CHAPTER TWO: Algebra Class
Scott, at school, walked slowly to class. He wasn't a real fan of algebra, but he wanted to graduate. "Why me? Why do I have to take algebra?" he asked himself as he walked down the hall. He didn't really hate the class, it was more how it was presented.
The two-minutes-to-class-bell BeeBeeBeeBeep!ed at him. He picked up the pace, careful not to let his sunglasses fall off of his nose. Making it with about 30 seconds to go, he slipped into his seat.
BeeBeeBeeBeeBeeeeep! The bell beeped again, signaling the start of class. Scott took out his homework and book; he hoped he had gotten the former correct. The latter had a pencil in one of the pages; Scott opened the book to this bookmark and looked at his teacher, a teacher who did not seem very friendly to Scott.
The teacher began. "Ah, I'm glad that we all seem to be here; it's attendance day, so I'll be measuring how much paper we use. DON'T WASTE ANY! OK, let's review last night's work on determinants. Mr. Summers, please demonstrate problem forty-three in the book."
"So the teacher really does hate me." Those were the thoughts of the person in question as he dragged himself and his book up to the board. Hmm... problem 43... Scott wrote some numbers up on the board. Muttering to himself, he wrote (7*2)-(6*3), followed by the answer of "-4" on the line below.
A kid in the front row sneezed, and Scott got it full in the back. "Hey! Bless you, but try not to aim for me." Scott wiped off his back as the teacher continued.
"Error check, everyone! Anybody see anything wrong with Scott's work? Raise your hand and point out his mistakes." Nobody raised any hands. "Good. He did it correctly; there were no mistakes to catch. Very nice, Scott. I see you learned something. You're showing improvement. Ms. Marcielle? Problem one hundered twenty-nine."
Amy Marcielle walked up to the board, dismayed. After a few steps, she got the answer of "42." "Error check?" Scott and James (another kid in class) raised their hands. "James McNorth?"
"She did addition in the parenthesies, and forgot the sign table. She needs to flip all the signs and do multiplies, for an answer of -72."
"Correct, James. Amy, I'm afraid he's right. You're going to have to work on this if you want to pass the test... which is next week."
"Stupid kid. Hope he isn't contagious." Scott continued on this line of thought for a while, when, without warning, the fire alarm went off! This was Attendance Day. If they disturbed it with a drill, they'd have to throw out all their numbers and do it again... which suggested it wasn't a drill.
"Everybody out! Follow me!" The math teacher led his panicked class out the door.
Meanwhile, in Physical Education...
--TO BE CONTUNUED--
Author's Note: I know the story is dragging a bit here. However, these chapters are rather short, so I should be able to get three or four in a day, making short work of explaining how the next chapter after they're all outside came about. It will get more interesting again, just wait a little! Scott's math teacher is loosely based on my own, and his classmate's problems with determinants ARE my own. Keep reading... this story will keep getting better!