"Ooh, okay, so where I come from, school is compulsory until you're, like, eighteen," Magnus says. "Twelfth grade. Senior year of high school. Um, obviously I dropped in my freshman year -- ninth grade -- cuz my mom died and since I had that record, they thought I caused the apartment explosion, so I had to, like, go on the lam or whatever. But you have kindergarten when you're five, and maybe preschool before that, and then they count the grades by years. First grade is when you're six, second grade is when you're seven, and so on and so forth. They say kindergarten through fifth grade is elementary school, sixth through eighth is middle school, and ninth through twelfth is high school. Then, if you're lucky, you can go to college. Um, university? This is all only true in the United States, though. Other countries have different rules. Like, Shen Yuan could probably tell you what they do in China these days."