All of her life, Maria Alvarez has been sure of three things.
1.) The Lord God will protect and guide her thought all of the trials of life.
2.) Vampires are soulless husks of their former selves, little more than animated bodies feedi...
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Maria stood in front of the door to the room Edwin shared with Raven.
The fact that this was a room where two unmarried people lived together intimidated her somehow. Something about it seemed so illicit, so foreign. It seemed like a place she wasn't supposed to be, a thing she wasn't supposed to look at.
Like how Lott's wife wasn't supposed to look back at Sodom and Gomorrah. Or how Eve wasn't supposed to eat the forbidden fruit. Why allow the city to exist in the first place? Why put the tree in the garden? Why put sex out in the world like this, if she wasn't even supposed to know it existed?
Despite the unease rising up inside her, she knocked on the door.
When it opened, Edwin smiled down at her as he adjusted the ponytail his black hair was in.
"Oh, hey Maria." He said. "What's up?"
Maria squeezed the stack of papers in her fingers.
"Would you help me with something, please?" She asked.
"Uh, Okay, What is it?"
"I wanted to know if you would teach me how to do math."
"Teach you math?" He blinked.
"Yeah, I, uh, want to go to the community college in the fall, but I have to pass the entrance exam, because my diploma isn't valid." She said, "I'm going to be honest, I don't really know anything."
His eyes lit up, and Maria thought he even looked excited.
"Yeah! Come on in."
He opened the door to the room.
4x-3=17. Solve for x.
It probably wasn't even that hard, but it took Maria ten minutes to come up with an answer.
"Is it five?" She asked.
"That's correct."
Maria groaned and rubbed her temples.
Edwin gave her a quizzical smile.
"Aren't you happy you got it right?"
"Yeah, but I got the other two wrong. I don't know." Maria said, laying down the pencil. "I think I might just be stupid."
"You're not stupid." Edwin said. "You just need to practice. Anyone can learn math."
"Yeah, But I have to learn, what, four years worth of math? And by the end of summer!" She sighed. "I'll never learn everything I need by then."
"Don't worry." He said. "I promise, they make the study guides way harder than the actual exams. We can practice every single day if that's what you need."
"I think I'll go crazy if I do that." Maria said. "Besides, I wouldn't want to take up that much of your time anyway."
