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 Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:39 am
Taki's ears were flattened to his head, frustration apparent in his expression the further he got down the paper, all right with the simple addition and subtraction (Calder had taught him the very basics at least...), but it was done with a lot of counting on his fingers and frowning at his hands before he wrote most of it down. When it came to the clock problems, and especially the fractions, he didn't even try them. Unlike Riley, his incorrect answers were the result of brain-wracking and concentration, but he still managed to get about half of them wrong... Everything past the first few, really. Finally, Taki flipped the paper over with a scowl and stared down at his desk unhappily.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:35 pm
Ignacio watched his new friend Riley busily fill out the paper and immediately worried. She seemed to know what to do. She must be smart. Sighing, Ignacio chewed on his pencil as he stared at the instructions. Suddenly, the first part fell into place and he beamed.
With a triumphant flourish, he scribbled down the numbers from 1 to 10. He even managed it in order. Then, after considering the rest thoughtfully, he covered the empty spots with rough drawings of people holding candy and such. He did pause, though, to count the balls and deliver the correct answer.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:31 pm
"Your ten minutes is over," Dr. Darnell announced. "Antony, if you could pick up the papers, please, and place them on my desk? - Now, without any further ado, let us get to the actual serious maths."
In fact, Beatrix had absolutely no intention of getting to any serious paper-and-pencil mathematics, especially not on the first day: she opened the side-door of the classroom, the one that lead out to the playground, and went to the chalk-board to scribble down:
under
over
around
through
"I want you to go out to the playground, pick one part of it and use it in a way that means you're going under, over, around or through," their mathematics teacher said solemnly, both at once relieved at the "exploring space and area" section of the curriculum that meant this was literal mathematics and amused at the gauged attention span of her students. "Once you have done so, come back here and tick off on the board which direction you used and what you used it on - slide, monkey-bars, whichever you so choose."
She looked very stern, as though this were a very serious and solemn activity. "Now go! Thwomp will supervise. Run!"
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:43 pm
As if those were magic words, Ignacio bolted to his feet and dashed out the door in under five seconds; in fact, he probably set a land speed record. To his credit, though, he neatly avoided even coming so close as to bump another child. Once through the door, he headed for the dome-shaped mass of metal bars. "C'mon, Riley!" he hollered over his shoulder.
Even as his hand closed on a sun-warmed bar, he decided that Dr. Darnell wasn't quite so bad, after all.
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:32 am
Manny had done fairly well on the quiz. At least she thought so. She knew her numbers and some basic stuff, but most of the other things she had had to do on her hands and with dots on the paper. Mama Estelle had taught her that trick, it took some time but it worked. She hadn't managed to finish the whole quiz, but at least she wasn't the only one right? It took her longer to react to the new request, mainly because it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Well, if it was what the teacher wanted. She left her bag behind and jogged after Ignacio out the door, heading to the swings instead of the bars. You could go up on those easy enough, right?
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 7:52 am
Antony took his time, stacking the papers neatly and placing them on the desk. He didn't like the playground, he was likely to scuff his new boots or ruin his clothes. So he thought for a moment before going to the door.
"I'm going under the ceiling, over the tile, around this desk and through the door," he announced to Beatrix seriously as he stepped out the door. "And not scuffing my shoes on the playground again."
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 7:57 am
"Excellent compromise, and showing good understanding of direction," Dr. Darnell told him gravely. "I approve. You are mature beyond your years." She turned to chalk up on the board door next to through as Thwomp whizzed out over Antony's head, and she could not help but add: "I loathed scuffing my shoes as well."
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 7:59 am
"I have tennis shoes," Antony said, "but I like these better. No doubt my tennis shoes will suffer by the time Father is done with me." He sighed as he headed to his desk again. "How is your cabbage?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:06 am
"Currently a little girl," his teacher said, with the slightest hint of pride. "Not quite old enough for school, though. Her name is Jacoba and she is the most badly-behaved baby in the whole world, though that might just be exaggeration. I know you'll set her a good example, won't you?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:09 am
"I'll try," he said seriously as he pulled out his notebook. "Dr. Darnell, do you think you could show me how to do that last question? I couldn't figure it out."
He wasn't kissing up on purpose, oddly enough, it was just the fact that he had gotten it wrong bothered the heck out of him!
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:18 am
"That is mainly because I put the last question in there as a 'just in case'," she said gently, coming around to his desk. "That was question twelve, wasn't it? - No, I didn't expect anybody to get that. Name 137.5% as a decimal - that and the question before it, give two numbers that are between 7.59 and 7.6. Those questions I put in just in case we had a budding maths genius on our hands; and we may still do, even so, as not many budding maths geniuses have been taught decimals and percentages at home. No, I am very impressed you attempted those in the first place. Did Mr. Shade work at maths with you at home?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:20 am
"No," Antony admitted. "But he did teach me how to count money."
Which, now that he thought about it, WAS math, wasn't it?
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:22 am
"Which, though he might have not thought it, is an excellent mathematics lesson," Dr. Beatrix said dryly. "Ask Jack for help, too, he's not totally awful. Are you sure you don't want to go and run around on the playground with the others?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:24 am
"I suppose," he said as he stood and headed for the door, more because she told him to, than because he wanted to. "I'll be back," he added as he headed out the door.
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:40 am
Now that was more like it! Riley sprang from her seat, knocking over her chair and not seeming to notice as she bolted to the door not far behind Ignacio. "I'm com'n!" Once through and out onto the playground she paused for a moment with a wide grin on her face, stretching in the sun. Then her body snapped back into motion and she ran to the metal dome, not even really thinking about the teacher's assignment. She jumped up and climbed to the top nimbly, "Hehe!"
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