Elijah Carter was fifteen, and he had studied the course textbook twice before the semester started.

His father, Thomas, worked the night shift as a custodian in the mathematics building.

Some mornings Elijah traveled in with him, did his homework on a bench in the hallway, and watched the lecture hall fill through the glass doors.

He had never once been inside during a class.

That morning, he picked up his backpack, stepped in through the side door, and stood in the aisle.

The lecture hall was brightly lit.

Sunlight streamed through the high windows onto tiers of pale wooden seats filled with white undergraduates, many of them already holding up their phones.

At the front stood a large blackboard, and on the floor beneath it lay a few pieces of broken white chalk.

Professor Gerald Hollis, fifty, square-jawed, with short gray hair and a dark suit, stood on the platform and stared down at the boy.

He had noticed him in the hallway before.

He had never cared to learn his name.

“Who let this boy into my classroom?”

Elijah clutched the straps of his backpack.

He was nervous, but he did not move back.

“Please, I just wanted…”

Hollis raised a hand and cut him off.

The corner of his mouth curled.

“Go help your father mop the floors.”

Laughter rolled up through the tiers.

Phones turned toward Elijah.

He stood still, and his eyes did not drop.

Hollis turned to the blackboard, grabbed a piece of chalk, and wrote a long, dense string of symbols across it.

He turned back, placed the chalk down on the lectern, and raised his chin.

“Solve this.

I'll give you an A.”

He paused and spread his hands.

“Go ahead.”

Elijah carefully set his backpack down.

He leaned down, picked a piece of white chalk up off the floor, and held it between his fingers.

Then he turned and began to walk toward the blackboard, one step at a time.

Behind him, the laughter weakened and faded.

At the lectern, Hollis folded his arms across his chest, the smirk still on his face.

May you like

“After you sign those papers, everything becomes mine,” my fiancé whispe…

“After you sign those papers, everything becomes mine,” my fiancé whispered.

"For six months, I looked after my “p@ralyzed” mother-in-law.

"For six months, I looked after my “p@ralyzed” mother-in-law.

"My daughter called me from a hospital and whispered four words: “Mom…

"My daughter called me from a hospital and whispered four words: “Mom…

Will Elijah solve the problem and erase Hollis’s smirk?

Comment “NEXT” for Part 2.