Unfortunately, balloons did not carry small boys to faraway kingdoms.

Keeran lived with his wretched mother, and he went to school with his wretched schoolteacher and his overwhelmingly wretched classmates. Of all the classmates, there was one boy less wretched than the others. A fourteen-year-old, already learning about geometry, the boy did not dare approach him. It was common social knowledge that boys who know geometry are not to be approached.

One Tuesday morning, with the sky still pale gray and the grass still wet and slippery (the sort of grass that made one's feet itchy), Keeran found a small tulip growing from the grass. Tulips in winter, even late winter, were unheard of. Struck in awe in the way only a small boy could, Keeran picked the tulip (since all beautiful things are meant to be snatched up, after all) and trotted along to the schoolhouse.

Upon arriving, he sat in his seat near the front of the room, listening to his wretched classmates jeer in the background. He sat spinning the tulip between his fingers, when he heard a deep voice behind him.

"A tulip in winter, eh?"

Keeran turned to find a fourteen-year-old standing to his right. He stood still, paralyzed in fear of the boy's knowledge of triangles and other regular shapes.

"I'm Samuel," the boy said.