Tate sat by the fountain and gently pulled Margaret to sit next to him as he began, “Mom was a math teacher, and she’d throw a fit if I scored anything less than the highest mark in my class. When I was nine, the first time I was the second-highest in math, I erased my answer and wrote the correct one before going up to the teacher to ask for a review. That was the beginning of a very horrifying experience.”

Margaret’s eyes sparkled with interest as Tate continued, “It turned out that my math teacher and my mom were friends, so when I got home, I was given an...