"So then write the test after hours, get the privacy you need," Michael says, and taps the paper with the eraser edge of the pencil. "Look, even in the last half hour, you've managed to grasp things," he says. "And we're not even moving that slowly."

"I'm sure that if you gave me like, three days a week, you could pull whatever kind of grades you want," he insists. "Get yourself a shiny football scholarship, be normal," he says, waving a hand. "All that bullshit."