ON HOLD; It's No Fun Being This Smart | ONC2021

Greater Than, Less Than, Equal to

The next day, Isla sat in Miss Andong's English class, doing a number puzzle. Miss Andong's lesson was too easy to listen to. Isla found the questions to be way too easy, too, but she liked game aspect. The game had a bunch of stepping stones printed on a bond paper. She had to compare the numbers on the first stone, the answer (>, <, or =) would tell her which stone to solve on next. The goal was to find the path of stepping stones that would point to the X with the pretend treasure.

Isla got to the third stone, which had 8/2 on the left and 4 on the right. Isla knew that putting 8 into 2 groups would give you groups of  4. In other words, 8/2 is equal to 4. She smiled as she wrote a "=" on the stone. The other signs made her feel like she was hurting someone's feelings. She never understood why more is called "greater."

Isla was about to read the next set of numbers when she felt something tap on her head.

Isla looked up to see Li passing a piece of writing paper. After wiggling the paper impatiently, Li smiled the way she did before inviting Isla to the treehouse.

Isla took the writing paper and put it on her desk and looked over it. It was a quiz from two days ago. Miss Andong had written a red "0/10" in the upper right corner. Isla's heart sank. Her hands shook. She remembered the quiz being easy. She was sure she deserved at least 8/10, which is greater than 0/10.

Isla looked up at the big whiteboard that covered the classroom's front wall. On it, Miss Andong had written the correct answers. Because Miss Andong had written in cursive, it took Isla a little longer to finish reading, but when she finished, she raised her hand and called "Miss Andong!"

Miss Andong sighed and said "What now, Isla?"

Isla's tummy felt funny and her fists closed. She didn't like the way Miss Andong said her name. Isla knew that Miss Anding only used that tone on a few kids. It made her feel like a 2 being compared to a three. She felt eyes tearing up and her voice closing. She wanted to mumble "nevermind." She took a quiet inhale through the nose, trying to calm down. Isla's dad had warned her not to let such unkindness silence her. Isla, in a lowered voice, said "I got all the answers right. Why did you put a zero?"

"Hay," said Miss Andong. Isla bit her lip, knowing that that was something adults say when they think someone's not using their brain. Miss Andong slammed a finger on Isla's quiz and said, "Look, you wrote everything in print. I told you to write in cursive. That's what happens when you don't listen." Miss Andong pulled her finger away, saying "Anything else?"

Isla wanted to protest. "It's not a cursive test, it's verb test. Why am I being graded for handwriting? What if this is actually just bad cursive that you think is print?" is what she wanted to say, but she could feel her classmatesshook staring, so, instead, she shook her head.

Miss Andong switched to her announcer voice to say "Good day, class."

On that cue, the class stood up. Isla followed suit. Without much synchrony, they all said "Good day, Miss Andong. Thank you for teaching us today."

Miss Andong walked away, leaving the class to go play.

As most of the class ran outside, Isla leaned forward to grab her backpack. She put the bag on her chair and took a knee on the floor. She opened the bag. Inside was a mess of papers sticking out of textbooks.

Opening it made the thick textbooks lean forward, causing the stitches on the bag to stretch. Isla grabbed the math puzzle, hiding it behind her quiz. She jammed both papers in between her Science book and her Filipino book. For a split second, she thought to rearrange the papers to avoid any more crumpling. She didn't enjoy losing things in her bag. Alas, she reminded herself that they would just get messy again. Her classmates didn't seem to have that problem. That problem was another thing making her feel like a 2.

With a huff, she zipped the bag close.

She turned to see the door had been left open, which made her shake some more. Threes seem to think they can go around leaving the doors of air conditioned rooms open. She went to close it.

Then, she turned to walk to her chair. She took a deep breath and said "At least the threes are outside. Now, I can play with my puzzle in peace."

At that, the door burst open.

Isla stopped in her track. She turmed around.

Isla saw Li standing under the doorframe.

Isla sighed. Li was nice, but she was still a three.

Isla realised it was not nice to sigh like that, but before she could apologize, Li did something weird. Li smiled and said "Want to play tag?"

Isla smiled. It had been a while since she last tried playing outside. She pointed her head up, ready to nod. Then, she remembered why she stopped. Isla said "Actually, no."

Li ran into the room, leaving the door open.

Li grabbed Isla's hand, sending a weird wave-like feeling through Isla's body.

Before Isla could say anything, Li ran, forcing Isla to follow to the field.