Chapter Text
Lakewood Elementary School was finally behind the gang. Everyone in their class had graduated and were excited to start the next stage of their life-middle school. Elwood Middle School would be considerably bigger than Lakewood and they knew they would now be roped in with their former rivals from Mighty Mountain and Glenwood.
Alan Powers, more commonly known as "The Brain" among his classmates, spent much of the summer wondering if he would be able to hold onto his nickname for much longer. He knew he was the best in his class at Lakewood, but how would he stack up when his class would consist of a couple of hundred kids? And while his schoolwork in elementary school had come easy to him, he wasn't sure what to expect from the curriculum in middle school. His parents had warned him it would be a major jump. He wasn't sure how much it could be for Mr. Ratburn's former class as he had been enough to make 4th and 5th grade seem easy by comparison.
When the summer finally ended, Alan and all his former elementary school classmates were thrusted into the jungle that was middle school. Once they finished orientation, Alan did not find any of his classes especially challenging at first. For him. But what he did find challenging was the fact that already the connections they had made in elementary school were falling apart. When he first arrived at the lunchroom, he looked for some of his old friends from Lakewood. Arthur, Buster and Binky were there, but they seemed to have already formed new connections with other kids. He found that he could sit by them of course, but he just felt disconnected from the rest of the group. Were they only friends because they had been in the same class for so long? It seemed to Alan that his old friends had decided that since they were starting this new chapter in their lives, their elementary school friendships no longer mattered, not when they had so many friends to choose from. And he found he did not like the noisy and chaotic nature of this cafeteria so much and thus took to eating by himself around the corner from the main room, sitting on the floor.
Alan was not sure he was going to like middle school very much. Academics was still easy for him of course, but for everything else he felt like the metaphorical pond was much bigger now and he barely stacked up against the other fish. Him and Francine had been the best in their class at soccer but he did not think he would qualify as much above average here. He still liked chess but when he attended the middle school's chess club he wasn't much above average by their standards either. And his old friends he would play against in elementary school, Isabella and Rattles were nowhere to be found either. Alan knew that people often referred to middle school as the worst years of their life in books, as it was a bridge between childhood and adolescence full of awkward changes and rude awakenings. He didn't think he was ready to jump to that conclusion yet, but he wasn't feeling optimistic about it. He was missing the optimism of his elementary years already.
While he ate lunch one day as September of 6th grade was already drawing to a close, he suddenly heard a familiar voice say "Hey Brain, I thought I saw you around here."
He looked up. It was Fern Walters, a part of their gang from Lakewood. But he had not seen her much at all since graduation and they had none of the same classes together.
"Fern! It's nice to see you. I haven't had a lot of company here."
"I can see that. Can I join you? I haven't been in great company either."
Brain nodded and Fern pulled a couple of empty mil cartons from a stack nearby so they could use them as chairs.
"I was sitting with Sue Ellen, but she has a new lunch group of people she knew from tae kwon do and stuff and well..." Fern trailed off. "They just don't seem to like me as much."
"I know the feeling" said Alan. "All of my old friends seem to be in cliques now and I just don't feel like I can connect with them. I think everyone has decided our previous life is just ancient history now."
"I am still your friend, Brain" Fern said.
"Yes, but can you please stop calling me Brain? It's Alan."
He was almost 13 and getting too old for childish nicknames. And while their gang from Lakewood all still knew it, none of their new classmates did. If anyone here addressed him as Brain, they would just confuse everyone else.
"Whatever Alan. I'm glad we can still be friends here. Even Sue Ellen is starting to ignore me. I am not sure if she just wants to fit in with her friends more or if she herself is outgrowing me."
Glad to now belong to a lunch group of two people, Alan continued to eat lunch with Fern and they found they could still talk about their previous life with each other. But Alan still felt like his life lacked anything meaningful. Everything had slowed to a dull routine. He woke up, plowed through school, went home did homework, hung out in his room and went to bed. He wanted change. He wanted something to excite him.
One day after school he went to the room of his math teacher, Mr. Kripstiltzh. Mr. Kripstiltzh was one of the most unusual teachers Alan had ever known. He was a tall and thin anthropomorphic hound with a low and grating voice. He gave each lesson with the enthusiasm of a robot and rarely showed much emotion. Alan had missed the class today in order to attend a doctor appointment and he was going to turn in his homework assignment. But when he arrived at his room, he found an unusual sight. Mr. Kripstiltzh had opened his cabinet and was going through some papers he had stored there. But on the shelf above his papers, Alan caught sight of a most peculiar device. It looked at first like a tangle of wires, but Alan could see it also included what looked like a group of buttons they were connecting to a centerpice with a series of bulbs. With his interest in electronic devices, Alan asked Mr. Kripstiltzh what it was after handing in his assignment.
"Oh that's just the old buzzer system from when I supervised the Quiz Bowl team at this school a long time ago. Hasn't been used in years, but these things are worth a lot."
"Quiz Bowl?" Alan's curiosity was piqued further.
"Yes, it is a game where two teams compete to answer trivia questions. A lot of students here used to be really into it, but not many in recent decades." His use of decades reminded Alan just how old Mr. Kripstiltzh really was, much older than he looked. But he didn't seem to have much interest in elaborating further so Alan went home with his mind still on it. He searched the internet for videos of Quiz Bowl being played and found he was liking the game more. He went on the NAQT website to learn more and searched for any record of an Elwood Middle School team. He found it, but they had not had a team for well over 20 years. Mr. Kripstiltzh had not been lying. But from what Alan observed, they had done pretty well.
He talked about his findings to Fern the next day at lunch.
"Do you think they will quiz you on what medieval people thought rather than the actual answers like at the Renaissance Fair? What do the planets revolve around? The earth!" She laughed. "But at least they still would have known the 16th king of England. You can thank Mr. Pryce-Jones for that."
"Yeah, I think I can still remember all of those. But even if I could start another team here, I cannot hope to win if I play as a whole team myself. I am going to have to find more people."
"How many do you need?"
"Teams have up to four players per game, but they can have less, or more if some players are on the bench. But if we start a team I think we will need the full four. We are beginners at this."
"Have fun with that. How are you going to go about it? Walk up to a kid in the hallway and say 'You seem like a knowledgeable person. You have a look of knowledge on your face. Want to join our Quiz Bowl team?"
"No, I think I have better methods of selecting recruits. And I only need two more now."
"What? Wait-you mean you think I am going to do this? I would be terrible."
"Nonsense" replied Alan. "Fern, I have known you for six years and I have seen you build up a knowledge of literature and mythology that is probably inconceivable to most people our age. And I have seen your performance in class as well. Last year, you got the highest grades next to me before graduation. We both made it through Mr. Ratburn's class after all."
"Maybe, but-"
"Great. I know you can do it."
Alan thought of who he should try to recruit for the other two spots on his currently nonexistent team. He wasn't sure if there were any of his other friends from Lakewood who would want to do it. He briefly thought of Buster. While he had once written off Buster as unintelligent due to his propensity to swallow absurd hoaxes and conspiracy theories, he had been shown to receive high academic results when applying himself. And Alan himself had been shown to swallow absurd hoaxes as he reminded Fern the next day.
"I remember that time when you managed to convince me there was a giant worm invasion and I thought it was totally logical. It helped teach me how to be more skeptical."
"Although it went too far, I am still proud of that hoax" replied Fern. "But I do not know if Buster would be good for this. I don't think he had ever read a book before third grade. Maybe he would be if all the questions were about the paranormal."
"Yeah, recruiting Buster was probably a bad idea. But I have two more ideas."
Alan approached the first of his ideas at the start of his one class with her. After he explained his request, she seemed to think the idea silly at first. But then he reminded her,
"It will be just like playing chess again, except now we will both be on the same side."
Isabella seemed to like that idea and told him she was in. Now he only needed one more.
The potential player he was seeking was found at the skate park. Alan had not seen him in a long time, but he still seemed the same as ever.
"Please Rattles, if we do start a team, we will be playing against other middle school teams. We cannot have our team consist entierely of 6th graders. We would look like a joke to them!
"Well Brain, I do not consider myself especially good at knowing random stuff, but I can try it."
"Great. And it's Alan. We are growing too old for nicknames like this. Like I don't need to call you Rattles, I can call you- wait, what IS your real name?"
Rattles grinned. "Not important."
Though he knew they may not seem like much, Alan knew that he had assembled the best team he could find. Now he had to face the problem of convincing Mr. Kripstiltzh to let them start.