Chapter 2: Jamie: Comparing

Chapter 2: Jamie: Comparing

I had a hard time taking in all this information.  Could he really wipe my memory of today?  I doubted it, but the look in his eye looked as if he did it all the time.  Jake had murmured yes under his breath before he took off and quickly exited and had taken off down the hall.  I was going to exit before taking off before these two weird little boys would say anything else.

As I got up one of them said, “We aren't that weird and our group could use a girl.”  He went on to say, “Jake is in and we know you like him.”

How could he know that?  I didn't say anything.  Knowing that I was here because the 7th grade teacher Mrs. Gauge had recommended it since I was failing her class and since I was new, it would be a good way to meet other students.

Before the door closed behind me I said, “I’ll do it.”

In class the next day I couldn't concentrate on what Mrs. Gauge was saying and even the teacher knew I wasn't paying attention as she called on me.

“Jamie,” she said “What do positive and negative integers make up?”

Integers of course, our old school went over this 2 years ago.  This class had bored me so much all I could do to waste my time effectively would be to write Jake’s name all over my math textbook.  I finally said over an embarrassing 2 minutes, “Uh, I don’t know.”

“Did you take notes yesterday Jamie?”

“Yes.”

“Well where are they.”

A different student whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, “Maybe she burned them in a sayonce?” 

“That’s enough.” Mrs. Gauge said before moving on to start notes.

Mrs. Gauge had began talking about absolute value and opposites.  My mind was starting to wander, when my chair gave me a little shock.  I jumped enough to catch the attention of those around me, I settled back down.  As I gazed up I could see C and C Squared in the air duct.

Mrs. Gauge caught me off guard, “Jamie, what is the definition of absolute value what do they have to do with opposites-“

Before she stopped I rambled off, “The absolute value of a number is the distance from the number to zero on a number line.  The opposite of a number is when two different numbers have the same absolute value.  For example, -10 and 10 are opposites since the distance is the same.”

The class sat in silence for what seemed like minutes, as did Mrs. Gauge.

“Or something like that.” I finally said.

“Well,” Mrs. Gauge finally said “this is your homework Page 67, 1-80 all of them.”

As the bell rang, I saw C and C Squared taking off down the hall and chased them down.

“What did you do to my chair?”

“We had to give you a shock, you were starting to day-dream.”

“How did you know where my seat was?

“We hacked the school’s server and found where you were sitting in each class, by the way if you need a math tutor Jake can help you when we have our meetings.”

“What? No! I don’t need anyone’s help.”

“Okay. Okay.  By the way our next meeting is tonight.  See you 6th period.”

“Tonight, but tonight is Wednesday.”

“We have to start tonight.”

As the bell rang for the beginning of 4th period, I had English class and I was already late.  Just as I turned to go to class Jake bumped my shoulder.

“Hey!” he said.

“I’m late.” I said and took off down the hall.