Poor little Geekboy

Obviously academic insecurity starts early, as evidenced by this conversation with my 14-year-old brother.

"Do you have exams this year in school?"

"Yeah, and I'm doing year 12 English, Geography and Maths, so they'll probably be hard. Especially Maths, because I suck at Maths."

"You suck at Maths? I don't think so, or they wouldn't be letting you do it a year ahead."

"But I nearly didn't get into the top stream."

(And the sadder thing: his sister, overhearing, added, "But only because your revision notes got ruined when they flushed your schoolbag down the toilet the week before the entrance exam.")