Chapter 1: Gifted and Talented 1 Gifted and Talented Joey Kopecky didn''t mean to become the smartest kid in the state of New Jersey. It just kind of happened out of the blue. He had gone to bed one night an average, unremarkable student and arrived at school the next morning a genius--on paper at least. Halfway through the seventh grade, Joey was shocked to find out he had aced a barrage of state-mandated aptitude tests, scoring higher than any student ever had before. Perfect hundreds across the board. Joey had always been good with standardized tests, but it turned out he was better than good. Way better. And the price he had to pay for that was terrible.
It was Monday morning, April 22. Earth Day. It wasn''t a national holiday or anything (not really), but Joey wasn''t going to school. He wasn''t ever going back to his school. Instead, he and his father were riding a commuter train bound for Manhattan, on their way to decide what Joey was going to do with the rest of his life. "You ready for another one?" Joey''s father asked him. "I can''t wait," Joey lied, staring out the window. "All right," Joey''s father said, punching numbers into his phone.
"What''s the square root of 361?" Joey grimaced. The whole ride, his father had peppered him with random questions, eager to explore his intellect like some newly discovered continent. For Joey, the game got old real fast. "I don''t know, Dad. I told you, it''s not like I have a calculator in my head." "How about some history?" Joey''s father scrolled through his phone. "What year did Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address?" Joey shook his head. "I''m not Wikipedia, either.
Sorry." More scrolling. "What''s the capital of Albuquerque?" Joey was about to say he wasn''t Google Maps, but he stopped himself. "Albuquerque doesn''t have a capital. It''s a city, not a state." Joey''s father beamed. "See that? It was a trick question, but you caught it just like that." "Gold star for me.
" Joey gave a sarcastic thumbs-up. "Doesn''t exactly take a genius, Dad." His father put his phone away. "What''s eating you?" Joey looked at his father. "Let''s see if you can figure this one out. A train leaves Hoboken at eight a.m., headed to New York at sixty miles an hour.
If the city is thirteen miles away, and a kid on the train has to be there at nine a.m., at what time is his life officially ruined?" "Joey." His father sighed. "We talked about this." "This one''s a trick question too. I''m the kid on the train. Did you catch that?" "Yeah, I got it.
How about we dial back the negativity a little?" Joey grunted. "My life was ruined when you and Mom signed me up for this school." "This school is one of the best in the country. Maybe the world. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get them to take you in the middle of the year like this. They don''t usually do that." Joey turned. "What middle of the year? There''s no middle of the year at Exemplar Academy.
They don''t break for summer. They don''t break ever . It''s all one continuous year there." "Just like the real world. You might not appreciate it now, but this is an unbelievable opportunity." "Emphasis on ''unbelievable.'' You heard what my old teachers said--" "I remember what they said," Joey''s father cut in. "That''s why they''re your old teachers.
" Joey scrunched up his face. Joey''s teachers at Francis A. Sinatra Junior High had been convinced his perfect test scores were some kind of fluke. A glitch in the grading machine, perhaps. At home the reaction was different. Years of slacking had come back to bite Joey in the neck. His lackluster academic track record was now the reason his parents suddenly thought he was some kind of prodigy. He''s not lazy.
He just needs to be challenged more! They were acting like he was the next Tony Stark. It was a disaster. Joey''s mom and dad wasted no time enrolling him in a special school for gifted and talented students. Joey didn''t know if Exemplar Academy was the best school in the world or not, but he was pretty sure it was the most demanding. Their motto boasted "Our Students Change the World," which Joey thought was a lot of pressure to put on a thirteen-year-old. He looked around the train. It was filled with people carrying homemade signs, on their way to various Earth Day marches, demonstrations, and events. A young girl passing through the train car handed Joey and his father pamphlets that read SAVE THE PLANET in big, bold letters.
"Thanks," Joey said, tucking the paper into his pocket. "I''ll get right on that." Joey''s father frowned at him. "Don''t be mean." The girl continued down the aisle, unfazed. Joey felt bad afterward about being snarky with her. He wasn''t trying to be mean; she had just gotten him in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong message. He didn''t want to change the world.
When did that become his responsibility? Just because he''d scored in the ninety-ninth percentile on every test that mattered, he was expected to do the impossible all of a sudden? Joey didn''t care what anybody said--he wasn''t a genius. He was a normal kid. He had tried explaining that to his mom and dad, but they were too proud of his test scores to listen to reason. For them it was like winning the lottery. They had visions of Ivy League scholarships dancing in their heads. The truth was, Joey was not a great student. He was a great test taker. That was why he had always done well enough in school, earning Bs and the occasional C without trying very hard.
His days of getting away with that were over. "This is a total waste of time. I''m going to flunk out of that school in a week." Joey squirmed in his seat, attempting to get comfortable, smushed between his father and the window as a group of eager environmentalists crowded in. He opened his phone, looking for a digital escape. Every part of him wanted off that train. "You''re not going to flunk out of anything," his father told him. "I don''t belong there.
The kids at Exemplar are all super-brainiacs." Joey''s father smirked. "Don''t take this the wrong way, but you''re a super-brainiac too." " Dad ," Joey said, in a lecturing tone. "How many times do I have to tell you? Those test scores. They don''t mean anything. There''s a trick to doing well on tests like that." The way Joey saw it, a real genius would have known the subjects he''d been tested on backward and forward.
That wasn''t him. He was an expert on Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That was about it. When it came to literature, he had encyclopedic knowledge of comic book continuity. Not exactly the stuff global leaders were made out of. Joey hadn''t done well because he understood the material on the tests. He had done well because he understood the questions on the page. There were hints to what the answers were hidden inside of each question.
Joey spotted traps that test makers laid to lure students into choosing wrong answers and clues that helped him zero in on the right ones. That had been always been enough for him to get by, but he couldn''t get away with those tricks forever. At Exemplar Academy, Joey was finally going to come up against a real challenge, and when that day came, things would get ugly. "Try to relax," Joey''s father told him. "You already got into the school. The hard part''s over with. What you have this morning is just a placement test." Joey scoffed.
"The PMAP isn''t just another placement test, Dad. It decides your whole life." "I know it feels like that, but--" "It does. At Exemplar, the PMAP is like their bible." For the first time in forever, Joey was actually worried about a test. The Predictive Model to Ascertain Potential was known in kid circles as the "What Will I Be When I Grow Up?" test. It measured a student''s potential for success in any given field and identified their ideal career choice. Every student at Exemplar Academy got their own personal curriculum with courses geared toward the job recommendation on their PMAP.
Joey''s new school was going to plan out his whole education based on one exam. "What if this test says I should do some job I hate? What happens then? I have to study that until I go to college?" "Don''t get all worked up. The PMAP just helps the school point you in the right direction. It''s a competitive environment. You want to hit the ground running." "Finally, something we agree on. I''m taking off as soon as this train hits the station." "Ha ha.
Very funny." "I''m serious. There''s gonna be a Joey-shaped hole in the wall like something out of a cartoon. You''ll see." "I''d rather see a Joey-shaped person appreciating how lucky he is. This school is going to open all kinds of doors for you." His father put a hand on his shoulder. "I know this is hard, but I promise you it''s going to be worth it.
Try to remember, whether you think you can or think you can''t. you''re right. I happen to think you can do anything you put your mind to." "Thanks, Dad, but if that''s true, what do I need this wacky school for?" "This wacky school is going to get you where you need to go in life." Joey frowned. "Where''s that? You think these people at the testing center have the answer? They don''t even know me." "They''re supposed to help you figure it out, that''s all. Why d.