Maya knew the second she walked into science that something was wrong.
People were whispering the way they whisper when they want you to hear it. Not loudly. Just loud enough.
On the board, in big letters, Mr. Dorsey had written:
CELL PROJECT GROUPS (NO CHANGES)
Maya’s name was in Group 4.
Group 4 also included:
- Jace (class clown, professional interrupter)
- Kiara (popular, powerful, and allergic to being ignored)
- Owen (nice, quiet, always has three pencils for no reason)
Maya sat down and opened her Chromebook like it could shield her from the universe.
Kiara slid into her seat and immediately said, “So. Who’s doing what? Because I’m not getting a bad grade.”
Jace grinned. “I can do the talking part. I’m the face of the group.”
“You’re the reason we need groups,” Kiara muttered.
Owen leaned forward. “I made a shared doc. I can put everyone’s names on sections.”
Maya stayed silent. Being new meant one thing: stay small. Stay out of the blast radius.
Mr. Dorsey clapped his hands. “Today you plan. Tomorrow you build. You’ll be presenting Friday.”
Jace made a choking sound. “Friday?! That’s like… basically now.”
Kiara pointed at the project sheet. “Okay. We need a model, a slide deck, and a script. Maya, you’re new, so you can do… like… the labels.”
Maya looked up. “I can do more than labels.”
Kiara blinked, surprised that the quiet kid had vocal cords.
Jace laughed. “Plot twist.”
Owen quickly said, “Maybe Maya can do the explanation part for organelles? Like functions?”
Maya nodded. “Yeah. I can do that.”
Kiara shrugged. “Fine. But we need it to look good.”
Then the chaos hit.
Jace opened his Chromebook and announced, “I found the perfect background music.”
Owen said, “We’re not doing background music.”
Jace hit play anyway. A loud beat exploded from his speakers. A few kids turned around. Someone yelled, “TURN IT UP!”
Mr. Dorsey’s eyes narrowed. “No music.”
Jace slammed his laptop shut like he’d been personally attacked by education.
Kiara leaned toward Maya. “Just do your part. If we fail, I’m blaming you, because you’re new and nobody knows you.”
Maya’s face went hot. She stared at the shared doc Owen had made. It was empty except for the title:
Cell Model Project: Group 4
Jace was already spinning a marker between his fingers like a magician. Kiara was scrolling through images of “aesthetic” cell models as if the grade depended on vibes. Owen was typing carefully, like the doc was made of glass.
Maya started writing in the shared doc anyway.
She typed headings: Nucleus, Mitochondria, Cell Membrane, Cytoplasm, Ribosomes. Under each, she added quick notes: what it does, why it matters, one simple example.
Then she noticed something.
Kiara hadn’t typed a single word.
Jace was drawing a basketball on his notes.
Owen had created a color-coded to-do list… but no actual content.
Maya took a slow breath. This was the part where she usually disappeared.
But disappearing didn’t get projects done.
So she did something reckless.
She spoke.
“Okay,” Maya said, sitting up straighter. “I’m making the content right now. Owen, can you turn these notes into slides? You’re organized. Jace, you can do the script, but it has to match the slides. Kiara, if you care about it looking good, you’re in charge of the model design and layout. Deal?”
Three heads turned toward her like she’d just stood up in a movie theater and announced the ending.
Jace raised his eyebrows. “Since when are you in charge?”
Maya met his eyes. “Since nobody else started.”
Kiara’s mouth opened. Then closed. Then she said, “Whatever. But I’m not using cotton balls. That’s embarrassing.”
Owen looked relieved. “I can do slides. I like slides.”
Jace smirked. “Fine. But I’m still the face.”
“Be the face,” Maya said. “Just don’t be the disaster.”
That should’ve been the end of it.
Middle school doesn’t do endings.
The next day, Maya walked into class and froze.
Their model box was on the counter. The lid was off. Inside was a half-built cell made of clay and foam.
And a sticky note.
Group 4 is copying Group 2. Everyone knows.
Kiara snatched the note first. Her eyes flashed. “Who did this?”
Jace started laughing like it was a joke until he realized Kiara wasn’t laughing.
Owen looked like he might throw up.
Maya stared at the model. It didn’t look like Group 2’s model. It looked like… a model. Like every cell model ever made.
But the note worked anyway. The whole table suddenly felt watched.
Kiara hissed, “This is why I hate group projects. People are weird.”
Mr. Dorsey walked by. His eyes flicked to the note in Kiara’s hand. “Problem?”
Kiara smiled too fast. “Nope.”
Maya stood up. Her heart was pounding in her throat, but she raised the sticky note slightly.
“Yes,” she said. “Someone is trying to mess with our group.”
The room got quieter, like someone had turned down the volume.
Mr. Dorsey held out his hand. Maya passed him the note. He read it once, then looked around the room.
“If you have something to say,” he said evenly, “say it with your name on it.”
Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.
Mr. Dorsey crumpled the note and dropped it in the trash. “Group 4,” he said, “keep working. The only thing that matters is what you present.”
When he walked away, Kiara stared at Maya. “Why would you do that?”
Maya swallowed. “Because I’m not letting some random sticky note decide what people think of me.”
Jace tilted his head. “Okay… respect.”
Owen exhaled like he’d been holding air for a week. “Thank you.”
The rest of class, they worked like an actual team. Kiara stopped acting like the boss and started acting like the designer. Owen built the slides fast and clean. Jace wrote a script that was surprisingly decent, as long as someone reminded him to be normal.
Friday came.
When it was their turn, Jace stepped forward, grinning like a game show host.
Maya expected him to ruin everything.
He didn’t.
He followed the script.
Kiara held up the model like it was a trophy.
Owen clicked through slides smoothly.
And when the slide with mitochondria came up, Maya spoke clearly, like she belonged there.
“The mitochondria are like the cell’s power plants,” she said. “They turn food into energy the cell can use. Without them, nothing works.”
Afterward, Mr. Dorsey nodded. “Strong explanation,” he said.
Maya sat down, feeling something shift.
Not because middle school suddenly became peaceful, because it won’t.
But because she’d stopped trying to survive it quietly.
Questions (character + motivation + chaos)
- Who is the main character?
- What does Maya want at the beginning of the story? (What is she trying to avoid?)
- Why is Maya in this situation? (What led to her being in this group and feeling this way?)
- What is Maya’s biggest internal conflict?
- What is the biggest external conflict in the story?
- How do Kiara and Jace create “middle school chaos” in different ways?
- What moment forces Maya to stop staying quiet?
- What motivates Maya to take control of the group work?
- What is the purpose of the anonymous sticky note? (What does it try to do to the group?)
- What motivates Maya to speak to Mr. Dorsey about the note?
- How does Maya change from the start to the end of the story? Give evidence.
- Which character changes the most besides Maya? Explain.
- What does the line “Since nobody else started” reveal about Maya?
- What theme (message) does the story suggest about reputation, confidence, or teamwork?
- If you were Maya, what would you do differently, if anything? Why?
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3 Responses
The main character of this story is Maya. Maya is trying to avoid be contacted with by her group mates by staying quit although her plan twists. Maya was in that situation because no one wanted to work or do something, she stood up for herself and her group. Maya”s internal conflict is with Kiara because Kiara had mean girl attitude toward Maya. One of Maya’s external conflict was of what other people thought of her but that wasn’t stopping her to be brave. Jace is the class clown and intterupter so he causes trouble by interrupting while Kiara had mean girl attitude toward the class and Maya causing troble mayeb even fights or arguments because of her attitude. Maya stops being quiet because shes the only one working on the group project while everybody else is doing nothing. Maya motivates herself to take control of the group due to the fact that shes not letting anyone tell her what to do or let people get in her head from the mean girls. Also she take control because no one in her group is doing anything. The pupouse of the sticky note is because their trying to sabotage her project since they know she smart. Maya motavates herself to speak to Mr. Dorsey about the note because shes wants to get a good grade and because shes not letting anyone ruin her’s and her groups project. Maya changes from the beginning to the end because she knows she can’t always survive by being quiet. One example is in the line “Okay,” Maya said, sitting up straighter. “I’m making the content right now. Owen, can you turn these notes into slides? You’re organized. Jace, you can do the script, but it has to match the slides. Kiara, if you care about it looking good, you’re in charge of the model design and layout. Deal?” she tells the group to do their part instead of sitting around like dummys. Two characters that have changed the most besides Maya are Kiara and Jace by both cutting their act and becoming very helpful. In the line “Since nobody else started” this reveals a lot about Maya because even though she quiet and kind she is very serious when it comes to school. The story teaches to communicate and use teamwork during group projects like that because you can’t always survive off of quietness. Being confident helps people know that you brave enough to fight back during situations like that. If I was Maya I would fight back and tell my teammates that the project isn’t going to do it itself and tell them what they need to in order to get a good grade and actually learn something about the projects topic.
1. The main character of this story is Maya. 2. Maya at the beginning of the story was trying to avoid not just a small part of project, but doing a lot. 3. What led Maya being in this group is for a group project, and she is feeling this way because she didn’t wanna work in a group. 4. Mayas biggest internal feeling is being scared of failing the group by doing the project wrong. 5. The biggest conflict of the story is group 4 (Mayas group) being accused of copying group 2. 6. Kiara and Jace create drama by, Kiara being bossy and popular and Jace being loud and “class clown.” 7. Moments that forced Maya to stop staying quiet is when her group was accused of copying another group. 8. What motivates Maya to take control of the group is the group hadn’t been starting on the project and she decided to speak and play “leader” of the group.9. The purpose of the anonymous sticky note is try to bring down the group.10. What motivates Maya to speak to Mr.Dorsey about the note is she didn’t want anyone to mess with the project. 11. Maya changes from the start to the end of the story is that she used to be less confidence and quiet, ” Maya spoke clearly, like she belonged there.” 12. The character changes the most besides Maya is Kiara because she became less bossy. 13. What “since nobody else started ” reveal Maya is that she wanted to get things done, even if it means taking over. 14. The message the story suggest about reputation,confidence, or teamwork is trying to show us that you can do all of those things.15. If I was Maya, what I would have done differently is not shout in front of the class when she was going to the teacher for the sticky note situation.
The main character of this story is Maya. because no one wanted to work or do something, she stood up for herself and her group. Maya”s internal conflict is with Kiara because Kiara had mean girl attitude toward Maya. One of Maya’s external conflict was of what other people thought of her but that wasn’t stopping her to be brave. Jace is the class clown and intterupter so he causes trouble by interrupting while Kiara had mean girl attitude toward the class and Maya causing troble mayeb even fights or arguments because of her attitude.