Hey there. Down-In-Flames here again. This is, astoundingly, another update. I suppose it is really stretching the term, though, as this is merely one chapter with no real plot importance. The text that follows is the result of one hour's worth of boredom and frustration with summer homework. It actually kinda snuck up on me, because I had not been planning to update for another week or so. Still, it's not direly important to anything that occurs later, so I'll give it to you guys early. Think of it as a short bonus, or a deleted scene.
"And thus we see that '3x to the fourth power' does in fact equal the hypotenuse of the third equation." the teacher droned.
Matt drifted out of his Algebra-induced daydream stupor long enough to write this engaging little tidbit down in his spiral notebook before he plunged back into blissful semi-consciousness.
The teacher had been talking in an unnaturally monotone voice for just inside an hour now, and Matt was thoroughly surprised that the boring old man had not drifted off to sleep himself. He seemed like he was on a human version of autopilot, continuously dribbling answers and theorems that much of the class had long since chosen to ignore.
He had more important things on his mind, anyway, Sasha and digimon being the most prominent among them. He wondered where she was right now, what she was doing…
Matt had the misfortune of sneezing loudly at that particular time, the resulting sound in what had been near-silence causing the professor to slip out of his trance and lose his place in his teachings. He stuttered for a moment, then chose to call on a student to cover up his forgetfulness.
"Mr. Shepard. Would you care to elaborate on what I have been saying?" he drawled.
Matt sighed under his breath. He summoned up the appearance of an attentive student who had been paying the utmost attention.
"Uh, no, Mr. Biggins, I think you've about covered everything I can think about." he said.
Mr. Biggins paused for a moment, then nodded and continued the lesson. Within a few seconds, it was as though he had never stopped.
Matt rolled his eyes and was lightly struck in the side of the head by a small bit of balled paper. He glanced over to the thrower, his best friend Steven, who proceeded to laugh silently a few rows over. Matt motioned with his finger the act of firing a gun into his own head and collapsed on the desk. Steven nodded solemnly, his eyebrows raised. He was bored to death too.
It took a whole half-hour for the class to end, and all most of the students had bothered to learn was that they had finals in three weeks.
"Three weeks! Can you believe it?" Steven had exclaimed to Matt as they left the class. "It feels like we just started! God, I have so much make-up work to do!"
Matt clapped him on the back. "Well, you had better go start then, hadn't you?"
Steven grunted absently, eyes wide at the prospect of so much work, and moved off to the library. Matt watched him for a minute, smiling and shaking his head. "What a loser…"
Throwing a few quick looks around him, Matt darted between a couple classrooms and crouched behind a bush. Pulling his D-Power and cards out of a pocket of his dark tan cargo shorts, Matt grinned. He had been waiting to look at them again all throughout that horrible Algebra 2 class. As he flipped through his assembled deck, he could barely suppress a rising level of excitement. Just the thought that something so grand had happened to him in a weekend was almost unbelievable.
"How many times have I told you, Shepard?" Rang a voice behind him. "No smoking pot on the school grounds…" Steven stepped in front of Matt, grinning widely. "Unless you feel like sharing!"
Matt stashed the cards before Steven saw them and exclaimed, "Jesus, Steve! Give me a heart attack why dontcha! I thought you had gone to the library?"
"I leant you my calculator, remember? I kinda think I might need a calculator if I'm doing math homework." he remarked sarcastically.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Matt dug around in his backpack and threw the device over at Steven, who caught it deftly.
"So what are you doing back here, anyway? Are you smoking pot? I told you, man, you gotta lay off the stinkweed! Dopes is for dopes!"
"Shut up, man! You know I've never touched the stuff." cried Matt, indignant.
"Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot you were one of those-" he flashed his hands in the air in front of his face, "Straight-edge, hardcore-type punk guys, huh?"
"Sticks and stones, you short bastard."
"You hypocritical jerk-off, you know better than to bring up my height! I should go all Bruce Lee on you!" He started jumping around and throwing mock punches at Matt's torso.
"Calm down there, tiny. You haven't taken martial arts a day in your life and you know it."
"It's in my blood. Besides, I don't need lessons to kick your ass." Steven said with a fierce smile. His eyes glanced down for a second and he stopped jumping. "Hmm? What's this?" Steven stooped down and grabbed something off the ground. "A Digimon card? I haven't seen one of these in years." He showed the card to Matt. "This yours?"
Matt snatched the card out of Steven's outstretched hand. "So what if it is?"
"What are you doing still messing around with trading cards, man? What are you, ten?"
"I sell them on the internet." Matt lied. "There are people out there who will pay good money for cards if they're in good shape. I found an old collection over the weekend and I'm trying to get a bit of extra money, ya know?"
Steven tapped the side of his nose twice with his index finger and pointed it at Matt. "Ah, 's a good idea. You really do need money so you can finally pay me back that twelve bucks."
"What?! It was ten bucks last time I checked, shorty."
"Yeah, but interest can be a bitch."
"Let's just go get some lunch, ok?" Matt suggested with a sigh and turned away. He went half a step and turned back again. "Can I borrow a couple bucks?"
Steven laughed and walked past him, handing him a five in the process. "God, I'm gonna be so rich!"
What'd I tell ya? No point whatsoever, unless you count Steven finding the card. Still, part of me found some of it funny, and I'm relatively pleased with how some of the dialogue came out. My friends and I have banter like that all the time, so I have a lot to base it on.