Curvy Girls Can’t Date Soldiers by Kelsie Stelting
Three
Nadira
Steppinginto the math room was like a breath of fresh air. It felt like the closest thing to home I had at Emerson Academy. Seats were assigned, so I always knew where to sit, and Mr. Aris had decorated the room simply, with a few posters of famous mathematicians spread about.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. – Albert Einstein
Beans have a soul. – Pythagoras
Mathematics reveals its secrets only to those who approach it with pure love, for its own beauty. — Archimedes
If I had more time, I would write a shorter letter. – Blaise Pascal
“Where were you last night?” I muttered to Blaise’s portrait hanging over my desk, thinking of the rambling email I’d sent Apollo.
“Are you talking to yourself again?” Regina asked from the seat next to me.
I glared at her. “Are you talking to me again?”
Mr. Aris came into the room then, cutting off Regina’s retort as she smiled at him, her nose turning browner by the second.
“Good morning, Mr. Aris,” she said.
“Good morning,” he said and began passing out stapled packets of paper. Louder, he asked, “How was everyone’s break? Did you spend it doing math or more boring things like beach vacations?”
I chuckled while the rest of the class stayed silent. Most people didn’t like Mr. Aris—aside from brown-noser Regina—but that was probably because he taught some of the hardest subjects at Emerson Academy. I, on the other hand, adored him as a teacher. He was tough, but fair, explained things well, and gave clear guidelines. Not like English, where the teacher could ask for your opinion and still tell you you’re wrong.
“This is a short assessment,” he explained. “We’ll be digging deeper into the material this semester, and I want you to be able to see how far you’ve come at the end of the year.”
“Great idea!” Regina said, as though Mr. Aris had invented the concept of a pre-test himself.
“Thank you,” he said, not even looking up from his stack. “Now, I’ll give you the entire period to work through it. If you finish ahead of time, you can get out a book and read silently. If you don’t have a book, you may have ten minutes to visit the library and pick one.” He passed out the last of the papers and then came to my desk. “Hey, Nadira, can you come to the hall with me?”
“Oh, sure.” I immediately worried that I’d done something wrong, even though it was only the first day back from break. My heart beat quickly as I followed him out, feeling like everyone’s eyes were on my back.
We stepped into the empty hallway, and the door echoed as he closed it.
“Am I in trouble?” I blurted nervously.
He chuckled. “Not at all. In fact, the school board just approved funding for my travel to a research conference at MIT.”
My eyes lit up. “You have to go on a tour to see the campus! You know they have a nuclear reactor there, right?” I’d only been to MIT once on a tour, but it had felt like a magical place. I couldn’t wait to go there in the fall.
He chuckled. “Don’t start quoting the brochure to me. I’m still a Harvard fan, through and through.”
“Only because you haven’t toured MIT,” I retorted.
Shaking his head, he said, “Don’t make me change my mind about what I’m going to say next.”
“What’s that?”
“I also got budget approved to take two of my brightest students with me to the campus. You’re one, and Regina is the other.” He looked at me, waiting for me to be excited, and I was, but Regina?
“That’s... great,” I said, forcing joy into my voice. “When are we going?”
“During spring break. I’ll send an email to your parents to let them know, but I wanted to tell you the good news!” He reached for the door. “I better let Regina know.”
I walked through the door, feeling everyone’s eyes on me as I went back to my seat and he called Regina out to the hall. That was fine because I had the perfect distraction in front of me. I got a pencil out of my backpack and dove head first into the math problems. It was the best way to forget the worst class of the day coming up next.
