Triangle DEF points A, B, and C are taken on DE, DF, and EF respectively such that EC = AC and CF = BC. If angle D = 40 degrees then what does angle ACB equal (in degrees)?

Gale stared long and hard at the question before her while chewing on the end of her pen. She had only been studying for fifteen minutes and her head had already begun to feel like someone had drilled a hole in the side of her skull and was trying to maneuver her brain out of it. Mathematical questions had never made much sense to her. The only reason she had gotten so far along in her studies where math was concerned was because her twin sister, Josephine, helped her out so much. Once she was on her own, however, the questions and formulas stopped making sense and she just got frustrated.

With a heavy, annoyed sigh, she dropped her pen down on her desk and pushed her Geometry textbook away. Stupid math… When am I ever going to use this shit in real life? She internally asked herself. Of course, whenever you asked that of a math teacher, they always grinned and told you that you'd use it every day of your well-educated life, even if you really didn't. Nothing was more stupid than that to Gale.

She spared only a few more seconds of staring at the impossible formula before pushing out of her chair and leaving her room to knock on her sister's door, which was the next door down.

"What?" came a voice from inside. Gale perked up a little bit.

"Joooo, I'm so sick of this stupid homework. Can I come in?" the brown-haired girl whined, and leaned her forehead against her sister's door.

"Do I need to come over there and help you, Gale?"

"No…" Gale replied, and paused before going on to ask, "Can you take a break? I wanna play Smash Brothers."

A small sigh issued from behind the closed door. "I really have to get this paper done tonight. You should be doing your homework, too, and you know it."

Now it was Gale's turn to sigh. She stayed leaning against the door for a moment, without responding, before she heard Jo speak up, "All right. But after I'm done with this part, so give me like fifteen minutes, okay?"

Immediately assuaged, Gale grinned and stepped away from the door. "Okay! I'm going to see if Papa will play with me and then you can join in when you're done," she said cheerfully and turned to make her way down the hallway to the living room.

"Papa, do you wanna play Smash Brothers with me?" she called as she entered the living room, only to find it completely vacated. Confused, she turned towards the kitchen and saw that it was also empty.

"Papa?" she called out again, still without a response.

That was strange. She could have sworn that just her Daddy was gone to work and that Papa was staying home tonight. He didn't have a case, or at least he hadn't said anything about one. If he had a case, usually he could be found busily spinning his cane between his fingers in the living room, but he wasn't there. Besides, he hadn't said anything to her or Jo about leaving and she hadn't heard anyone leave anyway.

Maybe he went to take a nap, thought Gale. At that thought, she turned towards his room and poked her head into the doorway, peering around. The bathroom door was wide open and the light was on. She supposed he must have had to go to the bathroom and was in there now, stinking up the place.

The teenager grinned at the thought and called into the room, "Papa! Hurry up so you can play Smash Brothers with me!"

No answer. Cocking her head to the side, she took a few steps into the room and repeated herself. Again, there was no answer. A small flame of fear flickered to life somewhere in her stomach. Papa never turned down a game of Smash Brothers, or at least he never ignored his daughter's request of wanting to play.

Being the daughter of two doctors, Gale immediately thought of a thousand different serious medical reasons as to why her Papa wasn't answering her. Maybe his bum leg had given out on him and he had hit his head against the countertop and had been knocked unconscious. She immediately crossed the room in a few short strides at that thought and peered into the bathroom, not caring about the possibility of him being naked.

Her legs froze and her stomach clenched when she saw that her father was indeed lying on the floor, unconscious. She also saw a splash of recent, rancid-smelling, yellow vomit beside him, and beside the vomit, a prescription bottle, the cap missing as well as most of the pills; beside that was his cane. It didn't process in her brain what had happened; all she could focus on was that her father was on the floor, unconscious, and appeared to be dead. All she could do was stare.

And then she screamed. Loudly. She screamed her sister's name and screamed for help. Her legs felt weak but she held onto the doorframe for support, afraid of going over to her father's side, too afraid that he'd really be dead. It was a nightmare she would have never imagined and her thoughts began to shut down a result.

Jo came running into the room a moment later, her eyes wide.

"Gale! What's wrong? What happened?" she quizzed, stopping beside her sister and helping to steady her. Her eyes immediately darted to where Gale was staring, and saw their father sprawled on the floor.

The older twin let go of Gale and went to her father's side, kneeling beside him, touching his arm and feeling for a pulse. She looked up and her blue eyes met her sister's slightly darker blue eyes.

"Gale," Jo said as evenly as she could, "Go call an ambulance. Now!"

It took her a few seconds to get moving, but Gale nodded and ran to the nearest phone, picking it up and frantically dialing 9-1-1. When a woman picked up on the other end, Gale heard herself explain what had happened and that they needed help, but somehow she felt like it wasn't her voice. She was standing outside of herself, watching this happen to someone else. It was the most lucid dream she could ever remember having.

It still hadn't registered to her even when the ambulance arrived and when two men came rushing in to carry away her beloved Papa.

---

Jo was finishing up a sentence on her essay when her sister's terrified scream reached her ears. Jo sprinted towards the noise, grabbing a knife from the kitchen counter. Terrified screams scared Josephine like nothing else could. Her heart was racing. The few seconds it took Jo to reach her sister were made all the worse by the fact that Gale had stopped screaming.

She found Gale standing in their parents' bedroom at the entrance to the bathroom, a look of shock on her face. Jo shook her. "Gale! What's wrong? What happened?"

Then Jo saw him there on the floor. She didn't mean to let go of her sister so quickly, but the CPR class they had been forced to attend took control of Jo's actions now. She knelt down next to her father and felt for a pulse. It was there, but it was faint, and though he was breathing, the vomit and unconsciousness were obviously not good. She looked up at her catatonic twin.

"Gale, go call an ambulance." When the girl didn't move, Jo stood up. "Now!" she ordered, shaking her twin.

Gale seemed to snap out of it for the moment and Jo heard her shaky voice as it was talking to someone on the other line. Jo turned her father onto his side and collected the pills that had spilled onto the floor and put the lid back on the orange bottle. She collected her thoughts for a moment and dug out her cell phone from her pocket, dialing her dad's number. His cell phone went to voicemail. She hung up and dialed his office number. When answering service picked up, she put in an urgent page then hung up again.

There was only one last person she could call. Lisa. She dialed the number and the operator answered.

"Princeton Plainsboro, how may I direct your call?"

"Lisa Cuddy."

"Just one moment." The lady's voice was cheerful. Jo tried to remain calm.

"This is Dr. Cuddy," the woman's voice broke the ringing.

"Mom?"

"Jo? What's wrong?"

"It's Papa." She choked on her words a little. "He's got a pulse and he's breathing and I made Gale call the ambulance. He's sick and I don't know what's wrong. I.. I can't get a hold of Dad."

Cuddy's voice took on a more serious tone on the other end. "All right, have a cab bring you and your sister here and I'll pay them. I'll page your dad and let him know you're coming in. I'm going to go now so I can get those things done, okay?" Jo nodded as she spoke the affirmation.

Gale came into the bedroom, followed by two paramedics. Jo moved out of the way and spoke to her sister.

"He's alive. He should be okay," she reassured. Gale looked at her blankly. She obviously wasn't in the moment and wasn't processing anything. They watched as the paramedics took their father out of the room. "Come on, we'll take a cab."

"We don't have any money," Gale mumbled, her voice smaller than Jo could ever remember it being.

"It's fine. Let's just go. Mom knows we're coming."

Gale nodded and the two girls went out, somehow remembering through it all to lock the door behind them. When the cab ride was over, Thirteen was waiting for them at the door. She paid the cab driver and took them to the waiting room. James Wilson was talking to another doctor, but stopped when he saw the girls arrive. Gale claimed his hug first, crying into his shirt while Jo stood back and waited.

"Is he going to be okay?" said Wilson above Gale's muffled sobs.

"Yes, he is," the doctor said. "You girls probably saved his life by getting him in here so quickly. Good job." Neither of the girls felt like they had done a good job, though.

Cuddy came into the room then. She went over to Jo and pulled her into a hug. Jo let herself be hugged for a few seconds before pulling away and sitting by herself, lost in the terrified thoughts of losing her father and getting all the angrier for his stupidity.