Taylor Jacobs is an uninteresting boy. He does okay in class, he doesn't really have any permanent friends yet he's friendly with most of his classmates, and he has a stable family. He isn't outstanding, he isn't infamous, he's just Taylor.
Taylor is a bit unsatisfied with this. He wants to be something great, he doesn't want to be a side character in his classmates and teachers lives, he wants to be important. He isn't sure how he wanted to do this until his first year of high school.
Nothing really happened for the first couple of weeks at the school. He recognised some familiar faces in his classes while coming to know some new ones, he did okay in all of his classes, the usual for him. Everything changed when September rolled around.
At the beginning of the month, his science teacher had announced that the school district would be holding a trivia competition with questions about multiple different book series in order to encourage students to read. This wasn't the only announcement, but it caught Taylor's attention. Maybe he could join the competition and win it for his entire school. That would be interesting.
The teacher was somewhat vague on the details of the competition (because she was more interested in what was going to happen with the debate club) but she did tell the class that if they were interested in the trivia competition to go to the front office during their free time to talk about joining. She also mentioned something about posters in the hallways, but this was for most of the school events announced that morning.
During break time (or recess depending on who you ask), Taylor decided to use the restroom. Nothing really out of the ordinary for him. On his way back however, he noticed something unusual.
A girl he recognized from his reading class was staring at a poster about the trivia competition. She was rapidly tapping her right thumb on her middle finger while staring at the sign.
The girl noticed Taylor and apologized to him while speed walking away. The entire interaction was strange to him, but gave him an idea.
After school, during pick-up time, Taylor attempted to talk with the girl. Her interest in the competition could help him in doing something interesting.
"Hey," He tries to get her attention. "I saw that you were interested in the trivia... poster."
"Oh..." She stares at her hands. "Yeah... I guess I did. I just... I really liked the... the design of the poster."
"So... you were only interested in the poster?" He semi-asks with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"I-I guess so." She responds. "I like one of the books they have on the- on the poster."
"You should join the competition then!" He energetically pressures her.
"I don't think I really want to." She scratches the back of her head. "I'm not really good at competitive... stuff. Plus, I've only read two of the three books that will be in the contest- ALSO, I'm not sure if my parents would-"
"I understand." He nods to himself. "But if you change your mind, then you should tell the front office."
"I know." She mumbles to herself.
The two stop talking. After a while, Taylor's dad picked him up and started to drive him home.
"So," Taylor's Dad says the usual thing he says after a day of school. "How was school today, champ?"
"Good," Taylor stretches. "They announced that they were having a trivia contest, which is cool."
"A trivia contest?" Taylor's dad's interest could be heard in his voice. "Are you gonna join it?"
"I'm not sure yet." Taylor answers sincerely. "I need more time to think about it."
"What are the trivia questions about?" Taylor's dad questions Taylor.
"They're about some books." Taylor responds in a bland, vague way.
Belle Parkinson is an interesting girl. She does exceptionally well in the majority of the classes she's in, she doesn't really talk with any other students unless she is forced to, and her family is... interesting. She's almost a prodigy, yet she's somewhat distant when it comes to her classmates.
Belle is a bit unsatisfied with this. At first, she didn't really care about her lack of peer friends. They were all loud and obnoxious in her opinion. But over time, she started to see her lack of relatability with her fellow students as more of a bad thing than a good thing.
She felt lonelier as she saw friend groups everywhere she looked. At school, in the nearby park, even in the books she reads and the movies she watches. Friends became a thing that Belle was interested in, but had no hope in getting due to the fact that she couldn't relate with anyone her age and the fact that she wasn't very social.
All of this resulted in something interesting happening early in Belle's freshman years of high school. At the beginning of August that year, she went to Mr Moore's class in the morning (As she usually would). Before Moore got started on teaching the importance of STOP and how to respond to a "bullying situation", he made a couple of mandatory announcements for the week.
Most of these announcements didn't stick with Belle. She wasn't really interested in "Contemporary Health" because most of the stuff they teached in the class was things she already knew. So she treated most of the announcements with apathy until...
"There will also be a trivia competition that is supposed to launch the- uh... trivia club." Mr Moore reads blandly off a piece of paper. "The competition will start by the end of the month and they think the finale will take place before the end of the semester. The books- the books that the q-questions will come from are... Planet Noun-"
When Mr Moore said this, Belle lost her focus on what Mr Moore was saying after the first book. Planet Noun is a book series she was obsessed with. Planet Noun the localization name of Puranettoōmen (If you were to translate the name directed into english, it would be "Planet Omen"). She's read all 5 book localized official books, the most recent book that hasn't been localized by the publisher yet (but it has been translated by other fans online), and the 2 books in the spin off series "Renounced Planet" (Cursed Planet if you translate the name directly into english).
Before Belle knew it, Mr Moore finished his announcements and began talking about how vaping is bad. Belle's focus on the topic was at an all time low as she started to imagine the possibility of joining a Trivia Competition about something she absolutely enjoyed. Would she be able to win it by herself? Could she find other people who are interested in Planet Noun? Are there any rewards?
For the majority of the day, Belle had a hard time focusing on her classes due to her thoughts about the competition, which have been stressing her out. Halfway through the school day, the Freshmen have break time. During this break time, Belle found a poster about the trivia competition and learned more about it.
The Trivia Competition would be about 3 books every month. This fact sort of disappointed Belle. If she wanted to join the competition... club... thingy just for the Planet Noun questions, then she would either have to leave the club after a month if the books next month weren't very interesting to her, or she would have to stay in the club until Winter Break.
Other than that, Belle learned about the other books that were going to be "Sanaa: I Don't Want to Live There at the Moment" and "The Ferry to Utopia". Both are books in which Belle isn't as interested in as Planet Noun.
The Ferry to Utopia is a philosophical book about a man taking a Ferry from Hamburg to New York. The book takes place a couple years after World War Two and has the main character constantly question his role in the war, as he was conscripted into the Volkssturm during the war. The historic parts of the book weren't very interesting to Belle. The man in the book imagines his life in New York, which captivated Belle. His hopes of the city begin extremely optimistic and almost supernatural.
Sanaa: I Don't Want to Live There at the Moment (or Sanaa IDWLTM, a name Belle worked very hard to say correctly in one go) is a book about a boy and his family who have been affected by The Yemeni Civil War. The book is told from his perspective and is a mandatory read in order to pass 8th grade. This, combined with the nonfictional sadness of the book, is why Belles doesn't really like the book.
Sanaa IDWLTM, The Ferry to Utopia, and Planet Noun are all New York Best Sellers that are available in the school's library.
Another thing Belle saw on the poster was the prizes for winning. Most of them were things you'd find at a book fair (the prize for winning the september competition is an eraser that isn't even related to any of the books they'll be quizzed on), but the prize for winning in the finale is 100 dollars (the price for entering the competition is 40 dollars, so the prize is basically 60 dollars, which still is a lot.)
Another thing she noticed was the price for joining, which was one payment of 40 dollars for an entire semester.
Suddenly, Belle could feel someone staring at her. She looked to her side to see a boy in her reading class staring at her. She can't exactly remember his name. She also noticed that she was stimming and drooling while looking at the sign... which wasn't a good look. This is absolutely terrifying for Belle and here is why.
Belle is autistic. She's known about her autism ever since she was diagnosed with it in early middle school. So for a lot of her life, she had been trying to hide any type of abnormal behaviors from her classmates, because she knew that she would be bullied into the ground if everyone knew she was autistic.
While this boy might not know that Belle's autistic, he did see her stare at posters about books while acting very weird. So he'll most likely tell all his friends. They'll tell their friends, and then the whole school will think Belle's weird.
Then her parents might get upset and tell the principal about her autism. Then the principal will tell the teachers about it, then the teachers will accidentally let slip that she's autistic, and then she'll be bullied by everyone in her class for being autistic for the rest of high school. Then she might be put into Special Education, then all the teachers will talk down to her, then-
Belle decided to take the most reasonable action and ran away from the situation while profusely apologizing. The whole ordeal was embarrassing.
For the rest of the school day, Belle had completely forgotten about the competition. She was too caught up worrying about what might happen to her throughout the rest of her high school years. She also got worried about not focusing on her school work as much because of her worrying.
After a very stressful couple of hours, Belle finally made it to the end of the school day. She felt tired (As she usually does at the end of a school day), anxious, and she had a migraine on top of everything else. But at least she's done with school for the day.
This changes however, during pick-up time.
"Hey," Someone pokes her back while speaking in a familiar voice. "I saw that you were interested in the trivia... poster."
With that, Belle realizes that the person talking to her is the boy from earlier. She can feel her eyes dilate as she tries to figure out what to do in this situation.
"Oh..." Belle stares into her own hand like an idiot. "Yeah... I-I guess I did. I just... I really liked the... the design of the poster."
"So... you were only interested in the poster?" The boy says in a slightly saddened tone. She's starting to think the boy isn't talking to her to bully her into the ground.
"I-I guess so." Belle scratches her hair while contemplating talking about the competition. "I like one of the books they have on the- on the poster."
"You should join the competition then!" The boy pressures her.
"I don't... think I really want to." She scratches her head some more. Is he part of the school trivia team? Is he just making an obvious suggestion? Is he... making fun of her in a way she doesn't understand. "I'm not really good at competitive... stuff. Plus, I've only read two of the three books that will be in the contest- ALSO, I'm not sure if my parents would-"
"I understand." Belle can audibly hear the boy's disappointment. "But if you change your mind, then you should tell the front office."
"I-I know." She starts regretting the words she used in the conversation.
After that, the boy was picked up by his parents. Leaving Belle back to her thoughts. She started to sum up the pros and cons of joining the competition.
She shouldn't join the trivia team because she only really enjoys one of the books, she might not enjoy the books that will be covered next month, she doesn't know if her parents even want to spend money on an after school club, she isn't really good in competitive environments, she doesn't know if the prizes are really worth joining, and she doesn't know how many people will watch her during the competition.
She should join the competition because she can finally put all her knowledge of Planet Noun lore to good use, 60 dollars is A LOT of money, and she could definitely make friends by joining the competition.
While there are more cons than pros, Belle is still interested in joining the team at least a little bit. She still doesn't know if her parents would pay for it, though. Perhaps she should ask her parents about joining... or maybe she doesn't want to embarrass herself.
And while she was thinking about this, her mom arrived to pick her up. Once she enters the car, her mom begins a conversation that is usually boring and lifeless.
"How was your day?" Her mom fakes interest. She asks this everyday ever since Belle started going to public school. Belle doesn't know why she keeps being asked this question, because the answer is always supposed to be the same thing."
"It was good." Belle takes off her backpack while considering if her day was actually good. If she really thinks about it, the day is pretty uneventful. She got told about a thing, read a poster, and saw a classmate staring at her. A lot of what happened could lead to other eventful days, like maybe joining the competition or becoming the school recluse, but nothing really happened.
"That's nice, honey." Her mom says. She can't tell if her mother is going to say something, but she assumes that nothing else is going to be said until they pick up her younger brother.
As her mom parks in the school parking lot, getting ready to wait 30 minutes for the 5th graders to finish school for the day, Belle keeps thinking about what would happen if she joined the competition. After a short amount of time, her mom breaks the silence.
"Did you know that they had a 'sibling wait' for students with siblings?" Belle's mom asks Belle, making it unclear to her whether her mom's upset with her or not. "You can just wait in school for Donald to leave inside."
"I didn't know." Belle lied while looking out the window to lessen any shame that may arise.
"Neither did I," Belle's mom uses an eyelash curler whilst talking. "They should've told us both earlier, because hanging out in the parking lot for half an hour is a huge waste of time. But now that we know, we can save some time by having you go to Sibling Wait after school."
"That's great." Belle says another lie. She usually has migraines near the end of a school day and the last thing she'd want is to stay in school for an even longer amount of time, but she doesn't want to be rude.
"And here's the best part," Her mom continues. "Sibling Wait is absolutely free!"
"Yeah..." Belle quietly mumbles.
The car returns to silence. Once Belle is sure the conversation has ended, she opens her backpack and looks for a certain book.
She's been rereading through the 5 mainline Planet Noun books (She is currently on the 2nd book, 'Planet Noun: The Floating Cave') after she learned that a 6th book was being written by the original author, Saiki Takehiko. Of course, the book doesn't even have a name yet and it won't originally release in the states until about a year after its release in Japan, but Belle is still very hyped up for the very idea of the book being written.
"Belle?" Her mom interrupts Belle's search for The Floating Cave. "Did you know that your school was holding a trivia competition for those books you like?"
"Yeah." Belle slowly straightens her back away from her pack on the car floor. "They talked about it in school."
"I think you might like the competition since you really like those Planet books." Her mom tries to relate to Belle. "Me and your father were planning on getting you and your brother into some sort of after school club anyways."
"Oh," Belle takes some time to process what her mom said. She was going to be going to an after school club? She didn't know about this! She doesn't want to be signed up for Chess Club, Chess Club is awful! But she isn't exactly sure if she should join the Trivia competition. She needs to think about this more and her head feels like it's spinning. "I... I guess."
"So you want to join the competition?" Belle's mom asks.
"I-I... um..." Belle feels like she doesn't have enough time to think about it. "Uh... yeah. But isn't it-"
"Perfect!" Belle's mom claps her hands together. "We can just go to the front office and sign up then."
"Yeah..." Belle forces a smile. "Perfect."