String of Fate

Chapter Four

I woke up as usual to head to school, checking my left hand for my string as I usually did. As usual, I woke up without it again. I sighed and turned off my alarm, getting out of bed to start getting ready for school, buttoning up my shirt and tightening my tie before heading out of my room. I did my shoes as usual, grabbed my bag as usual, and locked the place up behind me as usual. All ready for my usually boring life.

You'd think that I would be used to my boring life by now but somehow, it always managed to surprise me by how boring it was.

I walked into the classroom and waited patiently for the bell to ring, a little earlier than usual. Slowly, people started filtering in and the last student made it through the door just as the bell rang, sliding into his seat as if he wasn't almost late. He could get away with it this time. "Good morning, class."

"Good morning, Mr Jones." The class replied, not very enthusiastically. Having maths for their first lesson of the day probably wasn't what the class were hoping for. Oh, well, they had to deal with it. It wasn't like I made the schedules.

"Right, who is ready to learn some equations?" I asked, not expecting an actual answer. The class never really responded unless I was asking them to solve a question that I had put on the board. "Alright, then. Let's do some maths."

I couldn't help but check my ring finger as I explained this type of maths equation to them. Quite a few of them seemed to look extremely bored and one of the students might even have fallen asleep at the back of the class. It took me a little bit of time to explain everything and make notes on the board to explain, but I finally got there. I turned back to the class, snapping shut the textbook that I had been using to steal some example equations. "Right, I think I have covered everything. Do any of you guys have any questions?"

"Yes, sir, how old actually are you?" Toby, one of the more difficult students, asked. He sat forward in his chair whereas before he had just been slouching back and hardly paying attention. Now, he was interested.

"I do not think that that question has anything to do with the lesson at hand, Toby." I pointed out, capping the board marker that I was still holding. I folded my arms across my chest and looked at him. "Does anyone have any questions that actually relate to the topic of the lesson?"

"Sir, would it be possible for you to put an example equation on the board and then we can solve it to find your age?" One of the girls, Tiffany, queried, her bright pink fluffy topped pen flapping about as she talked with her hands. The guy sitting next to her didn't seem that bothered, in fact, he seemed to look at her with a look of complete and utter adoration. It seemed that those two had gotten together over the weekend.

"I am not meant to indulge your little ideas, however, this one time, I suppose I can overlook it since that is a good suggestion, and it means that you guys are actually interested in the lesson at hand." I told them, starting to look at the maths textbook on the desk. I pulled it open and flicked back to the marked page, turning to the next page to see all the pencil marks that showed the answered. There was a pretty simple on that equalled twenty-four, so, I turned and wrote it on the free space on the right side of the board. When I turned back to the class, I used to the other end of the pen to tap the board. "This works out my age. Have fun."

The students began to scribble down the equation that was written on the board:

2x + 18 = 6 + 60

While the students quickly did the equation, I checked how difficult the questions were in the textbook, thinking that sections A through to C could be completed with relative ease after my explanation but then I would need to go into further details for sections D to I. That could be done next lesson. I had these guys again on Wednesday to continue. Then, Friday for last lesson could be the more difficult section but they would have the weekend to finish all three sections.