The More Things Change (Shawn Hunter)

Once In Love With Amy

A/N: If anyone doesn't like the fact that the oc is black, go away.

"Al washes a car in minutes. Fred washes the same car in minutes. How long will it take Al and Fred to wash the car together?" Mr. Feeny asked the class as he made his way down the rows. I was sitting with my head down. I wasn't exactly sure what was wrong but my head and stomach have been killing me. It took me longer to come up with the answer than normal. I'd like to think I normally do well with riddles.

"Piece of cake." Cory said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Think about it, Mr. Matthews." Mr. Feeny urged.

"I don't have to think about it, Mr. Feeny. It's simple." Cory said as I felt something on my back. I turned my head and couldn't help but smile as Shawn moved his chair closer to mine so he could rest his head on my shoulder as he ran his fingers down the length of my hair.

"You okay, Sunshine? I've been wanting to see your dimples all morning." He whispered and I couldn't help but smile widely, my headache forgotten when he took my hand. "There they are. Lights up a room."

"You want something, what is it?" I said snidely, rolling my eyes. He said nothing, just kissed the crown of my head.

"Is it 3 and a half minutes?" He whispered. I must've looked so insanely happy because Shawn pinched my cheek and gave me another kiss on my head. "The average between 6 and 8 minutes is 7 minutes. Divided by 2 people...That's around 3.5, right?" He whispered to me as he reasoned. I nodded.

"I think you're close, Puppy." I whispered to him.

"It is anything but simple, Mr. Matthews." Mr. Feeny tried to reason with Cory. Still? I figured we would have moved past that by now.

"But I've got the answer." Cory tried, he sounded so earnest.

"I'm not interested in the answer." Mr. Feeny explained, Shawn took my hand and started tracing lines from my finger to the base of my palm. He learned a long time ago that things like what he was currently doing eased my anxiety.

"Why not?" Cory whined.

"Because I'm more interested in how you arrive at the answer. And you couldn't possibly have arrived at the correct answer so rapidly." I mean accurate.

"But I did. I've arrived. I'm here. I'm ahead of you." Cory stated.

"Oh, well, then if you're ahead of me, what is the answer?"

"7." Both he and Cory both stated at the same time.
"That's not the correct answer." Mr. Feeny said immediately, which made me laugh a bit.

"But it has to be. Al speeds Fred up. Fred slows Al down. So the answer is halfway between 6 and 8."

"That's not the correct answer." Mr. Feeny and Cory spoke in unison once again. "But it has to be." Cory whined. I was all smiles until Minkus stood up. 'What pretentious dribble is he gonna rattle about now?"

"No, it doesn't." The blond boy said, a self assured grin plastered on his face.

"Why not?" Cory asked, genuinely curious.

"Fred can't slow Al down. Even if Al washes most of the car and Fred just washes a hubcap, the total time still has to be faster than Al's time alone. You with me?" Not a soul looked like they were following what he was saying. "So if Fred is 25% slower than Al then 25% of 6 minutes is... Anybody?" He waited for someone to answer, and again nobody did. "It's a minute and a half... which leaves us with 4.5. 4 and a half minutes is the correct answer. Hold your applause, please." He waved his hands up cockily before he sat down.