Rose Tyler threw down her pencil in frustration. She would never learn multiplication and they would hold her back in grade three for the rest of her life. Mrs. Kinley would be her teacher forever and Rose just knew that the longer she was in her class, the more Mrs. Kinley would hate her.
She decided maybe a break and some fresh air would help. She left the small flat that she and her mother lived in, closed the door behind her and sat dejectedly on the curb, her chin resting in her small hands. She let out a long sigh.

"What's wrong Rose?" Rose jumped and looked up. The voice belonged to a very tall man with floppy hair.
"How do you know my name?" She asked, she didn't remember ever meeting the man.
"I know your mum, Jackie Tyler." He said sitting down next to Rose, "we're friends… kind of. I can never be really sure if she likes me or not." He said, his eyebrows, or rather the area where his eyebrows should have been, scrunched together. Rose smiled, that sounded like her mum.

"So, what's wrong? You look sad, little girls should never be sad! There's so much to do and see! I bet you're going to see loads of amazing things Rose Tyler!" The man was so excited that for a brief moment Rose forgot her current troubles, then she remembered his question.
"I'm not sad, I'm mad." Rose stated. "My teacher keeps giving us multiplication homework and I just don't know how to do it. It's too hard." She dropped her head back in her hands pouting a bit.
"I can help you!" When the man said this he jumped up to his feet. He was so excited that Rose couldn't help but join him and she jumped up to her feet too.

The man looked enough like a teacher. He was wearing an old tweed jacket with leather elbow patches and a red bow tie, she often saw one of the grade five teachers, Mr. Murray, wearing similar clothes.
"You know multiplication?" She confirmed.
"Multiplication? Easy. Ask me any problem and I will tell you the answer." He said confidently. Rose thought for a moment.

"Okay, what about, 360*482?"
"173,520." He said the answer as soon as the question had left Rose's mouth.
Rose, of course, didn't know what the true answer was to 360*482, but the man said the answer so quickly and confidently that she was sure it was correct.
"I'll be right back." She said before darting into the flat and coming back out with her homework and pencil.

When Rose sat down, the man took the paper and looked it over for a couple of minutes.
"Alright, so you're just beginning multiplication?" He confirmed.
"Yes, and I just have no idea how it's done!"

"Geronimo!"
"Geronimo?" Rose questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"It's my catch phrase! And you can't say it like that, you have to say it like this 'GEROMINO!'" When he said it this time he flung his long arms into the air. Rose couldn't help but smile and repeat the catch phrase, properly this time, jumping onto her feet as she did so.

"Alright, now that you're properly motivated, lets get started." The man pulled a bag of Jelly Babies and a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket.
"Now, what is the first problem?"
"Six times four," Rose said wrinkling her nose, "I hate sixes." As she said this the man dumped the Jelly Babies onto the handkerchief.
"We're going to make six groups with four Jelly Babies in each group." After he and Rose had sorted the candies he instructed her to count them.
"So the answer is twenty-four?" Rose questioned.
"Fantastic!" He said with a goofy grin! "All you do when you're multiplying, is figure out how many there are in six groups of four, or nine groups of ten, or three-hundred and sixty groups of four-hundred and eighty-four!" Comprehension dawned on Rose's face.

"I think I get it! Three times four is twelve because three groups of four Jelly Babies is twelve Jelly Babies!" She said with a large smile.
"Exactly!" The man said with an equally large smile.
Rose worked through the rest of the assignment, with the help of her cheerful tutor, feeling much more patient and at ease than she had been earlier that afternoon, now that she knew the trick to multiplication.

"Thank you so much Mister..." Rose paused realizing she didn't know the man's name. The man paused for a moment and looked at his watch.
"I should get going, I have to get to 2012, I have decide to take the Ponds to see the moon landing!" He said standing up quickly.
"The year 2012?" Rose said curiously, "How're you going to get there? And who are the Ponds?" The strange man ignored Rose's questions.
"Goodbye Rose Tyler." He said somberly, "have a wonderful life." He bent down, kissed her on the top of the head, and walked away.