The wishing notebook (1st draft)

Chapter 5

"Are you joking?" Amber looked as though I had told her that pigs could fly.

"Why would I joke about this?" I protested, pacing back and forth.

"No offence, but it's hard to believe that you've improved so much." Amber took a deep breath. "Remember the time when you struggled with that Logarithms worksheet?" I nodded. "Well, you got all the questions wrong despite spending half a day on it. I had to help you before you yanked your hair out. Trust me, the questions were fundamental."

"Really? That makes yesterday's incident more strange. I managed to solve all the difficult questions. My solutions were the same as the answer key."

"What?" Amber exclaimed. "It's impossible for such a thing to happen unless...," she paused, scratching her head for an answer before she exclaimed, "It's magic!"

"You're kidding, right?" I asked.

"So what if I was? You need to cheer up. Honestly, you look like a zombie." Just then, the doorbell rang, interrupting my train of thoughts. Amber stared at the clock. "That must be the delivery man. I ordered chicken chop spaghetti for dinner. Hopefully it'll make you feel better."

Rushing to the door, Amber took the huge bag from the delivery man and thanked him politely. Shoving our stationery and books in a corner, I spread several sheets of newspapers on the table before Amber set the bag and took out two large containers. Inhaling the fresh aroma of food, we gobbled our dinner quickly, enjoying the savoury taste of spaghetti and chicken. We then packed the empty containers and threw them in the rubbish bin before putting our study materials back on the table.

"So what are we going to study?" Amber asked. "We've already finished that English essay." Suddenly, Amber exclaimed. "I know! We can study Math!"

Groaning exasperatedly, I grabbed my Math booklet from my expanding folder. Amber tutted disapprovingly, folding her arms across her chest. "Come on, Isla! Math isn't as bad as you think!" Seeing my pained expression, Amber sighed.

"Fine," she conceded. "We'll redo questions from our test paper and call it a day." I nodded, grabbing the test paper and some foolscap paper from my expanding folder.

"Alright." Amber pointed at the first question. "Let's start with this one."

Staring at the first question, I anticipated a painful attack from another headache. However, my brain simply extracted the numbers as it dissected the question into pieces, weaving a solution out of the meagre clues provided. Gripping my pen tightly in my hand, I scribbled my workings on the foolscap paper and wrote my answer on it. Amber scooted over and stared at the paper, trying to detect any mistakes in my working. After a while, Amber stared at me, her eyes wide with shock.

"I...but...how did you manage to solve it?" Amber stuttered. "You...always found...these types of questions...difficult."

"Maybe I got lucky?" I suggested. "Why don't you let me finish the rest of the questions? I'll let you check my answers when I'm done." Amber nodded, poring through the pages of her history textbook. Like the first question, I managed to pry clues from the questions and visualise the formulas in my head. They eliminated the unsightly expressions from the equations, providing a clear path to the answers. My pen glided on the paper smoothly as I wrote my answers, overcoming the friction that tried to resist its movements.

"That's fast." Amber remarked, peering over her textbook. Dropping my pen, I slid the paper towards Amber, who analysed my workings on it, her eyes darting back and forth in the labyrinth of letters and numbers. Within a few minutes, Amber tilted her face to look at me. Her jaw dropped, forming a huge 'O' shape.