Chapter 3
Geometry
A week passed, uneventful. Talim was able to use her strategy of changing last to hide her extra anatomy. Ivy and her friends generally left her and Amy alone. There was a test coming up though, an important test on geometry. Talim was never the best at Math, but Amy was pretty good at it. It was the end of the day, right when Amy was about to break away and walk home with her brother, Raphael.
"Wait, Amy." Talim said.
"Yes?" She replied.
"…I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my place and maybe study a little. I mean, you're good at geometry, and sometimes I just don't get it, and…"
"Yeah. I'll help you." Amy said.
Talim cheered.
"Yay! Thank you so much, Amy. Seriously, I can't fail my first test. Like seriously, I can't." She said.
Talim led Amy back to her house. They were greeted by Talim's Mom. She seemed a bit surprised to see Amy.
"Welcome home, Talim."
"Hi, Mom! This is Amy. Can she help me study?"
Lidi inspected Amy, just to be sure that she didn't look dangerous.
"You're Amy?" She said.
"Yep. I'm Amy."
"Well, okay. You can study together. Just don't be too loud, though." Lidi said.
"Great! Thanks, Mom!"
Talim rushed up to her room with Amy and pulled out her geometry books.
"A squared plus B squared equals C squared."
"To find slope, you do rise over run."
"To find the hypotenuse of a right triangle, you add the two other sides, and then square root…"
The two studied for hours. Talim started to get tired.
"All this geometry… I swear, I'm going to start seeing letters and numbers on everything by the time we're done." She said.
Amy let out a giggle.
"It's not that hard. You just need to memorize the formulas." She said.
Talim yawned.
"I need a nap."
"You could take a quick one. I won't mind." Amy said.
"You're right! Here, I'll sleep on my textbook. Maybe that'll get those math formulas into my head." Talim replied.
Amy knew that her friend was joking, but still groaned. Talim shut off the lights in her room. Amy left to give her friend some peace and quiet. She walked downstairs and sat on the couch.
Amy watched some television, only marginally interested. Talim's mom, Lidi, entered the room.
"Oh. Hi, Mrs. Guinto." Amy said.
"Hello, Amy." Lidi said as she sat down on the couch.
She watched a little bit with Amy until a commercial came on.
"How's Talim?" Lidi asked.
"Okay. She needed a nap." Amy replied.
Lidi let out a small laugh.
"Yeah, that's her. One minute she's exploding with energy, the next she's ready to fall down." She said.
Amy thought about bringing up something on her mind. She wasn't sure if it would be rude or not, but it was bothering her.
"Mrs. Guinto?" Amy said.
"Yes, Amy?"
"Is Talim… Is her body all right?" She said.
Lidi wasn't sure what Amy meant.
"What do you mean, Amy?"
"I mean…" Amy paused before going on. "…I saw something on her last week. It was…"
Lidi stopped her.
"Oh. You mean her penis?"
Amy was surprised by Lidi's bluntness.
"I mean, I didn't see it, but I saw the outline of it, and I wasn't sure." Amy said.
Lidi let out another short laugh.
"She was born with it. The doctor was going to cut it off back when she was a baby, but we never got around to doing anything."
"Oh. I see." Amy said.
She paused for a moment. There was a short, awkward silence.
"It doesn't work, does it?" Amy said.
"No. It's non-functional." Lidi replied.
There was another awkward silence.
"Well, I should probably wake her up. It's getting late and we still have more material to go over." Amy said.
They studied for the rest of the night.