Ungifted

Abigail considers three things Harvard will never learn about her when she applies. First, they will not learn that her robotics team was disqualified. Abigail admits that she is jealous of Noah. With his mind, he will be accepted into any college he wants, though he will “probably go nowhere at all” (157). She decides there is such a thing as being too smart. While she would love to “spend an hour inside his head,” she would not want to be him (157). Second, Harvard will not learn how close she came to attending summer school. Abigail is grateful to Donovan for that. She acknowledges that she was hard on him and stands by her “original opinion” that he did not belong in the gifted program (158). At the same time, she knows she and her classmates were lucky “for the Atlas incident” that landed Donovan at ASD (158). Finally, Harvard will never learn that she was the one “who hacked into the library computer and helped Donovan cheat on the retest” (158). “Surprised?” she asks, then adds, “Me too” (158).

A clip of Tin Man “vanquishing the competition” appears on YouTube the day after the competition under the title “Robots Behaving Badly” (159). Noah notes that short titles are essential for generating traffic. In less than a week, “Robots Behaving Badly” surpasses Noah’s video of Tin Man exposing Ms. Bevelaqua’s underwear. He is mildly insulted but pleased to be the costar of a video bearing an “action sequence” as exciting as any WWE steel-chair battle (159), though he could be wrong about that, he acknowledges.

Noah has been expelled from ASD. In Hardcastle Middle School’s main office, the printer’s screeching as it discharges his class schedule sounds to Noah “like victory” (159). He owes his “great day” to being wrong about Katie’s baby being a girl. The discovery that he can be wrong is a gift that fills him “with a sense of infinite possibility” (160). Katie names the baby “Tina Mandy Patterson,” after Tin Man.

In the school hallway, Donovan (“the author of all [of Noah’s] good fortune”) is shocked to see Noah (160). Noah explains that he was expelled for helping Donovan cheat on his retest. Donovan angrily scolds him for having risked his school career when Donovan would have been found out eventually anyway. Noah informs Donovan that he was not actually the one who cheated for Donovan. He only said he was so that he could be expelled. Donovan calls him crazy and laments that he will never know who cheated for him. Noah tells him it was Abigail. When Noah hacked into the system to plant “fake evidence” that he cheated for Donovan, he had to erase the real evidence that Abigail had done it (161). Donovan is shocked, but Noah says she did it for Donovan’s driving skills and sister. Donovan calls him crazy, but Noah does not care. Being able to not care feels like being lifted of a burden for Noah. Donovan notes that Noah got himself kicked out of the only school capable of challenging him. Noah admits that ASD was not challenging for him. No curriculum can do that for him, “no matter how hard they make it” (162). Challenge will come from life. Though he could be wrong, he says, “How awesome was that?” (162).

For one afternoon, Human Growth and Development turns into Canine Growth and Development. Noah skypes into the military’s network so Brad can watch Beatrice give birth to her puppies. He is in a tank at the time, and another soldier with him, who recognizes Noah from YouTube, admiringly tells him, “I loved you in ‘Robots Behaving Badly’” (164). Chloe adopts one of the puppies, giving Donovan an excuse to stay in touch with her.

Noah fits in at Hardcastle better than Donovan expected. He recruits the Daniels to form a three-person bodyguard unit to ensure Noah does not get bullied. The Daniels like Noah, even though he is “the biggest dweeb who’d ever walked the face of the earth” (165).

Mr. Osborne arranges for Noah and Donovan to travel to ASD three times a week for robotics. Dr. Shultz personally approves the plan. The insurance company pays for the gym repairs. Atlas’s remains join the globe in the administration building’s basement. Dr. Shultz solicits “suggestions for a new statue,” and Donovan recommends a Titanic memorial, “a quiet nod to my ancestor and fellow survivor, James” (165).

Donovan enjoys returning to ASD for robotics. He never confronts Abigail for cheating on his behalf. The team works on Heavy Metal, their robot for the following year’s competition. As they will be in the high-school division, they hope no one will remember them as the group responsible for Tin Man’s rampage. Perhaps the team will fade into the background, and “the riot would belong to Tin Man alone,” causing people to wonder what “made a robot go berserk like that” (166). Donovan has an answer for that: “the same wild impulse” that caused him to whack Atlas (166). Donovan is working to control his impulses—“the part of me that ancestry.com couldn’t explain”—though he expects them to resurface and cause “twice as much trouble” (166).