Rose Tyler hated long division. She could do addition and subtraction in her sleep, multiplication was a snap, and even short division was easy. But she just could not get long division. And she had a test the next day at school. And her mum was at work (which was why she was at the library down the street from her school) so she couldn't ask her for help. So 10-year-old Rose Tyler was going to have to ask a total stranger for help.
Fortunately, the nice-looking librarian, the one who was wearing a different coloured bow-tie every time she saw him, was nearby.
"Hello! What can I help you with?" he asked when she'd waved him over.
"Maths. Can you do long division?" she asked.
"Of course!" he said, taking the seat next to her. She showed him the homework page, and he asked her name.
"I'm Rose. Rose Tyler," she replied with a slightly hesitant smile before asking for his name.
"Doctor John Smith, at your service!" he said. She shook the hand he offered with a flourish, his hand so much bigger and slightly cooler than her own little girl's hand.
"My best mate's called Smith too, but his name's Mickey. I've basically known him forever," she told him when he was seated in the too-small-for-him child-sized chair next to her.
"So, long division," he prompted. If Rose had been older, she might have recognised the abrupt change of topic for what it was.
"Yeah," Rose said with a little pout that was almost a whine. "My teacher this year's rubbish at maths. And I have a test tomorrow."
"Well, then, Rose Tyler, I've got just the thing!" He brought an impossibly large bag of M&M's out of his pocket and began to count some out onto the table. As they were in relatively secluded corner of the library, he told her that the only way the other library staff would find out about their sneaky sweets-eating was if she told, so she pinky-promised and crossed her heart, and then made him do the same. He paused counting M&M's with the hand that didn't have its littlest finger wrapped around hers, and crossed his heart twice, which Rose thought was a little funny, but she hoped she'd get to eat the candy after they were done with it, so she didn't laugh.
When he had quite a number of the brightly coloured sweets, he began his walk-through of the bane of 10-year-old Rose's existence.
When her mum came to get her after work, they were still talking and snacking on M&M's. Rose noticed her mother come through the front door, and dragged her back to their corner table to introduce her to her new friend.
"Mum, this is Doctor John. He's a librarian, and he helped me with long division, and he's funny!"
"Mrs. Tyler!" he exclaimed, standing and offering his hand to shake. Jackie shook it hesitantly. "Your daughter has been telling me all about, well, everything. She's brilliant!" Jackie smiled proudly at her daughter.
"'Course she is," Jackie said. "Are you ready to go home, sweetheart?"
"Yep!" she said enthusiastically.
"You didn't eat too many sweets, did you?" Jackie asked sternly, glancing at the man who'd supplied her with the candy.
"Of course not, mum! I'm just happy! Will you be here tomorrow, Doctor John? In case I need more help with my homework?"
"Certainly!" he said with a grin. "I'm here every day, to help kids like you with homework. I can answer any question you could possibly ask!"
"Really?" Rose asked sceptically, and decided she would try to stump him, and informed him of that.
"Come on, Rose. It's time for dinner," Jackie said, taking her daughter's hand.
"Bye Doctor John," Rose said, waving "See you tomorrow!"
"Goodbye!" he called. When mother and daughter had left the library, he sighed as he stowed half a bag of M&M's back in his pocket. "See you later, Rose Tyler," he murmured, before leaving by the back door and returning to his bigger on the inside time machine that had a pool in the library.
As he sat in the sling under the console, he wondered how long he could stay away this time before giving in and going to see his fantastic pink and yellow human again tomorrow.