My dark Professor

3

Lily

They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonades out of it. But what if you didn't have sugar? And maybe water? Because you needed both of does to make lemonade.

I have the lemons right now, but I can't make lemonade because the other crucial ingredients are missing.

I stared at the paper, trying to find what I was missing. I stare and stare until my eyes start watering.

Whoever said Math was easy was probably insane. Only insane people understood this stuff. Lucky for me I was not insane. But right now, I wish I was, just so I could solve this problem.

I bite the cap of my pen in frustration, then groan when I taste ink on my tongue. I bit into the tip, not the end. Now my mouth is filled with ink.

I turn to look at the rest of the class. They all looked slightly insane. Which was a good thing. It means they were getting the questions right. So I was the only sane person here. Lucky me.

The only audible sound in the room was the big glass clock on the wall. It was ticking and ticking. I break out in a sweat when I look up at it. Ten more minutes. I had ten minutes to solve the last question. I could do it if only I had the ingredients and was insane.

I solved forty-nine questions without a break, and now the last question wanted to be a problem. Anyone else will have given up, seeing they already had all the other's rights.

But I was not anyone. I was Lily Graham. The girl with straight A's throughout each semester. But I was falling behind in math and needed to pass this exam to maintain an A. So now you see why I won't give up. 

I cracked my brain with possible ways to solve it. It was missing something. Maybe a number or a letter, but it was missing something.

The last tick from the clock sounded. It was over. Time was up. The professor walks around and starts to collect the papers.

Once he reaches my desk, he pauses. He looks at me, then the paper, his eyes zoom in on the unanswered question, then they widen in surprise.

"Lily? You didn't answer the last question," he says, keeping his voice low. As if he didn't want the other students to hear him. Yes, it would be blasphemy for them to learn that Lily Graham couldn't answer a question.

"I know." I stand up, but he stops me with a hand on my arm.

"But why?"

How was I going to tell him?

"I answered the others," I say with false bravado.

"Yes, but why not this one?"

Damn it. He really wanted me to give a reason even though we both knew I was going to get a ninety-nine percent grade. The price you pay for setting the standards high on the first day. Now I couldn't mess up in peace.

I point at the equation and circle the part I think is incorrect.

"There should be a number here. Right next to the X. It makes it impossible without a number, and hence X is undefined, which it should not be because it doesn't complement the first two parts of the equation."

There I said it.

I wait with bated breath. Who was I to question a professor? A genius mathematics professor with a Ph.D. and years of experience

I was going to die of shame. Ground, please swallow me up.

I stare at the professor, waiting for him to reprimand me, but he does the opposite.