Walking out of the gym, Leo felt the heavy spring air, smelled the exhaust from school buses, and realized he was no longer holding his breath. Maya was already designing a new poster in her head. "You know," she said, "if you're going to be a real scientist, you need to learn how to lose gracefully. And also how to talk to people without looking like you're about to faint."
"I'm an overachiever."
The superintendent pulled out a business card. "I sit on the board of the Nebraska Water Alliance. Call me." home student 2013
They didn't win. The prize went to the solar system kid. Leo felt a cold, familiar disappointment, the same one he felt when a calf was born sick. But Maya grabbed his arm. Walking out of the gym, Leo felt the
Maya squinted. "What’s the science?"
That summer, Leo didn't just go back to the farm. He went back with a grant proposal, a collaborator in Maya (who came out twice a week to "make sure he didn't turn feral"), and a new understanding. Home wasn't a place you escaped from. It was a place you carried with you. And also how to talk to people without