Value in the Process

Morrie Rydell has big plans for the new school quarter. Confident that he already knows more about computers than any class could teach him, he asks Mr. Whittaker, who is serving as temporary guardian for Morrie and his sister Suzu, to pull strings so he can skip the required basic programming course at Odyssey Middle School and jump straight into a fourth-year advanced programming class at Campbell College. Whit sees through the flattery and refuses. He insists Morrie take the middle school class, telling him only that "there is value in the process," a value Morrie will have to discover for himself. When Morrie starts to protest, Whit jokes that he has an unusual medical condition: "The whinier your voice gets, the less I can hear it." Whit also looks over Suzu's schedule, which is packed with nothing but academics, and gently pushes her to try something creative, like writing.

In Mr. McBane's programming class, Morrie makes a show of how easy everything is. He has already emailed in every assignment for the whole quarter, and he finishes the final project while the teacher is still lecturing. It turns out Whit warned Mr. McBane this might happen, and the two agreed that Morrie still has to take the course, including working in a group with Trey Calhoun, Andy Rome, and Corinne. Morrie promptly shows off by deducing each groupmate's final project idea from tiny clues, mocking Corinne's cat-fashion program and Andy's rodent-archaeology plan, and coldly telling Trey that nothing about him suggests accomplishment, only existence. Andy and Corinne write Morrie off as a major jerk, but Trey is starstruck and thinks he is awesome.

Meanwhile, Suzu joins the school newspaper, the Odyssey Owl, where editor Andy Rome assigns Zoe Grant to teach her the ropes of writing. Suzu works hard on an opinion article while Zoe coaches her, and when it is finished, Andy declares it cutting-edge and decides to publish it in the next edition, bumping Zoe's nearly finished, time-sensitive op-ed to do it. Zoe, who fell behind precisely because she took time to help Suzu, is left stung and suspicious, murmuring that Suzu's article may be a little too well done.

Morrie, still scheming to escape the class, takes Suzu's advice to be diligent and gathers all the transfer permissions and paperwork himself so Whit only has to sign. In the meantime he keeps his promise to help Trey, patiently walking him through animating storm clouds and rain for his project until Trey proudly decides to finish the rest on his own. But when Morrie brings the paperwork to Whit, who is wrestling with a glitch in the Room of Consequence, things go wrong. Morrie spots and fixes the buried bug in seconds, proving he is far beyond the basic class, yet Whit still refuses to sign, repeating that Morrie needs to stay where he is. Morrie loses his temper, accuses Whit of being unfair and even jealous, and gets sent home.

Still fuming, Morrie runs into Trey, who excitedly insists that Morrie have the honor of being the first to run his finished program. Morrie cruelly spoils the surprise, sneering out his prediction that it is a sappy weather show for Trey's meteorologist mother, and mockingly narrates the clouds, rain, and lightning as they play. Then the storm parts, and the message appears: "Thank you, Morrie, for all your help." Trey quietly tells him it's cool, that Morrie was right, and walks away hurt. Whit has overheard everything. Instead of punishing Morrie, who is already punishing himself, Whit explains what he meant all along: he knew Morrie could skip ahead academically, but he wanted him in the class to work with and help other people, because friendship is one of life's great gifts, and a good friendship takes time. You can't just skip ahead. Even hurt feelings, apologies, and forgiveness, Whit adds, are valuable parts of the process of making friends.

Suzu learns her own hard lesson when her article never appears in the Owl. Zoe admits she killed it, not out of jealousy, but because the phrase "cut to the quick" didn't sound like Suzu, and a plagiarism checker showed nearly the entire article was copied. Suzu is baffled at first, explaining that in her culture ideas are discovered, not owned, and belong to everyone. Zoe explains that here plagiarism is a serious form of stealing. Suzu, who admits she has struggled in the past with taking things that don't belong to her, says she wants to do what is right, and Zoe warmly offers to work with her to fix the article for the next edition.

Back in class, Morrie apologizes to the whole group, especially Trey, saying he hopes they can all be friends. When Mr. McBane suspiciously asks whether Rydell is causing trouble, Trey covers for him, and the group decides to build one brand-new project together, with Morrie teaching them how everything works from the ground up. Asked why he is suddenly willing to stay in the class and start over, Morrie gives the answer Whit was waiting for all along: because there's value in the process.