"Alright Kendall," Tara Collins crossed her legs and adjusted her laptop screen in front of her. She rested back against the pillows that were on her couch before picking up a notepad that she had sitting beside her. "A card is drawn randomly from a deck of ordinary playing cards." She lifted her head and looked at her computer screen to be sure that Kendall was still paying attention to her. He nodded, his pencil twirling around his fingers as he waited for the rest of the math question. "You win $10 if the card is a spade or an ace. What is the probability that you will win the game? "
Kendall thought for a moment and Miss. Collins could see the slight panic move over his face. The two of them had been working on math; probability and statistics, for a little over a hour now. He was starting to get the hang of it and was sure that Kendall could get it on his own. But she knew that there was something off about him. He didn't seem as enthusiastic as he usually was; even if he wasn't in the mood to do homework, he usually greeted her with a smile. But when he got onto the computer this time, he wasn't smiling in the slightest. He had bags under his eyes, his eyes didn't light up at all, even when she asked him about hockey, and he looked like he was going to pass out at any second.
But when she asked him about how he was feeling, he just said that things were fine and got right down to doing work. That was also strange, Kendall Knight didn't do his school work unless he knew that Logan was there to help him or that he was actually being forced to do it. The only time she had ever seen him do it willingly was when Gustavo threatened not to let him go to Coachella or SXSW if he didn't get them in on time.
Well, he's being threatened with not being able to perform, Miss. Collins reminded herself. So that must be what this is coming to as well. He must want to perform just as badly as he says he does. She cleared her head and turned back to Kendall, who was still twirling his pencil in his hands. "C'mon, Kendall, you know this. What are the things that you know to help you answer this problem?" She urged him.
Kendall thought for a moment. "All right," he finally sighed, leaning over slightly so he could start to figure out the problem in his notebook. "We know that I'm looking for at least one spade, so we can make that be represented by 'S'."
"Good," Miss. Collins urged him.
"And then we have the chance that the space is an ace, so we'll let A represent that," Kendall continued. "You'll will win 'the game'" he put quotes around the words. "If any of those two happen. So, I'm looking for the probability of both of those things happen."
"Right." Miss. Collins started to smile. "Go on."
"So," Kendall sighed again. "I'm looking for the probability of both events combined." He wrote something down on his notebook. "There are 52 cards, total in a deck of cards. And adding up all of the spades, there are thirteen of them. So that's thirteen out of 52 right there." He wrote something else down. "And then there are four aces so then that's four out of 52, and one of those aces is a spade, so you subtract one of those." He started to look a little excited. "So adding that all together, thirteen out of 52 and then four out of 52, minus one out of 52 is equal to sixteen out of 52." He thought for a moment. "Which can be factored down to four of thirteen or a 30% chance that I will win that $10 dollars."
"Yes, that's it!" Miss. Collins cried, a large grin spreading onto her face. "I knew that you could do it!"
He laughed lightly. "That's definitely not enough for me to take the bet, but good enough for me to try and convince Carlos to do it."
Miss. Collins laughed along with him, pushing her blonde hair out of her face. "Well, if you're going to try it, make sure that he doesn't realize that it's the same kind of problems he's doing for math class. That way he won't freak out that people actually do use it in real life."
"I'll keep that in mind, Miss. Collins," Kendall agreed. His smiled waned for a second. He looked away from Miss. Collins, seeming to focus on something off screen. Miss. Collins had never seen him look so sad before, it almost made her want to start crying. He looked completely broken.
"Thanks for agreeing to help me with this." He said quietly. "It seems like lately that it's the only thing that I can do, right."
"Well you're a bright boy, Kendall," Miss. Collins said gently. "I could see that from the first day that I met you. You just need to learn how to focus and to remember that not everything has to be fun." She said with a knowing smile.
Kendall laughed again. "Yeah, you're right." He looked at his watch. "I guess I'll see you next time, then."
"Bye, Kendall," Miss. Collins waved before exiting out of Skype.
She closed her laptop and leaned over, gently placing it on the floor. She sat on the couch, thinking for a few moments, before running her hands over her face, yawning slightly. She then stood up and left the living room, going up the stairs to her room, finding her husband sitting on their bed, watching TV. He looked up, seeming to notice her distress as she entered the room.
"What's wrong, Tara?" He asked her.
"I'm tired of seeing Kendall like this, Craig," Miss. Collins replied as he walked over to the bed. "I know that there's something wrong with him…I can't stand to watch him be like this.
"I know, but what can you do about it?" Mr. Collins replied gently. "All you're doing is going off a hunch, we don't know if something is really going on."
"But I to do something!" Miss. Collins tried not to shout. Her little kids were sleeping in the room next door, she didn't want to wake them up, she didn't want them to worry.
"It's not like you can walk right up to his mother and be like, 'Listen bitch, you better treat your son with respect'" Mr. Lanyard said jokingly, trying to diffuse the situation.
There was a brief moment of silence.
Miss. Collins looked back at him thoughtfully. "That's an idea." She said quietly.
Mr. Collins studied his wife. Having been married to her for so long, he knew whenever she had her mind made up, but this was ridiculous. It was like he had said before, she didn't know what was going on. No one did. Jumping to conclusions with no proof could just make things worse. "You can't Tara, just think about the consequences if you're wrong." He reminded her.
"But I have to do something," Miss. Collins walked across the room to her dresser, where she had her purse sitting in a chair. "I can't just sit by and think I'm wrong and then end up being right." She picked out her phone and started to dial Mrs. Knight's phone number. She had all of her students' parents' phone numbers in case of an emergency or if she had to talk to them about their kids' failing grades.
It's ironic that that' show everything started in the first place. Miss. Collins waited for the phone to be picked up.
"Hello?" She heard Mrs. Knight pick up.
"Hello, Jennifer?" Miss. Collins asked, just to be sure.
"This is she," Mrs. Knight replied.
"Yes, it's Tara Collins." Miss. Collins looked up and waved a hand at her husband. He got the hint and lifted the remote, muting the TV. He replaced the remote on the bed and rested his hands on his stomach as he leaned back against the pillows, looking over at his wife. "I was hoping that I could speak with you for a second."
"Sure," Mrs. Knight replied. "Is this about Kendall? How's he doing with his work? He never talks about it."
"Actually, Jennifer, Kendall is what I wanted to talk about," Miss. Collins said firmly. She looked over at her husband before taking a deep breath to continue. Mrs. Knight had been quiet the whole time, waiting for Miss. Collins to continue. "Mrs. Knight…I would like to talk to you about something very serious."
"Yes?" Mrs. Knight prompted.
"I couldn't help but notice erratic behavior with your son in the past few months and then right before you left. His plunging grades was already worrying me, but thinking about how he's been acting as well as seeing some questionable things lately-"
"What sort of questionable things?" Mrs. Knight asked sharply. Miss. Collins could understand her frustration. There were all sorts of things it could be. Her son was part of a band that was getting bigger by the day, what she was going to ask could be tame compared to what gossip sites could have been telling her about her son and his friends' private lives.
"Well, I couldn't help but notice that, while I've been working with Kendall, some days he has had some sort of bumps, or cuts, or bruises, and I-" She began to say.
Mrs. Knight swiftly cut Miss. Collins off. "What are you accusing me off?" She said in an aggravated voice.
Miss. Collins started to pace the room. She shot a glance over at her husband. This was a bad idea. She started to think about what to say. But nothing that she thought of seemed like it would make anything better. "No…nothing. I'm just curious-" She tried to say.
"Listen," Mrs. Knight said firmly. "I'm only asking you to help my son keep his grades up, not poke into our private lives and question my parenting skills or lack thereof. Stay out of our business, alright?" She hung up the phone before Miss. Collins could answer.
"Well, that could have gone better," Miss. Collins said as she slowly hung up her cell phone, dropping it back into her purse. She turned to her husband. "I swear to god something's wrong." She pointed to her heart. "I feel it right here."
"Then, maybe you should get someone to check it out," Mr. Collins suggested, looking torn. "But only if you're absolutely sure."
"I am," Miss. Collins walked back across the room and climbed up onto the bed. She looked confused. "But why would this only be happening to Kendall and not Katie?" She then looked concerned. "Do you think that Katie knows?" She continued before Mr. Collins could answer. "Probably not, she might have said something. She doesn't act like she would know either."
"Honey," Mr. Collins reached out and patted his wife's hand. "I know that you're trying to help them. But at this point, I think that you're grasping at straws. Why don't you get a good night's sleep and we can talk about this in the morning?" He lifted the remote again and turned on the TV.
Miss. Collins turned to the TV and rolled her eyes as she stretched out across the bed as well. Of course. A football game. Men and their sports, nothing can come between them.
But for Kendall it seemed like nothing could come between him and the love that he had for his mother.
A/N: Miss. Collins's class refers to her as 'Miss' so even though she's married, I'll keep calling her 'Miss'. Well, five chapters left and because there are only five left, that means that things are going to have to come to a head at some point….
-Cheers,
-Riley