Wally sat by his kitchen table, back hunched over an opened notebook that displayed numbers that danced across the off-white sheets in a confusing sequence, assembling formations unfamiliar to the Aussie. Despite how many times his teacher had explained it to him, math was not his favorite subject. Neither was the rest of school (besides for gym).

"Ah hate school," Wally moaned, throwing his pencil onto the table. It landed with a harsh thud as the blonde-haired boy took his gaze away from his assignment, looking into space.

"Wallaby!" His mother appeared into the kitchen, Joey squirming in her arms. "Please do your homework. Ah don't want to get another phone call home because ya are not doing your work!"

Wally frowned as he gazed at his mother. "Mum, Numbuh One – er, Ah mean, Nigel told meh to meet him at the tree house roight after school – not doin' meh homework."

Mrs. Beatles shook her head disapprovingly. "No more of this Kids Next Door business. It's been distracting ya from your schoolwork. Ya are not leaving this kitchen until you at least try to do your work."

"Ah did try."

Mrs. Beatles gazed at the clock. "Only for about two minutes."

"Ya mean Ah've been tortured for that long?" Wally whined.

"It'll be longer if ya keep procrastinating."

"Procrata-what the crud is that supposed to mean?"

"It's one of your vocabulary words," Mrs. Beatles answered, placing a restless Joey in a highchair. The baby tugged at her hair before she could pull away. "And when ya finish your math, you shall do vocabulary next. Or ya can switch the order if ya like."

Wally slapped his forehead. "That'll take a kamillion eeyors ta do that!"

"Eons," his mother corrected. "And it won't take ya that long; give yerself about an hour. Ah think ya will be done by then."

Wally woefully gazed at the clock. It was only four-thirty. "An hour?" He repeated, horrified. "That's loike, fifty two kafillion nega seconds!"

"Sixty minutes," Mrs. Beatles sighed, placing a bib around Joey. "So, Ah suggest ya get started or ya won't be goin' to that tree house at all."

Wally pouted as he scooped up his pencil and held it in his hands as if it were a foreign object. He looked at it, as though trying to see if this thin device would magically operate by itself and do his assignments. But he knew that he had no loopholes; his mother was not going to let him go until he did his work.

The blonde haired Aussie looked up as his mother sat on a chair by the highchair, a bowl of mashed potatoes in her hand.

"Mum," Wally said.

"Hm?" Mrs. Beatles inquired, focusing on feeding her baby.

"Ah-"

Knock knock!

"Ah'll get it!" Wally bolted towards the front door before his mother could protest.

Gingerly, Wally opened the door and, as he expected, the other four members of Sector V were standing on his front porch. Frowns were plastered across their faces as they folded their arms across their chest in utter dissatisfaction. Though he had a 'valid' reason for his absence at the tree house, Wally knew that his friends were not going to accept his excuse.

"Sorry mates," He mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

"What is your excuse, Numbuh Four?" Numbuh One demanded, pulling his sunglasses slightly downwards to reveal his furrowed eyebrows. "You were supposed to at the tree house twenty minutes ago."

"He is doin' his homework," Mrs. Beatles answered, appearing behind her son, her expression mirroring the bald Brit's.

"Mrs. Beatles," Numbuh One addressed formerly. "We need your son for an important mission."

The woman shook her head. "Ya kids can play this Kids Next Door game later; Wally needs to do his homework."

"Homework?" Numbuh Three repeated. "You mean those math problems?"

"And vocabulary?" Numbuh Five chimed in.

Wally nodded. "Meh mum won't let meh do anything until Ah get it done."

"That is roight," Mrs. Beatles agreed, placing a motherly hand on Wally's shoulder. "Have ya children done your homework?"

"Homework isn't important," Numbuh One answered, waving his hand as if schoolwork was a frivolous triviality. "We have better things to do, don't we?" He regarded the other three operatives.

Numbuh Two crossed his arms sheepishly behind his back. "Actually, Numbuh One – I mean, Nigel… There is nothing going on with the Kids Next Door as of now. We are technically free."

The sound of that made Numbuh One shudder. "Are you saying that we have to our homework? We don't have anything more important to do?"

Wally suppressed a smile. At least he wasn't the only one stuck doing his homework.

"I guess so," Numbuh Two answered apprehensively. "But math isn't so hard."

"Easy for yeh to say," Numbuh Four grumbled.

Mrs. Beatles scratched her chin. "Ah've got an idea. Why don't ye mates all do your homework together?"

"Together?" The children repeated.

"Yeah!" Kuki piped up. "We can make it a party! We can have popcorn and soda and ice cream and-"

Mrs. Beatles calmed the little Japanese girl down. "Ah have the perfect idea to make yer party both fun and helpful."

"What the crud are yeh talkin' about, Mum?" Wally inquired, gazing suspiciously at his mother.

"Take meh word for it," she answered, a glint forming in her eye.

The entire Sector V crowded the Beatles' kitchen table, all with their workbooks opened to the same page. They all looked confusedly towards the mathematical problems, unable to decipher their meanings – everyone except for Hoagie.

"Fractions aren't so bad, guys," The hefty boy explained. "They're just a different way of looking at numbers."

"Ah don't cruddy care," Wally groaned. "Ah'd rather beh snatchin' cakes from those Delightful Dorkheads than looking at a bunch o' numbers."

Kuki doodled across the page of her book. "Well, I'll turn these awful fractions into pretty, friendly flowers. Maybe this will be acceptable."

"I highly doubt that, Kuki," Nigel sighed, looking at his own worksheet. "Fractions aren't difficult."

"Then how come ya haven't done it?" Abby asked. "With all this time we were yappin', you could've at least done some problems."

"Because," Nigel answered, hiding his nervous smile, "I was waiting for you guys."

"Admit it," Hoagier interjected. "You don't understand fractions."

"I do too," Nigel felt his anger welling up inside.

"Chill, dude," Hoagie said coolly. "Relax. It's okay if you don't understand it; I still have a hard time with fractions myself."

Kuki looked surprisingly towards Hoagie. "Really? I thought you were smart."

"Doesn't mean I can't struggle," Hoagie answered. "My dad always told me that even when someone's very good at something, he can still have challenges with it. Fractions are hard."

Abby picked up her pencil and began writing numbers down. "Well, Numbuh Five says we bettah get started. I'm not interested in spending my whole evening looking at homework."

"But," Kuli stated, looking at her worksheet, "I don't get fractions. They're so confusing."

"Too roight," Wally huffed. "They're cruddy stupid, I tell ya!"

Hoagie shook his head. "You guys are looking at it all wrong." He wrote the fractional symbol for a half on a piece of scratch paper. "What is this?"

"Looks loike Numbuh One standing on a board on top of ya, Numbuh Two," Wally answered.

"No!" Hoagie felt himself lose his cool.

"Take a chill pill, baby," Abby interceded, knowing that when it came to teaching Wally something, it had to be brought down to a level of an infant. "Numbuh Four, do ya know what a half means?"

"Yah," Wally answered. "It's a half."

"Explain that."

"Uh…" Wally knew what a half meant, as he used that expression his entire life. But when it came to verbalizing its meaning, the Aussie was at a loss for words. "Isn't it loike… ya know… when ya have two things?"

"Ooh! I know; I know!" Kuki squealed, raising her hand. "It's when you have two rainbow monkeys sharing the exact same thing. Like my arctic skier rainbow monkey-"

Wally slapped his forehead. "Not those cruddy dorkies!"

"That's not quite it, Kuki," Hoagie said softly. "You two are both right that it has to do with two, but it's more than just sharing. A half means that something is split into two equal pieces, for example half of two is one, or half of a-"

"Pizza?" Mr. Beatles inquired, stepping into the kitchen with two boxes in his hands.

"-pizza," Hoagie stated, involved with his explanation. "Wait… Pizza? Where?" He looked around and noticed two boxes being placed on the table.

All the kids looked hungrily and eagerly towards the treat.

"Pizza!" Kuki cheered. "I want the cheesiest piece!"

Mrs. Beatles entered the kitchen. "Ya all can have a slice. But ya must answer the questions correctly."

"What questions?" Wally inquired.

"I think I know where this is heading," Nigel stated.

Mrs. Beatles opened the box of pizza, the fresh aroma filling the nostrils of everyone in the room. "Alrioght, this is how this will work: Ah will ask ya a question, and until ya all answer at least five questions correctly, ya will each get a slice of pizza. Who wants to answer the first question?"

No one volunteered.

"How about you, Abigail?" Mrs. Beatles pointed. "Ya are a pretty confident young girl."

Abby scratched the back of her neck. "Well, I don't know… I guess Abby will give it a try. What's the question?"

"How many slices of pizza are in this box?"

"Whoy does she get an easy question?" Wally whined. "Ah want an easy one, too."

"Eight," Abby answered flatly.

"That's one correct answer," Mrs. Beatles complimented. "Very good. Now, who wants to answer the second question?"

Wally raised his hands. "Ah bet this will also be an easy one."

Mrs. Beatles grinned. "Alright, Wally, since there are eight slices of pizza in this pie, and ya and Ah both want ta eat the whole thing, how many slices do weh each git so weh have we have an equal amount?"

"Half," Wally answered intuitively.

Slightly impressed, Mrs. Beatles urged him on. "Yah, half – but how many is half?"

Wally looked at the pizza hungrily. He didn't want to mess up on an answer and lose his chance of getting a slice.

"Ya can look at the pizza for help," Mrs. Beatles suggested, opening the box and showing her son the delectable cheesy pie.

Wally mentally counted the precut slices. As Abby had said, there were eight. He then thought about the pie as a whole and cut the circle directly in half with an imaginary line. Just then, something clicked inside that he never knew he had.

"Wait a second," Wally breathed, looking at the pizza. "There are four slices ta half a pie because half of eight is four…" His voice trailed off after he realized that he managed to make a logical deduction from within.

Hoagie looked at the blonde haired boy, a surprised yet impressed smile twitching at the corner of his lips. "Wow, dude. That's pretty good."

"Ah can't believe that Ah managed to git that roight…" Wally shook his head. Admitting to the fact that he was able to get the correct answer was one thing, but the next part he was not ready to say at all: He was beginning to kind of, sort of like math.

Eventually, five math/pizza related questions were answered correctly and the whole sector V was more than ready to have a slice.

Looking at the worksheet, the kids realized that they were capable of answering the questions. Within ten minutes, they completed the assignment.

"Who knew pizza would be so helpful with homework?" Hoagie remarked with a mouthful of pizza.

Kuki nodded in agreement. "Yeah! I'll tell my mommy that I should have pizza every time I need to do my homework."

Mrs. Beatles laughed, having a slice of her own. "Ya all still have your vocabulary ta do, don't ya?"

Wally looked hopefully towards his mother. "Are weh gonna have pizza for that?"

"Ah've got somethin' else," She pulled out a big bag of popped popcorn. "Weh are going to play another game. Ah want ya all ta each take a bowl."

Obediently, each operative took a plastic bowl that was stacked on the table.

"This is how are next game is goin' ta work," The woman explained, opening the bag of popcorn. The aroma diffused into the air, the smell heavenly to the five kids eagerly waiting for the game. "There is a whopping amount of popcorn in this bag, so please no crocodile tears if someone gits more – there is plenty. But this is the game: Ah want ya all ta study your vocab words for two minutes. Ah will time ya, and when time's up, Ah will test ya on the words. Ah will either ask ya ta define a word, or Ah will give ya a definition and ya tell me the word. Each answer ya get roight, Ah will give ya popcorn. Is that clear?"

Five heads nodded vigorously, and for the rest of the evening, their bowls filled with popcorn while their minds filled with new words. It had to be the best time they ever have done homework.

"I can't believe it," Kuki sighed, opening her locker to grab her backpack. "We got all the answers right!"

"And we aced that pop math quiz," Nigel added. "I've never felt so good about doing homework before. It almost feels as good as stealing those Delightful Children's cake before eating it."

A group of heads nodded in agreement.

"Don't forget!" The teacher reminded his students as he walked down the hall. "Read chapter five in your history books."

Normally, a statement like that would result with a group of low groans in response. Instead, Nigel, Hoagie, Kuki, Wally, and Abby regarded each other with a small grin.

"Homework party?" Kuki suggested.

"Let's do it at my house," Hoagie offered.

Everyone laughed, looking forward to another night full of yummy treats and helpful knowledge.