"You're incredible." Claire couldn't help but admire Pandora-she prided herself on having more energy than most, but next to how Pandora had been in her youth, she didn't even come close.
"I was a real firecracker back then. To tell you the truth..." Pandora's voice drifted off as something seemed to occur to her. "Ah, never mind. It's all ancient history-not worth rehashing."
"Alright, off to bed with you. Don't you have to head back to the city tomorrow?" Pandora said with a gentle authority.
Claire resigned herself—if Pandora didn't want to reminisce, there was no use pushing her.
She turned in for the night; the room was cool and comfortable, inviting her straight to sleep.
The next morning, Claire hadn't even climbed out of bed when Patti bustled in.
Breakfast was waiting: sandwiches, eggs, a tall glass of milk, and—of course— Patti's famous homemade peanut butter.
Claire adored the stuff. She made a mental note to take a couple of jars back to the city with her. Patti didn't even wait for Claire to ask; she packed up two jars right away, no questions asked.
"Isn't today when the test results come out? Claire, check online and see if your scores are up yet!" Patti prompted, barely containing her own excitement.
Claire responded with a nonchalant "Okay," but before she'd even reached for her phone, her homeroom teacher's name flashed on the screen.
"Hello, Ms. Darcey, is something up?"
"Claire, you haven't checked your results yet?" Darcey's voice was bubbling with excitement.
"Not yet.” Claire had a good sense of how she'd done; even if she hadn't taken the top spot in Apex, it would be close, so she felt no real nerves.
"Oh, you! How can you be so relaxed about this? I checked for you-you scored a 729!"
Claire arched an eyebrow. That was a phenomenal result.
"So what's my ranking?" She was unfazed by the score itself and asked about her placement out of idle curiosity.
"They haven't posted the final rankings yet. But trust me, you're almost certainly number one."
Darcey had every reason to hope her student would take the city's top honor. Merit bonuses aside, teaching a student like Claire would do wonders for her reputation. It was something to be proud of.
"Thank you, Ms. Darcey. I'll check for myself just to be sure."
Claire hung up and shared her good news with Pandora and Patti.
"That's extraordinary! A perfect score is 750, isn't it?" Patti beamed. She'd always been disappointed in her own son's lackluster grades, but to have Claire someone close-score so high filled her with a vicarious pride.
“Really impressive,” Pandora said with a rare and satisfied smile.
The calls started rolling in shortly after-first from Shirley, then Sophia, and a string
of other friends, all eager to exchange scores.
Shirley was pleasantly stunned; she'd done well enough to get into college and was absolutely thrilled.
"Claire, thank you so much for
helping tutor me before the exams. Without you, I doubt I'd have a shot
〃
at college at all Shirley admitted gratefully She'd always considered herself hopeless at school, but being dragged along by the overachievers had somehow turned herinto one-for now, at least.
"My mom wants to take you out to dinner. Are you free today?"
Back when Claire still belonged to the James family, Shirley's mother had always been cool but not unfriendly to Claire; after Claire left, they hardly saw each other at all. She never stopped Shirley from hanging out with her, but right now her gratitude toward Claire was clear as day.
"Sorry, not today—I'm headed back to the city before noon."
She really didn't have time; her teachers would surely want to see her as soon as she returned. And, right on cue, as Claire was on her way out, her phone rang again with another call from Darcey.
“Claire, congratulations! You did it—you're officially the top student in all of Apex!"