CHAPTER SEVEN
Lisa swiftly realized that her bold promises had to be followed by a swift and easy recruitment drive.
That wasn't on the cards. No matter how much she wanted to will it so.
Lisa had hoped things would go well around Gym class, where she could talk to the girls as they lined up to be picked for their respective spots before the guy against gal basketball session commenced.
The only problem was she had no real track record of knowing what her fellow classmates wanted in exchange for collaborating with someone they viewed as a control freak and a show-off.
There had to be an ideal prize, a unique condition, to get any of them to say yes to her.
As the line dwindled further and further as people were picked, Lisa knew she would be picked dead last.
Again.
No one was interested. Nobody wanted to take her side.
She was the voice of reason.
And all she could attract from her peers was reasonless doubt.
Mathematics simply wasn't a romantic notion anyone wanted to entertain.
Not even to prove a point.
Maybe they wanted to spite the maths paper they had been given.
Maybe they wanted to embrace the idea of a simpler course.
It was, after all, as she learned later in the day, a programme devised by Bart's teacher. She taught a very simple class. And barely had any class herself.
She kept a string of students made-to-order in check, fulfilling her motherly duties in the process.
Lisa did admire the idea of extending a mother's reach.
But it was biting into a much more educationally nourishing hand that had been feeding them.
She aimed to still feast from that hand. To clasp it in her own, and join that hand with another, and another, and form a circle.
Even the circumference of a circle, to fit the theme of her mission statement.
Her thoughts may not align with that of her fathers', but she found herself salivating as much as he would at a whole different kind of 'pi'.
A series of loud bangs made her turn to her left.
Situated in the corner of the games hall was Ralph, playing with a basketball as the teacher tried to utter instructions to the rival Basketball teams.
"Lisa, would you mind talking to Ralph for a bit while we outline a game plan?" said Ms. Hoover.
"Will I ever" said Lisa, and dashed up to the slowpoke savant.
"Hi Lisa, I'm counting" said Ralph, locking his eyes to hers as he dribbled the basketball.
"That's a quality skill, you good at numbers?" asked Lisa.
"I like counting up, never down, I don't like divorcing" said Ralph.
"You mean subtracting? Sometimes you need to take something away before you build it back up" Lisa replied.
"You mean numbers can be families again if you make them miss a few?" asked Ralph, "That's how I'd love most normal families to work"
"Sometimes the world isn't built to be exactly like a complex equation" said Lisa.
"I like to count the world in my head, especially in the fields where the sheep live, they help me sleep" said Ralph.
"How many sheep do you count?" asked Lisa.
"Mommy says I'm still counting aloud when she wakes me up" replied Ralph.
"Ralph has your mom ever asked you to do any multiplication?" asked Lisa.
"The silly wrestler in the kilt on TV used to say that, he wouldn't die, he'd just multiply. He said that before he actually died" said Ralph, slightly giggling.
Lisa couldn't help but be completely taken in by Ralph's innocence. It was such a break from the usual trances of logic and clarity that she'd walk about in to make it through a chaotic school day; it allowed her brain to turn ever slightly numb. She used to dread it in her more naive days, but sometimes it helped to relieve her stress levels.
Then he said something that took her by surprise.
"There's always a new number to learn, that's why I liked the old test" said Ralph, "I'll miss it"
"Well, you can fight for it if you want" said Lisa.
"A great idea" said Ms. Hoover, "Ralph, is it alright if you become Lisa's partner for the maths expo tomorrow? I can give you a couple of free hours; you can take the rest of the day
The whole of Gym class burst into laughter.
Lisa looked at Ralph; he looked blankly at her with an unflinching smile, and resumed being fixated by the dribbling basketball.
Lisa sighed.
She could sense the hand that fed her slowly receding from reach.
