** REWRITING ** Tidal Wave

Chapter Twenty-Three

Age Nine

"I just don't get it!" I screamed at my mother. She was no help with my math homework.

"Honey, if you just move the decimal place over--"

"No, mom. That's not how you do it."

"Well, if you know, they why don't you do it yourself?" she asked triedly. She had been trying to help me for two, going on three, hours.

"Fine," I snapped, "I will." My eyes burned with tears to come.

My mother brushed my blonde hair off my forehead. "You can do it." I nodded stiffly. She reached the doorframe but then turned around. "You know you can always ask one of the boys for help."

I crossed my arms and pouted. "No." I hated asking them for help. When I did, they treated me like a weak little girl. Which I obviously wasn't.

She sighed. "Maybe you could call Grayson. He's in your class this year, right?"

I nodded thoughtfully. Grayson was the nicest to me out of the boys. But he was still a boy. I shook my head.

"I will go get your father to help you." Then she left. I looked back down at my paper. It was crumpled and smudged from erasing too many times and there was a tiny rip in the corner. The numbers and signs didn't make any sense to me. The only answer I knew on my paper was 'Name'.

"ElleBelle?" A grin spread across my face.

"Dad!"

He smiled back and sat down at the stool next to mine. "What do we have here?"

I shoved the paper towards him. I wanted it as far away from me as possible.

"Ah, the multiplication table?"

I nodded. "I just don't get it."

"What don't you get?"

I shrugged. "Everything?"

He chuckled and unbottoned his clasps on his wrists. Then he rolled up his sleeves and gentely took my pencil from my all to willing hands. "Do you know what two times three is?"

I frowned. I pulled my legs under me and stuck my elbows on the table to rest my chin in my hands. "No."

"Okay, well, two times three is three copies of two," he said writing 2x3 = 2+2+2.

I nodded eagerly for him to go on.

"What's two plus two plus two?" my father asked.

"Six," I answered confidently.

My father smiled and added =6 to the end of the problem. "Yes, so now what's three times three?"

I studied his work then glanced down at my fingers to count. Three... Six..."Nine!" I shouted.

"Exactly! Now two times four?" I looked back down at my hands.

"Eight!"

"Yes," he said looking amused,"what's three times four?"

I started to count on my hands but then I realized I didn't have enough fingers. I pulled one of my feet out from under me and continued counting on it. "Twelve," I said smugly. He hadn't tricked me.

My father laughed. "Yes, ElleBelle, that's correct. Although, I don't think you can use your toes in class."

"Why not?" I questioned.

He made a motion that told my to get my feet off the counter. I did. "I don't think your teacher would like it too much if you pulled out your smelly feet in the middle of class."