Two Introverts ✔

14 | Charles

A week went by. And now, Sam and Charles sat together during math - which they both have everyday first thing in the morning after homeroom. Sam felt bad because of how Charles left Simon, but he said it was no problem, Simon would manage. And, frankly speaking, Samuel was happy to hear that he could sit next to someone who he could call a friend as he used to be the one that was either always left out, or always made to sit with a random person who wanted to sit with him just as much as he did. Besides, he had come to enjoy and be himself around Charles. That was the thing with him - he took no time to warm up to people, but the problem was with him stepping out of it, out of his own little bubble, and talk to people. He was too scared to do that, and hence missed on various opportunities of exploring and finding new people. Another fear he had was how he'd get distant with June if he ever found new friends; but now that he thought about it, it didn't seem that way. You could have hundreds of friends and still be as close as ever with your best friend. 

"Good morning, ma'am," the class sung when the teacher entered. Yeah, they literally sung. It sounded so annoying to even him, he could only imagine how the teacher felt. 

"Good morning," she responded with a smile that brightened her face. Their math teacher was one of the best teacher's he'd ever had; she was so patient and always kept her word of clearing the hundreds of doubts people would have, unlike others who just say it and call you stupid when you do ask a doubt. One more thing Sam loved about this teacher was that she was so human - she made mistakes, she understood most of their problems and so many students even go to her for just venting out their frustrations. She was open-minded, she wasn't homophobic (they had an expert-talk about the lgbtq+ community and guess who delivered the speech?), and overall, she was just another human who filled up another empty space in the universe, someone who wanted to help students do well in math. Math. She was so passionate about her subject and her teaching, Sam doubted if her kind really existed. 

"So..." she started off, flipping through the pages of her book. "Since your new semester started just a few days back, we did all the easy stuff. Now, we'll be starting off with more of the serious ones - they're easy too, don't worry - that need your complete attention. Keep all of your 'I'm not even gonna study math in the future, why should I learn this' with you, we need to do it as it's equally as important as every other thing we learn. So, we'll get started now..."

Sam was ready with a book and a pen in his hand - he was determined to pay keen attention and score well this time. In no time, their other set of exams would begin, and Sam would start questioning his whole existence when he'd go through the things he had to study, because when did we even learn about all this? So, at least in math, the subject he loved but couldn't score well in, he wanted his scores to shine. Beside him, Charles was fully concentrated on the things their teacher was saying. He's so admirable... I wish I could be more like him and do th- No, shut up and concentrate, you brat!

"-so you take the cos of that, which will be 1/2 and you get your final answer as 5 meters. This is by far the easiest sum I've ever seen. However, please don't hesitate to ask any doubts, this is important and plays a very important role-"

Sam quickly tuned her voice out and concentrated on the board. With the help of the given information, find the base. Angle is 30... cos 30 is 1/2... and cross-multiply this... and then divide... and- done!

"I got the right answer on my own!" Sam whisper-yelled to Charles. A second later, he was embarrassed because Charles had already moved on to the fourth problem, and here he was, just having finished the first. 

"Oh, nice! See, didn't I tell you before? Math is easy, you just have to use the right formulas at the right time." Charles was someone who always replied to him with the same, genuine enthusiasm as always. He never made Sam feel stupid about doing anything, and made him feel like he was actually capable of what he did and more. And for that, he was grateful. Only June was capable of doing that, but sometimes, he would be way too truthful and that would hurt Sam. For instance, there was a time when Sam made this card for his cousin, wishing him the best of luck for a competitive exam he was going to write (was it something called the SAT? He wasn't quite sure) and was so proud of it. Not able to contain his excitement, he texted June about it and sent him a picture, but all he did was fix the grammatical errors and say, "Yea it's fine," which made Sam feel dejected. And after that, he was not so proud of it anymore, but sent it to his cousin anyway.