Factoring

"Do you often do their homework?" she asked, taking the papers off his bunk.

Elton's brows knit together, and he fiddled with his neckerchief. He watched Milka shift through them, her lips drawn in a thin line. She licked her thumb and peeled apart two pages that had become stuck together. Hints of eraser residue fell onto his blanket when the second sheet slipped from Milka's hand, and she brushed them off before sticking the page into its proper place.

"Well, well, not always," he murmured. He dug his fingernails into his palms and traced the creases in his skin.

Milka set a small pile of papers onto his pillow. Equations and fractions filled the first page. Franke's name was written on the top line in his handwriting.

"It's impressive that you know how to multiply fractions," Milka said without looking at him. Her eyes were moving back and forth as she skimmed through the ten page report about the War of 1812 for Kitty.

He rubbed his neck and shifted his gaze to the dusty corner of the cabin. "Thanks. I kind of psyched myself out at first." His lips turned upwards in a lopsided grin. "But when I started solving them, they become a lot easier. People think fractions are hard, and I know why, but it's kind of fun when you get the answer right."

A small grin graced Milka's face. Locks of her hair fell onto her cheek when she tilted her head. "Wow. You're really smart, Elton. I didn't really understand them," she replied tracing her finger underneath the last line, "and the vocabulary you know in this essay is incredible. It flows really well."

"O-oh, well, that's because I checked the thesaurus in the lodge, and I, uh, switched out smaller words for synonyms. It makes the report sound smarter," he explained.

Milka tightened her grip on the papers. They tore at the corners. "It makes Kitty sound smarter," she said, her eyes hardening.

Elton's stare fell to the floorboards where a few red ants scurried into the cracks. He itched through his scalp, his hair feeling matted to his head. He drew in a breath and held it, letting his open hands do the talking before shoving them into his pockets.

Despite his efforts, he still was not finished with their assignments. He was halfway through Franke's book report, but Kitty's assigned biography confused him. Despite reading it three times cover to cover, the business empire and philanthropic endeavors of Andrew Carnegie were too tumultuous for him to analyze.

The papers spilled from Milka's hands and scattered on the bed. Neither of them bothered to organize them. Their attention had already fallen on the last mound of papers sticking out from underneath Elton's pillow.

Lili's name was written in the top left corner. Milka's thumb crumpled the signature Elton forged as she grabbed Lili's homework. She flipped through them faster than the others, her head shaking slightly as if she was unable to comprehend the formulas jotted down on the wrinkled margins or the paragraphs detailing the causes behind earthquakes.

"I can't believe Lili made you do this," Milka growled, her nostrils flaring. She huffed out a grunt. "She's something else."

"That's-" Elton cleared his throat. "Well, no, she didn't. It's not Lili's fault, really."

Milka focused on Lili's homework. Her eyebrows rose, forming a lone furrow in her forehead. She dropped one hand to her side, and her fingers closed into a fist, allowing him to see how quickly her knuckles paled under the intensity of her query.

"I offered to do it," he replied to her unspoken question, "and Lili said no."

Milka examined the papers. Compared to Kitty and Franke's clean worksheets, Lili's homework was written on paper that had seemed to have been torn out of a notebook. They were lined with shredded edges and missing corners. When she nudged his pillow, she found the notebook he used appearing like a shell of its former self with stray slivers of paper trapped in the plastic coil binding it together.

She hummed. "So, you copied her assignments and answered them."

"Yeah." He frowned, swallowing the lump in his throat. "I was hoping to give them to her when I was done. That way, she could copy them on her actual homework sheets or something like that. Then, um, she'd be so happy with me, we could..."

He trailed off. He spent over a year loving Lili from afar. She was as untouchable as she was striking. But in the handful of conversations he had with her, Lili's responses were clipped, curt, and to the point. As he gazed at Milka, mulling over the few moments he shared with Lili in-between two summers at camp, he couldn't remember a time when Lili said his name.

Copying her homework assignments was a mistake. His face flushed at the awkward conversation that would have ensued if he waltzed up to her and presented his long, thoughtful answers. It would have been like the final nail in the coffin of any potential friendship with her. And he had already embarrassed himself enough in front of Lili and the entire camp when he sent her a link to an explicit fauna website.

Elton sighed, mumbling, "Well, it's not like that anymore. Now, it's more like when you, um, promise you'll do something, you do it, y'know?" He wrung his hands together and avoided looking Milka in the eyes. "Even if, um, there was never a verbal promise, and it all took place in my head because I was thinking that she'd be happier if I did it for her."

"Without asking," Milka concluded.

He shrugged. A chuckle slipped out of him. "Uh, yeah. That summarizes it really well."

Milka returned Lili's homework underneath Elton's pillow. She surveyed the amount of work he had put into writing, researching, and calculating. Stepping back from his bunk, she took Elton's hand and squeezed it, smiling as his sweat pressed into her palm.

"You're so smart, Elton. You could be a scholar," she chirped, her eyes wide and full of wonder.

"Oh! Really? I-I didn't think of it that way," he said, his voice cracking with delight. "Well, I do like reading a lot, even if, uh, I didn't understand anything about Andrew Carnegie."

"I don't think Kitty would either. In one of the notes you made, you mentioned Mr. Carnegie donated almost all of his money. Kitty would die before giving up a single dollar," she replied, and Elton belted out a short laugh with all the air in his lungs.

He gathered the other girls' homework and shoved them under his blanket. He'd reorganize and structure them later. For now, he wanted nothing more than to take an afternoon stroll with Milka, who turned invisible the moment they left the boy's cabin.

Not that he minded, of course. Her invisibility was just one trait of dozens that Elton loved about Milka.