Mrs. Eva Marie Olinski, the sixth grade teacher at Epiphany Middle School, is waiting nervously for the final of the Academic Bowl to start. She is thinking about her team of four sixth graders, The Souls, the youngest team to compete and the only team from Epiphany to have ever made it to the regional finals. The other team in the finals is Maxwell, made up of four eighth graders. The final is held in Albany, New York. The Commissioner of Education of New York State asks the first question: “What is the meaning of the word calligraphy and from what language does it derive?” (4). Mrs. Olinski hears Noah Gershom’s buzzer and relaxes, excitement replacing nervousness.

A section of Chapter 1 is titled “Noah Writes a B&B Letter” and introduces Noah, a sixth grader at Epiphany and one of the four members of The Souls. This section of the narrative takes place before The Souls form as a group and is told in the first person from Noah’s perspective.

Noah’s mother tells him to write a B&B letter—a “bread and butter (or thank you) letter”—to his grandparents, Grandma Sadie and Grandpa Nate Gershom, for hosting him at their home in Century Village, a retirement community in Florida.