Photographic Memories [EDITING]

Lesson From The Past

Tuesday was an ordinary school day. It was half past two o'clock in the afternoon when my mathematics lesson had set forth. I sat upright at my desk, my right hand commanding my pencil. The teacher sat at the teacher's desk, patrolling the entire class (fifteen students to be specific) as we did our worksheet. We finished it in ten minutes, submitting it to the teacher. She counted the papers and used her red ballpoint pen to mark our worksheets. We sat patiently, feet tapping and eyes wandering.

  "Can we have free time?" asked one of my male classmates.
  "You're not supposed to, but I can grant you free time if you answer my question," said the teacher, Ms Ann.
  "Okay. We can totally do that," one of my female classmates said confidently.
  "What's the square root of forty nine?" asked Ms Ann. We rubbed our chins and thought carefully.
  "Twelve?" asked one girl. Ms Ann shook her head.
  "Five?" asked another girl. Ms Ann shook her head again.
  "We don't even know what's a square root!" a boy complained.
  "That's why. If you can answer that question in three more minutes, I'll give you the rest of the period off," said Ms Ann.

  The entire class tossed numbers around, each one of them not the answer to Ms Ann's question. While fourteen boys and girls shouted numerous digits, my mind took me back further in the past. Before I blinked, I was in a classroom. After I blinked, I found myself in sitting on a sofa in a house's living room. The crowded, noisy environment of the classroom had faded completely from my senses.

  "Ask me a really hard question," I told Gale.
  "But you wouldn't know the answer," he replied.
  "Please? It can be easy for you and hard for me, but I don't mind trying," I persisted.
  "What is the square root of forty nine?" he asked me. My mind went blank.
  "I don't know," I said. He laughed.
  "I wouldn't expect a three-year-old to know. If you figured it out, I'd be very surprised! But anyway, the answer is seven," he said.
  "How do you even calculate that?" I inquired.
  "If you add seven sevens together, the answer will be forty nine. That's why the square root of forty nine is seven. The square root of nine is three, because three threes equal to nine. That's how," he explained.
  "What about the number two?" I asked.
  "I don't know the answer to that," he said.

  I blinked once more. I was no longer in the living room, but I had returned to the classroom. My classmates hadn't solved the question yet. I slowly raised my hand and Ms Ann noticed me.

  "Is the answer seven?" I asked Ms Ann. She gasped at me, flabbergasted.
  "You're right! And for that, Grace Summers, you shall earn an extra two points for your worksheet," said Ms Ann. My classmates exclaimed in jealousy.
  "What about our free time?" a boy reminded Ms Ann.
  "You can do almost anything you want; just don't go out of the classroom and don't use your phones," she said.

The students cheered and they scrambled out of their seats. A flock of students would chitchat and gossip in the corners. There were two students who roamed around the classroom, contemplating the walls and the rest of the classroom interior. I simply opened my notebook and began doodling. At first I drew flowers, all of them in different sizes. When I progressed to the next page, I began drawing a person. I started by drawing the body. The boy I was drawing was tall. He wasn't slim, but he wasn't fat. He was normal. I drew large, blue sneakers to cover his feet. He had long arms and even longer legs. I then drew the head. The outline of his face included mid-height cheekbones and a firm jawline. His hair was a cool hue of ash blonde and half windswept, half finger-combed. I then drew his face. Sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks and the sweetest and cheekiest smirk any boy could flash. When I looked at the drawing, I realized that I had been subconsciously drawing Gale. I closed my notebook and kept it under my desk.

  There was nothing much for me to do, so I decided to go and have a conversation with Ms Ann. She sat at her desk, busy with checking our papers. She then noticed me.

  "Hello, Grace," she greeted me.
  "Hello Ms Ann. I was wondering whether you knew a boy named Gale? Gale Summers?" I asked her.
  "Gale Summers? Well, he was one of the school's brightest students! He was the only one in his batch to achieve straight A's for every single subject he learned. And my, was he very talented!" she remarked.
  "Oh really? He didn't tell me that," I recalled.
  "Maybe he didn't want to flaunt his achievements in front of you. He was a humble young man, a very polite one as well," she recounted.
  "When was the last time you saw him?" I inquired.
  "Over seven years ago. He just suddenly disappeared," she told me.
  "Hmm, interesting. I never saw him for seven years as well," I revealed.
  "That's shocking!" she exclaimed. "Shouldn't you two be living together?"
  "We should, but I haven't seen him at all. I just don't know why," I told her.
  "Maybe you should ask your family. You can also ask the police," she suggested.
  "Thank you for your suggestion," I thanked her.
  "You're welcome. When you see him again, tell him that the school can't wait to have him back. We miss him so," she requested.

  Our mathematics lesson had ended shortly after that. The bell rang and students quickly stuffed their bags before storming out of the school, excited to go home. I calmly prepared my backpack and proceeded to the school bus stop. I hopped on the first bus and was dropped off at the third stop. I took a five-minute walk to my house afterwards. My aunt opened the door quickly before I had even arrived at the porch and welcomed me, which was unusual for an ordinary day like that. I headed to the attic to do my homework and prepare for school the next day before my aunt came up to give me my list of chores. Surprisingly, I had only two things to do! The first one was to clean the attic, which was my bedroom. The second one was to collect my laundry in a hamper and bring them to the laundry room. But other than that, I was free to do anything else. I took a shower and dressed up in my pajamas before I had dinner with my aunt. I did my chores later after that.

  I spent the rest of my pre-bedtime hours daydreaming about the lesson that I learned from the past.