You're My Brother

Moving Up

The chatter of students stopped almost instantly when Keith stepped in. After being suspended for three weeks, he and James were finally allowed to go back to class.
Taking his seat in the back corner, he felt their eyes follow him to his seat.
"Welcome back, discipline case." Keith heard a voice say.
He didn't look to see who it was, nor did he want to. He knew that if he did, it would only encourage them to continue.
Following by instruction, the Cadets all took out their notebooks.
This was one of Keith's 'favorite' classes. Aerodynamics and space travel were the focuses of the class. Both had to fo with piloting. Although Keith never said he truly liked anything, he actually payed attention in this class. Plus, the teacher didn't hate him as much which was good.
   Professor Ahn was the teacher. Or more so instructor. Teachers didn't technically exist at the Garrison. It was more so Cadets and Officers. That's exactly what it was.
   Cadets, Officers, higher ranking officers or commanders and then the admiral. Nobody wants to meet her. Unless it's for some congratulatory visit, not on Cadet ever wants to step into her office.
   But that is a completely different story.
   The notes for this class were simple, and easy to understand, if of course you understood mathematics. If not, you were probably screwed. Piloting experience could help one study, but you'd be lost if you don't understand equations and numbers.
   Which explains why Lance is probably failing.
   Keith didn't know if the boy was failing or not, but he probably was. Just like he was almost failing engineering, Lance was, in all likelihood, failing this class.

***

   "Keith." Professor Ahn called out to the Cadet. "I'd like to have a word with you."
   "Yeah, sure." Keith gathered his things and approached the front of the class.
   "You were suspended, correct?"
   "Yes, sir. I was, sir..."
   The professor thought for a moment before handing Keith a stack of papers. "Finish these by the end of the week, and you'll get full credit on everything you missed."
   "You don't have to do that, sir. It was my fault. The principal said I should take full responsibility. Which I am..."
   "This isn't an action out of pity, Keith. I know full well what you did. But you're going to fail. And unless you complete this extra work, you won't even come close to passing."
   "Yes, sir. I understand. Thank you."
   Once in his dorm room, Keith slumped down on his bed, sighing deeply.
   'So much for making fun of Lance fo failing all of his classes.'
   Keith covered his face with his hands, pulling at his cheeks out of annoyance.
   'This is so stupid! He can't fail me because I was gone!'
   After minutes of complaining and fussing, Keith decided it was better to act on what has happened instead of complaining about it for hours on end.
   He grabbed his work and made his way to the instructor's lounge. Knocking on the door, he waited for an answer.
   Thankfully, the person he was looking for would be there. It was their break as well as his.
   The door opened and Keith was met face to face with Adam.
   "Oh, Keith. What's on your mind?"
   The Cadet huffed and presented the officer with the packets. "I need help, and you're the only one I know who understands this who isn't my teacher."
   "Me? What about Takashi?"
   "Shiro is great at piloting but he can't add to save his life. You know that."
   Adam withheld laughter as he let the boy in. "Alright, fine. I'll help you out."
   Keith sat down at the table and laid out his work. Four packets, five pages each. Front and back. At least twenty problems and questions in each packet.
   "Let's start with the basics. What do you know?" Adam asked as he flipped through the first packet.
   "Lift is what gets the object, say a ship or aircraft off the ground and keeps it in the air. Thrust pushes it forward while drag slows it down. And all of this time it's weight pulls it back down to the ground. You need enough lift to stay in the air, but too much could cause issues."
   "Yeah." Adam quickly sketched out a diagram of a airplane. "In other words, you have gravity pulling it down," he drew a downward arrow and labeled it FG, "force of gravity." Drawing an arrow up, he labeled it lift, "the shape of the wings help to keep it flying, like a bird. Then your drag force," another arrow backwards, labeling that one FD and a final arrow at the front, FT, "and force of thrust... these two act opposite if one another. Now I'm not a physics teacher so these aren't technical terms, but they're good enough."
   "Right. So how do I figure these out?"
   "How is up to you. But you should definitely use proper equations and show diagrams. They're helpful." Adam read the first question to himself and thought of a way to explain it. "Well... What do you think you could do to solve this?"
   Keith moaned loudly. "Can't you just give me the answers? Or at least tell me what to do."
   "No. I'm helping you by building your memory skills. You're going to need these for the exam in December."
   "Fine... I should start with a diagram."

***

   For almost an hour, Keith, with Adam's aid worked through the first two packets, finishing all but six questions on the second one. That left Keith with forty six problems to do on his own.
   Being as kind as he was, Adam offered to help him during their breaks. Keith obviously took that opportunity, and for the next three days, he worked on his aerodynamics worksheets with Adam.
   After his time was up, he turned then in to Professor Ahn just before class started and hoped for the best.
   "Did you get help, or did you do these on your own?" He asked the cadet. "We haven't formally gone over some of this yet."
   "Yes, sir. I had help. Ad— Professor Wright helped me out. He teaches the senior Cadets so I thought I could ask him. I hope that was alright..."
   "That's perfectly fine." Professor Ahn marked the papers and entered the scores into the grade book. "I'm proud of you, Keith. You're the first in your class to turn this in."
   "I'm what...?" Keith's eyes widened. 'Wasn't this just for me?! I thought this was because I was suspended!"
   "Yeah, first. I assigned this a week ago, not one student has turned it in. You got this three days ago." He handed Keith his work back and genuinely smiled. "Good job. You just earned yourself a bonus of three percent on your final."
   "I did...?"
   "Yep. This was extra credit. One percent for each packet completed by He deadline. Says so right here on the directions."
   "Right... I must've missed that."
   "Guess you must have."
   Keith slowly stepped back towards his desk.
   "Tell Professor Wright he did a good job helping you out."
   "Yes, sir."
   'What the hell just happened?!' One moment Keith was worried about failing his class, and the next he had a three percent bonus on his winter final. That's insane.
   It's insane, but amazing.
   Plus, he has bragging rights now. Bragging rights over James. That's probably one of the most important things to him right now.
   'Guess someone else is the better student now, right Griffin?' Keith grinned as he watched all of the other Cadets enter the class and hand in one or two packets.
   The thing that surprised him the most was what Lance did. At first the boy took his seat, not looking like he had anything to turn in.
   "Lance McClain, please turn in whatever you have just like the rest of your class."
   "Yes, sir." He answered quietly, pulling his packets from his notebook. "I think its all wrong but I tried, sir."
   "How much did you try?" Professor Ahn asked, taking the papers from the boy.
   "All of it, sir. I tried every problem."
   "Really? That makes only four of you."
   The class erupted in murmurs, they wanted to know who.
   "Cadet Leifsdottir finished it within the first three days, Cadet Kinkade turned it in today in his class, Cadet Kagane finished it in the last few days and handed it to me, and just now, Cadet McClain. Congratulations to those of you who tried. Those who didn't, I'm sorry to hear you're just that uninterested in passing."