This was a combination of not wanting to do my homework and because my friend was irritating me even though I have a lot of patience. He just like to ask a million questions until I get irritated. So I wrote this up because that's what you do when you procrastinate.
"I don't get it. Why do I need to know this anyway? It's not like I'm ever going to use it in real life."
A groan escaped her rosy lips and a hand was placed roughly on her forehead in frustration. Slowly she counted down from ten as she attempted to calm herself from the annoyance that was her sister. In her head she searched for the answer as to why she did this to herself repeatedly; but there was none. Nothing was more frustrating, more torturous, or more hopeless than the task of tutoring Brittany Miller. It was so excruciating that others in the past had declared defeat and fled toward home. So, like the genius she was, she foolishly accepted the challenge of helping her sister pass her classes every single time she asked. She could only assume that she must like the torture because these sessions were so horrendous it would take nearly all afternoon and night to complete. It was all the free time she had after school and she could have been using it to read the latest best seller or hanging out with her best friend. Instead, she was stuck at the kitchen table all because she had promised to help her sister with her math homework today.
It wasn't like Brittany was dimwitted, no, she was far from it as a matter-of-fact. Jeanette had witnessed many times where she proved to be quite smart as they roughed it on their own for too long. The problem, however, was getting her to listen long enough to anything that didn't have to do with fame and fortune. But Brittany's value of knowledge was almost nonexistent as she deemed it useless in the game to fame and because of that view Jeanette learned ages ago that it was almost near impossible to teach Brittany as it was a constant fight to hold her attention for more than five seconds.
"It's not that difficult if you just focus," Jeanette angrily pulled out the pencil that she had stuck into her bun earlier and began scribbling on the notebook in front of Brittany, "you just solve one of the variables and substitute the answer into the other one and solve. There, y equals zero."
She knew her attempts to explain the problem were over Brittany's head and out the door the second the words left her mouth. It was a failed attempt as Brittany's face displayed everything but understanding and Jeanette suddenly felt like she was paddling upstream in a never ending river of sludge. It was impossible but for some reason she kept up her attempts to push on.
"Okay," Brittany spoke up dragging out the word. He eyes staring intently for ages at the notebook in front of her before she finally sat back with a huff, "so then what does x equal?"
"One."
Jeanette knew she shouldn't have said the answer without explaining it but she just wanted to move on to the next problem and hopefully finish early. The false hope she felt that Brittany may have understood the problem finally was immediately squashed with her next question, "why one?"
Jeanette could feel her patience wearing thin, something that everyone told her she had an abundance of, but at the moment she questioned their observations of her personality. Then again, everyone knew Brittany was a master at testing the patience of Job even. Catching a glimpse of the clock on the kitchen wall she noted that she had been tutoring her sister for the past hour. An hour and they were no closer to a breakthrough than when they had begun, but she decided to press on.
"Because now you know that y is zero and x equals one minus y, so that means one minus zero is one," she took the notebook back and drew out the solution before looking at Brittany with a glimmer of hope that she'd maybe partially understood, "X equals one."
But there was no hope, none at all, as Brittany just stared at the notebook making no progress, "I still don't get it."
"What is there not to get?"
She didn't understand what terrible crime she committed in a past life to be punished so harsh; and by her own sister, the one person she couldn't escape. She was sure some force, somewhere, was having a good laugh as she was tormented on a regular basis lately. If anything made her excited for the impending summer break, this was it. Even though she enjoyed learning she couldn't help but long for those three months of not dealing with this.
"Like, why are there letters in my math problem?" Brittany dramatically pointed at the list of problems in her textbook, "isn't math just a bunch of numbers?"
Jeanette stared at her with a cynical look before tossing down her pencil in agitation, "okay, I'm done," she began closing books and collecting them up as she stood from her seat to emphasize that she was serious, "you're impossible."
"Am I impossible," a devilish grin crept onto Brittany's face as she leaned in close to her, "or just trying to get you to do my homework for me?"
Jeanette paused in her tantrum to see her sister's crooked grin. How could she so easily be duped? "Oh, you're sneaky," she glared back feeling her agitation grow before cleaning up the last of the stray papers, mentally cursing herself for not seeing the true intentions behind Brittany's behavior. Jeanette had already done half the homework just trying to explain it to someone who hadn't been listening anyway.
"Hey, homework goes much faster when you just do it," Brittany stated matter-of-factly and shrugged her shoulders.
"Then I'm done here," she was beyond frustrated at this point but hid it well as she began walking from the kitchen, "you can just fail if you want."
"Oh come on Jeanette," Brittany tried to plead with her, "I'm just kidding, you know I love you."
"Sure, and I love you," she simply stated turning around to look at Brittany, "but I'm not doing your homework for you."
And with that she stalked from the kitchen passing Eleanor with a warm smile on the way out. What she heard next, though, made her giggle and wish she was as straight forward as her younger sister.
"Hey, Eleanor, I could…"
"No, Brittany."
She shook her head as she ascended the stairs. It was another normal evening in the Miller household and one she wouldn't give up no matter how irritating things could seem at times.