Day 3: Math with Locke and Solana
This had to be a mistake. A cruel cosmic joke of epic proportions.
And it required a drink.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Akira grabbed the back of Locke’s collar and dragged him around to face her. “You definitely can’t skip a day you have to teach. That’s like stealing a Bible in the church or buying new clothes and saying you have nothing to wear.”
“You don’t understand Akira,” Locke slithered out of her grip and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know anything about math and I’m sure Solana could agree… if she could be found. I’ll switch with anyone and gladly do another subject, I promise.” He turned his charm on to the max and made sad-kitty eyes.
“Nice try, I’ll give you 3 extra credit points for pulling the eyes, but no is no. Now get in there and teach. Or else.” The last part was added just for effect. The past two days had been a living nightmare, from the reign of the Wrath-o-Sphere to the drowning episode. And then Kateri’s blinking problem. That was a case in itself, involving many bets placed on when someone could get her to blink. Seriously. It was disturbing.
“Fine, but don’t blame me for being such a terrific teacher.” Locke walked towards the west wing of the house where the gym was located. He promised himself an extra bottle for actually playing along with this hair brained scheme. XL would always be 2 steps ahead.
“What is the point of this elaborate idea?” Camilla was leaning against the wall directly in front of her brother’s path. Upon seeing him, she pushed off from the wall and fell into the same rhythmic step.
“Go away. I just want to teach and leave. The faster, the better.”
“Ouch, I’ll leave Mr. Bossy-Boots alone.” She barked a short laugh and sauntered back the way she had come.
Finally. Alone again.
“Um, if we all just stay calm I’m sure Locke will show up and, uh, something will happen?” Solana was backed up against the teacher’s desk. Just when she thought she had to break a window and fly out, Locke kicked the door open.
“Yo,” He flashed the peace sign and took his place next to Solana. “I guess we’re all confused as to why we’re taking math classes during the summer, so I think we should all fail together. Let’s start with a test.”
“Bring it.”
All eyes turned to Griffin.
“Someone call the priest, this boy is sick.” Nai made the cross with her fingers and scooted further away.
“What? Math is easy where I come from.” He self-consciously shook his wings and looked back at the two instructors. “So when do we begin?”
“Now.” Locke began handing papers out until he reached Tommy. The young man turned his nose up and assumed an air of superiority.
“This test is beneath me.”
“Fine by me,” Locke rolled his eyes and was about to walk past him, but at the last minute Tommy grabbed a paper from the stack.
“I said it was beneath me, but I never said I wasn’t going to take it.”
“Oooo-kay. Moving on.” The rest of the class received a copy and sat quietly thinking. In some cases there were tears and much ripping of hair.
Not from Griffy though. He calmly filled in the questions, never once consulting the calculator Akira had mysteriously provided.
“What test did you give them?” Solana flitted to Locke’s side and whispered in his ear, trying to peek past Vevila’s arm shielding her answers.
“Nothing too hard, just some unfinished homework I forgot to hand in when I wasn’t in the MCC. I figured I could probably turn it in just a tad bit late.” He whispered back.
“Do you happen to know the answers…?”
Ooops. Solana had him there.
“Shiz, I knew there was something missing.”
“F*** this sh**, I’m gonna use Slader.” The unblinking wonder whipped out her phone and began punching numbers. The coffee made her uncharacteristically explicit.
“Oh like h*ll you will.” Akira burst through the door and grabbed Kateri’s phone. “Anyone who uses their phone will be banned from tumblr or any other social media for 3 days.”
“Well, it looks like you all should be done with your tests anyways. I’ll take them and review them while Solana takes charge.” Locke gathered the papers greedily and pulled out the original. He sat behind the desk, sifting through the pages before he found Griffin’s. Aha.
“Uh, we should play a fun… uh.. fun math game?” Solana twisted her fingers and waited for some kind of confirmation. Her peers eyed her critically: using ‘fun’ and ‘math’ in the same sentence was criminal. “Yeah. Let’s get excited about math!”
“I’m up for it. What game?” Ace saw how nervous Solana was getting and decided to rescue her.
“I think if we play hangman with math terms we can make this work.” She smiled gratefully at Ace and got a marker from the bottomless desk. Speaking of bottomless, where did Locke get the random laptop? He kept his eyes glued to something on the screen and his right arm was writing at a remarkable speed.
“Here goes an easy one.”
Seven spaces appeared next to a wobbly looking hanging post.
“Mr. Sick knows this one!” Violett raised both hands and waved them in a fashion that could be considered that she didn’t care. “He said it’s parabola!”
“Sure, we’ll go with that one. Good job.”
Nodin blushed under the younger girl’s praise.
Suddenly, a loud cackle of laughter erupted from the teacher side of the room and everyone but Kateri jumped. Nothing fazed her now. All she did was sip some her double expresso Colette had made her.
“Oh my gosh. This is too good--- sorry to cut you Solana but I have the test results in.” Locke grinned and held up two sheets of paper. “First of all, I’d like to announce that you all were doing my old homework. Thanks. I know I can count on you guys in a real pinch. But, here’s what we’re all waiting for.
Congratulations—and thank you—Ace, your answers weren’t remotely close to being right but they showed the best use of available space to draw. As for the dunce at the bottom of the class--- we welcome Griffin!”
The wyvern sat motionless. It was like he had heard his grandma died or his wings had caught fire.
“Cool story bro. As long as I didn’t reach rock bottom, I didn’t fail.” Kateri downed the rest of her drink and placed her head on her desk. Her eyes still didn’t close, but it looked like she had fallen awake.
“Hahah, you guys want to see what he put for number one? According to Slader, this really great website, it was 56.9 with pi to the third. He put down 56.9 pi to the 3.5! Hah! 3.5, what does he think this is, a game?” Locke tipped his head back and was followed in laughter by the rest of the MCC.
“Dude, you are really dumb.” Travis said between tears. “You should know that you need to calibrate the theory of time, the price of llama food, and the laser beam factor into this equation! It’s okay, not everyone is as good at this as I am.” The leprechaun thumped the stunned guy on the back.
“What. THE. HECK!!” Followed by his outburst, Griffin did the most rational thing and proceeded to flip his desk, not remembering that these desks were attached to the chair (as in most high schools). Instead of his desk being launched 10 feet across the room, Griffin found himself airborne by his own strength and crashing upside down on the laminate floor.
“F***. My. Life.” He said between clenched teeth.
This was turning out to be one rough week.
