The second Kenny walked into the K1 classroom, she knew something was wrong. Yet she couldn't put her finger on what. Her classmates were as rude to her as they always were. There was still an alphabet chart in sign language hanging on the wall. The reading corner continued to be a mess of Dr. Seuss books. But something didn't feel right. She was forgetting something. Perhaps if she had gotten more sleep, she would have realized what it was.

Three hours. Kenny had slept for only three hours the night before. The chores she did for Ms. Greenwood had taken until eleven o'clock, and then she studied sign language until sometime around five in the morning. Alas, a Kindergartner cannot function properly with only three hours of rest, especially the restless sleep Kenny managed to get. She had dreamed about the Darkness she had seen the day before and pieces of pink chalk until she was afraid to close her eyes, lest she have another nightmare.

"Hello, Kendall!" Miss Kaylee smiled brightly at the young girl as she walked to her cubby to put her things away.

If Kenny had been more alert, she would have frowned to herself. She would have thought, Miss Kaylee never greets me in the morning. Why is she doing it today? But the tired young girl just blinked in response, not suspecting a thing.

The morning went by quite quickly to Kenny. She shuffled around in a daze, hoping no one would notice she was barely awake. Lunch came and went, and during recess, mud was kicked on her as promised. At least she had remembered to wear brown today. But there was something she couldn't remember, and it frustrated her. No matter how hard she tried, she failed to recall what she'd had to do.

Then math time came along.

"Okay, class, take out your homework!" Miss Kaylee called. "I'll be walking around to collect it."

Kenny's eyes widened. She took her math workbook out of her desk and flipped to the page she had to do for homework. It was blank.

She had forgotten to do her math homework.

Kenny whipped out a pencil as Miss Kaylee began to collect the young children's worksheets. If she hurried, she could do the entire page right there. I'll skip the word problem at the bottom of the page, Kenny decided as she scribbled down answers, and say I didn't understand it. She made quick work of the paper and was beginning to feel relieved as she neared the end of the sheet. However, because she was so focused on her homework, she did not notice the shadow that soon crossed over her paper.

Miss Kaylee stood there, staring at Kenny in utter shock as she raced through the problems on the page faster than even she could fathom. The girl herself knew she worked slower than she usually did at the foster home, running on nothing but air and whatever she had for breakfast. But even a sleep deprived Kenny was faster than an extremely intelligent Kindergartner.

It was then that Miss Kaylee knew that Kendall's future depended on whether she could convince Dr. Zhang to let Kenny into the Academy for Gifted Children.

Kenny ripped out her page and looked up, nearly jumping out of her seat when she realized Miss Kaylee was standing above her. She handed the paper to her teacher, and Miss Kaylee hesitantly took it. How much did she see? Kenny wondered. She paled, forcing the question out of her mind. Throughout the rest of the day, Miss Kaylee threw subtle glances Kenny's way. Each time Kenny's heart skipped a beat. Because, though she didn't want to admit it, the young girl already knew the answer to her own question.

Enough. Miss Kaylee had seen enough to be curious, and to Kenny, curiosity was a dangerous thing.

****

Gabriel was there waiting for Kenny that afternoon. And the next day. And the day after that. He always asked Kenny if she wanted to play catch, as if the answer might change one day, and he would be okay if it did. She continued to nod yes, though, like she had the very first time. Gabe would then smile his bright, happy smile, and the two would play until five o'clock. When their time together drew to an end, Kenny would sign goodbye, and Gabe would watch her walk away, waving, until she made her way down the block.

Being with Gabe was the highlight of Kenny's day.

The lowest points of the girl's days were increasingly occurring in the classroom. Ever since Miss Kaylee had seen Kendall finish what was supposed to be the hardest worksheet until their addition test, Kenny was being asked to answer questions on the board much more often. She was constantly on edge, afraid of having the Darkness take over again. However, that wasn't the worst part.

Miss Kaylee was "accidentally" giving Kenny worksheets that were meant for kids much older than her. The girl now owned a sheet with questions about the Cell Theory, a literary analysis on The Giver, and paper about the French and Indian War. Kenny even made it halfway through a worksheet on long division before she realized what she was doing. Thankfully, Miss Kaylee had gone to the bathroom, so she was able to recycle the sheet and ask for the correct one.

Almost a whole day passed after the last incident before the final event happened.

It was 2:58 p.m. on a Friday. There were exactly two minutes before the school day was over. The class chattered about their plans noisily, excited for the weekend. Sunlight streamed through the windows of the classroom, warming the left side of Kenny's face as she sat still in her chair. She, too, was excited to see Gabriel again and get out of the classroom for a few days. Andrew had promised her that she and her siblings would also do something special together this weekend.

"It's time to line up, guys!" Miss Kaylee smiled at the children. "You all won't be going anywhere this weekend if you can't get yourselves into a straight line."

The class came together into a line that looked slightly bent out of shape. Miss Kaylee grinned anyway.

"Thank you. Now stay here while I get Miss Lilianna to walk you all to your parents."

"Why can't you walk us?" a young girl in front of Kenny whined.

"I've got something important to do today." Miss Kaylee paused. "In fact, I may need a helper...."

Every child in the room's hand shot up—except one. The one that was picked, of course. "Kendall! Would your parents mind if you helped me for a few minutes?"

Kendall's gaze flicked toward her teacher in surprise. At that moment, the bell rang, and the chaos called dismissal started. Children rushed out of the classroom, following the K2 students towards the exit. There was no way for Kenny to say no now.

Miss Kaylee moved aside to let them out and closed the door once they were all gone. "Kendall," the woman started, "I wanted to talk to you."

Kenny stood there awkwardly, hoping Gabe would wait a few extra minutes for her. She watched as Miss Kaylee sat at her desk and put her glasses on. Her teacher took a deep breath before going on.

"Kendall, I think you're an extraordinary student. I...I think you get questions wrong on purpose so I don't notice how intelligent you are. I think you could do every single page in your math workbook, and in the first-grade workbook, without any assistance whatsoever. I think you could write me that paper on the French and Indian War at no less than a fifth-grade level, and I think you could read some of the modern classics in a week, much less go page by page through this old copy of"—she picked up a wilting book; destroyed by curtesy of the graduated 2050 K-1 class—"Don't Let the Pidgeon Drive the Bus! Should I go on?"

Kenny shook her head. Even if she did talk in public, she wouldn't have been able to speak now.

Miss Kaylee nodded. "In short, I feel you're too smart for Kindergarten. I've sent multiple emails to your guardian, but they aren't replying to me. I was wondering if you could solve a few math problems on the board, just to prove me right. Or wrong, you never know. It won't take very long."

Kenny tentatively nodded and took her backpack off. She felt anxious—What if she was skipped a grade? That was what Miss Kaylee was suggesting, wasn't she? It would just be another thing to make her different—until Miss Kaylee wrote some of the problems down on the chalkboard. They were all simple addition and subtraction problems. She would just have to solve the harder problems wrong, and then this whole thing would be over. Kenny took a deep breath and stepped up to the chalkboard, ready to convince Miss Kaylee she was nothing but an average Kindergartener. Only then did she notice it.

There was a small black dot in her line of sight.

Kenny shook her head. This couldn't be happening. Not now. More small dots began to appear, growing and taking away Kenny's vision. She attempted to let out a cry, but her voice was stuck in her throat, her body frozen in place. The Darkness soon took over Kenny and deprived her of all of her senses. She could do nothing as the Darkness toyed with her, pushing her around until there was nothing...nothing but darkness....

When Kenny's vision cleared, she felt so dizzy, it hurt. The whole room seemed to be spinning, and it took her a moment to regain her balance. She focused her eyes on Miss Kaylee to help righten herself. The woman seemed to be preoccupied with something on the chalkboard. Once she was feeling better, the young girl went to see what was so intriguing. When she found it, her jaw unhinged.

Rather than the addition problems Kenny had expected to see, there were several linear and nonlinear equations on the board, and they were all solved. Most of them had small checks next to the answer. Kenny didn't even have to look to know that the equations were in her handwriting. She went cold as she watched Miss Kaylee step up to the chalkboard and put a check next to another answer. However, this wasn't a liner or a nonlinear equation. It was Calculus problem. Kenny had correctly solved a Calculus problem in front of Miss Kaylee, and she couldn't even remember it.

"You are quite gifted, aren't you, Kendall?" her teacher murmured, surprised herself.

Kenny said nothing. Instead, she grabbed her things, and bolted from the room.