Jeisson wasn't sure when he had discovered that he could overhear his parents arguing in their room from the smaller guest bathroom on the first floor. It was just one of those things he seemed to have always known. It wasn't often he wanted to hear them fighting. Most of the time, he preferred to pretend it wasn't happening at all. 

But this time, they were talking about him. He knew it because whenever their argument had to do with him, they would close the door to their room and speak a lot quieter than normal. So he settled on the tile floor, his ear near the vent, and listened.

"Because it's a terrible idea," his mother's voice said, faint and a bit muffled, but still understandable. "Bruce, he's a kid. He needs to be a kid. He's having a hard enough time fitting in without skipping grades."

"So he should limit his success for the sake of what? Friendship?" his father retorted. "That's stupid. He has a chance here, to be a head above the rest. Not just a head, actually, several heads."

"He's not going to limit his success. No matter what grade he's in, he'll excel. You didn't skip any grades and you graduated top of your class from Yale."

"And he can do better," Bruce said, his voice rising. "He is better. If you let him take the opportunities presented to him."

There was a pause, and Jeisson wondered if the conversation was over. It seemed like a strange place to stop. But then, his mother said, almost too quiet to hear, "I know this is something you may never understand, but there are other ways of succeeding in life despite just academically. There are other ways to gauge success instead of just the power you accrue. Jeisson needs stability. He needs friends. He needs to learn how to socialize well. That's just as crucial. Can't you see that? You think you would have gotten to where you are in your career if you didn't have your network, your friends, your fellow alumni?"

Another pause. Jeisson sat up from the tile floor. He hadn't known his father was trying to have him skip grades. He wondered how far he could go. He was in fifth now. Could he be in sixth? Seventh? High school maybe? 

Jeisson didn't much like the thought of that. It sounded like it would be difficult, and being surrounded by kids older and bigger than him seemed like a surefire way to get picked on even more. 

Jeisson heard voices again and put his ear back to the cold metal of the vent. "Any friends he makes now are going to be useless in the future anyway," Bruce was saying. "It's the friends you make in college and beyond that really stick with you. He can endure a little bullying if it means getting him where he needs to go."

"He'll get to where he needs to go regardless," June argued. "And it's not just the bullying I'm worried about."

"What is it, then?"

June sighed. "At the parent/teacher conference, Miss Johnson said that some of the kids do want to be Jeisson's friend, but he ignores them."

 Jeisson started to nervously trace the grout between the tiles as June continued. "They ask him to hang out, or to do projects together, and he shoots them down. She's worried he's becoming really antisocial."

"He's introverted, so what? He can learn to be more outgoing."

"It's more than that. It's like, he's closed himself off. He's built up these walls. And I think pulling him out of his grade and shoving him in with kids that are several years his senior is just a recipe for disaster. There are other ways to challenge him. I mean, he reads on his own all the time. The other day he asked if I could buy him this autobiography of Isaac Newton from Amazon."

It was expected in the mail on Thursday. Jeisson was keeping a close eye on the tracking.

"I want him to be well-adjusted," June said. "That should be important to you too."

Jeisson wasn't really sure what it meant to be "well-adjusted." Not that he didn't understand what the word meant. He did. He just wasn't quite sure what did or didn't make him that. And he wasn't sure what his mother meant by walls he was building. If he had built walls, he had never meant to. He just... preferred to do what he wanted. And the other kids never wanted to do what he wanted. He'd learned that time and time again, often times the hard way. It was better just to do what he wanted alone.

Thinking of both of the options his parents presented, Jeisson realized he would prefer neither. He didn't want to have to work hard at school and be around kids older than him. But he didn't want to stay where he was and try and make friends either. He supposed he didn't really want anything. Which, he'd always found freeing before. If you didn't want anything, then you could never be disappointed.

"Okay, maybe he doesn't skip grades," Bruce said, using that negotiating voice he had whenever he was trying to get Jeisson to do certain chores. "But, we get him a tutor. More than a tutor, someone who could give him private lessons in a subject. Maybe math. He could get ahead of his grade while still staying where he's at. And, he'll be challenged more."

"That seems like a lot to add to his plate."

"Could just be once or twice a week. We could cut out one of his piano lessons to make space."

Jeisson wouldn't mind that at all. He hated piano lessons.

"Okay. We can give it a shot, see how he does with it. But if he doesn't like it, then we should let him be."

"Yeah, of course."

Jeisson knew the conversation was pretty much over. He rose and caught his reflection in the mirror. Could someone look well-adjusted? If so, he supposed, maybe, he didn't.

***

A/N: Hello hello! I meant to post this mid-week but... I failed. So here's this and I'll post the new full chapter tomorrow! Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote if you enjoyed!