It was 3 periods later in study hall when they saw the blonde lad again. He looked battered, alone, and falling apart. He had come in late to class. When he slugged over to an empty desk he slumped over and cried. The other students glanced up from their silent work, but ignored him and continued.

"What is wrong with the sobbing one?" Ball whispered. She was sitting on top of her desk next to David.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask him?" David said sarcastically. Ball took it seriously and leapt off her desk, "No wait!" He shouted softy, but he was too late.

"Why do you weep?" She asked looking up at his desk. A flash of light emitting from someone's phone taking a photo dashed across the room for a second. The lad looked up from his desk to the direction of the offender.

"Please..." He breathed desperately. He was looking at Josie Green. Josie stuck her tongue out and pretended to cut her head off with her finger. The lad put his face close to his desk and hands, and then begin to weep.

"Hey!" Ball walked up to Josie, "What are you doing!? You are causing him to be sad!" Ball said.

"Pppft! I don't give a dang about how Craeggs feels. I have plenty of reasons for why you probably do. Tell me Ball, who is Craeggs really hmm?" Josie leaned down from her desk tauntingly. Ball looked over to Craeggs and then back to Josie.

"He is a human male," Ball responded. Josie sat back up in her seat and began to howl with laughter.

"You're funny Ball, really, but you can't play me for a fool. I'm always watching and I know... who you are," Josie looked ready to poke her. Ball took a step back, "What? Are you afraid?" She snickered. Somebody from behind picked Ball up. She was startled at first, but it was just David bringing her back to her desk. Once she was on her desk again she flipped herself upside down. She was uncomfortable, and wanted to be held again. She had gotten Johnson to pick her up by flipping herself (a little experiment during the trust exercises).

"What are you doing?" David asked her quietly.

"Uh... Can you hold me again?" She was kinda embarrassed to ask.

David looked away, and then looked back at her.

"Maybe later,"

It was more like a solid no, so Ball flipped herself back on her feet and sat down, "It was nice of you to try and stick up for Craeggs, but he is almost always crying. Ever since he got here, tears all the time. I think maybe his dad died before he moved here or something. It makes him an easy target for bullies. I don't think anyone can help him," David worked on a math sheet as he spoke diligently.

"His dad is dead?"

"It's just a rumour. Nobody really knows him. He doesn't have any friends," David said still looking at his work.

The next period was a math class. Algebra 1 (because David had failed the class once before). Before the teacher was all set, a rather large kid sitting on the other side of Ball greeted her.

"Hey there. You're Ball right? I saw you on the news. I'm Danny Dept. Nice to meet you," He put his hand out for a handshake, but then remembered that Ball didn't have hands, "Oh,"

"No, I got it" She stood up and offered a foot instead. Danny took it and shook, "Nice to make your acquaintance," She liked the proper formality of it. Being formal was actually something she admired about Johnson.

"Guess what we're doing today?" The teacher asked the class as she shut the door and walked in.

"... What?" a single individual actually asked.

"Quiz game," The teacher went under her desk and threw a whiteboard with little care. It hit a student in the face across the room. "Make teams of 6. There's like 24 of you so that makes uh, four teams," The teacher said monotone.

"Can I join... your team?" Danny asked timidly.

"Are you good at math?" Ball responded.

"No," David answered for him.

"Doh! Uh! I am a pretty quick writer!" Danny panicked.

"Hmm, Ok, you may join," Ball said.

"We still need 3 more members," David stated.
"You three! Are you good at math!?" Ball asked 3 girls sleepily checking their phones. They looked over at her and shrugged except for one.

"Oh my gersh! Ball! You're in this class too! Oh how is it I didn't notice, uh, I would love to be on your team!" a sophomore named Gracie Tremor said waving. She had a minor yoyle accent.

"What do you think, David?" Ball looked over to David for anything he had to say about the three.
"I dunno. It doesn't really matter anyway. We just need six members. They don't have to really do anything,"

"Thank god," one of the other 2 sleepy teens said looking back at her phone.

The teacher started writing on the board a team name. It was 'Aw seriously'.

"Sorry David!" someone from that team said sincerely.

"Huh, they are naming their teams?" Ball wondered out loud.
"Yep," David seemed distracted. Perhaps it was due to his teacher slowly pulling a pie from under her desk to on top of the desk.

"We should name our team! What do you think would be something fitting for this group?" Ball asked David.

"Uhh, somethin' cool I guess," David said lazily. Ball looked around the room.

Why is everyone so tired this hour?

"Ok. That's your name," The teacher started writing down 'Something cool I guess' on the scoreboard.

"What!?" Ball didn't want that to be the name.

The other 2 teams were the 'Golden Egg Rolls' and 'Team 4'. Ball noticed that on team 4 the lad Craeggs was holding his whiteboard tightly. It was a surprise considering that she was told he cried all the time. She saw him look over her way, so she down at the floor to avoid eye contact.

"First team to do this one gets a point. Shout your team number when you raise your board. No writing before I saw go, capiche?" The teacher then printed the first simple conundrum.

8X - 23 = 34 + 2X

(Find X)

"What?" Ball didn't understand the equation.

"You have to get X by itself so you can see what its value is. You can do that by adding 23 to the other side of the equal sign first,"

8X - 23 = 34 + 2X

+23 -

8X = 57+ 2X

(Underline means that number was affected by the last move.)

"Numbers without any Xes behind them can be added together if they're on the same side of the equal sign,"
(Ex: 2 + 5= 7)
"And numbers with Xes can be added with each other the same way,"
(Ex: 2X + 5X= 7X) (Ex: 2X + 5= 2X + 5)
Numbers with Xes in front of them are actually being multiplied by X, but we don't know what X is so we don't know what that really means yet. We need to have X by itself on one side of the equal sign,"
(Ex: X= ?)

"Why do that?" Ball asked.

"So you can have X equal to 9.5! Now we know what its value is!" Craeggs said, "Oh uh, FOUR!" he held up his whiteboard.

X = 9.5

"Team four gets the point," The teacher drew a tally mark under 'Team 4's name.

"Oh," Ball didn't exactly know how to respond.

"You just need to know how to move stuff around. If you wanna move a regular number like 23 than-"

The teacher started writing on the board again. Except this time she held a slice of pie in the other hand, "Oh forget it! Just punch in equations I need in the calculator," David handed the calculator over to her.

4(3X + 34) = 445 - 18

"4 times 3!" David said.

"Oh I know that one it's-" Gracie started.

"12!" Ball looked at the calculator without punching anything in, and then looked back up at David. Danny wrote furiously.

"4 times 34!" David announced.

"Oh noil," Gracie didn't know that one.

"Uh, It's 136!" Ball looked at the calculator again without doing anything, and then looked back up at David and Danny.

"What? Are you like, totally sure about that?" One of the groggy teenage girls had secretly been watching after all. Ball nodded, and thus Danny wrote it down.

12X + 136 = 445 - 18

"445 minus 18!"

"427!" Ball didn't even glance at the calculator this time.

12X + 136 = 427

"427 minus 136!"

"Why do we have to subtract?!" Ball wanted to know.

"We're moving it to the other side," David explained.

"But-"

"I DON'T KNOW WHY,"

"OK... 291,"

12X = 291

"291 divided by 12!"

"Uh...24.25!" Ball said.

"That's it! that's X's value!" David looked at Danny writing it down.

"It's too bad Team 4 already got the point. Man you kids are loud. You can't even hear when another team finishes before you," The teacher tried leaning on the whiteboard, but then slipped and recovered.

"It seems as though Craeggs is a skilled algebra player," Ball said.

"Algebra player? Well Ball you're pretty skilled too ya'know," David said.

"How so?" Ball didn't understand.

"You don't need a calculator to do simple math stuff!" He said.

Ball realised the power and value of numbers. The way they worked started to reveal itself to her, so she started to put things together in the wordless emotion of understanding.

"Are any other teams gonna try to actually get points?" the teacher asked.

"I'm trying! You guys suck!" a boy on 'The Golden Egg Rolls' team said.

"None of us have any calculators," A girl on 'Aw Seriously' said.

"That's hilarious," The teacher started to write on the board again.

2(5X - 65) = 170(400 + -72)

"170 times-"

"It's ok David I think I got this," Ball said. She started to solve in her head. There was a lot of numbers making for a lot of steps, but without the need for a written visual in writing or a calculator it was going rather smoothly.

(Bold numbers being solved into next step's underline)

10X - 130 = 68,000 - 12,240

Simplify right side by subtraction

10X - 130 = 55,760
Move 130 by adding 130 to both sides.

10X = 55,890
Divide 10 out of X, and divide 55,890 by 10.

X = 5,589

"Danny! Write down that X is equal to 5,589!" Ball commanded.

"Okay," Danny did just that, raised up his board, and said their team number (which was 2).

"Skilled mental math Ball. That gets your team a point," The teacher went for another slice of pie before writing a single tally under 'Something Cool I Guess'. Ball was pretty proud of herself, and throughout one half of the questions she continued to quickly solve them in her head. One half because the teacher had decided that Ball wasn't allowed to compete anymore after the first half.

Her equal in this was Craeggs, who was neck and neck with her one 3rd of the time and also disqualified after the first half.
After class in the hallway, Craeggs wanted to talk with her.

"Uh! Uh! Ball!" He shouted as loud as he dare. The halls were filled with noisy students going to class, but Ball did happen to hear him. She turned around, and so did David when he realized Ball wasn't following him anymore.

"Oh, uh could we talk... in private?" Craeggs asked David to leave. He tapped his 2 pointer fingers together.

"Hmm. Why should I trust you with Ball?" David crossed his arms.

"I would never hurt Ball! Honest! Please! It's really important!" Craeggs said.

"Then why can't I hear it too then?" David asked.
Ball just looked up at both of them. She was used to having decisions made for her by humans.

"It's privaaaate!" Craeggs whined.

"Oh fine. Ball, I'll be at lunch. It's literally straight down that way, no turns," He pointed down a long hall, "Come meet me when you're done. Bye bye for now," He began his walk, while doing so he reached in the back of his backpack, and took out a tennis ball. He bounced it as he became a part of the crowd.

Ball looked over to Craeggs as the person who now took responsibility for her. He didn't say anything, he just kinda looked at her.

"How old are you?" Craeggs asked her.

"7," Ball replied.

"7 eons?" Craeggs assumed.

"Days," Ball didn't question his choice of unit, "How old are you?"

"Younger," Craeggs said.

"Younger than me!? Impossible!-"

"No, no, I'm just younger. I'm... young," Craeggs confused Ball. Being younger meant he had to be comparing to something. Maybe he is just saying that he is young compared to other humans.

The halls were starting to be filtered out by students getting to their classes. It felt kind of odd to be unmoving among the rest of the community's constant flow. The 2 just stood there looking at the others passing by, until the last student late for lunch sped-walked down the same way David had. The bell rang.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" Ball asked dryly.

"Uh... I need you, to -ta, to get something for me. My captors have my friend imprisoned! They left a spare key on top of a, a..." Craeggs looked at something he wrote on his arm, "An activator tank? If you can get it to me than than... uh...uh, you'll be a very good person!"

"You mean to say that I will not get anything in exchange?" Ball would've never even thought to ask.

"Well I guess it depends what you want... M-maybe I can create something with my many new powerful gifts! or maybe my friend can give you something," Craeggs offered.

"Hmm, I don't think I need anything. I, am perfect!" Ball smiled smugly. She was feeling proud of her achievements during class.

"Oh uh, so... will you help me?" Craeggs asked.

"Sure. Sounds easy enough," Ball thought of a step by step way of achieving her goal. She knew exactly where the key was, and a basic plan on how to get there.

"What, 'sounds easy enough?' I DEMAND TO KNOW!" Marching in the direction of the lunchroom towards them was joe smo Josie and Agren the angry. It took Craeggs a moment to realize that it was Agren by Josie's side, as he wore a black masked motorcycle helmet (Mostly for pepper spray). Craeggs jumped back and began to shiver. Ball swiftly looked back between the lad she agreed to help, and the 2 new students intimidating him, "Well. What are you 2 up to? Any plaaans?!" Josie asked.

"... No," Craeggs was crumbling fast. Josie put her pointer finger up signaling to Agren. Agren bashed the locker making a large, sudden, intimidating, sound. He was a muscle for hire, and he was incredible at his job. Craeggs timidly looked behind him towards the lunchroom, and then down at Ball. He spontaneously began dashing off down into the lunchroom. Ball followed on after him not a moment too soon.

"HEY!"

Ball looked behind her and saw that the 2 threatening students were actually chasing them. It meant that she couldn't stop, and it meant that she had to continue to be faster than them. She saw that Craeggs was running faster than her, but she had an idea to keep herself safe.

"Craeggs! Craeggs! Kick me!" She shouted. He looked slightly behind himself. He would have to slow down in order to be able to kick her, and he didn't want to do that.

"Ohhh! You're gonna have to get in front of me!" Craeggs looked straight behind himself and screamed. Agren was really close.

In order to get in front of the lad, Ball would have to dash past her limit. She was already exhausted from just trying to keep up with her pursuers.

She looked behind herself again for some speed boosting fear. After looking, she took a deep breath and screamed going just a little faster. She was now barely in front of Craeggs, but he took no time in kicking her as far as he could. She was off of her feet and rolling much farther down the hall than she would have running.

When she started to go slower she picked herself up, and dashed into the lunchroom screaming. So did Craeggs when he too reached the lunchroom. Right behind was Agren, the attacker. On his rush in he was intercepted by a defensive David who had gotten up, and kicked him in the ribs. This knocked the air out of the muscle for hire, and caused him to fall over.

Craeggs and Ball hid under an occupied table as sounds of a scuffle played out.