The Wiz

Sure enough, in class one day, a teacher refers to a list of history's greatest mathematicians and predicts that someday Elizabeth could be among them.

And Elizabeth, upon hearing this, can't help but cringe a bit.

Another day, the pronouncement involves Elizabeth's eventual place in a book a teacher has of the 100 smartest people of all time.

And Elizabeth, hearing this, cringes some more.

"From what I've heard and what I can see, you get the general impression they're all overly enamored of me," she says of her teachers. "I guess in and of itself, that's nice. I mean, you can't ever be upset that people like you. So that's fine.

"The consequences of it are what make me uneasy."

"What'd you get?"

"What'd you get?"

Elizabeth is talking to Steve Chien, whose up-and-down friendship with her has been one of the consequences.

"You first."

"You first."

They are trying to settle a bet about who got the better score on a 20-question quiz. At stake is a bag of M&M's.