally say that out loud.

"A train is travelling from a station A to another station B at a speed of 60 km/hr. Another train is travelling at a speed of 30 km/hr from station B to A. The relative speed of train A with respect to B is?" The boy in purple read out another question whose answer completely alluded me. Instead, it made me think about a cool show about a train with a bunch of cars and each one is a different dimension. The cars make you solve puzzles like a giant video game. It's a really cool show. 10/10 would recommend it.

Despite totally zoning out and missing half the question, I still slapped the desk to buzz in. My hand was getting sore from doing that so much.

Warren sighed. "Alvin?"

I started panicking. Why had I buzzed in!? WHY!? "18…..43….22….39...64…?"

"Now you're just saying random numbers." Simon grumbled.

"Because I don't know the answer!" I shouted. "Okay!? I thought I did, now I don't!"

"But you told me you studied! You said you knew the material front to back!" He was getting very VERY mad at me, and the sucky part was he had EVERY reason to be. I SUCKED!

I tried to explain what was going on. "Yeah. The knowledge IS in my head. That doesn't mean I can pull it out whenever I need it. It's like playing Russian Roulette. You spin the wheel and hope that it lands on what you want. If it doesn't, then you're outa luck. Try again next time."

"It's 25 miles per second. Cheese louise." Cheesy commented.

Kevin raised an eyebrow at me skeptically. "That sounds…..weird."

"I'm telling the truth!" I shouted, before glancing at Cheesy. "And hey! How come you can make cheese puns and I can't?"

"Because I'M the one with the embarrassing name, obviously." The boy lisped as he rolled his eyes.

"Look, I am trying my hardest. Maybe….Maybe I'd do better if Simon could stop giving me judgmental stares 24-7!" I was deflecting my problem and blaming my brother. Not a wise choice, but in my defense….his stares are really intimidating and judgmental!

"I have nothing to do with this!" Simon was offended now. I screwed up yet AGAIN! "You didn't study like you were supposed to, because you were too busy playing videogames!"

"I STUDIED! I SWEAR!" I placed my hand on my chest.

Warren flipped quickly through the deck of flash cards and picked out a very specific one. "Here, Alvin, we'll start with the easier ones and work you up to the hard ones." He offered. At least someone was being nice to me. "Can you name the three laws of motion?"

"Uhhhh…." Gosh! I knew this! I knew I knew this! Why couldn't I recall….anything? Was it because I needed a physical demonstration? I am a hands on learner. Maybe I'm also a hands on rememberer?"

"I'm sorry, "uhhh" is not correct." Simon frowned at me.

"What gives, dude? It's the 10th time you've said "uhhhh." Cheesy asked, looking lost, but not as lost as I knew I looked.

Kevin scratched his head. "Do you know any of the answers?"

I swallowed hard. This was going so wrong. How could it go so wrong? "Yeah! I know them. I promise. I just, you know, need time to think."

Simon now looked more sad than angry. "You won't have time at the Physics Bowl." He pointed out. Yeah, I knew that. That's why I was mid freakout and couldn't think of literally anything except us losing the competition to Bocarter and the Smart Alecks!

Cheesy seemed a little more sympathetic. "Come on, Alvin. You know this. You explained it to me like….a lot."

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the other thoughts swirling through my mind. "Force, Gravity…...uhhhh…..something something….oh….mass acceleration…..friction….OH I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING!" I began slapping the side of my head with my hand, hard. "WORK, BRAIN! WORK! GET YOURSELF TOGETHER!"

Cheesy stopped me by grabbing my tiny hand before I could smack myself anymore. "Whoah, whoah. Take it easy." He looked at the other three Physics Knights. "I think we might have pushed him too hard."

"He is NOT ready for this." Simon folded his arms and gave me his signature glare which made me feel like garbage.

"No, No, I can be ready!" I squeaked. "I just gotta think of a way to circumvent my ADHD for the duration of the competition. Give me another chance! I'll do better tomorrow."

"Alvin, I think, that, well, uh, maybe it's time you….accept that there's certain things that you simply can't do." Simon told me in a kind voice. I was surprised he was being kind to me after I proved that I could be the thing that ruins his team. Wait a minute...those words weren't kind at all! Things I can't do? What? Was he implying I'm not smart enough for the Physics Bowl!? HOW DARE HE!?

"There's nothing I can't do." I spat. "You'll see! You'll all see! If there's a way to sharpen my mind, I'll find it! Guaranteed!"

"You'll be running through my training course after school today." Simon said smugly. Urgh! I hate how obnoxious he acts when he's right.

"Please, no." I requested. "I have to go deliver Jeanette her homework again. Then, I gotta catch up on the chores I've been putting off. I don't have time today."

"How about this weekend?" Kevin suggested. "We could all get together and help you improve your recall skills….and then when we finish we can play some Dungeons and Dragons." He sounded excited about that. Honestly, I did too. About the last part, not so much about the first.

"That's….worth a shot." I agreed. "So I guess…" I jumped out of my seat. "I'll see you four tomorrow. I'll get my act together. Munk's honor. I'll make sure to rest and eat right and everything."

"You should try some fish!" Cheesy suggested. The others looked at him with confused expressions. "What? I heard it's brain food."

"Hmmm. Not a bad idea, Cheesy." I said as I walked toward the door. "Not a bad idea at all."

On my way out of school, I ran into Brittany. She seemed rather happy and peppy. It was a stark contrast to all the emotions I was feeling.

"So, Physics King?" She asked, nudging me with her elbow. "How's practice been going? I heard you're stepping in for Warren."

I wasn't feeling much like a Physics King at the moment. The T-shirts really were a stupid idea. My shirt should say The King Of Stupid Ideas on it instead. "How do you know that?" I asked the strawberry blonde with the clearly cherry scented lip gloss. I hadn't told anyone I was actually going to BE in the Physics Bowl thing. I only mentioned I was going to the practice. Ohhhh. Now I understand. They assumed going to practice meant I was in the actual thing….which I was now, but hadn't been before.

"News travels fast." Brittany told me.

I sighed. "Practice is….fine."

"Just fine?" She questioned. "You seemed so excited yesterday. What gives?"

"I…..I'm not as smart as I thought I was." I admitted, not sure why I was giving her this lovely nugget of information to tease me with.

Brittany grabbed me with her strong arms and made me stand up straighter. I had been slouching. "You're one of the smartest people I know, Alvin." She said. "It used to bother me because you made me feel like I wasn't smart enough for you."

I shook my head and tried to slouch again, but she prevented it. "I'm not the right KIND of smart for trivia contests."

She laughed. "Yeah right. You completely whoop everyone in music trivia all the time. You've got almost all the answers."

"That's music trivia. This is science." I explained.

She shrugged. "Trivia is trivia."

"I guess you're right….kinda." She wasn't. Music had been my life since I was very very young. Science was new. Science was challenging. Science trivia was something I still needed a LOT of work on. I wish I remembered what the day was so I could try and figure out how far away May 11th was. Unfortunately, I STILL couldn't unlock my phone to even check the phone calendar.

"You should check your temperature, Alvie." Brittany felt much forehead with her hand. "You look pale."

"I always look pale." I told her. It comes with being a freckly redhead.

"Not this pale." She bit her lip. "You know you can talk to me if something's bothering you." The pretty Chipette offered.

"Thanks, but no thanks." I mumbled. "I gotta go."

I secretly wanted to talk to her more. Really, I did. But I knew I couldn't. I was getting more and more tired by the second. All that straining my brain to remember stuff had really worn me out.

I dropped more snacks, homework, and an umbrella (just in case) off for my girlfriend who was still in the same place I saw her yesterday. I wondered how long she'd be chained to that tree. Talk about a commitment!

We didn't talk much, mostly stared into each other's eyes. I sat next to her and not long after, I fell asleep with my head resting against her shoulder.