The last two episodes were, I know, underwhelming. They were short, barely contained any actual interactions with others, and I was barely there. Well, that wasn't a fun summer for me.

The new school year was better. As I said earlier, I had decided not to go back on the Ritalin pill for classes.

That was easy to decide in the summer, but once confronted with school and math? Well, it was just as easy.

First, we didn't start with geometry other than for some recap of the previous year that I nailed with my new techniques. Second, I didn't have the same psychotic math teacher who wanted to show advanced geometry to first-year high school students. I only had to do work appropriate for my grade level, and with all the help from Olivia in the previous year and the tools I developed, I managed to do the recap. A lot of the new material was on the quadratic equations, which I loved.

Additionally, this new teacher only had us recap what we should have learned, not what we actually did. And it's a good thing, as the classes were shuffled, and I found myself with Olivia in my math class, a great boon for me.

I was also in her English class, which became trickier for her now that more advanced topics were touched upon. We once again had Mr. Cook, who once upon a time almost became Marge's father-in-law.

Now, I was good early last year, enough to finish with a good grade. My last semester, however? It was bad. Not with the grades so much, but just unimaginative. Apart from that poem that won me awards, I could barely write.

This year, Mr. Cook wanted to push our creativity to the maximum, and he was back to his usual charming and funny self.

In my 4th class, I even asked myself, am I attracted to him? Could this be my first crush?

I know it's wrong, as there is no way I can date the man that Ellie briefly dated. Not just because of that, I am a minor and his student.

Yes, one of Olivia's friends from last year did have a crush on him. This year, her family moved to the big town, and our gang was down to just the two of us.

I guess, in that 4th class, I began to understand what our friend found in him and what Ellie saw in him.

It's also in the same class that he gave us our first written assignment, the one that made Olivia panic and beg me to come tutor her after school.

We had a week to write a short story, that is, a story that stood on its own on two or three pages (hence why it's called short), but it's more than that.

A short story needs a twist. A single one. Why? Because you don't have the space for more! You need a short list of well-defined characters doing just a little action, but for the intense story to have a sort of reveal at the end.

I can still remember Mr. Cook. His words inspired me so much that it's why I was confused about being stimulated intellectually and feeling attraction for him.

"Imagine a great movie you love with a twist at the end. Well, a short story, in literature, would be like making a 5-minute movie of just that twist. But keep something in mind. The twist works because of the movie that precedes it. So, in a short story, you need to focus on a single event, a single character, or a single theme that offers an instant gut punch that you don't see coming. How can you do that with so few words? Well, you pick them. You limit the number of characters and their description. You keep it brief. A good short story of perhaps 1000 words might have begun as a 2000-word story, and half of it was cut. So, as you work on your project, don't hesitate to write more and cut anything that isn't crucial. Imagine a line in the sand from your beginning to your end. Well, anything outside that line, you cut. Now, I will blow your mind. You need to write between 2 and 3 pages. It's about 250 words per page. Patricia, don't write as small as you usually do. I will count your words. And Kevin and Sam? Try to use smaller letters. You have the capacity to do so. I won't count the pages, so this is the time to practice not padding up."

Sam grunted something. He would join the football team but end up with two concussions. But honestly? I think it only made him more patient, but not any more of an idiot.

"So, I will blow your mind with something. You remember last year that I penalized you for being too short when writing an essay. Well, for every 10 words under 500, I will deduct 1% from your grade, assuming you have all the elements. But for every word above 750, I will deduct 1%. I am serious. I will count them. Every one of them. And I'm. As in I apostrophe M, is two words, so count them, people. I want brief. And Julie? Blow our minds again."

I blushed, but I saw Olivia smile at me.

I had the choice between art and physical education for grade 8. Honestly, I don't know why suddenly gym class was optional, but I learned that art was all about drawing, and I wanted to get back in shape, so I chose PE. Olivia too, but for very different reasons. Art required purchasing art equipment, which her family couldn't afford.

After Mr. Cook's class, we began PE, which mainly had basic training exercises. Push-ups, running, and sit-ups. Normally, I would dismiss it as stupid, but I managed to corner the teacher and ask for tricks on weight loss.

To my surprise, he suggested I stay after the class to talk to him.

I liked that. I coordinated with Olivia, as I usually still ate lunch with her now, even if our gang from last year mostly vanished when school started.

"I tried to give you exercises last year, when you were on Ritalin, but you didn't really listen to me"

"Sorry Mr Green. I wasn't feeling well on it. It's why I stopped last summer"

"I am so happy to hear that. You seem a lot more present. As you were taking it, I could see you drifting away, but it wasn't my place to talk"

"Maybe you should have. I used to be thin, and now, look at me"

"It's not so bad. You stopped the pill, so now you want some exercises to help?"

"I already take plenty of walks, and I ride my bike"

"Good. That will help your joints and will help you sleep. That pill ruins the normal sleep cycle, so you need to drain your batteries now to teach your brain to relax at night."

"I notice that"

"Good. About 2 to 3 times per week, you should do some bodyweight strength training. That's wall sits, push-ups, glute bridges, planks, and squats. In short, you move to use your own weight to train."

I don't like that. Strength training. I think he saw it in my facial expression

"Julie, it's not bodybuilding. It's about making it strong and reliable on its own."

"Ok, I will try. What else?"

"Well, you also need flexibility. You could put on your favorite music and dance like no one's watching. Seriously. It burns more calories than you think."

"Dancing? Me?"

"Hey, we have a dance troupe. You could always join"

"Please, I need to have the coordination for that"

"On your pill? You didn't. Now? You could learn"

I looked at him. "Do I look like a dancer?"

"Do you want to?"

"Yes"

"Then start acting like one"

I look at him.

"Or do Pilates or gentle yoga. I am not your dad. But you need that too. You need to move every muscle."

"Thanks. That's helpful"

"And I am not the one in charge of the dance team"

"I know, it's Mrs. Sanchez"

"Talk to her. What have you got to lose?"

I was happy to change alone in the changeroom, and I joined Olivia, who was trying to eat her pathetic lunch as slowly as possible. She realized that eating slower could trick her appetite.

Me? I realized that the conversation with Mr. Green made me lose my appetite. I ate half of my first sandwich piece and gave the other to Olivia, who ate it with the appetite I didn't have that day.

"You? On the dance team? That's a great idea, Julie. With your visuospatial dyspraxia, it would help you gain control over your body. I wish I could join"

"Why don't you?"

"Can't you guess?"

"You don't have the coordination?"

"Oh, I do. I'll even practice with you if you'd like. No, guess again."

"I don't know"

"It costs money to join the team"

"Right. Of course"

I found Mrs. Sanchez in my social studies class. This year, we would start with the importance of the Renaissance era and how it transformed the world.

"I'll go a little off curriculum, but can someone tell me why it's called the Renaissance, which means rebirth, and not just, like, naissance, which means birth?"

No one volunteered, so I decided to try a guess. I had heard it was a sort of return to ancient Greek values or something, so I told her that.

"You are not far! A lot of the Renaissance was about the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman texts lost to history. But here is the thing: they were lost in the West, but not all over the world. For about a thousand years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern one, which we call Byzantium, survived. They kept their books preciously until the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople and basically took ownership of the books. Well, they had a lot already, but this was a boon for them."

She paused.

"But then, this little city on an island, called Venice, set up an empire by making trade posts along the coast of the Ottoman Empire and, in the process, rediscovered those books about science and art and the science of art. Notably about architecture. Combine that with those small kingdoms making a ton of money from international trade, and you have rich families paying for artists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello, or Raffaelo, who were great artists, not just the names of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," she said, laughing.

Fine, I laughed too. A few other students too. Grade 9 is brutal for teachers.

Olivia was in my social studies class too, and she laughed. I think.

I didn't have Mrs. Sanchez last year in social studies. She is new at the school. Perhaps it's why she decided to also handle the dance club. To try and fit in as fast as possible?

I had a fun class. We broke out in small groups, and I ended up with Olivia and a jerk called Lyndon. What kind of a name is that? I know we had a president with that name, but he was from what, 60 years ago? Come on.

To be fair, he wasn't a jerk to us, but he didn't pull his weight. Much.

We had to pick one area of study on the Renaissance from a list of 30. We would pick our 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st choices in case two groups picked the same one.

The first seven are from artists, starting with the 4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle namesakes but adding 3 more I've never heard of.

Another 7 were writers and thinkers or concepts about them, including Machiavelli, the rediscovery of Plato and Aristotle, a single subject for both, and the printing press of Gutenberg. Personally, I wanted Plato and Aristotle.

There were four about science and innovation, including Galileo Galilei, Vesalius, medicine, and inventions.

The next six were cultural. Olivia wanted one about Renaissance education and the one about women in the Renaissance. None of us wanted the one about religion in Renaissance life, but I learned that two teams picked it as their first choice. I found that odd.

The last 6 were about the world. Lyndon wanted to pick the age of exploration or the fall of Constantinople. He likes that kind of subject.

We could only pick 5 subjects, and they both had two. So, I proposed that we put my choice at number 1 and then alternate between them. I don't recall which order we picked, because we got my choice!

Hurray!

The worst is that Olivia was fine with my choice, and Lyndon found it less boring than talking about education or women. Like I said, a jerk.

When the class ended, I went to see Mrs. Sanchez.

"Hi, sorry to bother you"

"No worries. You are... Julie, right?"

"I am. Welcome to the school"

"Oh my God, thank you. I just moved into town with my husband. It's a little far from his job, but when your old social studies teacher retired, I couldn't pass on this opportunity"

Great, another person choosing our previously independent town as a suburb.

Right, you missed one recent element of this decline of our previously fine city.

The furthest zone of our city toward the main town is an industrial section. The nearest one to the main city is a series of townhouses, built just the previous year while I was on Ritalin.

With it came a bus stop, which isn't quite close enough for most of us, but I could bike to it now to get to the main town from it. Not that I did.

But I could.

In short, during my Ritalin period, the main town managed to link itself, to leech itself, to our town. Recently, the permit to destroy that disaffected industrial sector was given to add more townhouses served by that bus stop in the next city over.

All the people who would buy those townhouses would believe they reside in the main city but pay taxes to our town. They wouldn't be able to vote on the main election, just in ours.

It was one more step for our city to lose its identity, and now, the social studies teacher for my school was part of that invasion.

"I was wondering. I had to take medication last year, and I stopped, but I gained a lot of weight. Mr. Green said I could join your dance club to lose some?"

"Oh my God, Julie. Thank you so much. Yes! A million times yes. You don't have experience, right?"

"Not really"

"Great. Most of the team members are, like, semi-pro. I wanted more students without training so we could just have fun. You know Ellie? The secretary?"

"Yes, her daughter is one of my best friends, and my sister is dating her son"

"You are friends with Marge? Oh, interesting. I didn't notice a sibling in your file, Julie"

"Edith, she is in Grade 10. She is technically living with us as a foster home, but I see her as my sister"

"That's very kind of you. I remember reading that in a file. I didn't connect it was you. I am happy to meet you. So you stopped the Ritalin?"

"You know it's what I took?"

"It's in your file. I guess no one bothered to note that you stopped, or maybe we didn't get the update."

"Most likely, I don't think I told everyone yet"

"Ok, Ellie has the information about the dance club. Go see her after school, and I look forward to working with you."

I did go see Ellie, but then I rushed to take the bus to Olivia's house. Right, about that. That's new, and I feel I should explain it.

The girl that moved away? She was in Olivia's bus, and Olivia didn't like her that much. I couldn't ride the bus to Olivia's house because it might force Olivia to invite her too. And she didn't want that.

I could appreciate that.

The reality is that when Olivia agreed to tutor me, she didn't have any friends. She was unable to imagine making friends. But we became friends after I met her horrible mother. She then made new friends who knew nothing about her family and remained delighted to leave it at that.

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