Chapter 1

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DEDICATION

For every kid who ever wished homework could be more fun.

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Nobody in Ms. Park's class liked homework.

"It's boring," said Jaylen.

"It takes forever," said Nia.

"My dog actually did eat mine once," said Marco, and nobody believed him, but it was true.

Eight-year-old Ava felt the same way. Every afternoon, she sat at the kitchen table alone, staring at her homework, wishing she was anywhere else.

Then one Tuesday, her mom came home late and said, "Why don't you do your homework at Jaylen's? His mom said it's fine."

Ava packed up her homework and walked next door. Jaylen was at his kitchen table, staring at the same worksheet she had.

"This is terrible," he said.

"I know."

They sat together and started working. And something weird happened.

It wasn't terrible anymore. Not great — homework was still homework. But doing it with someone else made it less awful. They could help each other with the hard parts. They could complain together about the boring parts. And when they both finished at the same time, Jaylen's mom gave them popsicles.

"We should do this every day," Ava said.

"We should invite more people," said Jaylen.

The Homework Club was born.

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The next day, Ava and Jaylen invited Nia and Marco.

"Homework together?" Nia said. "That's still homework."

"Yeah, but with popsicles."

"I'm in."

They rotated houses. Monday was Ava's. Tuesday was Jaylen's. Wednesday was Nia's. Thursday was Marco's. Friday was a free day — no homework, just play.

1. Everyone does their own work (no copying). 2. If you're stuck, ask the group before giving up. 3. When everyone finishes, you play until dinner. 4. Snacks are provided by the host family.

At first, the parents were skeptical. "Are they actually doing homework or just goofing off?" Ava's mom asked.

But when Ava's grades went up — and Jaylen's, and Nia's, and Marco's — the parents became the Homework Club's biggest fans.

"It's amazing," Jaylen's mom told Ava's mom. "He used to spend an hour fighting me about homework. Now he does it in twenty minutes because he wants to get to the playing part."

Marco's dad, who worked long hours and couldn't always help with homework, was especially grateful. "The other kids explain things to Marco better than I can sometimes. They speak kid."

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The Homework Club worked so well that other kids wanted to join. But four houses were already full.

Then Ava had an idea.

"What if some of us don't just do our own homework? What if we help the younger kids too?"

Jaylen's little sister, Lily, was in first grade and couldn't read very well. Every night, she struggled through her reading homework while Jaylen's mom tried to be patient.

"I'll read with her," Ava offered one Tuesday.

She sat next to Lily on the couch and listened to her sound out words. It was slow. Lily got frustrated. She wanted to quit.

"The word is 'because,'" Ava said gently. "B-E-C-A-U-S-E. Because."

"Buh... buh-cuz?"

"Close! Because. Say the whole thing."

"Because!" Lily grinned. "I got it!"

"You got it."

After that, reading with Lily became part of Tuesday. Nia started helping her little brother with addition on Wednesdays. Marco — who was secretly good at art — taught Jaylen's sister to draw letters by turning them into animals.

"A is an alligator," he said, drawing an A with a snout and legs. "B is a butterfly."

Lily loved it. She started asking to come to Homework Club instead of being forced.

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In March, Ms. Park assigned a science fair project.

"Each of you will choose a question, design an experiment, and present your findings to the school," she said. "This is a solo project."

Solo. That was the problem.

The Homework Club had gotten so used to working together that working alone felt scary. Even Ava, who used to do homework alone every day, felt nervous about tackling something this big without her friends.

"We can't help each other?" Jaylen asked Ms. Park.

"You can brainstorm together. But each person needs their own project."

At Homework Club that afternoon, everyone stared at their blank project planners.

"What question should I research?" Nia asked.

"That's the thing," Ava said. "Nobody can tell you. Ms. Park said we have to choose something WE are curious about."

Silence.

Then Marco said, "I'm curious about why my dog eats weird stuff."

Everyone laughed. But Marco was serious.

"No, really. He ate a sock last week. Why? What makes dogs eat things that aren't food? That's a real science question."

"That's actually brilliant," Ava said.

Marco grinned. "My dog is a genius. An accidental genius."

"Meta-homework," Jaylen said. "Homework about homework."

"It's science," Ava said.

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She designed her experiment carefully. For two weeks, she did half her homework alone and half with the Homework Club. She timed how long each assignment took, recorded her grades, and rated her mood on a scale of 1-10.

"It's not just that I do better with friends," Ava wrote in her conclusion. "I actually learn more because when I explain something to Jaylen or Nia, I understand it better myself. Teaching is learning."

She made a poster with graphs and charts (Jaylen helped her make them look nice — that wasn't cheating, that was formatting).

At the science fair, the gym was filled with projects. Marco's display on canine pica (that's the scientific name for dogs eating weird stuff) drew the biggest crowd. Jaylen's plants-and-music experiment had actual plants — the ones that "listened" to classical music were noticeably taller.

Ava stood by her poster and explained her findings to parents, teachers, and other students.

"So doing homework with friends is actually better?" asked a third-grader.

"The data says yes," Ava said. "Friends make everything better. Even homework."

She won second place. Marco won first (the dog pica project was a crowd favorite). But what mattered most to Ava wasn't the ribbon — it was the line of kids asking, "How do I start a Homework Club?"

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By May, there were four Homework Clubs on their block alone.

Ava's original group. A third-grade group started by a girl named Keisha. A first-grade group (mostly supervised by parents, with a lot of snack breaks). And a mixed-age group at the community center, started by a sixth-grader named Daniel who'd heard about Ava's science fair project.

"You started a movement," Ms. Park told Ava.

"I just didn't want to do homework alone."

"That's how most movements start. Someone doesn't want to be alone."

The clubs didn't all work the same way. Keisha's group met at the library. The first-grade group met at the park (homework first, playground after). Daniel's group paired older kids with younger kids as tutors.

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On the last day of school, Ms. Park asked everyone to write a thank-you note to someone who had helped them that year.

"Dear Ms. Park, thank you for giving us homework. I know that sounds weird, because nobody likes homework. But because of homework, I started a club. And because of the club, I made better friends, helped younger kids, and won second place at the science fair. I learned that the hardest things are better when you don't do them alone. Thank you for teaching me that. Even if you didn't mean to."

Ms. Park read the note at her desk after the kids left. She put it in her drawer, right next to the drawer where she kept her own homework (lesson plans were just grown-up homework, after all).

She smiled. Then she started planning next year's assignments — the ones that would seem like punishment until some kid figured out they were opportunities.

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On the first day of third grade, Ava sat at a new desk in a new classroom with a new teacher.

Some things were different. She was taller. She could do fractions (Zoe had taught her over the summer). She had a new backpack with a spaceship on it.

But some things were the same.

"Homework?" Jaylen asked.

"Homework," Ava confirmed.

"Whose house?"

"Mine. Mom made cookies."

They walked home in the warm September sun, backpacks bouncing, complaining about their new teachers and their new assignments and the unfairness of homework on the very first day.

But none of them were dreading it. Not really. Because in forty-five minutes, they'd be sitting around a kitchen table together, helping each other, eating cookies, and turning the worst part of the day into something that felt a lot like the best part.

The Homework Club was back.

And this year, they were going to need a bigger table.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Crimson Ark Publishing publishes fiction for readers of all ages, drawing on the spiritual principles and rich cultural heritage of the Bahá'í Faith. Our stories explore themes of unity, justice, courage, and the transformative power of love — through characters and communities that reflect the beautiful diversity of the human family. Every book is an invitation to see the world not only as it is, but as it could be.

Visit us at crimsonarkpublishing.com