Challenges

Harry grimaced as he looked at the grade on his first humanities paper, B-. He hadn't had a grade that low in two years. He looked around the room he shared with Dominic Santini before heading to the floor common room. It wasn't a large room but it wasn't small either.

Their floor was made up of the fifth and sixth grade boys. Their room shared a bathroom with two sixth grade boys Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III and Varun Pratitashwa. Sunday of last week when Beth and Sirius had escorted Harry to his dorm they had met the three boys, at Harry's insistence Sirius and Beth had made the good byes short. After that, Dominic and Michael showed him all around campus using his schedule as a guide.

Dominic was the cheerful and smart son of the Italian Ambassador. The school had set them together because in the fall trimester Dominic had a room to himself because of an uneven number of fifth grade boys and they figured that he would be a good person to help Harry adjust to American culture. Dominic was surprised that his new roommate was only eight but accepted it. He played football, or soccer as the Americans called it, and was delighted when he saw the ball in Harry's belongings. The room had many sketches he had done and his violin sat on a shelf above his bed.

Michael's father was a businessman and a divorcee who didn't like to be bothered by spending time with his son. However he was too vindictive to let his ex have custody, not that according to Michael his mother had a maternal bone in her body. Michael kept two horses in the stable and liked playing polo and viola.

 Michael was in sixth grade in everything but math, he took math with the fifth graders because he had dyscalculia. He loved to debate everything, he loved spinning other people up just because he could.

He was surprised on Harry's third day that after five minutes of arguing with Harry for arguments sake; Harry suddenly stopped arguing with him gave him a calculated measuring look and suddenly continued arguing with a grin on his face instead of the frown he had worn mere minutes earlier.

Varun was the son of the Indian Ambassador. Unlike his roommate Michael, he liked quiet. He was very studious and he was Harry's assigned tutor for English composition, and he loved to paint, he and Harry were on swim team together. Both he and his twin sister Kamala attended Stuart-Cavanaugh but had to work hard to keep up.

Harry's new friends entered the floor common room as he was mourning the grade on his first paper. Dominic looked at Harry's expression. "What's wrong?"

"I got last weeks humanities paper back."

"What did you get?" asked Varun.

"A B-. I never get anything below an A."

Michael grinned, "Welcome to the world of Stuart-Cavanaugh. Let's see the comments."

" Docked eight points for english grammar mistakes ouch. Over simplified, check your argument's logic, not bad could be developed more, expand on this." Varun smiled at Harry. "Next time let me proof your paper before you print it out, that will help cut down the grammar errors. Not bad for a first paper."

"Not bad, I got a B-! I always get A's!"

"Yeah but Harry that's at regular schools. I was an A student at my school in Rome and do you know what I got on my first paper a C-." Dominic stated.

" We study in groups for a reason, we do individualized reading, then we study together. We debate and argue, discuss the reasoning behind the logic and thinking. You made a newbie mistake you did the first paper solo. Solo may work for flying planes but it doesn't at this school. I have to say though, I'm impressed a B- on a first paper." Michael added. "I've been a student here since I started school and since I started boarding here two years ago, I've seen or heard about a lot of first papers. A B- is a good grade on a first paper an average one is a D."

Varun and Kamala said, "We got C-'s on our first papers as well. A B- is actually quite good."

"Hey a B- is good even if it's not a first paper." Dominic said.

"What did you get on your paper?" Harry asked.

"A B+."

"Merde."

"That's French, You speak French?"

"Since I was three." Harry confirmed.

"What language class are you taking?"

"Latin."

"Okay, Verun and I are taking French, and speak English and Hindustani. Dominic there speaks"

"Italian, English, and Latin and is taking German."

Michael smiled and said "I am taking French, but I know English and some Spanish my nanny was good for something. Do you speak anything other than English and French?"

"Yeah Indonesian and Balinese and a smattering of Latin and Japanese."

"Six languages? Okay its official you make me sick." Kamala complained. "What is your worst subject?"

"Art."

"Art how can you be bad at art?" Varun asked.

....

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