Baffling

"The Monk?" I asked.
"My friend loved that book, but no." 
I thought about Dan, who hated it.  He was the only person I knew who ever read it. 
"The Mysteries of Udolpho?"
"No.  The Castle of Otranto by, um..."
"Walpole," I said. 
"Yes!"  She paused.  "You know a lot about Victorian literature."
So much so I knew that what we were actually talking about was Gothic literature, though I let it pass. 
Her name is Lavvy, and she's new. 
It's a hard question. The answer is I haven't done much work on the subject but I'm interested. And I am trying to be modest. (Jimmy, influencing me like this.  I will cheerfully beat him to death for making me play down my strengths.)  But it's so complicated. I told her yes but told her I knew more on other topics.
What is it with here? Everyone acts like I'm a genius. I mean, yes, school is important to me, but I don't know that I'm above anyone else around here. Jimmy, Paul and Nate et al. all think highly of me, intellectually speaking, but Ashley, Natasha and Philip et al. do not. (Take a wild guess who I think highly of.)
But people here are always shocked that I know so much. Huh? This, I don't understand.  After years of no one thinking terribly well of me, and then moving to this, where so many people are impressed by me, I really don't know how to react.  I thought the majority of people were my level of intelligence, but maybe I just hung out with so many above average and frankly gifted people that I'd forgotten what average and normal look like. 
I'm still trying to think of a way around this.  If there is one, which I'm rapidly thinking there isn't.