Pairing: Contestshipping

Prompts: Math class

Notes: This was a random little tidbit I wrote mirroring my frustration of Pre-Cal. Enjoy!

Arithmetic

Drew was really annoyed.

"This makes absolutely no sense." He glared at the textbook on his desk. The paper resting beside it had several eraser marks and crossed out attempts at solving mathematics problems, much like the girl's next to him.

"Keep staring, Drew," May said grouchily as she rested her head in her hand. "Maybe your laser vision will kick in soon."

"Dammit," Drew snapped. "This is no time for jokes."

"That wasn't a joke."

"Just... stop talking."

May laughed. It wasn't a normal day where one could ruffle Drew's feathers. May often wondered if he even had feathers - in the metaphorical sense, of course.

Unfortunately, the laugh ceased as she looked down at her textbook again. Oh, right.

That's why she was grouchy in the first place.

She looked over to Drew, who was hastily reworking another problem. They shared Pre-calculus together, much to May's disdain, because most of the time Drew would score higher than her on everything in math - not even by a large margin, sometimes just by a little measly point.

It made her so mad.

But now, both of them were stumped. It was a new lesson on polynomials. May was totally fine with polynomials, really - they had already learned a bunch of the content from last year in Algebra 2 & Trig. (with Drew as well, unfortunately). But this - what the hell was this?

[Given the root 5i - 2, solve for the remaining roots of x⁴ - 3x³ + 2x² - 38.]

"You can't even use synthetic on this!" Drew outburst, both hands slamming the desk at another failed attempt at a problem. "What is this?"

May just shrugged. She had already given up on this a long time ago. "I gave up. I mean, you could always ask the teacher."

"No," said Drew immediately. "I do not need the help of the teacher."

"Well, I do," May said. She raised her hand and the teacher walked over, and for the next several minutes they discussed the methods of solving the problem.

Drew tried not to listen - really, he did - but they were kind of loud. He couldn't help hearing it.

"Right, and you can use the DeCartes rule as well..." the teacher explained.

Drew's eyes widened as a lightbulb went off in his head. Right, DeCartes! He saw that somewhere earlier in the textbook. He hastily flipped back a couple of pages to find it. He scanned it, muttering the words to himself as he comprehended the rule.

"But... how will this help me solve it?"

Drew looked over hesitantly to May. The teacher was gone and her pencil was scratching away at the paper. "I don't know," she whimpered, collapsing onto her desk in a fit of comical sobs. "I don't get this at all..."

Drew stared, and suddenly felt a slight pang of sympathy for his brunette friend. She had always been a step behind him - but now, they were one.

They both suffered the pain of Pre-cal. They suffered it together.

"May," Drew said, lowering his head dramatically. "I will find out how to do this. No matter what."

May looked up slowly, smiling tearfully up at him. "Really, Drew?"

"Of course." Drew nodded solemnly, holding a hand to his heart.

They heard giggling from behind, and both turned to see the commotion. Lyra sat behind the both of them, eyes twinkling. "You guys are such soulmates!" she cooed.

May's reaction was very flustered. "Shut up, Lyra! God. This is why no one likes you."

Lyra, unfazed, just kept giggling behind her hand.

"We were simply empathizing over our mutual pain in this class," Drew explained dutifully, trying to ignore the leaps in his stomach as he did so.

"I suppose you're right," Lyra said casually, leaning on her elbows. "There's plenty of other girls pining after you in The Harem, after all."

Drew smirked at the mention of 'The Harem' and May sighed in aggravation. Like that grasshead needed a bigger head.

"What can I say? I'm adored," Drew shrugged nonchalantly.

"Having a harem doesn't do you any good when you can't even solve a single math problem," May said pointedly, gesturing to the book madly.

Drew peered at her through narrowed slits. "And can you, madam?"

"That has nothing to do with anything."

"It has everything to do with everything."

"You just think you're good at everything, don't you?"

"Well, I am!"

May huffed and gave him a disbelieving look. "Unbelievable, Hayden."

Drew shrugged and pointedly ignored her only to stare pointlessly at the textbook again. He couldn't even pretend like he was doing homework, anymore. He didn't know how.

He snuck a glance at May, noting the way her eyes bore into the same spot in her textbook. He smiled in satisfaction before turning around to face Lyra. "Hey, Lyra?"

"What's up?" She glanced up innocently and flashed him a grin.

"Do you get this?" he asked slowly.

She nodded. "Of course."

"You knew all this time and didn't say anything!?"

"It's fun to watch you guys bicker!"

Lyra gave him a look, and Drew sighed in defeat before turning around to face her. "I dread to ask, but... can you show me how to do number twenty one?"

"My pleasure." She smiled. "My price: You teach May."

Drew's brows creased in thought. "Hm... you propose a fair deal. I accept."

"Good."

While May snoozed away at her desk from a long week's worth of lost sleep, Drew learned the secrets of imaginary numbers in polynomial functions. It was a beautiful day for Drew, that it was.

"This literally makes so much more sense now," Drew mused as he stared at the finished problem on his sheet.

"And that it is." Lyra grinned innocently...almost a little too innocently.

Drew waved a hand in her direction. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, I'll teach her."

Lyra smiled graciously in return. Drew glared before turning back around and tapping May on the shoulder. "May!"

May cracked an eye open and simply glared. "What do you want, Hayden?"

Drew triumphantly waved a completed homework sheet in her face.

"You got it!?" She rose quickly with widened cerulean eyes.

"Indeed," responded Drew with a smirk.

There was a brief silence.

"Well?" Drew glared.

"Well, what?" May questioned.

"Are you going to grovel for my help?"

May glared for a split second before ultimately bursting into laughter and playfully shoving him away. "You insufferable jerk..."

And when the bell rung, the next thing Drew knew he was kissing her on the cheek as he said goodbye to get to his next class.