The door banged loudly. Abby cursed a little under her breath. Why did she ever think that no one would find out?
Abby stared at the door for a few more seconds, but nothing happened. She sighed in relief and turned around. That was when Abby came face-to-face with Nigel.
"Where were you?" he said.
Abby groped around in her mind to come up with something, but all her skills in hiding and lying seemed just out of reach. After what seemed like ten minutes (but was only two) of opening and closing her mouth like a fish, she finally sputtered, "Out."
Nigel backed up a little and looked at her skeptically. "And where was…..out?"
"Oh, you know, just….out." Dangit, she thought, why can't Abby think of anything better than "out"?
She started to hurry off, but Nigel caught her and turned her around. "Where would you be in the middle of the night….with a textbook?" He pointed at the bright blue book in Abby's arms. Abby sighed.
"I'm….I'mthedelightfulbratsnewtutor."
"What?" Nigel said.
"I'M THE DELIGHTFUL BRATS' NEW MATH TUTOR OK!"
"WHAT?""I know, it's weird. And Abby didn't even know until she got to the house. But Abby's being paid…so much…." Abby trailed off into her confused, jumbled thoughts.
"You've got to stop."
"I know…." Abby turned. Suddenly, something hit her. She smiled.
"We've been waiting," said the Delightfuls' monotone voice.
"I know," Abby said, a little more brightly than she should have. They sat down in the giant study.
"Now," said Abby, "the first thing we should do is discuss the new math laws that were just passed by the UN."
"New math laws?" the Delightfuls said in shock.
"Yeah!" Abby said, really getting into it. "They're pretty complicated, so Abby's gotta make sure you understand them, ya know?"
"Well, I guess," the Delightfuls sighed.
"Now, first thing is, they've created a whole new number! Between five and six. It's called derf!"
"Derf?" the brats echoed.
"Yeah! And it looks like this!" She turned her notebook around and scribbled a random symbol in it. She turned it back so they could see. "See, that's a derf." She smiled, way too big. "And so now it goes one two three four five derf six seven! And so then it would be thirteen fourteen fifteen…"
"Derfteen?" the delightfuls guessed.
"Yep!" Abby said. "So now if you take eighty-two, and multiply that by twelve, you get…"
"One hundred and…derfty-seven?" the delightfuls said, seeming to catch on fast.
"Yeah!" Abby said, holding back a laugh. She started explaining her fictional math laws to the five some, getting more and more excited and caught up all the time.
The next week, however, those laughs came out. They got back the first test that they had taken since the "new laws" were "passed". Mrs. Thompson saved the Delightfuls for last, possibly on purpose.
"Get ready," Abby told her teammates.
"And last but not least," Mrs. Thompson said, "the Delightful Children from Down the Lane."
She handed them their paper and shook her head. The Delightfuls took one look at the test and gasped.
"Triple F minus?" they cried in disbelief. "But….but…..but…!"
"Well maybe next time, you should study instead of making up numbers of your own! What is that, anyway?" Mrs. Thompson accused, pointing at the symbol in the middle of "two hundred and derfty-six".
"It's….a derf," the Delightfuls chorused slowly.
"A DERF? WHAT THE HECK IS A DERF? I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A-"
The kid's laughter drowned out the rest. The Delightfuls never looked so upset. Abby smirked.
"Told ya I'd do something," she nodded to Nigel. He nodded back and smiled.