Chapter 1: The Bottom of the Class

Twenty years ago, I was just a regular kid growing up in a working-class Arizona suburb when I got pulled out of my regular math class and dropped into the advanced program—just like that. No warning, no preparation. Just a new classroom full of strangers who spoke in equations.

Everyone in that class was a genius—no exaggeration. They solved puzzles I’d never even heard of, built robots for MIT competitions, and wrote code in languages I couldn’t pronounce. I was still stuck on science fair volcanoes while they were arguing about quantum mechanics.

Every test, my name was at the bottom in red ink. The guidance counselor would give me that tight smile, like she felt sorry for me. No matter how hard I tried, I was the benchmark—the line everyone else had long since crossed. I started to feel like my only job was to make everyone else look smarter.

But last year, something changed. My old classmates from the gifted class started dying—mysteriously, one after another. The stories made the local news, but never got picked up nationally. It was like someone wanted to keep it quiet.

He showed up at the hospital, badge flashing under the harsh fluorescent lights, asking for me by name. That’s when Detective Derek from the Flagstaff Police Department came looking for me.

Now the cops think the only ordinary one—the one who never fit in—is the killer. If that’s not irony, I don’t know what is.