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Chapter 1: Stanley
Stanley had always been in the wrong place at the wrong time. His parents had always blamed his dirty-rotten-no-good-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Stanley didn't believe in bad luck.
Well, he hadn't until this morning.
Stanley had been on his way to English when something caught his eye. A little brown wallet lay in the middle of the hallway, almost perfectly hidden between two lockers.
He stopped.
He looked around.
Nobody seemed to be paying any attention to it.
Stanley walked over and picked it up. He turned it around in his hand before opening it to see what was inside. There was no cash or credit cards, only a couple of coupons, some receipts and a driver's licence.
He pulled the licence from the back pocket.
Mr. Pendanski.
Of course.
Mr. Pendanski was always losing things.
Stanley was already running late to class, but the kind thing to do was take the wallet to the office. He shoved it into his pocket and started walking.
He made it about halfway there before Mr. Sir stopped him.
"What the hell you got there, huh?" Mr. Sir demanded.
Stanley froze.
"Oh. Uh, just Mr. Pendanski's wallet. I found it on the ground and—"
"Oh, so now you're stealin', huh, Yelnats?"
"What? No, Mr. Sir, I just—"
"No. I don't wanna hear no excuses from you. We're going to the Warden."
Stanley stared at him.
He had never been to the Warden before.
He was always a good kid. He got good grades, didn't cause trouble, didn't do drugs and didn't hang out with the wrong crowd. He mostly just stuck to himself.
So, if he really did get punished for this, it shouldn't be too bad.
After all, it was his first offence.
He was gravely mistaken.
The Warden, a middle-aged woman with long, curly red hair tied into a plait, was pacing around her office when Stanley and Mr. Sir entered.
"I caught Yelnats here stealing from teachers," Mr. Sir grunted, jerking his head towards Stanley.
The Warden sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"God. I can't deal with these goddamn kids anymore." She waved her hand dismissively. "Take him to the others."
Stanley blinked.
"The others?"
Mr. Sir snatched the wallet from Stanley's hand and tossed it onto the Warden's tidy desk.
"He took all the cash and cards out. God knows what he did with it."
Stanley's eyes widened.
"What? I didn't—"
"Out," the Warden said.
Mr. Sir seemed to take that as permission to drag Stanley out of the office before he could say anything else.
Stanley didn't understand.
There hadn't been any cash or cards in the wallet when he'd found it.
He knew there hadn't.
But nobody was listening.
---
Stanley was brought into an old science classroom and was immediately hit with the strong smell of men's cologne and old wood.
Around seven other boys were sitting at different tables. A few of them Stanley recognised.
Every single one stopped what they were doing and stared at him.
Stanley saw Rex and Theodore from his woodworking class sitting next to each other at the front of the room. At the other front table sat a freckled boy wearing a backwards baseball cap. Behind him was Alan from social studies, sitting beside a Hispanic boy with a buzz cut who looked oddly familiar.
Opposite them sat a guy with crazy blonde hair and a strangely long neck.
At the very back of the classroom sat a shorter boy with curly hair.
There were plenty of empty tables, but for some reason, Stanley decided to sit next to the boy at the back.
Mr. Sir had already been called back to the Warden's office, so the boys had started doing whatever they'd been doing before Stanley arrived.
Stanley pulled out the chair beside the boy.
It squeaked embarrassingly against the hard wooden floor.
The boy glanced at him as Stanley plopped down into the seat, dropping his bag beside him.
"Hey, I'm Stanley."
The boy didn't answer.
He didn't even look at Stanley.
Instead, he turned back towards the window.
Stanley frowned.
"Okay."
He pulled out his English notebook, although he knew there was no point in trying to do any work. He'd missed most of the lesson by now.
For a few minutes, neither of them spoke.
Stanley glanced sideways at the boy.
He was staring out the window like there was something incredibly interesting happening outside.
There wasn't.
It was just the school oval.
Stanley looked back down at his notebook.
He lasted about thirty seconds.
"So... what's your name?"
The boy finally looked at him.
"Hector."
"Cool."
Hector nodded once and returned his attention to the window.
Stanley waited.
"That's it?"
"What?"
"Nothing."
Stanley looked around the room.
"Do you know why we're here?"
Hector shrugged.
"Trouble."
"Yeah, I figured that."
Stanley lowered his voice.
"I didn't do anything."
Hector glanced at him.
"Neither did I."
Stanley raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"Really."
Stanley looked at the others.
The blonde-haired boy was arguing with the freckled kid about something. Rex and Theodore were whispering to each other at the front. The Hispanic boy was digging through his backpack, while Alan was leaning back in his chair with his feet resting on the desk.
Stanley looked back at Hector.
"Then why are you here?"
Hector's expression didn't change.
"I stole some lunches."
Stanley blinked.
"Lunches?"
"Yeah."
"Like... once?"
Hector shook his head.
Stanley waited.
"Twice?"
"No."
"How many?"
Hector thought about it.
"A lot."
Stanley couldn't help laughing.
Hector looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing. I just—"
Stanley shook his head.
"Never mind."
The door suddenly opened.
The Warden walked back in, followed by Mr. Sir.
She dropped a stack of papers onto the teacher's desk.
"Alright," she said. "Since apparently none of you understand what 'sit quietly' means, we're going to get this over with."
The boys groaned.
Stanley sat up straighter.
The Warden looked at all eight of them.
"Most of you seem to think you're going to be here for a week."
Nobody said anything.
"You're not."
A few boys exchanged looks.
"You have all been assigned after-school detention for the remainder of the school year."
"What?" Theodore said.
"You're joking," Alan added.
The Warden stared at him.
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
Alan looked at her for a moment.
"...A little."
Theodore laughed.
The Warden's expression hardened.
"One year. Monday through Thursday. Three hours a day."
"Three hours?" Rex said incredulously. "That's ridiculous."
"You should have thought about that before hacking into a school computer."
Rex immediately went quiet.
Theodore leaned towards him.
"She's got you there."
"Shut up."
Stanley looked around the room.
Nobody seemed happy.
Not even Hector.
The Warden picked up another sheet of paper.
"However, I'm willing to offer you an alternative."
Everyone looked up.
"You will join the school's Academic Decathlon team."
Silence.
Alan slowly raised his hand.
"What the hell is an Academic Decathlon?"
Theodore laughed.
"You're asking that like you're gonna understand the answer."
"Shut up."
"It's an academic competition," the Warden explained. "You compete against other schools in subjects such as mathematics, science, literature, history and general knowledge."
Alan's face fell.
"No."
The Warden ignored him.
"If you complete the competition season successfully, your detention will be reduced."
"How much?" Rex asked immediately.
"A week."
Everyone went silent again.
Stanley didn't even need to do the math.
A week instead of almost a whole year.
That wasn't even a question.
"Deal," Rex said.
"Wait," Alan said. "You don't get to agree for all of us."
"I do if it gets us out of here."
"I'm not joining some nerd team."
"You can either join the nerd team or sit here until graduation," the Warden said.
Alan stared at her.
"...When's the first practice?"
A few of the boys laughed.
Even Stanley smiled.
The Warden began handing out forms.
"You will attend every practice. You will attend every competition. You will maintain your grades. You will not fight, steal, cheat or otherwise cause trouble."
Her eyes moved slowly across the room.
Everyone suddenly found something interesting to look at.
"One violation," she continued, "and you are removed from the team and returned to your original detention sentence."
"That's bullshit," The guy sitting next to Alan muttered.
"I heard that Josè."
"Wasn't me."
The Warden sighed.
"Your first practice is tomorrow."
She left the classroom.
For a few seconds, nobody moved.
Then Theodore stood up.
"Well, this is gonna be fun."
Rex looked at him.
"No, it isn't."
"Sure it is."
"We're going to have to actually study."
"Yeah."
"You hate studying."
"I know."
Rex just stared at him.
Theodore smiled.
"Still fun."
Stanley looked down at the form in front of him.
ACADEMIC DECATHLON TEAM — STUDENT AGREEMENT
He picked up the pen.
He had absolutely no idea what he'd gotten himself into.
"Hey."
Stanley looked over.
Hector was holding his form.
"Do you know anything about this?"
"About what?"
"The competition."
Stanley shook his head.
"Nope."
Hector nodded.
"I do."
Stanley looked at him.
"You do?"
"Yeah."
"What subjects are you good at?"
Hector shrugged.
"Most of them."
Stanley stared at him.
"Most?"
"Yeah."
Stanley looked back at his form.
"Well, that's convenient."
Hector didn't respond.
Stanley started filling out his name.
After a moment, he noticed Hector had already finished his.
"You write really fast."
"I've had practice."
"Doing what?"
"Writing."
Stanley laughed.
Hector looked at him with a confused expression.
Stanley wasn't sure if he'd made a joke or if Hector genuinely hadn't understood.
Either way, he smiled.
Across the room, Alan was arguing with Rex about whether they could somehow convince the Warden to let them out early.
Theodore was trying to get everyone to introduce themselves.
The freckled boy had apparently decided none of this concerned him and was drawing something in the margin of his paper.
The blonde-haired boy was complaining loudly about the quality of the classroom chairs.
Josè was still digging through his backpack.
And Hector had gone back to staring out the window.
Stanley looked around the room again.
Eight boys.
Eight completely different reasons for being there.
And somehow, they were all going to be on the same team.
Stanley wasn't sure what was going to happen.
But for the first time that day, he wasn't completely miserable about it.
Maybe having someone like Hector around wouldn't be so bad.
He looked down at the form again.
ACADEMIC DECATHLON TEAM — STUDENT AGREEMENT
Stanley signed his name.
Then he looked at Hector.
"Guess we're teammates."
Hector looked at him for a second.
"Guess so."