“Man, I hate using glue,” I said as I pasted a piece of paper to my sketch arc.

  “Really? I like it quite a lot,” Soriel replied, performing the same action I did.

  Since it was a Wednesday, I had art for the first period with Soriel.

  In that specific art class, we had to make paper collages in our notebooks.

  We had full freedom in what we wanted to create, leading me to create something simple.

  I made a bunch of stripes of red paper cover the first half of the page until in gradually changed into blue by the end.

  ‘This is probably the only type of thing I can make…’

  With that solemn thought, I turned my head and glanced at Soriel’s art.

  It depicted two different colored squares clashing against each other with one square clearly winning the exchange.

  “That’s kind of a weird collage. What’s it supposed to be about?”

  “It’s a secret,” Soriel said with a playful smile.

  I raised my eyebrow but didn’t pry any further.

  ‘I wonder what kind of secret that could even be…’

  **

  “Ugh,” I muttered under my breath.

  I sat in my 3rd period English class with a contemplative expression.

  I was staring at a question on my assignment, not fully sure of what to do.

  The question asked about one of the themes in the text we read as a class.

  ‘Maybe I should ask someone nearby for help? But who? Shin’s just going to antagonize me and I don’t trust anyone else’s advice. Plus, I don’t really feel like talking to people…’

  I sat there for a few moments, thinking over what to do.

  Then, I noticed someone else nearby who could help out with this issue.

  ‘Oh yeah, Audrey. She’ll probably know the answer. And it could help me build a relationship with her so I can figure out if she’s the number one student.’

  With that thought, I lightly tapped on the shoulder of Audrey who was sitting in the seat in front of me.

  Audrey turned around and looked at me with a confused expression.

  “Hello, can I help you?” She replied calmly.

  “Uh, yeah, can you tell me the answer to question four? I don’t know how to answer it,” I requested.

  For some reason, Audrey looked at me with confusion for a moment before agreeing to help me.

  She then explained how she answered the question and her reasoning for doing so.

  I said thank you and put the answer onto my paper.

  ‘Nice! It all worked out just as planned.’

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  From there I continued class as normal.

  In my next period, I had mathematics. Fortunately, that period was supposed to be used to catch up on any of the classwork we missed and to go over anything we misunderstood.

  So I practiced some math problems since I had no missing work.

  It was a bit boring and for a few moments I thought about how it’d be to just talk to Aurora but that was only for a little bit.

  After all that was over, I had lunch.

  “My friends, my friends, why don’t we blow up Canada?” I suggested.

  “Let’s not? Why do you always want to blow up countries?!” Nishimoya replied.

  “I agree, let’s not do that...” Soriel said peacefully.

  I frowned.

  “Traitors,” I muttered under my breath.

  ‘Huh? That’s weird…’

  Taking a look at Tristan, I noticed he was resting his head on the table instead of reading.

  “You good? What happened to your book?” I asked.

  Tristan lifted his head up slightly to look at me.

  “Ran out. I need to borrow more from the library,” Tristan replied.

  “Oh okay,” I said, nodding in understanding.

  “Hey guys, why don’t we play uno?” Soriel said as she looked for something in her bag.

  I froze and so did Nishimoya. Then we slowly looked at each other.

  ‘Oh no…that Soriel is coming…’

  **

  “Like this?” I said, playing a short melody on the piano.

  “Not quite,” Soriel said with a sympathetic smile.

  “Argh! Cmon!” I exclaimed.

  It was after school and Soriel and I were hanging out in the music room like usual.

  This time, Soriel was teaching me a melody instead of practicing on her own.

  And looking at my dramatic frustration, Soriel let out a giggle.

  But she didn’t stay giggling for long since she stood up abruptly and walked to the side of the piano.

  Then, she pointed her finger at me.

  “I know what I wanted to say now! From our conversation yesterday!” She declared.

  I was about to tilt my head in confusion but I suddenly remembered what she was referring to.

  ‘Oh, does she mean our talent debate? ’

  I had forgotten about the debate even though it was just yesterday.

  Although, in my defense, I didn’t think she’d bring back up.

  “Alright then, say it,” I encouraged.

  Soriel nodded.

  “Well, you said you wanted to have the best grades in Freshman year right?”

  I nodded.

  “And you said you aren’t intelligent right?

  I nodded again.

  “So how do you plan on having better grades than all of the intelligent people at this school?”

  “That’s simple. Grades aren’t directly correlated to intelligence so even as a dumb person, I can figure out how to get good grades…” I answered.

  “But wouldn't intelligence still make it easier?” She rebutted.

  I paused for a moment before agreeing calmly.

  “If talent is that important, then even if intelligence was only a side factor, you wouldn’t be able to beat the other ‘intelligent’ students who are trying to get the highest grades. So, some part of your logic is flawed,”

  I stared at Soriel as she spoke, growing confused and contemplative the longer she spoke.

  “You said the only way to beat those students is to be as smart as them, but since you believe you aren’t, beating them would mean an ‘untalented’ person could beat talented people. Meaning that talent isn’t as important as you thought,” Soriel concluded, looking very proud of herself.

  I stayed silent for a few moments, thinking through any arguments I could come up with.

  However, I couldn’t think of any.

  ‘Wait so….what if I think about this differently? Everything has a correct or most optimal way to do it. Meaning that every skill has a height of high proficiency you can reach. If I’m talented, I have a biological or psychological factor that makes achieving higher proficiency easier…’

  As I thought, Soriel looked at me with glee.

  ‘That means that being untalented isn’t stopping me from achieving that state, but just eliminating that assistance. So to be the best, I don’t need to be talented, I just need to find the optimal way to do it. Usually, people find that through hard work. That’s why people put so much emphasis on hard work. But still talented people can find that method easier with the help of their talent. So I guess, talent isn’t the foundation…but rather a supporting factor.’

  Once I connected all those dots and made those deductions, I let out a huge sigh.

  A deep part of me had warped. My views were no longer the same.

  At that moment, I allowed my previous way of thinking to silently shift.

  I had unlocked a new perspective. A complicated one, but still something I couldn’t disregard.

  After I processed everything, I looked in front of me.

  At Soriel. The person who had made me come to such a conclusion.

  A person who changed one of the roots of my thinking in a single day.

  And I smiled.

  “Thanks, I didn’t think about that before,” I said.

  Upon hearing my gratitude, Soriel put her fists to her hips and made a childlike hero pose.

  “You’re very welcome!” She replied proudly.

  On that day, talent for me had changed. It revealed purpose and was still important. But its meaning had shifted.

  I wasn’t discouraged by this development.

  Instead, I was determined.

  Because now, just maybe, I had a chance.

  Talent was a tool. And even if I didn’t have it, I could still compete.

  I could still win.