Love You to Death

Chapter 4: Math Class

Ok it's been like a month since I last updated this I don't even have an excuse.

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"Mr. Moriarty," the teacher said, standing next to Jimmy's chair, "Where might your homework be?" Jimmy coughed and winced at the cut on his cheek. "I didn't do my homework, sir," Jimmy replied quietly. "You see, Mr. Moriarty," the teacher said slowly, obviously enjoying himself, "Here in England, we do our homework." The rest of the class snickered. Jimmy felt heat rise to his cheeks and bowed his head. "Keep that in mind," the teacher continued, "Because, if you forget your homework again, it could have a very negative impact on your grade." Jimmy nodded.

"Mr. Powers, would you please help Mr. Moriarty here with his homework?" the teacher asked. A tall boy a few seats in front of Jimmy and to his left nodded. He got up and quietly sat down in the seat behind Jimmy. "Hi," the boy whispered, "My name's Carl." Carl waited a beat for Jimmy to respond, but Jimmy said nothing. "You're Jimmy?" Carl prompted. Jimmy nodded.

"I don't like him," Carl whispered conspiratorially, "He's a bully." Jimmy was surprised. "An' his nose is so long," Carl continued, "He looks like an anteater." Jimmy giggled in spite of himself. The teacher cast a stern glance towards the boys. Jimmy and Carl both put on their best poker faces and pretended to be working. Jimmy glanced at Carl's homework. Carl had two red X's, one on problem 2 and one on problem 13. Jimmy's homework was blank.

"So, uh," Carl began, "The homework was about long division. You have to take this number, an' see how many times it goes into this number." Jimmy, of course, knew how to do long division already. He knew his multiplication table through 25 as well, and had dabbled a little in algebraic equations. "Let's try #5," Carl suggested. Jimmy glanced at the paper. "8," he stated matter of facty. Carl looked at him strangely. "Ok..." he said, quickly checking to see if the answer was, in fact, 8. It was.

"Alright, how about 17?" Carl asked. "3," Jimmy said. Carl looked at the problem and then at Jimmy, squinting. "You sure you didn't do the homework?" Carl asked. Jimmy shrugged, "No, but it's easy." Carl gaped at him. "Easy?" he asked, "You just did two problems in your head that I spent ten minutes on. Are you like a math genius or somethin'"? Jimmy shrugged again. "Ok, um, do 540 divided by 12," Carl commanded. "45," Jimmy replied after a second or two. Carl shook his head in disbelief.

"Mr. Moriarty!" the teacher called from the front of the room, "Care to demonstrate the knowledge that Mr. Powers has so graciously given you?" Jimmy nodded. "To the board, Mr. Moriarty," the teacher said, gesturing from his seat to the large chalkboard to his left. Jimmy walked over to the chalkboard and picked up a piece of chalk, then waited for further instruction.

"We'll start easy," the teacher said, "126 divided by 3." Jimmy wrote a 42 on the board and looked the teacher expectantly. "That's it?" the teacher scoffed, "42? Where'd you get that number from? Pull it out the air?" Jimmy shook his head. "I did the work mentally, sir," Jimmy said. "Oh-ho," the teacher said mockingly, "You did it in your head, eh? See if you can do this in your head: uh, 235 divided by 8." Jimmy thought for a few moments. The teacher smiled, "See? You can't-" The squeak of chalk cut him off. The teacher stared at the 29 R3 written under the 42. He looked from the answer to Jimmy, and then back again.

Jimmy shifted uncomfortably in the total silence that had enveloped the class. Jimmy had just shown up the teacher in front of the whole class, and that sort of thing always came with repercussions. He could see the anger written in the teacher's features and cursed himself for doing it mentally.

The teacher was fuming now. "72856 divided by 9" he spat. The heavy silence threatened to crush Jimmy as he stared at the board longer than he should have. The pressure rattled his nerves. "Please, take your time," the teacher suggested sarcastically. Slowly, Jimmy began writing. 8095 R1. The teacher gloated in triumph. "Wrong!" he scoffed, "Knew you couldn't-" "He's right," a voice peeped up from the class. The teacher and Jimmy turned around. Carl was looking at his calculator. "Jimmy's right," Carl repeated, "That's the correct answer."

"Let me see," the teacher sputtered angrily and walked over to Carl's desk. He grabbed Carl's calculator and entered in the problem. The speed with which his face resembled an unhappy tomato confirmed that Jimmy, was in fact, correct. "Back to your seat, Moriarty," he ordered, "And don't you act all smart-alec with me. I'll trip you up one day." Jimmy walked back to his seat amid hushed whispers from the class, avoiding eye contact with the teacher. Jimmy took his seat in front of Carl.

The bell rang just then, and all the students scrambled out of the classroom. "Good job," Carl whispered to Jimmy. Jimmy looked up, surprised. "Nobody's ever showed him up like that," Carl continued, "He deserved it." Jimmy looked at Carl skeptically. "You wanna sit together at lunch?" Carl asked. Jimmy smiled, a real genuine smile. "Sure," he said.

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Ok I don't know how good this chapter was, but at least I updated.  I would tell you guys that I'll update more frequently in the future but I probably wouldn't be able to keep that promise so I won't make it lol.