We Bought a Zoo-Falling Apart

Chapter 3-Stupid B's

I took a deep breath and opened the door, room 8, of Mrs. Ameen's classroom. This was my least favorite classroom of the day. 

Mrs. Ameen was a teacher you'd never want to mess with. She has gray hair the color of smoke and small gray eyes that can see a mile away. She always has the principle on speed dial and can make the school bully slither away under her darkness. She grades ridiculously hard and is specific on anything. Give her a bad first impression, and your done for the school year. When she teaches math, she's going to teach the lesson once, and blame it on you if you didn't listen. 

Knowing her, she'd have something bad to tell me. It could be that I was screwing up all the experiments, or she was going to move my seat, or she hated me so much she wanted to expel me. Whenever someone tries to correct her, she goes ballistic. 

As I entered her room, I stared at the fakeness of her room. There were posters everywhere saying inspirational quotes, like "Shoot for the stars. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." Yet, Mrs. Ameen was nothing like that. No extra credit, nothing. The smile she ever gave me was on the first day of school, the smile that was fake.

The first day of school, Benjamin went with me to the office to get my schedule good and I ended up going to her class with a rearranged schedule. Her welcoming was not very friendly.

"I'm afraid we don't have much room for another student," She had said, with annoyance and fire in her eyes. Her voice was fake and she wore a gray outfit, the type that grandmas who live with cats wear. 

I quietly walked through her room, my shoes making crisp noises on the floor in the silent room. I slowly approached her desk, as she shuffled some papers and pulled out a paper clip out of her mouth and clipped the papers together.

"You wanted to see me?" I asked her, slight sadness in my voice. 

I always know the secret to not crying in an event-expect the worse. If your arm hurts, expect that it's broken. If you need an A, expect an F and give it you 110%. 

Mrs. Ameen set the paper down and sat down in her seat. She reached out and picked up a red pen on her desk and set to grading papers. I saw her slash problems, one after the next, writing corrections in her messy handwriting. "Yes, Lily. It occurs to me that your in the average math class," She began, taking a breath. She emphasized the advanced part.

I knew what was coming. She would tell me my grades were going down, and I'd be moved down if I didn't get my grades up. And I was right.

"Your test average has recently been a solid B, an 84. You need to have an 83 percent or higher to stay in the class, and your on borderline." Her eyes suddenly moved from her papers, flooded with red ink to me. Her eyes bored holes into my head. "I expect you will improve your grades and try harder, otherwise you'll be moved down to the 7th grade math."

I gulped and took a deep breath as I nodded my head. "I'll try." I stammered.

"I'll see you next period, then." She dismissed me and I hurried out of the room as fast as my legs could take me walking.

As soon as I reached the door, I heard her call me again. "And Lily?" She called, not looking up from her papers. 

I rolled my eyes and turned around. "Yes?" I asked, nonchalantly.

"I'll be calling your parents tonight." I froze. My parents couldn't find out about this. They'd make me leave the zoo and go back to my old house, crowded with Riley, Josh and Ariana! I wasn't in the mood to argue with Mrs. Ameen though, she'd just set more expectations as a deal for not calling them. 

I sighed, hitting my head against the wall over and over once outside her classroom. I was never that good at math. I didn't even know half the things we were learning, I had to study for hours to catch up on what we're learning in class. 

Dylan, who was in the advanced math class, and surprisingly had no problem with his homework. The teacher was friendly and willing to help during brunch and lunch, not that Dylan ever went. Dylan mainly depended on extra credit and homework, opposed to tests.

There was no way she could call my parents. They'd overreact. 

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The minute I got home, I stampeded up to my room and finished my math homework without any questions.

 The key to staying at the zoo was not bringing the subject up, not talking about, and not answering any questions. Kelly wouldn't care, but once my parents called Kelly would. Knowing my parents, they wouldn't blame it on Kelly but they'd secretly think I wasn't studying enough at the zoo. 

I grabbed my math textbook and decided to review from the upcoming quiz. I headed towards the top of the Jaguar Cafe and climbed the stairs to the top. It was a beautiful day-a perfect day for playing with animals. I had to feed animals and clean up some stalls. Unfortunately, I was going to be spending this time studying. I didn't want Kelly to ground me or keep reminding me to study, so I'd study on my own. My plan was to ignore the chores and have Kelly come find me studying math, then tell me to stop and get to work. 

I pushed myself to the very edge of the roof and let my legs dangle over the edge of the roof. This part of the roof didn't feel as safe as the center of the roof, but I decided to disregard that and continue to study. I looked over the chapter we were studying-linear equations. 

It was pretty straight forward, but I just kept making simple mistakes in addition and subtraction. I always sped through everything because I never felt like actually showing all my work and doing it carefully-it all seems like a long waste of time.

"You can't study math just by reading." Someone's voice commented. It was Dylan. 

I sighed and turned my head around, looking at Dylan. "I know." I replied, a tired look on my face. I propped my elbow up against the book and leaned my head against my hand. "I'm failing math." 

Dylan gave  me a sympathetic look. "Want help?" 

I really wanted Dylan's help. I don't know how, but Dylan's a magical wizard when it comes to math. One thing I do know is that Dylan doesn't have much patience, which really would be a problem  when it comes to tutoring me. I always want people to repeat things over and over again, and I'm a slow learner. 

"It's okay. I don't want to be a bother, and I learn really slowly." I replied back, slowly and losing hope. I heard a long and faint creak.

"Seriously, I'm going to help you. It's okay if you learn slow." Dylan gave me a determined look. 

I felt all warm inside. Dylan's a geniuine person.

Before I could accept his help, I heard a big crack and before I knew it, my math book and I were falling towards the ground.