If Allan had slapped Archie across the face it might have had a lesser effect on the man.

"Look, you want him, fine. Maybe you can keep him out of everyone's hair. Okay? Case closed. It's probably moot. Julie wants a piece of him. Steve is annoyed with the boy. That toy he had, that crossbow, put a steel tipped bolt…"

"He made it."

"That's the point. He should be in school, not making crossbows. Gifted child or not, he has to be like everyone else."

"Do you listen to yourself?" Allan asked quietly. "I mean, really listen. Blaise isn't a theoretical 'gifted' child. The mentally-challenged need someone who knows mental challenges. Leave them with Owen. He likes them and does a fair job with them. He is so far out of his depth with Blaise or kids like him that it is almost funny. I want Mary and Jacqueline too."

"You are not…"

"We are not in West Virginia anymore."

"That is no excuse for… "

Allan placed a piece of crumpled and bruised paper over the picture in the book.

"What's this? Your resignation? His suicide note?"

"The boy you want to be like everyone else was trying to demonstrate the theorem of similar triangles. He wasn't pulling a prank. He was trying to apply a mathematical theorem with a crossbow and a cheap ruler. Looks like he might be more than one kind of genius."

Archie took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Allan, how can you do that dead? I can have Blaise put in your class. I don't know about Jacqueline and Mary. They are elementary school kids."

"You can't keep someone like him in a regular classroom. You'll kill him in a regular classroom. Jacqueline might kill in a regular classroom. She hates the Fluffy Bunny reading series. I don't blame her."

"Second graders love the Fluffy Bunny reading series."

"You are missing the point! Jacqueline, like her brother, is gifted. Have you seen some of the stuff she's written?"