The Math Kids: A Sequence of Events Read online

And then a crazy idea popped into my head.

  “Shirts!” I blurted out.

  “Shirts?”

  “We’ll get team math shirts made for the tournament,” I said.

  “And how does that help us?” Justin asked.

  “Because if there is one thing Susie likes better than talking, it’s looking cool.”

  “So?”

  “So, we’ll make the most uncool shirts ever!”

  For the next twenty minutes, we went through every bad math joke we had ever heard, trying to find the perfect saying to go on our team shirt:

  Yes, the jokes were bad, but that was the point. We wanted to come up with something that Susie would absolutely hate. It was the perfect plan!

  Except that it wasn’t. The next day, when we told Susie we were planning on math shirts for the tournament, she loved the idea. She even loved the bad math puns, although I think there were some she didn’t even understand. We were back to the drawing board, and now we were down to just one day.

  In the meantime, Stephanie was still working on Catherine. For the third day in a row, Stephanie joined Catherine in the far corner of the cafeteria for lunch. This time she was wearing a football jersey for Brandon Graham. Again, there was a big 55 on the back.

  “You know that girls are just as good as boys in math, don’t you?” Stephanie asked.

  Catherine nodded.

  “I mean, you know more math than any boy in the class”—Stephanie paused to see who was around—“and that includes Justin and Jordan.”

  Catherine smiled and gave a little shrug of her shoulders.

  “So how come you said girls aren’t good at math?” Stephanie asked.

  “That’s what my dad always says,” Catherine answered quietly.

  “Well, your dad is wrong!” Stephanie said. “You’re really good at math, and I think you know it.”

  Catherine nodded again.

  Stephanie could see that Catherine wanted to say more, so she waited.

  After a long silence, Catherine finally spoke again. “My dad teaches math at the college. He always tells me that the boys in his math classes are much better than the girls.”

  “Do you believe him?” Stephanie asked.

  “I guess it must be true because he says it all the time.”

  “Well, it isn’t. There are lots of women mathematicians. Have you ever heard of Grace Hopper?”

  Catherine shook her head no.

  “She was one of the first computer programmers. She was also an admiral in the navy and even got a ship named after her.”

  “Really?” Catherine asked.

  “Really,” Stephanie answered. “And then there’s Joan Clarke, who was on the team that broke the German Enigma Code machine in the Second World War and saved millions of lives. And Maryam Mirzakhani was the first woman to win the Fields Medal, which is the highest honor for a mathematician.”

  “Wow, how do you know so much about this?” Catherine asked in amazement.

  “My dad tells me about them all the time,” Stephanie answered. “He thinks it’s really cool that I like math.”

  “I wish my dad felt the same way.”

  “How about your mom? What does she say?”

  Catherine just looked down at the table. “My mom died when I was little.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, Catherine.”

  Neither girl said anything for a few minutes—just chewed slowly on their sandwiches.

  “Well, your dad is wrong,” Stephanie said, breaking the silence. “And we’ve got to find a way to make him believe that.”

  “But how?” Catherine asked.

  “By joining our team and winning that math tournament.”

  “But I thought Susie was on your team.”

  “Not for long,” Stephanie said. “What do you say? If we get her to drop out, will you do it?”

  The smile on Catherine’s face said it all.

  But that still didn’t solve our problem.

  “It doesn’t matter if Catherine is in,” I said glumly as we walked home from school. “We also need Susie to be out.”

  Justin and Stephanie didn’t have anything to say the rest of the way home. We were down to one day, and no one had any ideas on how to get Susie off the team.

  CHAPTER 6

  There must be a way to get Susie out of the picture,” Justin said as we walked to school the next day.

  “Do you think we should ask her to leave the team?” Stephanie asked.

  “Nah, she’d never do it,” Justin replied.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said, feeling defeated. “We’ve run out of time. We have to let Mrs. Gouche know today.”

  “Well, I say we tell her we chose Catherine!” Stephanie said defiantly.

  “You don’t know Susie’s mom,” Justin said. “If Susie wants to be on the team, Mrs. McDonald will make sure it happens. We need Susie to drop out herself.”

  “But how?” Stephanie asked.

  “I think I have an idea,” I said. “It’s a little crazy though.”

  “I wouldn’t have expected anything else,” Justin said with a grin.

  As I started to explain, the first warning bell sounded. Class started in five minutes. We had run out of time.

  But it turned out we were in luck.

  When we walked into the classroom, someone else was sitting at Mrs. Gouche’s desk. We had a substitute! Normally, that meant the bullies ran the class for the day, and that day was no different. Our sub was a sweet little old lady named Mrs. Anderson. She tried to take control, but I could tell it wasn’t going to happen.

  “Okay, class, let’s settle down so I can take attendance,” she said. “When I call your name, please raise your hand. Bryce Bookerman?”

  Bryce looked at the sub but did not raise his hand. There were a couple giggles.

  “Bill Cape?”

  Bill’s hand remained on his desk. A few more kids were laughing now.

  “Quiet down, please,” she said, looking sternly at the class. “Robert Colson?”

  Robbie smiled but didn’t raise his hand. Now most of the class was laughing. I could tell the sub was getting frustrated.

  “If you are here, I need you to raise your hand or I’ll have to mark you down as absent. Robert Colson?”

  Robbie continued to smile but still didn’t raise his hand.

  Mrs. Anderson looked directly at Robbie. “Is your name Robert Colson?” she asked.

  Robbie smiled at her and said, “No, ma’am. My name is Robbie Colson.”

  The entire class broke into laughter.

  It took almost thirty minutes for Mrs. Anderson to finish taking attendance. By then, she was so flustered, we knew there would be no learning that day. She handed out some social studies worksheets and told us to work quietly at our desks.

  “Can we work in small groups if we’re quiet?” I asked.

  She gave me a long look before finally nodding.

  Stephanie, Justin, and I took three empty desks near the back of the room.

  “Okay, what’s your idea?” Stephanie asked as soon as we were alone.

  I quietly told them my plan. Midway through, Stephanie started to smile. When I was done, we were all grinning from ear to ear.

  “You were right,” Justin said. “It’s a little crazy, but since it’s all we’ve got let’s give it a shot.”

  “It’s going to take some teamwork—and a little cooperation from Mrs. Anderson,” I said.

  We looked up at our substitute teacher, who looked like she had her hands full with the bullies, who were in the middle of a game of trash can basketball.

  “Oh, I think she’ll cooperate,” Stephanie said.

  We huddled together for another twenty minutes, working out the details of the plan. Then Stephanie raised her hand and asked if she could be excused to use the restroom.

  “Are students allowed to be in the hallway by themselves?” Mrs. Anderson asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. You just need to sign a
permission slip,” Stephanie said politely. She handed Mrs. Anderson a blank slip.

  “What information do I need to include?” the sub asked.

  “I can fill it out if that would be easier for you,” Stephanie said. “I just need your signature at the bottom.”

  Mrs. Anderson looked at Stephanie, who gazed back at the teacher with an innocent smile on her face. When Mrs. Anderson turned her back, Stephanie wrote Computer Lab in the space marked Destination. She gave a small nod to Justin and me and quietly left the classroom.

  When Stephanie returned, she slipped a USB thumb drive into my hand, and now it was my turn. I asked Mrs. Anderson if I could take the attendance sheet to the principal’s office. Mrs. Anderson looked grateful.

  “I’ll need a permission slip, too,” I said. “If you just sign it, I can fill out the rest of it.”

  Mrs. Anderson thanked me and signed the form. I nodded to Stephanie and Justin and slipped into the hallway. I ducked into the restroom and completed the form, filling in Copy Room for the destination.

  I almost got cold feet when I saw the principal, but she just waved her hand in my direction and continued down the hallway. I was glad to see that the copy room was empty, but I knew I needed to work fast. I had made copies for Mrs. Gouche before, so I entered her code into the photocopier. I pulled the thumb drive Stephanie had given me from my pocket and pushed it firmly into the USB port on the copier. I selected the file to print and chose one hundred for the number of copies. I was about to push the Print button when Coach Harder, the gym teacher, walked into the room.

  He looked at me suspiciously.

  “Are you supposed to be in here?” he asked.

  “Um, yes sir. Mrs. Gouche needs some worksheets printed,” I stammered.

  “Mrs. Gouche? I thought she was out sick today,” he said, staring directly into my eyes.

  “Um, I mean for her sub.”

  “I see. How many copies are you printing?”

  I couldn’t make anything up because Coach Harder could easily look down and see the number I had selected.

  “A hundred,” I answered.

  “A hundred, huh? Well, would you mind if I jumped in front of you? I just need two copies of this form.”

  “No sir. Go for it.”

  I pressed the Clear button before Coach Harder had a chance to look at the name of the file I was printing. He made his copies and was out the door without another word. I quickly reentered the information and clicked Print. The machine hummed into action and I watched the sheets start to fill up the tray. I pulled one of them out and read it while the machine continued to work. I smiled at the great job Stephanie had done.

  Luckily, no one else came in before the last copy landed with a whisper in the tray. I picked up the copies and headed back toward my classroom.

  Now came the tricky part. I had left the room to take the attendance form to the office. I had no way to explain why I was coming back with a hundred neatly printed sheets of paper. This is where I needed Justin—and a little help from the bullies.

  Mrs. Anderson looked over as I opened the classroom door. The stack of papers was still hidden by the door, but I only had a few seconds before she would notice. That’s when Justin launched his attack, using a rubber band to fire a pencil eraser at Robbie’s head. It was a direct hit! Robbie yelled, drawing Mrs. Anderson’s attention. He was already out of his chair and headed for Justin as I slipped into the room. The room exploded into chaos as Robbie tried to catch Justin. All the bullies were in motion now, trying to corner Justin, who dodged behind desks to keep away from them. Justin was the smallest kid in the class, but his small size allowed him to slip through places the bigger kids couldn’t. Stephanie managed to trip Bill Cape as he rounded a corner, and he went down with a crash. Mrs. Anderson was yelling for everyone to get back to their seats. With all the noise and activity, no one noticed as I quietly placed the stack of papers into my backpack.

  Part one of the plan was complete, but would it work?

  CHAPTER 7

  On Friday morning, Justin, Stephanie, and I left early for school and arrived just after Old Mike, the school janitor, opened the front door of the school. He greeted us with his normal big smile.

  “You kids are here early today. Just can’t get enough of school, huh?”

  “You sure know us, Old Mike,” I replied.

  “What’s that you got there?” he asked, pointing to the stack of papers I had printed the day before.

  “Oh, just some flyers we’re going to put up around the school,” Stephanie said.

  We moved on before the friendly janitor could ask any more questions. We split up. Stephanie and Justin took both sides of the main hallway, while I tackled the announcement boards at the front of the school. In twenty minutes, we had taped the flyers all up and down the hallway. We saved a handful for our own classroom: two on the whiteboard at the front of the room, two on the door, and one on Susie’s chair.

  When we had finished putting up the flyers, we retreated to the school cafeteria to wait. We didn’t want anyone to suspect we had anything to do with the flyers. It also gave us a good way to avoid Robbie and his buddies, who were still angry from the day before. It looked like our truce with the bullies was over.

  When our math group met, Susie took her place next to Stephanie. Justin and I looked at each other. It didn’t seem like the plan had worked.

  “Okay, first things first,” said Mrs. Gouche. “We need to get your team submitted for the competition.”

  She started to write our names on the competition entry form, but Susie interrupted her.

  “Mrs. Gouche?” she said hesitantly.

  “Yes, Susie?”

  “I can’t be in the competition,” she said.

  “But why?” Mrs. Gouche asked in surprise.

  Susie held up one of the flyers we had created. The teacher read it and looked up at Susie.

  “A singing contest?” she asked.

  “Yes, and it’s on the same day as the math competition,” Susie explained.

  Justin, Stephanie, and I all put our hands over our mouths to hide our smiles. My crazy plan had actually worked!

  “But who can we get to take your place, Susie?” Stephanie asked innocently.

  “What about Catherine?” Susie asked.

  I almost laughed out loud. Not only had the plan worked, but Susie had even suggested Catherine as her replacement!

  “I guess she’d be okay,” I said, barely managing to stifle my giggles. “Could she be moved to our math group, so we can practice together?”

  Mrs. Gouche nodded, and, just like that, Susie went back to the blue math group, Catherine moved from the red to the yellow group, and we had our team. We huddled together in the back corner and giggled about our plan for getting Susie to drop off the team.

  “How did you know she would fall for it?” Catherine asked.

  “Hey, it’s a math contest,” I said. “I took a calculated risk.”

  Everyone groaned, but their smiles told me my joke wasn’t half bad.

  Now it was time to get to work. We had three weeks to go. Would we be ready?

  Unfortunately, we had another problem we had to solve first. The bullies were still mad at Justin for shooting the pencil eraser at Robbie’s head. Robbie and Bill had both received three days of detention for chasing Justin around the room. Now they were looking for revenge!

  “I’ll be waiting for you in the parking lot,” Robbie whispered angrily as he passed Justin’s desk.

  Justin looked worried, and I could understand why. Robbie was the biggest boy in the class and towered over Justin. And if that wasn’t enough of a problem, Robbie never faced off against someone by himself. His gang of bullies was always by his side. On the other side of the room, Bill Cape raised a fist in my direction. Two seats in front of me, Bryce turned and gave me a sneer.

  I looked at the clock and saw that the three o’clock dismissal bell would ring in just a couple of minute
s. Whatever idea we were going to come up with, we’d better do it quickly.

  I raised my hand. When Mrs. Gouche called on me, I put on my sweet and innocent face and asked her if I could help take her things to her car after school was over.

  “Why, thank you, Jordan,” she said. “I do have a lot of things to carry today, so that would be a big help.”

  “My friends and I can help, too,” Robbie said, giving me an evil smile.

  “Wow, everyone is being so helpful today,” Mrs. Gouche said. “Okay, Jordan, if you, Robbie, Bryce, and Bill can meet me at the front of the room after the bell rings, that would be great.”

  Great. All I did was delay my fate for a couple extra minutes. As soon as we loaded her car, Mrs. Gouche would drive away, and I’d be stuck in the parking lot with the bullies.

  That’s when Justin came to my rescue.

  “But Jordan, didn’t you promise Old Mike that we’d help him take down all of the old flyers from the bulletin boards?” he asked.

  “Oh, that’s right,” I replied, although I had no idea what Justin was talking about.

  “That’s okay,” said Mrs. Gouche. “You and Justin can help Mr. Watson with the bulletin boards. I’ll have enough help with Robbie, Bryce, and Bill.”

  The looks from the bullies were fierce. We’d beaten them once again. They were stuck helping Mrs. Gouche out to her car while Justin and I were free to escape out the school’s side door and be out of sight before they knew we were gone.

  And we had almost made it out when we ran into Joe Christian.

  Joe is one of the smartest kids in the fourth grade—maybe in the whole school. He skipped third grade and is still smarter than most of the kids in Miss Herschel’s fourth-grade class. He is good in every subject, but math is his best by far. There is no doubt he is smart. The problem is he loves to tell everyone how smart he is.

  “I heard you two are on the math team for your class,” he said.

  “Yeah, along with Stephanie and Catherine,” I answered.

  “Do you really think you have a chance against my team?”

  “Who else is on your team?”

  “Does it really matter?” he asked with a laugh. “I could beat your whole team by myself.”