Perfectly Average

Chapter 2

Adam Jacobson had been a teacher for 14 years, and in all of his time teaching, he had never seen anything like it.

"Why didn't I notice this before?" He grumbled, staring at the incredibly distinct pattern in the grade sheet before him. "Could it possibly be a coincidence?" In all of his years, no student had ever maintained such a perfect streak of the exact same grade on everything with only a single degree of variation.

Adam Jacobson pulled up the teacher resources website. Since he had helped build the website, he had kept a super admin account (in case he needed to update the site of course). Logging in with the super user, he was able to access other teachers accounts and their current gradebooks. He also had access to students and their current schedule. He was able to view as far back as the first of the year. Typing in the name of the boy who had sparked his curiosity, Elijah Mitchel, he pulled up every class the boy had been in from the beginning of the school year.

Part of him had expected to be proved wrong, but here in front of him was the proof that something extraordinary had been happening right under his nose. He printed every grade sheet for each class Elijah Mitchel had attended this year. He used a highlighter to indicate the row that interested him, but it wasn't really necessary. Now that he knew what to look for, he could easily find the row of Elijah's grades, just by looking for the perfect pattern.

His only excuse for not seeing this before was that he was generally on the lookout for patterns of consistently failing grades which often indicated emotional issues or possibly a learning disability. He also kept an eye out for consistently high grades, top students who may be good choices for academic competitions or maybe just a good TA. Even relatively decent grades with a negative spike, could indicate someone experiencing a trauma who may benefit from seeing the school counselor, and someone with consistently low grades and an unexpected spike could very possibly be cheating. He had so many patterns that he kept an eye out for as a student advisor, but Elijah had managed to avoid all of those grade patterns.

His perfect C average seemed to be engineered specifically to maintain anonymity. Elijah's only failure was that he had adhered to the pattern too closely. For every assignment or test, from the advisory placement test to the Physics final, Elijah had received a 75%. On the very rare occasion that the score was 1 point higher or lower than 75%, it was clear to Adam that the grading rubric for that particular item had been such that an exact 75% wasn't possible, so Elijah had achieved one point above or below 75% and immediately afterwards he did the opposite so that the average never strayed from 75%.

To Adam, the pattern seemed to indicate that Elijah was trying hard to remain unnoticed, but some OCD or similar tendencies had caused him to be as exact as possible. Anyone could maintain a C average with relative ease. But Elijah had done the impossible. He had obtained exactly 75% wherever possible and as close to that as he could wherever it wasn't possible. To do this so consistently, he would have had to know the answer to every possible question, and he would have to calculate the weight of each question against the grading rubric in order to achieve exactly 75%. There were notes by his teachers that he had politely brought it to their attention when they accidentally marked him correct when he was not. They lauded his honesty, but Adam knew it wasn't honesty that drove him to correct the teachers' mistakes. It was simply a desire to receive the grade he had been aiming for.

Every class was exactly the same and Adam wanted to know more. How far back did this behavior go? If he went back far enough would he be able to see proof of the brilliance he now suspected Elijah hid so well? He needed records from previous years. He needed to see the whole picture. Perhaps then the truth of this puzzle would become clear.

"Lucas," he called to his TA.

Lucas Taylor jumped up from his desk in the back corner of the empty classroom where he had been grading tests. He pushed his fingers through his silky black hair and grinned. "Yes Mr. Jacobson?"