Wow, I've been gone a while, haven't I? Sorry, but this feels easier to write in the summer, hence the title. But I haven't forgotten my other stories, so sit tight and enjoy!

Helga sat crossed legged, blankly staring at the board as Olga droned on and on about the properties of x and the like. She pulled out her new discreet black notebook and started jotting down a multitude of poems about her beloved.

APS, a name so sweet, it's beauty diluted only it's initials.

Those three words give the embodiment of a perfect soul-

"Helga!"

She snapped up from her work, a fresh scowl on her face, "What?" She snapped, closing her book shut.

"Can you explain the problem to your little friends?" Olga asked, carefully placing her marker down, "I thought it might help if someone their age could explain and solve it." She walked over to her seat and sat down, patiently waiting for her sister.

Helga groaned, hiding her poem book and heading up to the front of the board. The equation read 2x-14≤ 28. She cleared her throat.

"All right, listen up buckos," She picked up a green marker, circling the equation, "This reads two x minus fourteen is less than or equal to twenty eight. The first step is to balance out the equation by either subtracting the two x or adding the negative fourteen and moving it over to the side with the twenty eight. For the sake of simplicity-"

A hand shot up.

Helga glared. "What?"

"Why do you have to add the negative fourteen?" Arnold curiously asked, "Why not subtract the twenty eight on both sides and solve from there?"

"Because football head," She said, ignoring the chuckles from the group as she solved the first step, "We want to make things as simple as possible. Moving the twenty eight to the other side will take more time to solve, and the less time spent on this the better. As for the negative fourteen, it's easier to add it to 28 and solve. Plus, it's less time consuming. That answer your question?"

Arnold looked into her eyes for a second, then slowly nodded.

Helga felt a smile creeping up on her face but quickly nodded it off, pointing to the first step. "Adding fourteen to both sides forms the equation 2x≤42." She turned to the board and started writing, "For the second step, you need to divide two x by 2 and forty two by two." She underlined 2x and 42 and put a two under each of them. "Now-"

"Isn't the equation solved already? Why divide by two?"

Helga suppressed a growl of frustration before she turned around, facing someone she never thought she would see. Her eyes slightly widened at recognition.

David Waters, third in their graduating class, right after Helga. He was a good friend of Phoebe's and she introduced him to her near the beginning of the school year, soon realizing that they had many similar interests: pork chops, Wrestlemania, pastrami sandwiches and hatred of strawberries. They hung out almost every day and Helga was starting to think she had slight feelings for him.

Maybe he came in late, She thought, putting on a playful smirk, that's why I didn't see him earlier. Or was it when I was talking to the football head?

"Well, smartass, you should know. You were in the top ten graduates."

He flushed, chuckling. "But I suck at math and you know it."

While David was gifted in almost all subjects (even reaching Helga's passion for English), Math seemed to confuse him to no end.

"Well, I guess you can't be the best at everything," Helga said, leaning against the whiteboard, hands on her hips, "Which is why Pheebs and I graduated first."

"Well," David said, drawing out the word as he knew it would annoy her, "I beat you social studies, so I think-"

"Are you guys done?" A voice called, interrupting him, "Can we finish this lesson today?"

Helga flushed red and turned to the board, continuing the lesson but it was all but drowned out to a certain football headed boy, who could feel his blood heating up, anger, confusion and sadness as motivation.

I always knew she had a good side, he thought as he wrote the explanation on his paper, but why couldn't she open up to me? Why that guy? He frowned, but continued his work as Olga resumed teaching.

After the class was over, Helga approached David, tapped him on the shoulder and looked away.

"Helga," He deadpanned, looking over to an oh-too-obvious Helga, "I know it was you."

"Nope," She laughed, "You're just imagining things again, David. Better start those meds again."

How she raided my medicine cabinet I'll never know. He sighed with a smile, knowing he could never win against Helga Pataki. "So, are you walking home?"

Helga glanced around at the near empty classroom, only but a few still arranging and packing up their stuff.

"Sure, I'm sure Olga won't mind," She said, swinging her bag (making sure her book was safely tucked inside) over her shoulder, "Let's go." They walked out of the classroom.

As the pair retreated down the path home, however, two green eyes stared out the window in envy...

Wow, I'm *counts months on fingers* eight months late. A new record, I believe. Well, I'm not going to give an excuse but...does life count?

Anyways, Review! Please?