Fawkes

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

The bell signalling the beginning of first class interrupted my quiet calculation of the boy in front of me. He kept taking pictures of himself, and I was indulged in his reasoning, along with photo bombing a few, when the shrewd ring reached my ears. The boy in front of me jumped slightly, and I snickered under my breath.

I was sitting alone at a desk at the side of the class, and I quickly studied the writing on the white board to discover that it was the type of math I learned a while ago. It was amateur content for me, and I got comfortable at my desk in preparation for what must be a boring lesson. Dick Grayson was in my Math class as well, and the amount of courses I had with him was starting to get out of hand.

It wasn't a huge sweat, because Artemis walked in right on time and plopped down in the seat next to me. I let my chair fall back forward onto its four legs and slid my feet off my desk, inspecting the blonde before me.

"Rough morning?" I grinned at her messy hair and half-tucked shirt, only smiling wider when she threw me a glare.

"Couldn't find my shoes."

I knew that wasn't it, put I didn't press the matter as the teacher, a small Indian woman named Ms Gupta, stepped in front of the class and began attendance.

From Lauren's lunch table, there were four kids in my Math class. I already knew Mindy Colt and Sandy Walton, but one of the two dark skinned boys was sat next to the blond boy with the strangely gelled hair. The first was named Derrick Smith, who was also in my Science and English class and the second Lukas Grant, who I didn't think was in any of my classes from yesterday. They both seemed like jerks, but the latter seemed much more slippery and smart, which I kept in mind just in case they became a problem.

After attendance, Ms Gupta began the lesson.

I was right when I said I'd know the content.

The class was incredibly dull, because we were going over complex exponential equations, but to call them complex was a little insulting.

I thought that the whole block would go by incredibly slow, as almost everyone in the room was vigorously taking notes and the slightly hectic woman in front of me was rapidly writing on the board, but things got a little interesting as I stared at the clock for the twenty millionth time.

"Miss? You got the answer wrong on that last one."

I recognized the voice, and my head spun to inspect the small, blue eyed, ignorant boy before I quickly read over the rather long equation to see if he was right.

He wasn't.

I chuckled.

"No she didn't."

It was his head's turn to snap my way, where I sat with my arms and legs crossed, a broad smirk plastered across my features and a mischievous glint in my eye.

"The answer is negative twenty four, not sixteen." Dick Grayson narrowed his eyes at me. Ms Gupta was a little behind, not really taking notice to the soon to be intense argument and instead trying to find her mistake on the board, "She made a mistake on the middle section."

"She did it perfectly right, actually."

"Then why did she get the wrong answer?"

"The question is," I turned slightly to face the boy, who was in the front row on the right side of the class, whereas I was seated at the left side of the class in the middle row. "Why did you get the question wrong? Answer: because if your Math skills are anything like your growing skills, you're not very well off in this class."

"I'm literally taller than yo—"

"And if you think that the equation is wrong, then why don't you go up to the board and explain to the class how you would do it, Mr Grayson."