TANYA ROBERTSON (1)

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER ONE

There is havoc because Steven insists the lesson goes on without her. We had waited for Tanya for nearly 3 minutes. "I'm back sir." She sighed. "Ok. Now who's going to pray for us?" Mr Christopher whispered. "Me, Me..." Tanya draws attention to herself once again. I looked at Steven as he looked back at me with a grotesque expression. I immediately knew what he was trying to tell me. What was I supposed to do? This is beyond us- beyond the physical power. After a few 'like ... like' and an 'amen', the lesson commenced. "So, write a program which calculates the nth term of a quadratic sequence". Mr Christopher speaks. I jot down some key points and key variables. It was difficult but I finally got it, it worked. No, false alarm. It only worked for the first 2 sequences I used. "Time up guys. Give me what you have." Mr Christopher requested. "Sir, did you say we should write using V.B or pseudocode?" Tanya got at it again. "No, using Swahili." Steven delivered a healthy dose of sarcasm. I laughed while scratching Brian to see if he was laughing as well. I couldn't be the only one who found this amusing. "Tanya! For programs we use V.B." Uttered James, a practically enthusiastic all-knowing-rugby-fan. I looked back, where James was, and shook my head.

Mr Christopher: Are you lost Tanya?

Tanya: Yes, sir. Can you explain to me what you mean by quadratic sequence?

Mr Christopher: (writes figures on the board) 1, 4, 9, 16 and 25 are a quadratic sequence and the nth term is n-squared right?

Tanya: Hmmm, I don't know.

Mr Christopher: Tanya, how do you find the nth term of a sequence?

Tanya: I am not sure.

Mr Christopher: Don't you do this in mathematics?

Tanya: No! Sir, like...

"Like what!" Steven hijacked the conversation. "Are you about to lie to sir?" I listened and strictly observed. "Eh, sir, we find the nth term of a sequence by the formula a + d (n –1)." John- a weird and verbose good-for-nothing geek joined in. "Who asked you?" Steven got at it again.

Mr Christopher: Eh guys, don't fight! The formula that John said is correct.

Tanya: ...but how do we use it?

"Just go back to the eighth grade." Steven joined once again. "Because you are not fit for this grade. Am I lying?" "Man! Just let it go." Martin- a short voluble boy saves the lesson. I just look at Mr Christopher and redirected my glance back to Steven. I felt like laughing but no one else was laughing so I decided to hold it in. "So, can I continue with my lesson now?" Mr Christopher imposed a tricky question. "There's 3 minutes left till the end of the lesson." Fiona- a fat loud girl joined in. "I can finish the syllabus in 2 minutes 4 seconds." Mr Christopher cracked a joke and ejaculated a short programmed loud laugh. "Okay, what is your next lesson?" "Geography!" I replied. "And the teacher said he is coming for the lesson no matter what?" "Even if he dies huh?" Mr Christopher donated a not-so-funny joke. "Haaa sir!" I responded. Mr Christopher went out quietly. No sooner had he stepped out than the geography teacher, Mr Friesland, stepped in. I stood up and went to the timetable to check when I would be free. "Settle down please." Mr Friesland whispered.

Mr Friesland: Mr Charles, what is the problem?

Me: Nothing sir. Just checking out the timetable.

Mr Friesland: Ok.

"So, last time we ended on how to find the distance between two points on a map right?" He imposed a question. "Yea, yea." I replied and looked at Steven. "Today we are looking at bearing; how to find the bearing between two points and how to use the protractor." He barked while distributing some maps. "These maps are not enough so you are going to share. Sit in pairs but just maintain the distance, corona." I look for someone to share with while avoiding Tanya. "I hope you all have the Victoria Falls map." Mr Friesland uttered. "Sir, mine says Zimbabwe." Tanya goes offside. "Did you check the top left corner or you are just blabbering nonsense?" Steven, back at it. "Oh, I saw it. It says Victoria Falls at the top." Tanya replied.