Nora Rowley and her best friend, Stephen Curtis, ride home on the school bus with their report cards in hand. Stephen pesters Nora to show him hers until she finally breaks, thinking cryptically, “Besides, the truth is, I was dying to know my spelling grade. I was sure about my grades in all the other subjects, but I thought I might have messed up in spelling” (2). Stephen rips open Nora’s report card and balks, stunned. Nora demands to know her spelling grade, and Stephen dazedly tells her she got a C. Nora exclaims, “Rats! […] I knew it! A lousy C—how could I be so stupid!” (2). Stephen nervously begins to break the news about the rest of her report card, but Nora brushes him away, saying she already knows. She earned a D in every other subject. Stephen, anxious about grades, is baffled by her response, but Nora secretly got those grades on purpose—for Stephen.

Nora is a genius, but she has never told a single person. She remembers everything she’s ever seen or heard, all the way back to when Mom bottle-fed her. She didn’t realize that she was different until shortly after she began walking.