As it turned, out, all sophomores that had 4th period lunch had a single, overstuffed English period. Since Burr was out of commission, the three other boys dragged Alex up the three flights of stairs to Mr. Knox's English classroom.

"He's a good teacher," Laurens assured Alex. "Really intense, though. And he lives by debate team."

"Have you had him before?"

"Last year. There's not that many teachers at Continental High, so most teachers teach all grades."

"That's cool! Sometimes, there would only be one or two teachers at my old schools, and we'd all have them. But this place is pretty awesome. It's huge! Though I guess it's expected, since we're near New York fucking City. And sorry if that's offensive, or something."

Laurens laughed. "It's fine." (His father liked to pretend that Yonkers was the center of the earth, ignoring the city that was so close to them, but Laurens's father didn't have the most reputable views in anything.) "So you've lived in a lot of places, huh?"

"Not totally? I mean, my mom died when I was twelve, but before that we stayed in one place. But after she died, I started moving around a lot. I lived in Florida for a few months, actually."

Laurens knew better than to ask about Hamilton's father. Fathers were tricky subjects. "I'm sorry about your mother."

Hamilton shrugged. "It's fine. I mean, not fine, but...well, I'm over it."

Either emotionally stunted or psychotic, Laurens thought to himself.

"You two gonna catch up, or what?"

Without noticing it, Laurens and Hamilton had fallen behind Lafayette and Mulligan. They sped up to catch up with them. "You two are just fast walkers," Alex complained.

"I think that all of the waves of love between the two of you are just slowing you down," Lafayette said dramatically, waggling his eyebrows at the two of them.

Laurens went red. Alex just groaned. "What love?" He internally winced at how rude it sounded.

"Mon ami, I'm French. We live and breathe love."

"Sounds fake as fuck," Hamilton said before he could stop himself. "Sorry. That was mean."

"That was awesome," Mulligan corrected.

"We're going to be late," Laurens pointed out.

They entered the room. Mr. Knox was already scribbling something on the board, but he turned to smile at them. "New kid?"

"Yeah."

Mr. Knox grabbed a paper off of his desk. "Alexander Hamilton?"

"That's me!" Alex awkwardly gave Mr. Knox jazz hands, and immediately regretted it.

But Mr. Knox seemed not to care. "You should join the debate team."

Alex had been on the debate team two school ago. They had gone head to head with the one other school in the area sixteen times, and lost fourteen of them. It had been okay, nothing great. Definitely a letdown, as Alex had always thought that debate team would be a place where he could shine. "Um, when does it meet?"

"Mondays and Wednesdays after school. Colonel Laurens will show you there."

Alex turned to Laurens, raising his eyebrows. "You're in the army?"

Laurens flushed. "It's a title. We use them on the team."

"So you're a debate geek!"

"Careful, Mr. Hamilton," Mr. Knox warned. "I might get offended."

"I think it's awesome!" Alex said. "So, can I just show up?"

"Consider yourself a member of the team, Private."

Mulligan groaned. "Oh my god. You're all debate nerds." He looked both surprised and personally offended as he looked at Hamilton. "I thought that you at least would join football with me—"

"You play football?" Alex interrupted.

Mulligan gestured to his huge, bodybuilder shape. "Duh."

The bell rang, and Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan all went to their seats. Mr. Knox gestured to a seat in the second row, next to the windows. "Next to Mr. Schuyler, please."

Slightly disappointed not to be with his new friends, but excited to talk with someone new, Alex took his seat. "I'm Alex Hamilton," he introduced himself.

The guy—Schuyler—ignored him as Mr. Knox started talking. Alex pulled out a notebook and tried to listen, a bit offended. Mulligan made eye contact with him from across the room. Alex made a face.

Mr. Knox was obviously very into his job. He was passionate about everything that they discussed and tried to incorporate everyone into the discussion. As it turned out, the class had been reading Hamlet. Hamilton had read parts of it, but never the whole thing, and he felt alienated. He made a note to himself in blue pen on his arm to get caught up on it.

As soon as the bell rang, Alex darted over to Laurens's desk. Laurens was startled as he looked up to see Hamilton standing next to his desk, and a bit flattered. He felt too awkward and ungainly as he stood up, and his fingers shook as he put his notebook and copy of Hamlet into his backpack. "Ready to go?"

"Absolutely!" Hamilton grabbed his hand, and pulled him out of the classroom. Laurens's face went completely red, and he forced himself to calm down. He didn't want to freak Hamilton out. Most of the people that knew his secret left him immediately. He couldn't trust anyone.

"Which way?" Hamilton asked him. His eyes were shining again, a huge grin on his face. God, you're adorable, Laurens thought to himself, and then mentally slapped himself as he reminded himself not to be weird.

"We're in 112."

"Why not Mr. Knox's room?"

"We're supposed to stay off the top floors after school ends. They shut off the heating, AC, whatever it is. It was Mr. Washington's idea. We don't exactly have the money to keep everything going at full blast all the time."

"Smart, I guess."

"Yeah. King did not like it, believe me. But he's a dick."

"What is it with this King guy?" Alex asked again.

Laurens stopped for a moment, waiting for Lafayette and Mulligan to catch up with them. "Hamilton here wants to know about why we hate King."

"Once upon a time…" Lafayette started.

Mulligan groaned. "Look, the Kings have been the power in this shitty town for the last few—Jesus, generations, I guess. They're a very, very old family. Very rich."

"And this town appreciates people who have been here for a long time," Laurens continued. "They appreciate old values. Family values." He twisted the word around bitterly. "So the Kings have a ton of influence. George King II is the superintendent. And so King III gets to do whatever he wants."

"Which, for the most part, is not really anything," Lafayette complained. "Washington takes care of most of the stuff around here. King just tries to get in his way to annoy him. He's taken most of the power away from the teachers. He wastes money on stupid stuff. And his policies...well…"

"They're not very forward-thinking," Laurens cut in.

"But he can't do much, right?" Alex asked.

"Except for humiliate everyone. When Esther deBerdt came out a year ago, he made sure that she couldn't win Student Council president."

"What the hell?!" Alex demanded. "That's so fucking unfair! He can't do that!" He looked at the sad faces of his friends. "Right?"

"And yet, he does," Lafayette said.

"Shitty little town," Mulligan reiterated.

"So let's change it!" Alex's eyes were blazing. "What, you're just going to let this asshole ruin lives? We're going to change it! We're going to change this school!"

The third floor didn't have any lockers on it, so it was mostly empty, but a few people looked at the four sophomores, some annoyed, some curious. A guy with weird eyebrows glared at them. Two girls were looking at them, one curiously with raised eyebrows, the other with wide eyes. Alex flashed a smile at them. The taller one blushed, and they moved on.

"Cool it, bro," Mulligan said.

"Get to practice, footballer." Lafayette patted Mulligan's shoulder—really, the only part of Mulligan that Lafayette could reach—and then gave him a small shove. Mulligan flashed him the finger before dashing off.

"And we need to get to 112," Lafaytte told the other two of them. "C'mon, lovebirds."

"Shut up!" Laurens groaned.

Hamilton just laughed, though. "Let's fucking revolutionize this school."

"Peu dramatique, Hamilton," Lafayette said.

"I've never denied it."

Together, the three sophomores made their way to debate club.