Chapter 1

Nerd 101

“And the proper chant for folding steel is. . . ?” Mr. Snelb paused, waiting for a hand to be raised.

Kyle knew the answer. The extra studying and homework his parents forced on him over the summer had actually worked. Awesome! Oh but bad too. Kyle decided to let someone else play the nerd card on the first day of school. He pretended to be engrossed in his textbook even though he’d already read most of it in July. This copy smelled of paper and ink instead of coffee like the library copy he'd used.

“Cliven nock frelite nog,” Mr. Snelb said with a flick of his wand.

Silver smoke swirled above the heads of a few students including Kyle’s. What spell was this? Kyle wondered.

“Why Kyle, I’d be happy if you would share the answer with the class.” Mr. Snelb poked his glasses up his nose and looked expectantly at Kyle.

“Uh, well. . . ” Kyle stammered. He had not done well in Lead Manipulation with Mr. Snelb last year, so he couldn’t tell if he called on him out of surprise or payback.

“Come now, the spell is never wrong and the smoke was thickest over your head,” Mr. Snelb motioned to the rest of the class, “which, for the rest of you, means he knows the answer and his confidence in it is very high. A pleasant surprise indeed. The spell is called Reveal Knowledge. I would get used to it if I were you. The whole faculty has been excited to use it since we learned it over the summer. Kyle?”

“Belvin nock colbus cray happer slash.” Kyle sighed. Soft snickering came from several directions. “Thanks for the public humiliation, Mr. Snelb,” he grumbled to himself. Not exactly the start Kyle wanted to his junior year of high school. After two more castings of Reveal Knowledge over the next ten minutes, he gave up trying to hide and just raised his hand when Mr. Snelb asked questions. Thankfully, once he started doing this, Mr. Snelb stopped calling on him.

“Day one of junior year: epic fail,” Kyle muttered as he rested his head on his locker at the end of the day.

“Man, this has not been a good week.” Kyle leaned heavily against the locker next to James’.

 “Wow, Kyle. We’ve only been in school a week. If you think it’s hard now, just wait until they start assigning real homework.” James laughed. “Come on, it can’t be that bad.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “It isn’t hard. That’s the problem. All of that studying this summer stuck, and now all of my classes are easy.”

“And that’s a problem?” James asked.

“It is when you start hearing your classmates call you names like ‘nerd’ or ‘brainiac’ because your teachers can’t get off the Reveal Knowledge kick they are on. Who discovered that, anyway? Stupid spell.” Kyle ran his hands through his moppy, blonde hair as if trying to brush away all of the silver smoke that had swirled over his head since the first day.

“Ouch. I’m sure things will get better. Let’s go catch the bus,” James shut his locker.

Kyle cringed at having to take the bus as a junior. His parents gave him the choice of a car when he turned sixteen or a phone at fourteen. At the time he felt he had made the better choice of a phone. Now that certainty had left him. At least James had the same problem and they could ride the bus together. Living on the edge of the school boundaries didn’t help the situation. His friends that did drive lived too far out of the way to pick him up.

The second week passed with horrifying similarity to the first. Kyle hated the thick smoke like a beacon drawing attention to him. When he opened his locker that Friday, a pair of very thick glasses sat on the shelf. “Oh please, no,” he muttered hastily stuffing them into his backpack.

As the pattern continued through the third week, Kyle stopped waiting for the spell and raised his hand every time he knew an answer. On Friday, he arrived at school to find his locker adorned with big glowing letters “N-E-R-D” in descending order. That erased any doubts and any hope. He’d managed to blend into the crowd last year. Just a regular high school kid with no bad qualities to be picked on, no noticeable achievements to draw attention. But now they had branded him. “See. Look. Right there in glowing letters for all to see!” he muttered to himself as he banged the orange metal door shut.

The pranks escalated from annoying to messy. The shaving cream incident alone required two janitors. Yet, the administration still wouldn't change his locker combination or move him to a different one. Jocks knocked his books out of his hands at every opportunity. But the worst moment came at the beginning of October. Kyle closed his textbook and dialed his phone. Cold, grey sky stared in his bedroom window. A shiver rolled down his spine.

“Hey James,” Kyle said.

“Hey Kyle,” James replied.

“Dude, we haven’t hung out for a couple of weeks. I thought we could hit a movie.” Kyle spun on his desk chair. “I so need to get out of this house.”

“Uh, yeah, I’ve been busy. School and stuff, you know. Umm, speaking of which, I’ve got a project due soon that I need to work on, so I’m gonna have to pass.”

Kyle raised his eyebrows and looked at his phone. It glowed bright red. Hurt wrenched his gut. “Yeah. I understand. Maybe some other time.”

“Oh yeah. For sure. See ya.”

Kyle hung up and tossed the phone on his desk. He had cast Detect Lie on his phone, so it would glow red whenever someone lied during a phone call. As Kyle stared at his phone, he realized that maybe he had become a nerd. “Enchanting my phone? Who does that? Will I have to make friends with the other nerds? Are there other nerds? Surely, there must be. There isn’t a social class missing at my school, is there?” He sighed. Could he bring himself to join them? That was a totally different question.

He opened the drawer on his desk and pulled out the old book the wand shop owner, Javier, had given him when he bought his wand. The faded brown cover looked new except at the corners, where there were signs of wear. Javier had said it came free with the wand. Kyle remembered asking if they had any newer copies but Javier said it was out of print. The first time he opened it in August, the table of contents intrigued him. He read chapter headings like “Levitation,” “Locking,” “Precious Ores,” “Defense” and “Invisibility.” Invisibility got its own chapter because the spell itself took four pages. Since then he had found some great spells, but many showed complex wand movements and required extreme mental focus. Like Feign Death. Who on earth would focus for at least fifteen minutes just to look like they had died? He didn’t think he could cast them. Suspend turned out to be a very basic levitation spell, though, so he mastered it easily.

Now he flipped idly through the pages and put the book back in his drawer. These must be very well known spells considering the age of the book. What classes would they teach them in?

With most of his evenings free, he spent more time on homework, studying ahead in his classes and learning more spells from the book. The extra work compounded problems in class as he always knew the answer. “So, it is an ever downward spiral,” he thought as Halloween approached and even his friends Chase and Leroy shied away. The holiday passed in a quiet night of watching television only because Kyle vowed not to be nerdy on one of his favorite holidays. But he received no invitations to any of the parties he overheard others talk about at school. Last year James had invited him to his parent’s big bash. Even Kyle’s parents went to an “adults only” party.

On the Monday after Halloween, Kyle shuffled out of Elemental Control class after the now-routine “Excellent work again, Kyle” from Ms. Pernot and ran right into a girl. He bumped her so hard that she dropped her books.

“Holze suppot.” Kyle had his wand out and the books hung inches from the ground. It had become a thoughtless reaction since the jocks kept knocking his own books out of his arms all the time. “Sorry,” he muttered as he lifted his wand and placed the books back into the girl’s arms.

“My fault. Nice catch though.”

Kyle looked up at the girl’s face in surprise. Jessica Hennesy, one of the prettiest and most popular girls in school, stood in front of him. Kyle didn’t know what to say so he just stared at her. “I…uh…thanks,” he stammered at last as she shifted her books around in her arms.

Not knowing what else to say, he stepped around her to go to his locker before heading home. Jessica fell in step next to him and walked right past the hall leading to the student body officer lockers. Kyle’s heart beat faster. He began looking around for some kind of ambush from the jocks. He watched her carefully out of the corner of his eye. Why is she walking with me? She is our class vice-president. This makes no sense at all. They arrived at his locker unscathed. He hesitated opening it. Maybe she only came to record the ensuing humiliation?

“Qualsim,” Kyle muttered, passing his wand over his locker. He sighed at the only faded glowing letters. Lousy metal-working seniors. No respect even from others with his talent. Not a single indication came from his detection spell that something sinister awaited him. No sounds that something had happened inside his locker.

“What spell is that?” Jessica asked.

Kyle dared only glance at her. Wow. Her brown hair waved softly down her back and her blonde highlights seemed to glitter even under the school’s fluorescent lights.

“It’s a defensive spell called Trigger Trap. It’s supposed to set off any booby-traps without me having to open the door and take the full force of the gag.” Another very useful spell he had found recently in the old book.

“Do you do that every time you open your locker?” Jessica asked.

“Well, no. But I probably should. It would save me a lot of trouble…and mess.” He replied a bit gruffly knowing that she probably knew of most of the pranks her friends pulled on him.

“Oh, yeah,” she said a bit sheepishly.

Kyle opened his locker and swapped out the books he would need to do homework tonight. He double-checked the calendar of assignments he had hung on the door to make sure he was still at least two assignments ahead and closed the door. Jessica still stood there looking at him. He looked at her. Wow. He struggled not to melt under the gaze of her soft, friendly, brown eyes.

“Can I help you with something?” he asked, mildly annoyed that she still stood there for no explainable reason.

Jessica took a deep breath. “I need some help.”

Kyle raised an eyebrow. “I can’t imagine what on earth I could help you with?” His eyes darted around, filled with suspicion.

“I need help with my schoolwork.” She spoke with an insistent, almost commanding tone.

“Really? Popular kids care about schoolwork?” His sarcasm drenched the conversation, but he withered slightly under the glare she suddenly gave him. “Ok, why me? I believe I’ve been branded ‘king of the nerds.’” Kyle defied her popularity and looks.

“That’s exactly why I came to you. Studying with my friends hasn’t gotten me anywhere but behind.” Her eyes gazed at him, honest and telling. What Kyle saw in them confused him greatly.

“Well, what subject do you need help with?” he sighed.

“Umm, all of them,” she said quickly.

Kyle couldn’t help but laugh. He knew they had some of the same subjects but they couldn’t possibly be taking all of the same classes.

“Why is that funny?” She asked as she folded her arms and narrowed her eyes.

“Sorry, but I’ve just never imagined, well, ok maybe imagined but never seriously believed, that this kind of a conversation would ever take place. And I don’t understand how you could need help in all of your classes. Certainly you have a talent-level subject you are taking that I’m not.” Low-magic holders never got voted to be class officers. “I’d know if you and I were the same talent.”

“So…will you help me or not?”

Kyle stared at her. She belonged to a totally different social class from him before he became a nerd. His heart pounded loudly in his ears. Could he be dreaming? But dreams don’t come true. Thoughts of a life-changing relationship—even romance—flashed through his head, but his skepticism quickly returned. At best, he would be a tutor, someone to dump once she started doing well in classes. Still, she had approached him here, at school. He had noticed the looks others were giving them as they passed. Not a likely pair to be seen together, and yet, she didn’t seem to care. What is wrong with this girl? As he looked at her sparkling eyes, he knew the answer―nothing.

He ran his fingers through his hair. He needed a haircut. “Ok.” He watched her for an adverse reaction. Nothing. Barely even a muscle moved. He took a breath and continued, “So do you want me to come to your house under the cover of darkness? Meet at some library outside of school boundaries?” Kyle asked, the sarcasm returning.

“I’d better come to your house. My little brothers are too distracting,” she replied flatly.

“Really?” Dropping all sarcasm, his shock and disbelief echoed in his question.

“Is that not ok? Do you have really strict parents? Or do you have a lot of annoying siblings, too? Or…would you rather not be seen with me?” Her last question had a hint of sarcasm and he thought he heard an undertone of fear in there, as well.

“Actually, it’s fine. Annoying parents sometimes, but no siblings. I’m really just…well…more really surprised you are ok being seen with me.” Kyle motioned to the glowing letters. “I’m not exactly part of your ‘in-crowd.’” He made exaggerated quotation marks with his fingers. “You do realize people will find out that I’m tutoring you.”

“I know. But I also know that last year you weren’t one of those,” she said tapping on the letters. “Yet this year you seem to know everything. I need a study partner like that if I’m going to get a scholarship to college. They don’t give those out for popularity, you know.” Even her smirk captivated.

Kyle chuckled. “Ok. When do you want to start?”

“Are you busy tonight? I’m a tad behind in a few classes.”

“Tonight? Well, uh, yeah I guess. Um, what time?”

“Will seven o’clock be ok?” she asked.

Is this what shock feels like, he wondered. Brain still functioning but muscles frozen in disbelief. “Uh sure. Seven,” he finally choked out.

“Great!” she beamed. “See you then.”

He may have blacked out because he blinked and suddenly stood staring at his front door. Kyle remembered giving Jessica his address but after that seemed fuzzy. He stepped back on the porch to check the address on the post next to the steps. Yes, that was the one he gave her. At least he made it to the right house. Thank goodness his autopilot knew the way home. Taking a deep breath he walked in the house. Jessica Hennesy would be here tonight. He danced all the way up the stairs and into his room.

“Oh goodness,” he said looking at his cluttered desk and laundry mountain. Why did it always seem to be so big? “Better not let her in here.”