After sorting out the situation with little Sheldon, Mike returned to the Mathletes team. Ms. Sharon didn't ask any questions and simply let him into the classroom.
"Mike, what happened?" Katie whispered as soon as he sat down.
"Nothing, it's all taken care of." Mike shook his head slightly, signaling for her to pay attention.
Ms. Sharon was already glaring in their direction because of their whispering.
Katie was quite afraid of Ms. Sharon's strict and old-fashioned demeanor. She gave the teacher an apologetic smile and quickly straightened up, pretending to be engrossed in her studies.
The rest of the session passed slowly as Ms. Sharon dissected various math problems.
When the session ended, Mike quickly stood up and stopped the teacher just as she was about to leave.
"Is something wrong, Mike?" Ms. Sharon asked, puzzled.
Over the past week or so, Ms. Sharon had fully realized just how talented Mike was.
If he was stopping her, it probably wasn't about a math problem he couldn't solve.
And that was true. Mike's IQ had now reached 160. For the average person, calling him a "super genius" wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Although he was still a far cry from little Sheldon's IQ of 187, high school math problems posed absolutely no challenge for him.
"Ms. Sharon, I wanted to ask—could Sheldon join our Mathletes team?" Mike stated his purpose.
"Sheldon? You mean the child prodigy?" Ms. Sharon asked.
Little Sheldon's reputation as a prodigy was well-known around the school. Originally, the spot on the team for the eleventh grade had been reserved for him.
Who could have guessed that Sheldon would choke during that pop quiz? Naturally, the spot had been snatched up by Mike, who had come out of nowhere.
Hearing the teacher's question, Mike nodded.
"The five spots on the team are already full..." Ms. Sharon stated the facts.
Just as Mike was about to try and persuade her, Ms. Sharon thought for a moment and continued, "However, if it's Sheldon, he could come as an auditor."
Math competitions weren't just a one-year thing. Letting Sheldon join now could be seen as grooming talent for next year's team.
After all, Kevin and the others were seniors. Come next year, they would graduate and leave Medford.
"That would be great." Mike smiled. He had now fulfilled the promise he made to Sheldon earlier.
"Don't celebrate too early," Ms. Sharon said strictly. "Tomorrow, I still need to test Sheldon's actual level before I decide if he's qualified to stay."
"Of course." Mike had no objections to that.
Given Sheldon's ability, passing an intelligence test to stay on the team would be a piece of cake—as long as he wanted to stay.
After saying goodbye to Ms. Sharon, Mike went home with Katie to enjoy some quality time together.
---
Meanwhile, things weren't going so well for Sheldon, who was stuck in detention.
When he arrived at the detention room, there were already about ten people gathered there.
"Excuse me," Sheldon said, taking his usual seat in the front row, dead center. He asked carefully, "When will the guidance counselor be here?"
The room went silent for a moment at Sheldon's question. Then, a burly German-American teenager stood up and shouted theatrically, "He asked for the guidance counselor!!!"
The others in the room exchanged glances before bursting into exaggerated laughter.
Amidst the laughter, the teenager walked up to Sheldon. Looking down at him, he smiled and said, "I'm Kermit..."
"H-hello, Kermit," Sheldon stammered, looking up. "I'm Sheldon. Sheldon Lee Cooper. Nice to meet you."
Sheldon squeezed out a forced smile, then noticed the other students still laughing. He asked, confused, "What are they laughing at?"
"Don't worry about the small stuff," Kermit said, acting overly familiar. "You want to know where the guidance counselor is, right?"
Sheldon nodded quickly. As far as he knew, when students got detention, a dedicated teacher was supposed to come and give them a lecture on behavior.
"Nobody's coming to watch us..." Kermit said with a smirk that looked a little too pleased with itself.
"Why not?..." Sheldon asked back.
"There is no why!" Kermit dropped the smile, seemingly not wanting to elaborate.
Then, he changed the subject. "Sheldon, right? I know you. I have a favor to ask..."
"What kind of favor?" Sheldon asked cautiously.
He didn't know the guy in front of him at all, and he didn't think there was anything he could do to help him.
"I heard you're pretty tight with that guy Mike, the one everyone's talking about lately," Kermit said. "So, tomorrow after school, can you get him to meet you at the school gate?"
Sheldon's brain short-circuited for a second. "You want to meet Mike? That's easy. I can just introduce you to him tomorrow."
Sheldon clearly misunderstood. He thought Kermit wanted to be friends with Mike.
However, the truth was the exact opposite.
Kermit waved his hands comically. "No, no, no. That's not what I mean. I just want to see him at the gate tomorrow after school."
Kermit and Mike had never even interacted, so there shouldn't have been any bad blood between them.
But coincidences happen. Kermit was a follower of Regina, and Mike really didn't like Regina.
So, you could say they had issues because of her.
Not to mention, the "Queen Bee" had subtly mentioned her dislike for Mike in front of Kermit.
Basically, Mike was catching stray bullets because someone had a crush on Regina.
Of course, you could also interpret it as Mike just having a face that made people jealous. Plus, he was getting way too popular at school lately, which naturally rubbed some people the wrong way.
Sitting in the classroom, Sheldon finally realized Kermit's intentions weren't friendly. He probed, "Can I not do this favor?"
"What do you think?" Kermit flashed a "friendly" smile.
Okay. Looking at the guy's massive build, Sheldon decided to follow his survival instincts and agreed to the request.
As the saying goes: A wise man doesn't fight when the odds are against him.
Besides, based on what Sheldon knew about Mike, he wouldn't necessarily be the one losing if he ran into Kermit.
Thinking about it, Sheldon had seen Mike play football in person several times.
Mike's powerful tackles had left a deep impression on Sheldon.
Seeing that Sheldon had agreed, Kermit didn't give him any more trouble.
For the rest of detention, the two sides seemed to reach a tacit agreement to ignore each other.