Mira wasn’t in Aristo. She was in General Science 2C, the forgotten corridor where the microscopes had cracked lenses and the lab rats were named after expired chemicals. But she had something the Aristo kids didn’t: the answer key.

The answer, she realized, wasn’t a cheat. It was a mirror. And for the first time, General Science 2C was looking straight back at Aristo — and smiling.

“From you,” Mira said. “In the margins.”

At the competition, the Aristo judges went pale. “Where did you learn this?” one whispered.

Not just answers — explanations . Each problem came with a handwritten note in the margin, scrawled in fading blue ink: “The common mistake here is assuming linear growth. See Aristo 1A principle 4.” Or: “This question has no single correct answer — but they expect you to choose B. Here’s why B is wrong, but accepted.”

She rebuilt the trial in her basement. It worked. A clean, cold burn that produced no waste and near-perfect energy transfer.